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Hosting a table

Anyone can run a poker table on Stacked, and Hosts earn 25% of the platform fee on real-money tables they run.

Hosts create tables, set the rules, and earn a share of the platform fee on real-money tables they run. There are no application gates and no fees to start: connect a wallet, click create, and a new table contract is deployed for you on Base (Coinbase's Ethereum-based network). Stacked covers the deployment gas, the small network fee for an on-chain action.

Why host​

If you run a regular game with friends, want a piece of the platform fee on a public table, or just want to set the rules for how a game is played, hosting is the path. On real-money tables, you keep 25% of the platform fee — paid out on-chain whenever you withdraw. (How fees work →) Free Play tables don't generate earnings; the value is creating space for friends or a community to play without putting real money on the table.

You can also play in your own table. Hosting and playing aren't separate roles — you can take a seat at the table you created, or just oversee from the side and let others play. Most Hosts who run friend games play; most who run public tables don't.

Creating a table​

When you create a table, you set three things:

  • Stakes — small blind and big blind. The big blind has to be at least twice the small blind.
  • Mode: Free Play (play-money chips, no earnings) or real-money (chips backed by USDC, a digital dollar that holds a stable value).
  • Visibility — public (appears in the lobby) or invite-only (reachable only via direct link).

That's it. You don't pick a buy-in range. Each player chooses their own buy-in. Stacked sponsors the gas to deploy the table contract, so creating a table is free for you.

Seating players​

Every new table starts with Auto-Accept on. A player picks a seat, buys in, and is dealt in. You don't have to do anything, so your table can fill while you're away.

If you'd rather choose who sits, as in a private home game, turn off Auto-Accept in your table's Settings tab. From then on, each player who wants to sit shows up in a pending list at your table view, and you get an in-app notification. The request includes the player's wallet and the buy-in they're proposing, for example "Alice requests a seat with a 200 USDC buy-in." Approve and they're in; decline and they aren't.

The choice is the same for public and invite-only tables. Letting Hosts decide how their table is seated, open to all or hand-picked, is what makes the marketplace work without the platform setting those rules.

Running the table​

Once the table is live, players play hands and Stacked's servers keep the game running. You don't have to stay online for the table to keep running. With Auto-Accept on, you have no required actions while the table is live. If you turned it off, approve new pending players when they arrive.

You can also step in between hands:

  • Kick a player. Between hands, you can remove a seated player. They're given permission to withdraw their stack from the contract — the move isn't automatic; they click withdraw on their side to receive their USDC.
  • Change stakes. Between hands, you can raise or lower the small or big blind.
  • Pause or end the table. Between hands, you can pause the table or close it entirely. When a table closes, every seated player gets withdrawal permission for their stack. Same as a kick, the funds don't move on their own. Everyone clicks withdraw to actually receive their USDC.

Stacked never moves a player's funds without the player's signature. Whenever someone leaves a table — by choice, by a kick, or because the table ended — they always have the final click.

Hosting Free Play tables​

Free Play tables work the same way for the Host. Create the table, pick stakes, choose how players are seated, kick or pause as needed. There are just no earnings. Hosts run Free Play tables for the reasons people host home games: friends, communities, practice, fun. If you want to run a table where the cost of being wrong is zero, this is it.

What's next​