How Poker Night settles up
5 min read · Updated 2026-09-26
Poker Night is a ledger for your table. It keeps track of buy-ins and chips, checks the numbers add up, and works out the simplest way to square up. It never moves money — the group settles among themselves, the way you always have. The examples below count in chips; set a chip value and every total and transfer shows money first, with the chips next to it.
During the night
- Buy-in size is how many chips one buy-in gets, e.g. 200.
- Chip value is optional: what one buy-in costs, e.g. 200 chips = $20. Leave it as Chips only and everything stays in chips. You can change it later in the night; the change is noted in the buy-in log.
- Each player’s buy-ins start at 1. Tap + for every rebuy (and − if you tapped by mistake — there’s an Undo, too).
- When someone goes home early, use Leave table in their row’s menu and enter their chips. Their row is locked but still counts at the end.
- At the end, enter everyone’s chips and tap End game.
How the net is calculated
Net = chips at the end − buy-ins × buy-in size. Example with a buy-in size of 200:
| Player | Buy-ins | Chips at the end | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mia | 2 | 620 | 620 − 400 = +220 |
| Lee | 1 | 210 | 210 − 200 = +10 |
| Alex | 1 | 90 | 90 − 200 = −110 |
| Sam | 3 | 480 | 480 − 600 = −120 |
The balance check
Chips don’t appear or vanish, so everyone’s net must add up to zero. Poker Night shows Total up (+230 above), Total down (−230) and, when they cancel out, Balanced. If not, it shows Off by and the difference, and waits for you to fix it before showing any transfers.
Watch out — Off by? Check these first: A rebuy that was never tapped in · a stack counted wrong · chips left in the box, on the floor or in someone’s pocket · a player who left without their chips being recorded.
Direct mode: as few transfers as possible
By default, the players who are down pay the players who are up directly. Poker Night matches the biggest loser with the biggest winner, then repeats, which keeps the number of transfers low — never more than one fewer than the number of players who won or lost.
The example above settles in three transfers.
| From | To | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| Sam | Mia | 120 |
| Alex | Mia | 100 |
| Alex | Lee | 10 |
With a chip value of 200 chips = $20, the same transfers read $12.00, $10.00 and $1.00, each with its chip count beside it. Money is split to the cent, so the transfers always add up exactly.
Banker mode: one person in the middle
Pick one person — often the host — under Everyone settles with. Everyone who is down pays them, and they pay everyone who is up. Their own result is settled automatically by what they keep. There are more transfers, but everyone deals with just one person.
With Lee in the middle: Lee takes in 230, pays out 220 and keeps the 10 Lee won.
| From | To | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| Sam | Lee | 120 |
| Alex | Lee | 110 |
| Lee | Mia | 220 |
Charges: food, tips, chip rental
Add a charge for anything the group shares: the amount, a short description, who paid, and who it’s split among. Whoever paid gets it back through the settlement.
Example: Mia paid 80 for pizza for all four. Each player’s share is 20, so everyone’s result drops by 20 and Mia’s rises by 80. Mia ends at +280 instead of +220, and the transfers include her pizza.
Note — “House / no one”: Choose this only when nobody at the table should get the amount back — for example chips paid out to the venue. Those chips have left the game, so the table will show as off by that amount.
Paying each other
On the settle screen, and later in History, each transfer has a Pay button. It opens a sheet where you can Copy this line and paste it into a message, or open a payment app that is installed on your phone — Venmo, PayPal or Cash App in the US, WeChat or Alipay in Chinese.
Note — Poker Night never moves money: It only opens the app. You enter the amount there yourself, and the group settles the way it always has. If you’d rather not see the button, turn off Show payment shortcuts in Settings.
Reading the summary you share
After settling, tap Share to send the summary as an image, save it to Photos, copy it, or copy it as text. It contains:
- The date, the buy-in size and how long you played, plus the chip value if you set one.
- Transfers — who pays whom, money first when a chip value is set, then chips. If a player has an account name or number saved on their roster card, a Pay to: line appears under the transfer, so people know where to send it.
- Players — each person’s buy-ins, chips at the end and net.
- Added buy-ins — how many rebuys happened and how many chips they added.
- Charges and the note for the night, if you added any.
Tip — Copy one line at a time: On the settle screen, tap a transfer to copy just that line — handy for pasting into a message to one person.
Every settled night is saved in History, where you can open it and share it again, and each player’s results build up on their page in the Roster.