# Frequently asked questions — PoketPoker ## What is a Texas Hold'em odds calculator? A tool that shows each hand's chance of winning before the cards are revealed. Pick hole cards for 2 to 8 players, add community cards as they come, and the percentages update instantly — useful for studying hands, settling arguments, or learning how strong a hand really is. ## Is this a poker equity calculator? Yes — equity is the headline number under every player. "Odds" and "equity" get used interchangeably, but equity is the precise one: your average share of the pot if the hand were played to showdown many times, counting outright wins in full and split pots as your share of the chop. It works pre-flop, on the flop, turn and river, for 2 to 8 players, and the figures come from the calculator's own engine running on your device — exact enumeration when few cards are unknown, hundreds of thousands of simulated deals otherwise. ## What is pot equity? Your average share of the pot if the hand were played to showdown many times: wins count in full and split pots count as your share of the chop. It's the headline percentage under every player, and it's a better guide than bare win percentage when ties are possible. ## How are the odds calculated? Entirely on your device. When few cards are unknown the calculator checks every possible outcome exactly; otherwise it simulates hundreds of thousands of random deals (a Monte Carlo simulation) in a fraction of a second. Nothing is estimated by artificial intelligence — the AI coach only explains numbers the calculator has already computed. ## What do the pot-odds and all-in verdicts mean? Enter the pot, the amount to call, and chip stacks, and the calculator compares the equity you need with the equity you have — for example "profitable call: you need 31%, you have 42%". Verdicts are pure chip-value math from the cards entered, not tournament or game-theory strategy. ## Is it free, and what happens to my data? Completely free, no account, no advertising, and nothing that identifies you: no cookies, no visitor profiles, no third-party trackers. Your cards never leave your device except when you ask the AI coach or the rules referee a question — the current table is then sent so it can answer. The site does keep anonymous totals: how often each mode is opened and whether anything crashed, so faults get noticed and fixed. Those counts carry no identifier and nothing from your table. ## Can I share a hand with friends? Yes — the whole table is encoded in the page address. The Share button copies a link and the code button shows a scannable code for phone cameras; anyone opening it sees exactly the same table with live odds. ## Can I practice Texas Hold'em against computer opponents? Yes — the Play button starts a free single-table tournament against AI opponents, each with a recognisable playing style, from reckless maniac to rock-tight. Blinds rise as you play, your live chance of winning shows on every decision, the AI coach will advise if asked, and every finished hand can be replayed card by card from the history. Five difficulty levels let you pick the table that fits you — the "Shark" table watches how you play, remembers you between games, and adapts, and the top "Pro" table also judges its hand against the range you'd actually hold, not just random cards. ## Is the practice game free — is this gambling? There is no gambling: the practice game uses play chips only, with nothing to buy and nothing to cash out. It's a training table — free, no account, no real money — made for learning tournament decisions against realistic opponents. ## Can an AI agent play poker against these bots? Yes — there is a machine version of the practice game. An AI agent can deal itself a hand over the web at /api/play/deal, get the table back as plain markdown it can read without a parser, and play the hand out for free; the deal costs half a cent, paid per hand with no account and no subscription. It is built as a benchmark rather than a toy: the agent is deliberately not told its own chance of winning, because judging that is the thing being measured, and the top table plays range-aware expected-value poker. The same machine surface also sells reference records for all 1,326 starting hands. See the API documentation for agents. ## Can it settle a poker rules dispute? Yes — the rules referee answers Texas Hold'em rules questions in plain words: misdeals, acting out of turn, exposed cards, string bets, calling the clock, showdown order and more. Pick the rule set in force — tournament (Poker TDA), cardroom cash game, or a UK pub or amateur league — and it gives a ruling, tells you which set it followed, and notes where a casino floor and a pub league would decide differently. It is guidance only; the floor's or tournament director's ruling at the table is always final. ## What does machine access cost? $0.01 per call, in USDC on Base, with no subscription and no account. See [pricing](https://poketpoker.com/pricing.md). ## Can an AI agent play poker here? Yes, and this is the part agents ask for most. `GET https://poketpoker.com/api/play/deal` deals one hand against the bots for $0.005; playing that hand out costs nothing more. The table comes back as markdown, so a language model can read it without a parser. You are never told your own equity. The benchmark measures poker judgement, not arithmetic you were handed. See the [play schema](https://poketpoker.com/api/play/schema) or the [API documentation](https://poketpoker.com/api.md).