Most club owners who want to leave a union stay for one reason: they are afraid of the week in between. Players log in, see an empty lobby, and go play somewhere else. That fear is justified if you move the way most owners do, which is announce the switch, disconnect, and hope. It is not justified if you treat the move as a migration with a sequence, a cut-off and a fallback.
We have been on both sides of this since 2019. We take clubs in from other unions every month across PPPoker, Suprema Poker, ClubGG, X-Poker and Poker21+, and we have watched owners lose a third of their regulars in a bad move and lose nobody in a good one. The difference is never the app. It is whether balances, agents and prime-time tables were handled before the switch, not after.
This page is the sequence we use. It applies whether you are moving to us or to anyone else.
What actually moves when you change unions
A union is a shared lobby. Your club connects to it, and your players see the union's tables alongside your own. When you leave, the union's tables disappear from your lobby. That is the whole technical event. Everything else is a business event, and the business events are what lose players.
What stays with you in every app we cover: the club itself, its ID, your members, your agent tree, your settings. Nobody can take your club. What changes: the field your players see, the chip economy you settle in, who pays you and on what day, and who answers when something breaks at 3 AM.
What does not transfer automatically anywhere: player balances. Chips in your club are your club's chips, but the union-level clearing of those chips, the money behind them, sits in a settlement between you and the union. Leave with an open balance and you are either waiting on the old union to pay out or covering your players from your own pocket while you wait. This is the single point where moves go wrong, so it is where the plan starts.
Step 1: Settle out before you announce anything
Request a final statement from your current union and reconcile it against your own records before anyone outside your management chat knows you are leaving. Confirm the cut-off date for the last settlement, the payout date, and what happens to any promo or jackpot balances that are still open.
Then screenshot every player balance and every agent balance on the same day. If a dispute comes later, the screenshot taken before the announcement is the one that holds up.
Do not disconnect yet. Owners who disconnect first and settle second give the old union every reason to delay, and they give their own players a week of empty tables while it is sorted out.
Step 2: Get the new terms in writing, including the deposit
Every serious union asks for a refundable security deposit from an incoming club. Ours works as the club's stop-loss: it caps the weekly minus the club can run, and if an owner does not cover a losing week, the shortfall comes out of the deposit. The size depends on the limits your players run and how active the club is, so it is quoted per club, not from a price list.
Before you move, you want four things on paper from the new union: your rake split and the volume bands that change it, the settlement day and currency, the deposit amount and the conditions for getting it back, and which union lobby your club actually lands in. Through RP Union a written offer arrives within one working day of you sending your platform, active player count, monthly rake and current deal. Current deal bands by platform are on our terms page for club owners and agents, and they are reviewed monthly, so the number you see there is the number you negotiate from.
If a union will not put the deposit terms in writing, that is your answer about the union.
Step 3: Match the games before you match the deal
A better rake split is worth nothing if your PLO5 regulars arrive and find two tables running. Before you commit, ask for the new union's table count at your players' limits during your players' prime time, not a daily average. Ask to watch the lobby yourself, or ask for the ID of an active club inside the union so you can sit in and see it. We hand that ID to every incoming owner, because it is the fastest way to end the conversation one way or the other.
Check three things against your own club's data: the disciplines (NLH, PLO4, PLO5/6, Short Deck, OFC), the limits where your rake actually comes from, and the hours. A club whose rake is 70 percent PLO5 at prime time in Europe should look hard at Suprema, where the Suprema Poker union field runs PLO5/6 deep. A club built on classic NLH cash is usually better served by a PPPoker union, where prime-time tables run from micro to high.
Step 4: Brief your agents, then your regulars, then everyone
Agents first, and individually. An agent who hears about the move from a player will assume they are being cut out and will start moving their book to another club the same day. Tell them what changes in their deal, what the settlement day will be, and what to say to their players. If the agent's rakeback improves under the new terms, say the number.
Regulars second, also individually. Your top ten players by rake volume deserve a direct message with the date, the new field, and a reason that is true. "More PLO5 tables at your hours" is a reason. "Better conditions" is not.
Everyone else gets the club notice and a pinned message: the date, the downtime window, and confirmation that balances are intact.
Step 5: Switch in a dead window and keep the old door open
Pick the slowest window your traffic data shows, usually a weekday morning in your main player time zone. Announce a maintenance window of a few hours. The actual reconnection takes minutes on every app we cover; through us the migration itself is done within 24 to 48 hours of the written offer, and the club is placed in the live union lobby with limits, rake structure, jackpot and insurance configured with you rather than left as defaults.
Where the app and the old union allow it, keep the old club connected for one more settlement cycle so any late balances clear. Set a hard cut-off date and tell players once.
Step 6: Relaunch with something players can see
The first session after the move decides whether the move worked. Players should log in and find more tables than they had before, not fewer. Run a club promo in the first week that costs you little and signals a lot: a rakeback boost for seven days, a freeroll with a guaranteed prize, a leaderboard on the discipline your regulars play.
Then measure. Track active players at day 7 and day 30 against the month before the move. If day-30 actives are below 90 percent of the baseline, the problem is almost always tables at the wrong hours, and that is a conversation to have with the union, not with the players.
What moving a club into RP Union looks like
Owners come to us from other unions for four reasons, in this order: payouts that arrived "next week", empty tables outside Brazilian or Asian prime time, a deal that was never reviewed after the first month, and nobody answering about a suspected bot. We built the onboarding around those four.
- Your players, chips and club structure stay yours. Union relations, security checks and weekly settlement move to us.
- One written offer within a working day, one weekly statement, one payout cycle in USDT for every app you operate.
- Deal bands up to 87 percent depending on platform and volume, reviewed as your rake moves into the next band.
- Bot, RTA and chip-dumping screening across the union, with a manager who plays the platform and answers in Telegram around the clock.
We also do not pretend that every club should move. A club whose players are all in one union's prime time and who are being paid on schedule has a weak reason to switch. Send us your numbers and we will tell you if that is you.
FAQ
Do I lose my players if I move my club to another union?
No, not if balances are settled before the announcement and the new union has tables at your players' limits and hours. The club, its members and its agent tree stay with you on every major club app. Players leave when they find an empty lobby or an unpaid balance, not because the union name changed.
How long does it take to move a poker club to a new union?
The reconnection itself takes minutes. Through RP Union the full migration is done in 24 to 48 hours after the written offer, including club placement and configuration. The part that takes longer is settling out with the old union, which depends on its payout cycle. Plan one full settlement cycle before the switch date.
What happens to player balances when a club changes unions?
Chips in your club stay in your club. The money behind them sits in your settlement with the old union, so you request a final statement, reconcile it and wait for the payout before you disconnect. Screenshot every balance on the same day so any later dispute is settled from one record.
Do I have to pay a deposit to join a new union?
Usually yes. In RP Union the deposit is refundable and works as the club's stop-loss: it caps the weekly minus and covers a shortfall if an owner does not. The amount depends on your limits and activity and is quoted in writing per club before you commit.
Can I run my club in two unions at the same time?
Not in the same app with the same club, because a club connects to one union lobby. What owners do instead is run a second club on another platform under the same agreement. Through RP Union one agreement covers PPPoker, X-Poker, ClubGG, Suprema and Poker21+, so a player pool can be moved to whichever field is softer that month.
If you are weighing a move, send a manager your platform, active player count, monthly rake and current deal on Telegram at @rpunion, and you will have written terms back within one working day. The full list of unions by platform is on the RP Union home page; agents who bring players without running a club are covered on the same partnership terms.
18+. Running a poker club involves real financial risk. Keep your club deposit and your player balances separate, and play responsibly.