Common questions.
How FeltLive works, how the deck is shuffled, and what we do with your data.
What is FeltLive?
A web platform for hosting private home-game poker with play chips. No real money, no rake, no prizes. You can play live in the browser and, on Pro, save and analyze sessions afterwards.
Do I need an account to join a friend's room?
No. Anyone with the room link can sit down. An account is only required to host a room or to save a session.
Is real money ever involved?
Never. Play chips only — there is no buy-in in dollars and no monetary settlement of any kind. Full policy: Responsible Play.
What's included on the free tier?
Hosting up to 2 active No-Limit Hold'em rooms, with up to 100 hands per room. Joining other people's rooms is always free.
What does Pro add?
Unlimited rooms and hands; PLO bomb pots and Drawmaha; run-it-twice and rabbit hunt; saving and analyzing live sessions; the file-import analyzer; and the Dashboard, Players, and Sessions workspaces.
How much is Pro, and how do I cancel?
$20 / month via Stripe. You can cancel anytime from your account page; access continues until the end of the billing period.
How is the deck shuffled?
Fisher-Yates, driven by a cryptographically secure random source from Node's
crypto module. Each hand uses a freshly generated 32-byte server seed.
Can FeltLive pick specific cards for specific players?
No — and this is mathematically enforceable, not a promise. Before a hand is dealt, the server publishes the SHA-256 hash of that hand's secret seed. The seed itself is only revealed after the hand settles. Because the hash was committed before anyone saw a card, the seed can't be retroactively chosen to favor or punish anyone.
How can I confirm a hand was honest?
Every settled hand has a fairness proof: the revealed server seed, the algorithm version, and the hashes that were committed up front. Anyone with the proof can re-run the same shuffle on their own machine and confirm it matches the committed seed hash, the final-deck hash, and the cards that were actually dealt.
Does my seat affect the shuffle?
Yes. Each seated player has a unique commitment that mixes the server seed with that seat's token, so the server can't pre-shuffle a deck targeted at a known lineup.
What about modulo bias when picking cards?
The seeded RNG uses rejection sampling, so every remaining card has equal probability at every step of the shuffle.
What does this not protect against?
Anything that happens outside the deal — a player sharing their hole cards on the side, screen-sharing, or two people at the same table colluding through chat. Run rooms with people you trust.
Which variants are supported?
- No-Limit Hold'em — standard cash-game experience. Free and Pro.
- PLO Bomb Pot — Pot-Limit Omaha, double-board, antes posted, no preflop betting. Pro.
- Drawmaha — 5-card single-board with a draw round; split pot between best PLO-style hand and best 5-card draw. Pro.
What is a bomb pot?
A hand where every seated player antes (default 3 BB), preflop is skipped, and the flop comes immediately.
Run it twice?
On Pro tables, once all-ins are called, the table can unanimously agree to run the remaining streets twice for half the pot each. Off by default; toggled per room.
Rabbit hunt?
After a hand ends without showdown, players who opt in can see what would have come. Pro tables only.
What's saved automatically?
Nothing. Live tables run in memory only. If you don't explicitly save the session, no hand history is written to a database.
What happens if the server restarts mid-session?
Active rooms can be lost on restart. The server broadcasts a warning before scheduled restarts so the host can end the session first.
Can I save and review a session afterwards?
Yes, on Pro. Hit Save to Account after the session ends — session metadata and aggregate stats are recorded. Raw hand histories are not retained server-side.
What do you store about me?
The minimum: account email and Stripe customer ID for paid users, plus any sessions you explicitly save. Hole cards, hand histories, and seat tokens are not logged. Full retention policy: Responsible Play.
Are saved sessions shared with other users?
No. Saved data is scoped to the account that saved it.