On an Android Phone:

1. Open the Settings app on your Android phone
2. Go to Notifications
3. Go to App Settings
4. Tap ‘All Apps’
5. Tap ‘Match Poker Online’
6. Turn notifications on

On an iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone
2. Go to Notifications
3. Scroll down to MatchPoker
4. Tap ‘Allow Notifications’ to the ‘on position’ (green)
5. Configure notification settings as desired (or, to make it easier, just make it look like this:

The easiest way to do this is to activate your phone’s Do Not Disturb function when you play the app (before or during):

On an iPhone:

1. Open the settings app and tap on ‘Do Not Disturb‘.
2. Scroll down to the section titled ‘SILENCE:‘ and ensure that ‘Always‘ is ticked. (You can configure other settings to your liking here).
3. Scroll back up to the top and ensure ‘Do Not Disturb’ is switched on.

You can find the ‘Do Not Disturb’ switch in Control Centre by swiping up from the bottom of your screen. It appears as a crescent moon.

If you have Siri enabled, you can simply say ‘Hey Siri, turn on Do Not Disturb‘ when you decide you want to start playing.

On an Android Phone:

1. Open Quick Settings by pulling down twice from the top of your phone’s screen.
2. Tap ‘Do Not Disturb‘. It appears as a circle with a horizontal line in the centre. This will turn this mode on.
3. If you wish to configure settings, such as when it will automatically turn itself off, long press (i.e. press and hold) the ‘Do Not Disturb‘ button to open and configure ‘Do Not Disturb‘ settings.

Note: Remember to turn ‘Do Not Disturb’ off after you finish playing, or else you may accidentally ignore calls and messages outside gameplay.

This data can all be changed in the app*

1. Press the ‘settings’ button in the top-right corner of the main lobby
2. Scroll down to ‘Leaderboard Data’. Press the EDIT button to the right of this.
3. You should be able to change your Region/State*, Age and Gender here.

*Please Note: In countries like the United States, where gambling laws are different in different States/Regions, you may find that you are unable to change your State/Region. This is so we can that ensure players are not flaunting their local laws by telling us they reside in a different state to where they actually reside.

In Match Poker Online™, all stacks reset, after each hand, back to the starting stack of 1,000 chips.

This underpins two key features of the sport of Match Poker:

1. The ability to compare a player’s performance against other players playing exactly the same hand. If chip stacks were not reset, it would be impossible to directly compare the play of someone with just 5 BB who, say, held A6 in early position to the play of someone holding the same cards in the same position but with 200 BB. (This is because the player with 5 BB would almost certainly go all in while the player with 200 BB would most likely fold).
2. One of the proudest claims of Match Poker is that it offers a wonderful fix to one of the worst aspects of ordinary poker – which is the unfair impact of a bad beat. This factor, almost solely, explains why so many tournaments are not always won by the best players.

Look at the following example. In the first 2 hours of the 2019 World Series of Poker, one of the world’s best players, Vanessa Selbst, was dealt AA in early position. The flop was A7X. She bet. One player called. Selbst checked the turn (an irrelevant card), re-raised the bet that was made, and was called. On the river, a 7, she bet – and was re-raised all-in. After some distress, she eventually called, declaring, accurately, that the other player either had A7 or 77 and that pot odds demanded she call. [Click here to learn more about pot odds and why they are essential to good decision-making in poker]. She was right. She lost to the quad 7s and was eliminated from the biggest tournament in the world.

In Match Poker, rather than being eliminated, she may not even get a negative score – because almost everyone who held her hand got the same result!

Match Poker Online’s resetting chip stacks offer protection in these circumstances, in the following ways:

1. at the end of the hand, Selbst is not eliminated from the tournament;
2. she starts the next hand with a full chip stack;
3. her score is likely not even to be adversely affected – because almost every player who played that hand lost all of their chips.

Yes, it is legitimately a sport! In 2017 the GAISF declared that Match Poker was officially a sport. This is the world governing body for sport – and sits above the Olympic Committee. It has given Match Poker ‘observer status’, the same level of recognition on the world stage as Rugby League.

Some people prefer the definition of ‘Sport’ to require an element of physical activity. This is why Match Poker is sometimes called a ‘Mind Sport’ – like Chess, Bridge, Go, and others.

No. Match Poker Online™ is not a gambling app. Match Poker Online ensures that the sport of Match Poker will be an intellectual pursuit – a mind sport – by eliminating gambling elements inherent in poker, in the following way:

1. The app is free and play on the app is free.
2. Scoring of Match Poker is not in terms of chips or betting units won. Rather, every result will simply be in terms of how a player’s rating improved or fell as a result of his/her play.
3. Unlike all other forms of poker, a player’s results don’t rely significantly on the hand they are dealt – i.e. chance. Instead they are judged on how they played those cards, comparing their play to everyone else who has played the same cards.

Read our Integrity Policy for more information on our anti-gambling approach.

Not in the way you think. Match Poker Online ™ does not sanction or allow any form of gambling (see question above).

But our answer isn’t ‘No’. The interest that the players would have, money-wise, is the same as any other sport. For example, think about those who play at a national or international level – they make lots of money from sponsorship and winning tournaments, like all professional sportspeople. We anticipate that professional poker players will be able to do the same from obtaining a high Rating in our app and taking that to national and international Match Poker competitions.

Yes. We believe a true poker experience involves having real people at your table, so we will seat you at tables with real players, even though your true opponents are those who are playing this hand at other tables from the same position as you – as opposed to those currently at your table.