Playing in the lobby

The lobby is the noticeboard. Somebody puts up a game with a stake on it, everybody else can see it sitting there, and the first person to accept plays it. No queue, no ranking, no waiting to be chosen. You look at what is on offer, or you post something yourself and wait for a taker.

If you have never played a game for money before, here is the whole idea in a sentence: both players put up the same amount, that money is set aside while you play, and the winner takes it. Nothing is left to chance. There are no dice and no shuffled cards in any of our games, so whoever plays better wins.

What you are looking at

Every card in the lobby is one game waiting for an opponent. The card tells you the game, the stake, who created it, their rating in that particular game, exactly what the winner receives, and how long the offer has left.

You can sort by newest, by biggest stake, by smallest stake, or by whichever is expiring soonest, and filter by game, by stake size, and by skill. New players show a question mark instead of a rating, because a rating means very little until somebody has played a few games. Those players are shown by default, and you can hide them if you would rather not play someone unproven.

Accepting is one button. The dialog tells you the game, what will be taken from your balance, and what the winner receives. Nothing leaves your balance until you press it.

Creating your own game

You choose three things: the game, the stake, and whether anybody can see it.

The stake is yours to set, from 5 USDC upward. There are quick buttons for common amounts, and the box remembers what you used last time.

Before you confirm, you are shown the whole arithmetic: what you put up, what the pot will be, our fee, what the winner takes, and what comes back to you if the game is drawn. Then the button tells you plainly what pressing it does, which is to hold your stake until somebody accepts, you cancel, or the offer expires.

You do not choose a clock and you do not choose a side. Every game gives each player ten minutes in total, and the person who created the game moves first.

Private games

If you want to play one particular person, make the game private. It never appears in the lobby list. Instead you get a link to send them, and whoever opens that link first is your opponent.

The link is the only way in, so treat it like an invitation rather than an advertisement. It lasts as long as the game offer itself, and once somebody accepts, it is spent. You cannot accept your own game.

The rules that matter

Your stake is held the moment you create. Not when somebody accepts. That is the point of it: the money is really there, so nobody can post a game they cannot pay for.

An offer lasts a day. If nobody accepts within twenty four hours, it lapses on its own and your stake comes straight back in full. Nothing is charged for a game that never happened.

You can cancel any time before somebody accepts. Your whole stake comes back and we take nothing. Once a game has been accepted, it is a real game and the only ways out are playing it, resigning, or agreeing a draw.

A new game cannot be accepted for the first ten seconds. The Accept button counts down before it works. This is deliberate. Without it, somebody could run a program that grabs every good game the instant it appears, and nobody else would ever get a look. Ten seconds turns that into a contest about being there rather than about reaction speed.

Draw offers are limited. Each player can offer a draw three times in a game, so it stays a genuine offer rather than something to pester an opponent with.

How a match works

Both players put up the same stake, and both stakes are set aside before the first move. The winner takes 90% of the pot and we keep 10% as our fee. If the game is a draw, both players get their stake back in full and we take nothing at all.

Each player has ten minutes on the clock for the whole game, and your clock only runs while it is your turn. Run out of time and you lose, whatever the board looks like.

One small honesty about the screens: the accept dialog shows you what the winner receives rather than spelling out the fee again. The two numbers agree, and the create screen shows the full breakdown before you ever put a game up.

When something goes wrong

If you close the board, the game is still yours. Come back and it is where you left it. Your clock is still running while it is your turn, so do not wander off for long, but a game is not lost because you closed a tab.

If your opponent never shows, their clock runs down. After ten minutes of their turn, the game is yours and so is the pot.

Draws cost nobody anything. Both stakes come back whole and we take no fee.

Try it

If you have never played for a stake, start in practice. It is free: pick a bot on easy, medium or hard, or send a friend a link. Nothing is staked and nothing is recorded, so you can learn a game properly before any money is involved.

When you are ready, the lobby is the simplest way in. Look at what is there, or put up a game of your own and see who takes it.