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Hosting a table

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

Hosts create tables, decide who sits, and earn a share of the rake 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.

Why host​

If you run a regular game with friends, want a piece of the rake 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 rake — paid out on-chain whenever you withdraw. (How rake works →) 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 pegged 1:1 to USD).
  • 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 and you approve or decline based on what they bring. Stacked sponsors the gas to deploy the table contract, so creating a table is free for you.

Approving players​

Every player who wants to sit needs your approval. Stacked uses a home-game model: there are no protocol-run tables and no auto-seating — when someone wants to play at your table, they request a seat and wait for you to let them in.

When a request comes in, the player 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 flow is the same for public and invite-only tables. Letting Hosts curate who plays — turning down players whose buy-in is outside what you wanted, or anyone you don't want at your table — 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 backend keeps the game running. You don't have to stay online for the table to keep running. Your only required action while the table is live is approving 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, approve players, 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​