How to start a Match with your friends

[baggageclaim]

To start a new Match:

1. From the Dashboard, click this button to start a new Match:
   

   

2. Enter the email address(es) or player name(s) of those you want to start a Match with. Then click the Create button.
   

   

3. Set the amount of Hands to be played within the Match. Also, set a timeout for your opponents to act:
   

   

4. There are also advanced features, like how many Big Blinds each player starts each Hand with, and whether or not to use EV in all-in situations or not:
   

   

5. Last, give your Match a name:
   

   

6. Once your Match has been created, invites will be sent to your opponents. The Match will start when everyone has accepted. Note that if you already have a Match history with an opponent, and they have not elected to block new games from being created, they will auto-accept the Match.
   

   

7. You can check on the status of your Match and invites by expanding the Match:
   

   

8. Note that once you already have matches underway, the Start New Match button moves to the bottom right-hand corner:
   

   

9. Your opponents will see invites that look like this:
   

   

[kris]

It’s not clear to me exactly how the action timeout works. Does it just check/fold their hands if the player doesn’t act in time? If so, 7 days seems like a pretty long time for the default value; it means that one inattentive player can have everyone else waiting a week to play.

[kris]

And one other thing that is somewhat unclear is what happens in the case that a single player declines the invitation. Is it all-or-nothing?

[baggageclaim]

Yes, if a player fails to act in time, their hands will be checked or folded, whichever is available. The timeout for a particular Match is configurable. The expectation is that players are playing more frequently, but the default is 7 days because sometimes you want some time to think about a particular hand in more detail while you play others.

[baggageclaim]

And yes, if a single player declines an invite the Match will be canceled.

[kris]

So is the timeout on a per-hand basis, i.e. you can play a bunch of your hands but if you ignore one for the timeout period it’ll be checked/folded?

[baggageclaim]

Yes, that is correct.

[kris]

So, there’s a bit of a pathology here with having a single timeout. Suppose that someone starts a match, and one person isn’t responding to any of their hands. If they fail to act, and all their hands time out, everyone else will have potentially a very short time within to act on their hands before they also time out, even if they weren’t the ones holding up the game.

[baggageclaim]

The timeout is per action, so once all of that person’s hands timeout (and action is checked or folded), a new 7 day countdown would begin for the next person in each hand.