Virtual Poker Chips

1. Enter the players in seat order, the starting stack and the blinds, then press Start.
2. Deal two cards each. The screen names the player to act, what they owe and the legal amounts.
3. Tap what each player does. Fold, check, call, bet, raise and all-in are the only choices, and only the legal ones are offered.
4. When the betting closes, the screen says so. Deal the flop, the turn and the river as it asks.
5. At showdown, turn the cards over and tap who won each pot. The chips move, the button moves, and you deal again.

Put the phone in the middle or give it to the dealer: one device runs the whole table. At the end of the night the tool lists every player's result and, if you set a buy-in, who pays whom.

Minimum raises and short all-ins

This is the part of a hand a tally on paper gets wrong, so the tracker holds to the rule. A raise must be at least the size of the last full bet or raise. An all-in for less is allowed, but it does not change that size, and it does not reopen the betting for anyone who has already acted.

Six-handed at 50/100, the first player raises to 300, a raise of 200. The next player has 450 and moves all in, which raises by only 150. A player still to act may call 450, or raise to at least 650: the all-in plus the last full raise. When the action gets back to the opener, they can call 150 more or fold, and the screen says why there is no raise button. If several short all-ins add up to a full raise for that player, the raise comes back, as the Poker TDA rule has it.

A bet can be short too. At 5/10 the smallest bet is 10, but a player with 3 chips left can still bet them. The next player then calls 3 or raises to at least 13: the short bet plus the minimum bet. A player who checked before it can call or fold, but cannot raise, because 3 is not a full bet.

In pot limit the most you can raise to is the bet plus the pot after your call. On the first decision of a 5/10 hand the pot is 15 and the call is 10, so the screen offers 20 to 35. Before the flop the count assumes full blinds: under the Poker TDA's rule a short all-in blind does not lower the limit, and the tool treats a dead small blind the same way. After the flop it is the chips actually in the pot. The pot limit bet calculator shows that sum step by step.

Side pots, worked out as they happen

A player can only win from each opponent what they put in themselves. When stacks differ, the chips above the shortest all-in go into a side pot that player cannot win. Three players all in with 100, 250 and 500:

The tracker builds these as the all-ins come in and asks about each pot in turn, so the short stack can win the main pot while someone else takes the side pot. A pot with one possible winner pays itself. For a what-if without a game running, use the side pot calculator.

When players tie, tap them all. A pot of 35 split between two pays 18 to Cara and 17 to Ann: each gets the same share, and the odd chip goes to the first winner left of the button (Ann had it). Virtual chips have no smallest denomination to break down, so an odd chip is one chip.

The house rules this tool plays by

Home games differ, so here is what the tool does. Most of it follows the Poker TDA's tournament rules, which many cardrooms use. If your table plays something else, agree it first and use Undo.

• The button moves one seat a hand. If a player leaves or runs out of chips, it follows the dead-button rule: the big blind moves on to the next player, and the small blind or the button can fall on an empty seat. When a player comes back to a table down to two, the blinds restart from the button, so the last big blind can post it again. If two come back at once, the big blind can pass over a player. Heads-up, the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop.
• A short blind posts what it has, and the price of calling stays the full big blind. If nobody is left to call the difference, it goes back. Heads-up at 5/10, a big blind all in for 3 plays for a pot of 6 and the small blind gets 2 back with no decision to make.
• The ante goes straight into the pot and is not part of a call. A player who cannot cover the ante and the blind is all in for what they have.
• A straddle is offered to the player left of the big blind, at twice the big blind, and counts as another blind: the first raise must be to at least twice the straddle, and the straddler acts last before the flop. Cardrooms differ here, and some measure only the step over the big blind. More in what is a straddle.
• Rebuys, sitting out and joining wait until the hand is over. A player who sits out misses the blinds and pays nothing to come back. A player who leaves takes their chips off the table, and their seat stays empty until someone takes it. Rules on rebuys differ too: poker rebuy rules covers the usual ones.
• The money never moves here. One starting stack costs the buy-in you set, every chip is worth its share of that, and the results are rounded to the cent so they still add up to exactly zero.

For the arguments that come up anyway, see poker rulings, or print your own with the house rules generator. Hosting a full night? How to host a poker night has the checklist, and the chip calculator is there if you do own a set.