Poker Now Club Tournaments

Published at: October 2, 2026

Running Tournaments (MTTs) in Your Club

Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs) let your club run real tournaments: everyone buys in with club chips, plays down from one table or many, and the prize pool is paid automatically into the winners’ club balances.

This guide covers everything a club owner or admin needs to know: creating a tournament, every setting and its limits, the three ways a tournament can start, check-in, repeating series, payouts, and running the tournament on the day.

👑 Who Can Do What

Role	Can do
Club owner & admins	Create tournaments, edit them while registration is open, create tables, start, pause/resume, open check-in, archive
Tournament host (whoever created it) and any tournament managers they add	Everything above for that tournament, plus manage individual players: accept, adjust stacks, remove
Club members	Register, unregister, check in, play, watch tables, and chat in the tournament lobby

Only members of your club can see or join your club’s tournaments. Anyone else who opens the link is told the tournament is for members only.

Turning Tournaments On

Tournaments are off for a club until its owner turns them on. In your club’s Settings tab, press Enable Tournaments, read the note about the beta, and type I understand to confirm. A Tournaments section then appears in your club lobby. Admins see a note asking them to have the owner do it.

Tournaments are in beta. If something doesn’t work the way you expect, email [email protected] or ask on the Poker Now Discord server.

🚀 Creating a Tournament

In your club lobby, press + Tournament at the top of the Tournaments section. The New Tournament dialog asks where the settings should come from. Under Copy tournament settings from: you can pick:

Club Tournament: a tournament this club has run
Played Tournament: a tournament you have played in
Hosted Tournament: a tournament you have hosted (outside this club)
Start Fresh: set each setting yourself, starting from the defaults
Copy from a tournament URL: paste the link to any tournament’s lobby and press Copy

Copying fills in every setting, which you can then change before saving. A few things to know:

A copied start time that has already passed is moved to the same time tomorrow.
You can only copy a club tournament from its link if you are a member of that club. A tournament that isn’t in a club can be copied by anyone with its link.
If the tournament you copy has no payout structure, you are asked to pick one (Global or Club Structures) or Decide Later. A tournament with a buy-in or bonus can’t be saved without one.

The settings are spread across six tabs, shown as icons along the top. Hover over an icon to see its name. The ? tab is a built-in help page explaining every setting.

📅 Tab 1: Name, Start & Check-In

Name & Description

Name: 4 to 20 characters. Shown in the club lobby and on the tables.
Description: required. Shown at the top of the tournament lobby. Use it for prizes, house rules, or when the series runs. Formatting (bold, lists, links) is supported.

Size

Max Entrants: 2 to 300 players. Registration closes once it is full.
Max per Table: 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 players. Five-card Omaha (PLO5) allows at most 9. Only shown when more than 10 players can enter; a tournament of 10 or fewer plays at one table.

Tournament Type

Type	How it starts
Scheduled	By itself at the date and time you set. The start must be at least 10 minutes away.
Sit-N-Go	By itself as soon as Players Needed to Start have registered (2 to 100, and no more than Max Entrants)
Manual Start	When you press Create Tables and then Start Tournament in the tournament lobby

See How Each Type Runs below for the day-of details.

Repeats (Scheduled only)

A scheduled tournament can repeat Daily, Weekly (on the days you tick) or Monthly (e.g. “on day 15”, “on the third Friday”, or “on the last Friday”).

The next tournament in the series is created, with the same settings, as soon as the current one starts.
It keeps the same time of day on your clock, including across daylight saving changes.
To change the rest of the series, edit the next tournament once it appears. Each new one copies the one before it.
To end the series, edit the upcoming tournament and set Repeats to Does not repeat, or archive it.
A tournament archived before it starts still creates the next one, so one quiet night doesn’t end the series.
The tournament lobby shows players when the next few in the series will run.

Auto Spawn on Start (Sit-N-Go only)

When this Sit-N-Go starts, a new copy opens for registration straight away, so there is always one waiting to fill. Each copy keeps auto spawn on. Turn it off on the one that is waiting to fill to stop the chain.

Require Check-In

See ✅ Check-In below. Not available for a Sit-N-Go.

Promote on the Club Page

Adds a card for this tournament to the top of your club lobby, counting down to its start. You choose the card text (up to 40 characters; the tournament name is used if blank), a color, and an icon, or an image (an https:// link) instead of the icon. A preview shows exactly what members will see.

The card stays up through late registration and disappears once the tournament has finished. A repeating series shows one card for the whole series.

⏱️ Tab 2: Game, Buy-In & Timers

Setting	Rules
Game Type	Hold’em, Omaha Hi, Omaha Hi/Lo, PLO5 Hi or PLO5 Hi/Lo, or a mixed game that rotates between them (and can stop rotating at a blind level you choose)
Buy In	Club chips per entry. Leave blank or 0 for a freeroll
Stack Size	Starting chips, 1 to 10,000,000
Max Rebuys	1 to 200 per player, or blank/0 for none. Each rebuy costs the buy-in again and gives a fresh starting stack. See Rebuys
Decision Time (sec)	5 to 600 seconds per action, or blank for no limit
Time Bank (sec)	5 to 300 extra seconds once decision time runs out. Only used with a decision time
Refill Every (hands)	2 to 200 hands before a used time bank is topped back up. Only used with a time bank
Showdown	Cards stay face up for 3, 6 or 9 seconds
Rabbit Hunting	Lets players see the cards that would have come after a hand ends early
Allow Players to Quit	Lets a player leave the tournament for good before they bust out

🗂️ Tab 3: Blinds & Late Registration

Blind Levels

Copy From: fill the levels from a ready-made structure (Presets), a tournament you hosted, or one you played in.
Each level has a small blind, big blind, optional ante (turn on Antes?), and a length of 2 to 240 minutes.
The last level lasts until the tournament ends.
Blinds and antes can be up to 9,999,999. The small blind can’t be bigger than the big blind.
Use + Level (bottom left) to add a level and X to remove one. Up to 100 levels.

Breaks

Press Add Break to add a break of 2 to 240 minutes (it starts at 10), with a new level after it to fill in. A break can’t be the last level and can’t follow another break.

🔁 Rebuys

Rebuys are only offered during the levels you allow them on. Press a level’s number to turn its rebuy icon green 🟢. A busted player is offered a rebuy only:

during a level with rebuys turned on, and
while they have rebuys left under Max Rebuys.

If you set Max Rebuys but don’t turn rebuys on for any level, the tournament can’t be saved, because the rebuys could never be used.

Late Registration

Late Registration: Yes (anyone), PLUS Only (Poker Now Plus members only) or No. New tournaments start with No.
Late Reg Until Level: registration closes at the end of this level. No limit keeps it open the whole tournament.

🏆 Tab 4: Payouts

Payout Structure

A payout structure says how the prize pool is split by finishing place, for each range of player counts (e.g. 2–9 players pays the top 2, 10–20 pays the top 3). Press Global Structures (shared by every club) or Club Structures (your club’s own) to pick one, then press a player range to see what it pays.

⚠️ A tournament with a buy-in or a bonus prize needs a structure that covers every player count from 2 up to Max Entrants. Payouts are worked out from the range that holds the actual number of players. If there is no structure, or no range for that many players, nobody can be paid. The settings screen won’t save until this is right.

Fee % and Bonus Prize

Fee %: the share of every buy-in and rebuy the club keeps (0–100%). It comes out of the prize pool before anything is paid.
Bonus Prize: chips the club adds to the prize pool on top of the buy-ins, for example to guarantee a prize or to give a freeroll prizes.

Prize pool = (buy-ins + rebuys) − fee + bonus prize

When Players Are Paid

Winnings are paid automatically into each player’s club chip balance as they finish in a paying place, and the last payouts are made when the tournament ends. Any rounding left over goes to first place. Players see their winnings and payout status in the tournament lobby.

📄 Making Your Own Club Payout Structures

Your club can offer its own structures alongside the global ones. In the payouts tab, press Club Structures, then Edit Structures:

Open the Poker Now payout structures sheet and choose File › Make a copy.
Change the structures in your copy, or add your own. Each tab is one structure, and the Instructions tab explains the layout.
Press Share and set General access to Anyone with the link (Viewer). Poker Now can’t read a sheet that isn’t shared this way.
Paste the link to your copy into Club Payout Structures and press Add.

You can choose which tabs your club offers, and a tab with a mistake in it says what’s wrong. Edits to your sheet show up within about 5 minutes, or straight away when you press Re-read. Your sheet’s ranges must be in order with no gaps or overlaps, and each range’s payouts must add up to 100%.

💡 You can check what a structure would pay before you run it with the payout tester.

🖼️ Tab 5: Table Felt

Choose the table design players see at this tournament’s tables.

✅ Check-In

Check-in makes players confirm they’re actually showing up before they’re given a seat. It’s great for big scheduled tournaments where people register days ahead.

How it works for players:

Registering puts them on the check-in list. No buy-in is taken yet.
When their check-in group opens, they get an email, a prompt in the lobby (plus a browser notification if they’ve turned those on), and a CHECK-IN button. The lobby counts down to when their group opens.
Checking in takes the buy-in and confirms their seat.
Only checked-in players get a seat. Anyone still on the list when tables are created is taken off it. They don’t play and aren’t charged.

Check-In Groups

Groups let you open check-in in waves. They open in the order listed and stay open, so each group adds to who can check in.

Group	Who it lets check in
All registered players	Everyone on the list
First N registered players	The earliest N registrations
Registered Plus players	Poker Now Plus members

Then wait is how many minutes (5 to 599) before the next group opens. After the last group, it’s the time before the tables are created. You can have up to 15 groups.

Scheduled tournaments count the whole chain backwards from the start time. For example, with Plus players → wait 60, First 10 → wait 45, All players → wait 30:

Plus players can check in 2 hrs 20 min before the start
The first 10 registrants join them 1 hr 20 min before
Everyone can check in 35 min before
Check-in closes and tables are created 5 minutes before the start

Check-in must be able to open at least 10 minutes from now, so a long chain needs a start time far enough away. The form tells you the earliest start that works.

Manual tournaments open check-in when you press Start Check-In in the lobby. The last group stays open until you press Create Tables.

🎬 How Each Type Runs

Open a tournament from your club lobby to get to its tournament lobby. Admins and the tournament host get an Admin tab with the controls.

🗓️ Scheduled

Everything happens on its own. Check-in opens (if used), tables are created just before the start time, and the tournament starts at the scheduled time. Share the lobby link (Copy the lobby link in the Admin tab) and let players register.

⚡ Sit-N-Go

Starts on its own shortly after Players Needed to Start have registered. With Auto Spawn on, the next one opens for registration the moment this one starts.

🖐️ Manual Start

You run it from the Admin tab:

(If check-in is on) press Start Check-In and give players time to check in.
Press Create Tables once at least 2 players are registered or checked in. Players are seated.
Press Start Tournament to deal the first hand.

During the Tournament

Pause / Resume (Admin tab): stops and restarts all tables (and the blind clock).
Sharing Image (Platinum, Admin tab): the picture shown when the lobby link is posted to Discord, X and similar (best at 1200 × 630).

The tournament lobby has these tabs:

Overview: the description, status, buy-in, prize pool, check-in schedule and each player’s own standing.
Players: everyone’s status, position and stack. The host and managers can accept players, adjust a stack, or remove a player (removal happens once their current hand finishes).
Tables: every table, who’s at it, and a Watch link, plus a TV View for streaming.
Structure: the full settings and blind schedule, with the current level highlighted.
Payouts: the prize pool and what each place pays at the current number of entries.
Chat: tournament-wide chat for players.
Log: a record of registrations, table moves, rebuys, stack changes and more.
Admin: the controls described above (admins, the host and managers only).

✏️ Editing a Tournament

Press Edit Tournament in the Admin tab. Settings can only be changed while the tournament is Registering, before check-in opens or tables are created. After that the button is greyed out, so get the structure and payouts right before then.

The buy-in can’t be changed once any player has paid it, because their refunds and the prize pool would no longer add up. Players on a check-in list haven’t paid yet, so they don’t count. To change the buy-in after people have paid, create a new tournament instead.

🗄️ Archiving

Archive removes a tournament from view, and can’t be undone. What happens to players’ chips depends on whether it started:

When you archive	What happens
Before it has started	Every player who paid a buy-in gets it back
While it’s paused	It ends now. Players still in finish in chip-count order and are paid from the payout structure
While it’s running	Not allowed. Pause it first

Tournaments are also tidied up automatically:

A scheduled tournament that never starts is archived a day after its start time.
A manual or Sit-N-Go tournament that never starts is archived 30 days after it was created.
Paid buy-ins are refunded either way.
A finished tournament leaves the club lobby list 2 hours after it ends.

🙋 What Your Players Do

Register from the tournament lobby. The buy-in comes out of their club chip balance (or at check-in, if check-in is on). They need enough chips to cover it.
Unregister any time before the tournament starts (while it’s registering or check-in is open) to get their buy-in back.
Late register, if you allow it, from the lobby once the tournament is running, until late registration closes.
Take seat when ready: a checkbox in the lobby that opens their table automatically once they’re seated.
The club lobby shows each player where they stand in every tournament: registered, on the check-in list, playing, or finished 3rd.

📋 Rules & Limits at a Glance

Setting	Limit
Name	4–20 characters
Description	Required, up to 2,000 characters
Max Entrants	2–300
Max per Table	4, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 (PLO5: 9 max)
Scheduled start	At least 10 minutes from now
Players Needed to Start (Sit-N-Go)	2–100, no more than Max Entrants
Stack Size	1–10,000,000
Max Rebuys	1–200 (needs at least one rebuy level)
Decision Time	5–600 seconds
Time Bank	5–300 seconds
Time bank refill	Every 2–200 hands
Blinds & antes	Up to 9,999,999
Blind level / break length	2–240 minutes
Blind levels	Up to 100
Check-in groups	Up to 15, each waiting 5–599 minutes
Fee	0–100%
Promotion card text	Up to 40 characters
Editing	Only while Registering
Changing the buy-in	Only before anyone has paid it
Archiving	Not while running

❓ Troubleshooting

“The payout structure does not cover…” Your structure’s ranges stop short of Max Entrants (or don’t start at 2). Pick a structure that covers 2 up to your Max Entrants, or lower Max Entrants.

“Max Rebuys is set, but no blind level allows rebuys” Go to the Blinds tab and press the number of each level that should allow rebuys.

“Check-in opens … minutes before the scheduled start, and must open at least 10 minutes from now” Move the start time later, or shorten the check-in groups.

“Could not open this Google Sheet” Your payout sheet isn’t shared. In Google Sheets press Share and set General access to Anyone with the link (Viewer).

The Edit Tournament button is greyed out The tournament is past registration. Settings can only be changed while it’s Registering.

The Archive button is greyed out The tournament is running. Pause it first.

Create Tables is greyed out You need at least 2 registered (or checked-in) players.

A player says they can’t register Check they have enough club chips for the buy-in, that the tournament isn’t full, and, once it’s started, that late registration is on (and they’re a Plus member if it’s PLUS Only).

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