Felt Poker Director: plan the clock and reconcile a home game

A poker clock can keep perfect time while the records are wrong. Someone rebought, another player cashed out, and the host was in a hand when both happened. Felt: Poker Director brings the clock and those records into one iPhone or iPad utility. The useful question is whether its workflow fits the way you run your home game.

This guide covers the Eternix LLC app, the free and Pro limits, and the checks worth making before you rely on a session total. Work through the clock example, then try the fictional ledger with two errors that cancel each other out. It is a good reminder that a neat total is only the start of a reconciliation.

Official product pages, the US App Store listing and the developer’s Terms were checked on 18 October 2026. HPD has not installed Felt or tested a signed-in session. The exercises and illustrations here are original HPD teaching material, not screenshots or a reproduction of the app.

App and access · Use restrictions · Set up a session · Clock example · Try the exercises · Close the records

Confirm the app, device and access tier

The app is Felt: Poker Director, published by Eternix LLC, with Apple App Store ID 6768495138. The listing requires iOS 17.0 or iPadOS 17.0 or later. The developer documents iPhone and iPad support; it does not announce an Android release. A similarly named poker site is not enough to establish that you have found this product.

The developer says hosting requires an internet connection. Sign in with Apple connects the account across devices. Before guests arrive, check the connection at the actual table and confirm that the intended display is readable from the farthest chair. Keep a paper structure and a way to note entries if your connection fails; this is a hosting precaution, not a claim that Felt provides offline recovery.

• Free: one active game, up to nine players, a blind clock, a live ledger, settlement calculations and one saved preset.
• Pro: up to 90 players across 10 tables and up to 10 open games, with two live tournaments plus cash tables. Paid tools include custom structures, TV output, leagues and CSV/PDF export.
• The US listing shows $6.99 monthly or $69.99 yearly, with a seven-day Pro trial. It is an auto-renewing subscription. Regional prices and the purchase screen govern the actual offer.

Count people and simultaneous sessions separately. A single six-player game may fit the free limit; two small games running together cross the one-active-game boundary. Decide which specific requirement calls for Pro before starting a trial. We have not measured device performance, synchronization latency or TV compatibility.

Read the Terms before planning a public event

There is an important mismatch in the official material. Marketing pages mention clubs and charity tournaments, while the current Terms restrict Felt to recreational, domestic, non-commercial private home games. They prohibit commercial gambling businesses, unlicensed public tournaments or leagues, and games where the host charges entry fees, rake or seat fees. A large player allowance does not override those restrictions.

The Terms also require users to be at least 18, the age of legal majority and any applicable local poker age. The App Store age label is not permission to ignore those conditions. This guide therefore uses small, fictional private-game examples. If your event falls outside that scope, resolve the contractual and local legal questions before relying on the app; a charity label does not settle them.

Felt records obligations and can open supported payment apps with details filled in. The developer says it does not hold, process or transfer the money. An amount on a settlement screen is not evidence that someone paid it. Any actual transfer remains a separate action in the payment service.

Give the session a structure before the first deal

The developer’s tournament guide documents setup fields for buy-in, starting stack, seats per table, payouts, rebuy and add-on rules, re-entry, bounties and blind structure. During play it describes a clock, level extensions, late-player entry, rebuys, bust-outs and chip counts. Treat the following sequence as an HPD preparation checklist; exact controls can change between app versions.

1. Write the game terms in plain language. Is this a cash session or a tournament? For a tournament, when do rebuys stop, who qualifies for an add-on and how are prizes determined?
2. Enter the starting roster and check it against the people actually present. Use one consistent player identity for each person. Similar display names make later corrections harder.
3. Separate money from tournament chips. A $20 contribution and a 20,000-chip stack belong to different records. Never use a chip count as if it were a cash-out amount.
4. Review the blind schedule and breaks before starting. Announce which published level ends registration or rebuys, and what happens if the clock is paused.
5. Choose who records changes. A second person can cross-check, but two hosts independently logging the same rebuy create a duplicate.
6. Do a short read-back. Each person confirms their starting entry; the host states the current level and first break. Then start play.

A handwritten note such as “Cara +20” is too thin. Was that a cash rebuy, an add-on, or a correction? A useful event note identifies the player, event type, amount and whether it was already entered. Record the event while it is still easy for both people to confirm.

Work the clock in minutes, not promises

The store listing describes built-in or automatically generated structures, with player count, starting stack and a target duration used for generation. It also describes editing the running level and future levels. Those inputs organize a schedule; they cannot guarantee the hand on which the tournament ends.

Here is an original six-level teaching schedule. It starts at 19:00, uses 20-minute levels and takes a 10-minute break after level 3. No antes are included in this example. It is deliberately short enough to audit on paper; it is not a recommended complete structure or a claim about Felt’s generated presets.

• Level 1: 25/50, 19:00–19:20
• Level 2: 50/100, 19:20–19:40
• Level 3: 75/150, 19:40–20:00
• Break: 20:00–20:10
• Level 4: 100/200, 20:10–20:30
• Level 5: 150/300, 20:30–20:50
• Level 6: 200/400, 20:50–21:10

The arithmetic is six times 20 minutes, plus one 10-minute break: 130 minutes. There is no break to add after the last level in the planned block. A 10,000-chip starting stack is 200 big blinds at 25/50. If a player has 2,000 chips at 100/200, they have 10 big blinds. The original starting stack does not describe their current position.

Now extend level 3 by five minutes. It ends at 20:05; the break ends at 20:15; level 6 ends at 21:15. If rebuys close at the end of level 3, players need to know that the corresponding time changed. A host who still announces “20:00” has created two competing rules.

For a pause, write down the level and remaining time before anyone adjusts it. On resuming, check those values on the host device and the room display. HPD has not tested how Felt handles every interruption or conflicting edit, so do a rehearsal with your own devices before a session that depends on them. Our separate home poker clock and payout planner is a different HPD tool.

Reconcile the records before deciding what is owed

The Felt listing describes entries for buy-ins, rebuys, add-ons, cash-outs, payouts and bounties. The ledger therefore needs more than a final total: each event must be attached to the right player and type. That is where a quick human check earns its keep.

Start with a cash-game example with no fees and no chips left in play. Alex buys in for $20 and finishes with $35. Blair puts in $20 and finishes with $25. Cara puts in $20 twice and finishes with $15. Dev puts in $20 and finishes with $25. Contributions total $100, and the final cash-out values total $100.

Subtract each player’s total buy-ins from their cash-out value. Alex is +$15, Blair +$5, Cara -$25 and Dev +$5. Together they sum to zero. That is the result of this fictional session, before considering any transfers already made. If the host collected money at the start, do not act as if every player still owes their original contribution at the end.

A missing Cara rebuy gives $80 in and $100 out. That -$20 difference tells you there is a discrepancy; it does not prove a player owes an extra $20. Find the event record first. If Blair’s cash-out is overstated by $10 and Cara’s understated by $10, the overall total balances perfectly while both player results are wrong. The exercise below tests both failures.

Practice a director’s handover

These original HPD exercises use fictional dollar amounts and a paper timetable. They do not reproduce Felt, run a live clock, contact any service, save entries or initiate payments. Use the sample data, not personal records.

The interactive controls need JavaScript. The reference slips, worked clock example and answer explanations below remain readable without it.

Check the ledger against the slips

Four friends have finished a sample cash game. No fees, bounties or money left on the table. The reference slips say Alex put in $20 and cashed out $35; Blair $20 and $25; Cara $40 and $15; Dev $20 and $25. Cara’s $40 is two separate $20 entries.

Read the ledger answers

The correct totals are $100 in and $100 out. Net results are Alex +$15, Blair +$5, Cara -$25 and Dev +$5. They sum to zero.

Missing rebuy records Cara at $20 instead of $40. It produces $80 in against $100 out, a -$20 difference. Extra cash-out records Dev at $35 instead of $25 and produces a -$10 difference.

Two offsetting errors gives Blair $35 and Cara $5. Total cash-outs still equal $100, but each person’s record is wrong by $10. Comparing individual slips catches what a total-only check misses.

Budget the levels, breaks and one extension

Plan a block of levels and see what happens when level 3 runs longer. Breaks occur after each chosen group of levels, except after the final level. This exercise assumes no other delays or pauses.

Read the clock example without the controls

Start at 19:00, play six 20-minute levels and take a 10-minute break after level 3. Levels 1 to 3 occupy 19:00 to 20:00. The break ends at 20:10. Levels 4 to 6 end at 21:10. There is no extra break after level 6. Total: 6 × 20 + 10 = 130 minutes.

Add five minutes to level 3 and the break moves to 20:05–20:15. Level 4 starts at 20:15 and the block ends at 21:15. This does not guarantee that all players will be eliminated by then.

Keep the prize pool separate from bounty payouts

A tournament ledger adds another question: which pool does each contribution fund? The official tournament material describes configurable rebuys, add-ons and bounties with knockout attribution. The host still has to check that the chosen rules match what was announced.

Take eight fictional players contributing $20 each. Two qualifying rebuys add another $20 each, and four add-ons contribute $10 each. Total contributions are $160 + $40 + $40 = $240. For this example only, each initial entry and rebuy includes a $5 bounty; add-ons do not. That creates a $50 bounty pool from ten eligible entries and a $190 main prize pool. There is no fee.

Suppose the announced main prizes are 50%, 30% and 20%. Apply them to $190: $95, $57 and $38. Those main prizes sum to $190; adding the separate $50 bounty pool accounts for all $240. Applying the percentages to $240 and then paying another $50 in bounties would promise $290 from $240 collected.

Chip accounting is separate again. If each initial entry and rebuy gives 20,000 chips and each add-on gives 10,000, the event introduces 240,000 tournament chips. With no chips removed or added by another rule, three remaining stacks of 100,000, 80,000 and 60,000 reconcile to that total. This is a check on recorded chip counts, not a formula for cash prizes.

Felt documents Top-N percentage payouts, ICM and Chip Chop as distinct approaches. Its ICM page describes stack and prize inputs; its Chip Chop description includes a minimum-cash floor. Do not substitute a simple chip-percentage calculation and call it the app's result. See chips and prize equity for the underlying distinction. Agree the payout method before confirming a finish or deal, and recheck the inputs if the roster or prize pool changed.

Decide who controls the records and who handles the money

The website describes two settlement arrangements: players settling directly, and a Pro host-as-bank mode where the host holds the pot and records cash-out payments. Choose the arrangement before collecting anything. Changing halfway through without accounting for earlier payments is an easy way to charge the same obligation twice.

For a small game, give one person responsibility for entries and ask another to review the close. This is a suggested division of work, not a claim that Felt has separate cashier permissions or a specific approval system. Device synchronization alone does not define who is allowed to change the record.

Keep four ideas separate in your review: a contribution recorded, chips issued, a cash-out calculated and money actually delivered. If a person leaves with an unpaid amount, note that it remains outstanding. A copied recap, a payment link or a "settled" label cannot substitute for checking what happened outside the app.

Know where the session data goes

Felt's privacy policy says its account and game information is stored in a cloud database and processed in the United States. It lists email supplied through Sign in with Apple, game records and diagnostic information. Apple processes the subscription; the developer says it receives entitlement status rather than the payment method. These are the developer's disclosures, not an independent privacy audit.

Use only the player information needed for the game. Avoid turning a public room display or shared recap into a list of payment handles or personal details. Check who can see an export before sending it. The account-deletion policy describes permanent removal within 30 days; do not treat deletion as a reversible archive.

The website says a plain-text settled-game recap is available on any tier, while CSV and PDF export are Pro. If you need an enduring record, confirm the available history and export options before the next session replaces what you expected to keep. For a wider account checklist, read poker account security and recovery.

Close the night with a short read-back

1. Confirm the final roster, rebuys, add-ons, eliminations and any awarded bounties against the event notes.
2. Reconcile contributions with the main prizes, bounty pool and any other explicitly agreed allocations. Keep every category visible.
3. Check individual player entries even when the total balances. Two errors can cancel each other.
4. Identify payments already made and anything still outstanding before using a settlement instruction.
5. Review the recap for accuracy and privacy, then keep the permitted record you need for the next game.

Felt is most relevant when the host wants the tournament clock and session bookkeeping together on Apple devices. A small free-tier rehearsal is a sensible way to see whether the documented workflow suits your table. The decision to pay should follow a specific need, such as more players, custom structures or export, rather than the hope that software will resolve an unclear house rule.

For more hosting context, read re-entry and late registration, or return to the HPD software directory.

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