How to host a free private poker game online with friends

Before you start: play chips, not money

SophiesPick is free to play with virtual chips that have no cash value. There are no chip purchases, prizes or redemption, and real-money wagering is prohibited. It is for adults aged 18 or over. If your group keeps a private ledger outside the site, that is your arrangement and your responsibility; the table itself tracks chips only.

Step 1: Create the table

On the homepage choose Create a game. The form opens with these choices:

1. Mode. Online for a table friends can join; Practice to deal hands locally on your own device first.
2. Who can join. Open lets anyone with the room code sit; Host Approval lets you admit each player from the lobby. Use Host Approval when the code might travel further than you intend.
3. Format. Single game, or Mixed games with a pool of two or more variants and a Dealer's choice or Random rotation (see how Dealer's Choice works).
4. Play type. Cash game, where players keep their stacks between hands, or Tournament, with escalating blinds.
5. Game or games. Any of the twenty variants; the form shows each game's one-line summary. New to the list? Start with the best games to play with friends.
6. Player username. Required when you are not signed in; it is the name at the table.
7. Players. From two up to the maximum the chosen games allow (seven for most games, six when a draw game is in the pool).
8. Decision timer. 15, 30, 45 or 60 seconds per action. Thirty is comfortable for a social table; sixty if several players are new to the game.
9. Blinds and stack. For a cash game, the small and big blind and the starting stack (the form proposes 2,000 chips). For a bomb pot game the bomb ante is shown with a suggestion of five big blinds. For a tournament, pick a blind speed: Slow, Medium or Fast presets with ten levels of 20, 10 or 5 minutes, or Custom to write your own levels; the suggested starting stack is 20,000.

Review the configuration summary and select Create table. The table opens with a room code to share.

Step 2: Invite friends

Share the room code by whatever your group already uses. Friends open SophiesPick, choose Join game, enter the code and a nickname, and take a seat. With Host Approval on, you will see each request in the lobby and admit the people you expect. Players do not need to sign in; signed-in players appear under their profile name instead of a nickname.

Step 3: Play

The host starts the game from the lobby. The table deals, enforces each game's rules, runs the betting and settles the pot on the server, so nobody has to count chips or remember who acts first. Each game's rules are one tap away in the table's rules drawer, and the full written rules for every game are in the variants directory. In a Dealer's Choice table the incoming dealer picks the next game before each hand.

If someone disconnects

The table reconnects after a dropped connection and keeps a player's seat for the current hand. Keep the browser tab open while playing, especially on a phone. Live rooms are held in memory while the server runs; if the server restarts, the live room can be lost, although completed hands already saved remain stored. For a long session, agree in advance that if the room is lost the host recreates it with the same settings and everyone rejoins.

Settings that suit a casual night

• Open admission with a code shared privately, or Host Approval if the group is large.
• Cash game, 30-second timer, 2,000-chip stacks, blinds 10/20, so a stack is a hundred big blinds.
• Single game for the first half hour, then a Mixed table with a five-game pool once everyone is warm.
• Six players if you want Dramaha or Badacey in the pool; seven if you stay with flop games.

House rules worth agreeing

Agree the game pool before the first hand. Decide whether a player who leaves can rejoin and with what stack. Keep private cards private: the Community Rules ask players not to share live hand information, collude or harass, and the same rules make a friends' game better. If a hand needs a ruling, the table has already applied the game's rules; the rules page settles the argument.

Fair dealing

Every online hand is dealt and settled on the server. Your browser sends intentions (bet, fold, pick a pair), and the engine decides what is legal and what happens next; opponents' unrevealed private cards are not sent to your device. Intentionally exposed cards and Studaha upcards are public. That reduces the ways a client could cheat; it is not a guarantee against players colluding outside the game. The Technology page has the longer explanation.

Games to start with

For a first online night, No-Limit Hold'em is the game everyone knows and Pot-Limit Omaha the one most groups add second. Sophie's Pick is the house original worth one dedicated session, and Dramaha and Badacey are the six-seat draw games to add once the table has settled. Every game has a full rules page in the variants directory.

Clubs and Match Play

For a standing game, a signed-in player can set up a Poker Club with a roster, standing tables and chip history, and heads-up Match Play is available for No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha and Sophie's Pick after signing in. Both are optional; a one-off private table needs neither.