Welcome to Our Poker Table Where Fair Play is Sacred
At Paddy Power Poker, we're serious about one thing: fair play. Poker's built on trust: trust that everyone's playing honestly, that the cards are clean, and that the best player wins the pot. These Card Room Rules are here to protect that trust and make sure every hand is played on a level playing field. Read them, understand them, and you'll know exactly what to expect when you sit down at our tables.
The Foundation: Playing Fair and Playing Clean
Here's the deal: collusion, chip dumping, cheating: we don't tolerate any of it. Not ever.
Collusion is when two or more players work together to fleece the rest of the table. Maybe they're sharing information, coordinating plays, or ganging up on a weaker player. That's not poker; that's theft. It's strictly prohibited, and we'll catch it.
Chip dumping: deliberately losing a hand to transfer chips to another player. It is equally dodgy. We're watching for it, and we will act.
We use sophisticated detection systems to spot unfair play, and we're not afraid to dig deep. That means examining accounts, reviewing hand histories, and checking what programs you're running alongside our software. If you're playing straight, you've got nothing to worry about. If you're not, you will.
Any form of unfair play, whether it's collusion, multiple account abuse, or using prohibited software, will result in penalties outlined in our General Terms. Those penalties can be serious: account suspension, funds forfeiture, and permanent bans. Play fairly, or don't play at all.
Taking Your Time: The Time Bank Explained
Sometimes you need a moment to think. That's what the Time Bank is for.
When your normal time to act is running out, a TIME bank button appears on screen. Activate it, and you get extra thinking time to make your decision.
Here's how it works:
If you have money in the pot (blinds, antes, or bets), and you don't act in the normal time window, the time bank automatically kicks in. You get that extra time to think without losing your hand.
If you have nothing in the pot and time runs out? Your hand's automatically folded, and you sit out the next hand. That's fair to the other players. Wwe can't have people taking forever with nothing at stake.
One important thing to know: the time bank protects you from time pressure, but not from disconnections. If your internet drops, the time bank won't save you. So if you're on a shaky connection, be careful.
Chat at the Tables: Keep It Clean, Keep It Respectful
Our poker tables are a community. We want everyone to feel comfortable, welcome, and respected. That's why we have chat rules, and we enforce them seriously.
Profanity, vulgarity, racism, and abuse have no place here. If you're upset about a bad beat or a questionable call, that's poker. But taking it out on other players in vulgar language isn't acceptable. We've got an automatic filter for certain words, and if you try to bypass it, you're breaking the rules. Don't engage in retaliatory chat either. That'll get both players in trouble.
Don't beg for chips. Whether it's play money or real money, repeatedly asking other players for chips is prohibited. We're all here to earn our stack fair and square.
Play money chip sales are off-limits. Don't discuss buying, selling, or trading play money chips in chat. It's not allowed.
Flooding: spamming the chat with messages to drown out legitimate conversation will get you muted. We've all got things to say, but we take turns.
Generally, we speak English at the tables. We know our players come from all over the world and that English isn't everyone's first language - we respect that. But for most tables, English-only chat keeps things fair and inclusive for everyone. There are exceptions: special regional tournaments or tables may allow local languages alongside English, and those are clearly labelled. If you're playing on our .ES, .FR, .IT, or .PT licenses, you can chat in your country's official language plus English on real money games.
Commercial promotion is strictly banned. Don't use our tables to plug third-party services, products, or websites. That's what the forum is for, not the chat.
Malicious behaviour, fraud, spam, and collusion chat are all prohibited. And don't make false or derogatory statements about Paddy Power Poker. We're all here to have a good time. Be respectful.
Stalking and harassment have no place here. If you're following another player from table to table to abuse, intimidate, or disrupt them, that's serious. We will investigate. If you're experiencing this, report it with the player's Stars ID, dates, times, and subject line "Chat Stalking Complaint – Attn: Stalking Team."
One note on reporting: When you report a chat violation, our Chat Specialists review all players involved and respond accordingly. For privacy reasons, we don't disclose the results of investigations. So report the violation, then let us handle it.
Also, chat rules are generally not enforced in Home Games. Those are your private spaces to play however you like.
The Technical Stuff: How We Run a Fair Game
Standard deck, shuffled every hand. All our games use a regular 52-card poker deck, shuffled fresh before each hand. No shortcuts, no tricks.
Draw games work like this: If we run out of cards in the original deck during a draw round (unlikely, but it can happen), we reshuffle the remaining deck together with all previously discarded cards. Once that reshuffle happens, the system makes sure no player gets back a card they've already discarded. It's fair, it's clean, and it's by the book.
Minimum bets in No Limit and Pot Limit games. Your minimum bet is the big blind. And here's an important detail: we treat the big blind as a raise of the small blind. That means pre-flop, any raise in an unopened pot that equals or exceeds the small blind reopens the action. It keeps the game flowing fairly for everyone.
Questions? We've Got You Covered
These Card Room Rules are designed to work alongside our full General Terms. If there's ever a conflict between the two, the General Terms take precedence. But you shouldn't need to worry about that. Read these rules, understand them, and you're golden.
Play fair, play clean, play smart. That's Paddy Power Poker.