A club owner from Latin America wrote to us this week. He had run a PPPoker club through the pandemic, in a local union, at five to six thousand dollars of rake a week. He'd closed it, kept the contacts, and wanted to reopen, "but in a union with active tables". That last clause is the whole guide. Anyone can create a club on PPPoker in ten minutes. Running one that has games at 11 PM is a different job, and this page is about that job.
We take clubs into PPPoker unions every month, so what follows is the order we see work, and the order we see fail.
Start with the players, not the app
A PPPoker club is a container. It holds members, tables and a chip balance. It does not hold players. You bring those. The owners who fail are the ones who create a club, post the ID in three Telegram groups, and wait. The owners who work start with a list: a home game, a Discord, a group of friends who already play, an old club's regulars. If that list has ten to fifteen people who will actually sit down, you have a club. If it has three, you have a group chat, and you should be an agent in someone else's club first, see our guide to becoming a poker agent.
Step 1: Create the club and set the games
The mechanics are the easy part. In the app you create a club under your own account, name it, get a club ID, and invite members by ID. You set which games run (NLH, PLO4, PLO5, Short Deck, OFC), the stakes, the table sizes, and whether you run tournaments. Keep the first schedule narrow: one or two games your players actually play, at two or three limits. A club with twelve table types and no one at any of them looks dead to the one player who logs in.
Step 2: Give the chips a value
Chips inside PPPoker mean nothing until you say what they're worth. You decide the chip value, a dollar, a ruble, whatever your players settle in, and that value is what deposits and withdrawals convert at. This is also where your economics live: a chip price below a dollar gives players more room without touching the rake deal. Pick one value, state it once, don't change it without notice.
Step 3: Decide how money moves
There is no cashier in PPPoker. Every deposit and withdrawal is a person sending money to a person: you or an agent you appoint, usually in Telegram, by crypto or local methods. That's why club poker pays out in minutes instead of days, and it's also the part that decides whether players trust you. Before you open, decide who handles it, at what hours, and what the cut-off for a withdrawal is. If your players play at night and you sleep at night, you need an agent who doesn't.
Step 4: Join a union for tables
This is the step that separates a club from a club with games. On its own, a club of fifteen players fills one table for a few hours a day. Connected to a union, its members see the union's shared lobby, many clubs' tables, and the union's tournaments with real guarantees. In return the union takes a share of the rake.
What a union asks of you: your active player count, your games and stakes, your hours, your monthly rake or an estimate. What it gives you in writing: your rake share and the volume bands that change it, the chip price it settles at, the settlement day and currency, and a deposit. Through us the written offer comes within one working day and the club is live in the union lobby in one to two days after you accept. The full process, deposit included, is in our guide to joining a union as a club owner; current terms by platform are on the terms page.
Step 5: Understand what the club costs
Owners ask "how much does a PPPoker club cost" expecting a price tag. There are three costs, and only one of them is a fee.
- The platform: PPPoker sells club capacity in in-app currency, and prices change, so take the number from the app on the day rather than from any guide, including this one. In most of our unions, club renewal and chips are free to the club. The union covers them.
- The deposit: a serious union asks for a refundable security deposit, sized to your limits and activity. In ours it works as the club's stop-loss: it caps the weekly minus your club can run and covers a shortfall if you don't. It comes back when you leave.
- Float: the money you need on hand to pay a withdrawal before the weekly settlement lands. This is the cost most new owners forget, and the one that actually closes clubs.
Step 6: Open, and run the first month like a test
Announce one date, one club ID, one agent contact. In the first week, watch three numbers: how many of your list actually played, which tables they sat at, and whether the first withdrawals went out on time. In the first settlement, reconcile the union's statement against your own records to the chip. If the statement matches and the payout lands on the stated day, you have a union. If not, you've learned it in week one instead of month six.
What this owner did right
He led with his players: NLH, a handful of strong PLO5 regulars, playing day, night and early morning. He named his old rake so the union could quote a real deal instead of a default. He chose PPPoker because his people already knew it; moving players between apps is expensive for an owner, and he didn't. And he asked for active tables before he asked for a percentage. That order is the guide.
FAQ
How much does it cost to start a PPPoker club?
Three things: the platform's club capacity, bought in the app at prices that change, so check in the app on the day; a refundable union deposit sized to your limits and activity, which in RP Union works as the club's stop-loss; and float, the cash you need to pay a withdrawal before the weekly settlement arrives. In most of our unions, club renewal and chips are free to the club.
Do I need a union to run a PPPoker club?
Not to exist, but to have games. A club of fifteen players fills one table a few hours a day; in a union its members see a shared lobby of many clubs' tables and tournaments with real guarantees. Almost every club that keeps its players is in a union.
How many players do I need to start a club?
Ten to fifteen people who will actually sit down. With fewer, be an agent inside an existing club first; it costs nothing and your players get a full lobby. A club becomes worth running once a real base follows you.
How do players deposit into a PPPoker club?
Through you or an agent, not through the app. There's no cashier in PPPoker: a player sends money to a person by crypto or local methods, usually in Telegram, and receives chips at the club's chip value. Withdrawals go the same way, which is why they take minutes, and why the owner or agent must be reachable at the hours players play.
How long does it take to open a club in a union?
Creating the club is minutes. Through RP Union, a written offer comes within one working day of your numbers, and the club is placed in the union lobby and configured one to two days after you accept, so a club is typically live within three days of first contact.
If you're reopening a club or opening a first one, send your platform, players, games and hours to @rpunion on Telegram. If your players are Omaha-heavy, read the Suprema EU union page before you decide on an app.
Know a club owner who should be here? You earn on their rake for as long as the club plays: see the referral terms.
18+. Running a poker club carries real financial risk. Keep the deposit, the float and player balances separate, and play responsibly.