Skip to main content

How a hand of Stacked works

A walkthrough of a single real-money hand from creating the table to cashing out, with specific names and numbers.

Your money makes one simple round trip. You deposit from your wallet into the table contract when you sit, and you withdraw from the contract back to your wallet when you leave:

Deposit when you sit

Withdraw when you leave

Your wallet

Table contract

Two systems are working together the whole time: Stacked runs the live game, and the on-chain table contract holds the money.

The setup​

Alice decides to host a table. She connects her wallet, clicks create, picks $0.50 / $1 stakes, sets the mode to real-money, and makes the table public. Stacked gives the table its own smart contract — a small program that holds the money and follows fixed rules — on Base, an Ethereum-based network with very low fees. Creating the table is free: Alice never pays gas (the small network fee for an on-chain action); Stacked covers it.

Bob is browsing the lobby. He spots Alice's table, sees the stakes match what he wants to play, and clicks sit. He picks a $100 buy-in. His wallet pops up; he signs the deposit. A few seconds later the contract holds his 100 USDC — a digital dollar that holds a stable value — and Bob appears in Alice's pending list. Alice approves; Bob is seated with 10,000 chips in front of him (1 chip = $0.01).

Carol does the same: $100 buy-in, Alice approves, seated with 10,000 chips.

Alice doesn't have to play to earn — as soon as hands start running, she earns 25% of the platform fee on every pot. She decides to play too: she takes a seat at her own table, buys in for $100, and the table is three-handed.

The hand​

Bob is on the button this hand. Carol posts the small blind ($0.50); Alice posts the big blind ($1).

Everyone gets two hole cards. Bob raises to $3. Carol folds. Alice calls.

Flop: K♠ 7♦ 2♥. Alice checks. Bob bets $5. Alice calls.

Turn: K♥. Alice checks again. Bob bets $12. Alice raises to $30. Bob calls.

River: 3♣. Alice goes all-in for the rest of her stack. Bob calls.

Showdown: Alice turns over K♣ Q♣ — three kings, queen kicker. Bob turns over K♦ J♦ — three kings, jack kicker. Alice wins the pot.

None of that hand was on-chain. The live game runs on Stacked's servers in real time. No wallet prompts, no transactions, no gas — for any of the three players.

Settlement​

The hand ends and settles on-chain. Each seat's balance in the table contract updates:

  • Alice's stack goes up by the pot, minus the platform fee.
  • Bob's stack goes down by what he lost.
  • Carol's stack is down by her posted small blind.
  • The platform fee is taken from the pot. As the Host, Alice earns 25% of the fee, credited to her Host balance. (See How fees work for the math.)

Settlement confirms on Base in under 5 seconds and runs in the background. By the time the next hand is being dealt, everyone's on-chain seat balance matches what they see at the table. Stacked covers the gas for settlement; nobody at the table pays anything for it.

If anyone wants to audit the result, the settlement is visible on Basescan — a public website where anyone can read the table's contract activity.

Leaving​

A few hands later, Bob decides he's done. He clicks leave between hands. Bob clicks withdraw, signs the transaction from his wallet, and his current stack moves from the contract back to his wallet as USDC. He pays the Base gas on this — typically under a cent.

Carol keeps playing. Alice keeps hosting, with her Host fee balance growing as hands settle. When she's ready, she'll withdraw it the same way Bob withdrew his stack.

What you saw​

A few things worth noticing:

  • Nothing was on-chain while the hand was in progress. Cards, bets, raises, the showdown — all run on Stacked's servers. Wallet prompts only at the start (deposit) and the end (withdrawal).
  • The contract is the source of truth for money. Every player's stack matches the on-chain seat balance after every hand. If the live game ever disagreed with the contract, the contract would win.
  • It's fast. Settlement was under 5 seconds. Gameplay isn't slowed down by being on-chain.
  • Stacked covers the gas where it shouldn't be friction. Table deployment, settlement: on us. Deposits, withdrawals: on you, because you sign them.
  • Alice earned the whole time. A Host's 25% share of the platform fee credits per hand, live, whether or not the Host plays. Multiply by hundreds of hands and that's the hosting side of Stacked.

That's a hand. Multiply by hundreds and the only thing that changes is the cards.

What's next​