Choosing a platform for a private online home game: real money or play chips, cash game or tournament
Planning a private online game with friends? Filter platforms by three hard requirements: real money or play chips, cash game or tournament, and which poker variant.
Author: PokerSlate · Editor: PokerSlate
Published:
Three to five friends want a fixed weekly game, cannot get enough people together live, and move online only to find that the first step is not taking a seat but the host setting the rules. A guide published by PokerNews on Nov. 15, 2021, laid out the private-game features of PokerStars, 888poker, WSOP App, GTO Wizard Play Mode and partypoker. This article deals with one decision: the platform screening that happens before the game is created.
Write down the three hard requirements first
Private games are set up by the host, so the screening order should be reversed: define what you need, then check whether a platform can deliver it, rather than picking a platform and then deciding how to play. The three hard requirements are:
- Real money or play chips
- Cash game or tournament
- Which poker variant you want to play
The hard limits at each platform
According to the guide:
- PokerStars Home Games offers both cash games and tournaments; players must first create a club, then send friends the Club ID and invitation code. Since July 2021, creatable games include no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha and five-card pot-limit Omaha. The guide lists real-money private hold'em cash games with blinds starting at $0.01/$0.02 and going up to $0.50/$1; in its private cash-game variant table, the real-money Omaha option is marked unavailable, with only a play-chip version.
- 888poker takes another route: entering Play with Friends through Extra Games, no club is needed, and you can directly create a private cash game or tournament, with tournament options that include freerolls and repeatable events. Once created, you get a link that can be forwarded by email, social platform or chat app.
- WSOP App is free to play, and the guide states clearly that it currently cannot create private home games. It describes inviting friends to cash games and tournaments through Facebook. Registration comes with 1,000,000 free chips.
- GTO Wizard Play Mode is free, runs directly in a browser, needs no download and involves no real money; you can invite friends, and you can also play heads-up for free.
- partypoker Club Games only supports cash games, not tournaments, so every game has a minimum buy-in. You can set 2-, 6- or 8-handed tables, with blinds from $0.01/$0.02 to $1.00/$2.00, and minimum and maximum buy-ins selectable at 10, 50, 100 or 200 big blinds; invitations use a unique code and password.
A hypothetical walkthrough
Suppose seven people want a game on Saturday night: real money, no-limit hold'em, a tournament, a fixed buy-in per player, and no new players joining mid-game. Run the requirements against the hard limits above: partypoker Club Games is cash-game only, so it is out; WSOP App cannot create private games, so it is out; GTO Wizard Play Mode involves no real money, so it is out. The remaining candidates are the private tournaments on PokerStars and 888poker.
Then compare how players are pulled in: PokerStars requires each person to join the club with the Club ID plus invitation code; 888poker gives you a link to forward directly after creation. The guide calls 888poker's process faster because no poker club needs to be created. Beyond that speed point, it does not say which invitation model better suits a long-running group. If you count the number of sending steps, link sharing takes one message; if you are used to sharing the same member list long term, the club model keeps members inside one club. The trade-off depends on your group. Note that this guide was published on Nov. 15, 2021, and some features are described as of 2021; several years later, platform clients may have changed, so check the actual options in the current client before creating a game.
Practice
Question: Four people want to start a game with these conditions: no client download, no real money, and one of them only wants to play heads-up with you. According to the hard limits above, which platform is the most direct?
Answer: GTO Wizard Play Mode. It is free, runs in a browser, needs no download, involves no real money, and lets you invite friends or play heads-up for free. WSOP App is also free, but the guide states clearly that it cannot create private home games and describes inviting friends through Facebook to cash games and tournaments, so it does not meet the "create your own game" condition.
Local reading context
An online private game differs from a public table in that the host sets the rules in advance: whether real money is allowed, which poker variants can be played, whether the game is a cash game or a tournament, how many seats the table has and how deep the buy-in goes. The common flow is that a host creates a club or group, generates an invitation code, password or link, and sends it to friends; some platforms skip the club step and simply let you forward a link. Platforms do not all support the same mix of real money versus play chips and cash games versus tournaments, so when a group of friends wants to change the format, they often have to change the format or the platform.
Original sources and verification
- PokerNews
PokerNews guide dated Nov. 15, 2021: PokerStars Home Games offers cash games and tournaments, requires a club, Club ID and invitation code, and since July 2021 supports no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha and five-card PLO; real-money hold'em cash-game blinds run from $0.01/$0.02 to $0.50/$1, and in the private cash-game variant table Omaha is play-chip only. 888poker opens private games through Play with Friends under Extra Games, with no club needed, offering cash games or tournaments (including freerolls and repeatable events) and producing a forwardable link; the guide calls the 888poker process faster because no poker club needs to be created. WSOP App is free, cannot create private home games, and the guide describes inviting friends to cash games and tournaments through Facebook; registration comes with 1,000,000 free chips. GTO Wizard Play Mode is free, browser-based, needs no download, involves no real money, and allows inviting friends or free heads-up play. partypoker Club Games is cash-game only with no tournaments, 2/6/8-handed tables, blinds $0.01/$0.02 to $1.00/$2.00, buy-ins of 10/50/100/200 big blinds, and invitations via a unique code and password.