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Your first real-money hand

Real-money tables on Stacked are USDC-backed and settle on-chain. The flow is one extra step than Free Play, but everything happens between you and the contract.

Before you start​

  • A connected wallet. See Connect a wallet.
  • USDC on Base in that wallet. See Get USDC on Base.
  • A small amount of ETH on Base for gas. Gas on Base is typically under a cent per transaction.

Steps​

  1. Open the lobby and find a real-money table. Tables are tagged so you can tell real-money apart from Free Play. Pick stakes that match what you brought — small blinds and big blinds are shown on each table card.
  2. Click sit and choose your buy-in. You pick how much USDC you want to put on the table. Stakes guide the choice: a common starting point is 50–100 big blinds.
  3. Sign the deposit. Your wallet pops up. If this is the first time you've deposited at this specific table, you may sign two transactions: a one-time USDC spending authorization and then the deposit itself. From then on, deposits to this table need only the deposit signature.
  4. Wait for confirmation. The deposit confirms on Base in a few seconds.
  5. Wait for Host approval. The Host sees your wallet and the buy-in you chose, and approves or declines. If they decline (or never respond), your USDC stays in the contract and you can click withdraw to pull it back. See Withdrawals.
  6. Play. When the Host approves, you're seated. The next hand deals you in.

During the hand​

Once seated, the game runs like any other Hold'em table — fold, check, call, bet, raise, with an action timer. Your actions during a hand aren't on-chain; nothing is signed by your wallet while a hand is in progress. The blockchain only sees the result of the hand when it settles. See Per-hand settlement for what that means.

Between hands, you'll see a brief on-chain settlement indicator. It's normally instant.

Leaving​

When you're done, click leave between hands (you can't leave mid-hand). The contract grants you withdrawal permission and you click withdraw to send your stack back to your wallet. You pay the gas on the withdrawal transaction.

What's next​