Poker night

Frequently asked questions

By All In Central · Updated 3 July 2026

Everything you need to host a smooth poker tournament.

How many players do I need?

Anywhere from 4 to 10 players works great on a single table, which is the sweet spot for a home game since everyone fits around one table and the action stays social. Go above 10 and you'll want to split across two or more tables, balancing players between them as the field shrinks so no table gets short-handed. The timer itself doesn't care either way — it handles any number of players, and the payout structure automatically sizes itself to the field, from a single paid place in a small game up to dozens of paid places in a big one. If your numbers are uncertain until people actually show up, don't worry about locking anything in early — you can add or drop players in the setup screen right up until you start the timer, and the prize pool recalculates automatically.

How long does a tournament take?

It depends entirely on your blind structure, since that's what controls how fast stacks get squeezed. The Turbo preset raises blinds every few minutes and typically wraps up a tournament in about 2 to 3 hours, which suits a weeknight game where people need to be out by a reasonable hour. Standard gives players more room to play post-flop poker and runs roughly 4 to 5 hours, the most common choice for a proper Saturday night session. Deep stack stretches levels out further still, often running 6 hours or more, and rewards patient, skill-heavy play over pure luck. Rather than guessing, open the setup screen and the timer shows an estimated finish time based on your chosen structure, starting stack and player count, so you can pick a structure that actually fits your evening before a single card is dealt.

How do I set the blinds?

Start with a preset — Turbo, Standard and Deep stack are built-in blind structures tuned for short, medium and long sessions, and they cover most home games without any extra setup. If you want more control, switch to building your own structure in the setup screen: you set the small blind, big blind and ante for every level, along with how many minutes each level lasts. This lets you do things like starting slow for the first hour and speeding up later once the table has thinned out. You can also drop breaks in wherever you like, for example a 10-minute break every hour so players can refill drinks or stretch, and the timer folds those into the total run time and the estimated finish time automatically, so the schedule stays accurate even with custom pauses built in.

How much should the buy-in be?

The buy-in is entirely up to your group. It's a home game, so there's no house rake or fixed entry fee to match — whatever amount feels right, whether that's a few dollars or a bigger stake for a special night, works because its only real job is to set the size of the prize pool. Enter it once in the setup screen alongside the number of players, and the timer works out the total pot from your buy-in, player count, and any rebuys or add-ons you allow. From there, the payout structure splits that pot across however many places you choose to pay, and every player's potential winnings update live as the field pays out. Because it's just a few numbers, it's easy to adjust on the fly if a few more people join right before you start, or if rebuys change the pool once play begins.

How do payouts work?

Set your buy-in and player count first, since those determine the total prize pool the payouts are calculated from. Then choose how many places get paid, anywhere from 1 up to 50, or let the timer decide automatically based on how many players are in the game, which is the simplest option for most tables. The timer then splits that pool using a realistic, top-heavy structure, meaning first place takes a meaningfully larger share than second, and the payouts taper down from there rather than splitting evenly, which mirrors how most real tournaments pay out and keeps the incentive to keep playing for the win. Every place's exact amount is shown live on screen as the tournament runs, so players always know what they're playing for without anyone needing to do the math by hand at the final table.

What are rebuys and add-ons?

A rebuy lets a player who's busted out, or dropped below a certain chip count, buy back into the tournament with a fresh stack, usually only allowed during an early rebuy period before the blinds get too high. An add-on works differently — it's an optional extra stack that every player, busted or not, can purchase once, typically offered at the first break as a one-time top-up. Track them in the setup screen as they happen rather than trying to remember them later — the timer feeds every rebuy and add-on straight into the prize pool calculation and into the average stack figure it displays, keeping both numbers accurate throughout the night even in a game with a lot of early bust-outs and re-entries.

Do I need real poker chips?

Yes, you'll want physical chips on the table since the timer only handles the clock, blinds and money side of things, not the cards or chips themselves. To help you get the count right, the timer recommends a starting stack based on your blind structure, so players begin with enough chips to play real poker through the early levels rather than being all-in within the first few hands. Once you know the starting stack and player count, the chip-distribution calculator works out exactly how many chips of each denomination every player needs — for example how many 25s, 100s and 500s — so you're not stuck doing mental math while people are waiting to sit down. It's especially useful if your chip set has an odd mix of denominations, since the calculator adjusts the breakdown to fit whatever chips you actually own.

Can I run the timer on a TV?

Absolutely — that's exactly what it's built for. Open the timer on a laptop, hit fullscreen, and cast or plug it into the TV the same way you would a movie, and it becomes the shared clock for the whole table. The blind levels, countdown and payout numbers are all rendered in large, high-contrast text specifically so they stay readable from across the room, not just from a laptop screen a few feet away. It's built to run for hours without interruption too — the screen stays awake during play, so you won't get dropped back to a lock screen mid-level the way a phone or laptop normally would after a few idle minutes, and there's no need to babysit it or tap the screen periodically just to keep it alive while everyone's focused on the game.