Card Room Rules
These rules apply to all games.
Players are expected to play fairly, and in accordance with the spirit of the game. The following rules must be followed at all times.
Unfair Play
- Collusion, by which two or more players work together in the games or share knowledge to gain an unfair advantage over other players, is strictly prohibited.
- You may not intentionally lose a hand to another player in order to transfer chips (‘chip dumping’).
- We will take steps to detect and prevent all forms of cheating, which may include examination of your account, hand histories, and programs running concurrently with our software.
- You may not use any of the programs or services on the “prohibited” list while the client or other PokerStars platforms are running.
- Unfair play, such as collusion, multiple account abuse, and use of prohibited programs may result in penalties as outlined in the General Terms.
- You may not engage in unfair play, including without limitation, engaging in any of the activities set forth above or any other game manipulation.
Time Bank
Whenever your normal time to act is about to finish, the TIME bank button will appear, and you can choose to activate your time bank:
- If you have money invested in the pot (including antes and blinds) and do not act in the normal time, the time bank gets started automatically.
- If you don't have any money invested in the pot and do not act in the normal time, your hand is automatically folded, and you're forced to sit out.
Keep in mind that the time bank only allows for more thinking time, it's not a protection against disconnections.
Live Chat
Our goal is to be a fun place to play, where everyone can feel comfortable. As such, we will not tolerate vulgarity at the tables. All our players' chat needs to be clean and respectful.
The following are prohibited in our chat and may result in a warning or possible chat suspension:
- Profanity/abuse: Profane, vulgar, racist or abusive/insulting chat. Do not engage in retaliatory chat, as this will likely result in sanctions for both users. We do have a feature by which certain profane or otherwise unacceptable words are asterisked out. Attempting to bypass this filter is also against chat rules.
- Begging/solicitation: Repeatedly asking for chips (whether play money or real money).
- Play money chip sales: Engaging in any discussion regarding the sale or purchase of play money chips.
- Flooding: The sending of multiple and frequent messages through chat in order to drown out legitimate chat.
- Non-English chat (some exceptions apply): We are aware that our players are from different backgrounds and that for many of them English is not their first language. However, at this time our policy on most tables is that English is the only language allowed in the chat. In some special events, chat may be allowed in English and another language (e.g. in regional tournaments). These tables and tournaments will be clearly labelled. If you are not comfortable with non-English chat, please do not join these tables or tournaments. This rule applies to all play money games regardless of license, however for real money games there are exceptions. If you play on the .ES, .FR, .IT, or .PT license, you're allowed to chat in the country's official language, as well as English.
- Commercial use: It is strictly prohibited to use chat for any commercial gain whatsoever, including making any statements which promote any third-party services or products.
- Malicious behaviour: Chat cannot be used for any malicious or offensive behaviour, including but not limited to collusion, fraud or spam. Users shall not make statements about our site that are untrue or would reasonably be considered to be derogatory or critical. Users should be generally aware of the feelings of other customers and staff, and should act in a respectful manner.
- Stalking/harassment: Following another player from table to table to harass, abuse, intimidate and intentionally disrupt the game is prohibited. We will investigate any such reports. When sending a report of this kind always include the Stars ID of the person reported and approximate dates and times, as well as the subject Chat Stalking Complaint - Attn: Stalking Team.
When reporting chat violations, keep in mind that:
- Your report will be reviewed by Chat Specialists, so make sure you choose the appropriate category and sub-category within the Contact Form. For other issues, choose other categories.
- When reviewing chat, we review the chat of all players and then respond accordingly. For privacy reasons, we do not disclose the results of a chat investigation.
- Chat rules are generally not enforced in Home Games.
Miscellaneous
- All our games use a standard 52-card poker deck, which is shuffled before the start of each hand, and set.
In draw games, if the original 52 card deck is insufficient to allow a player to draw the number of cards requested, the remaining deck and all of the cards discarded by players previously (including those discarded by players on the current drawing round) are shuffled together to make a new deck.
Once a reshuffle has occurred, the server will prevent a player from receiving back any specific card he has previously discarded. - In No Limit and Pot Limit games, the minimum bet will be equal to the big blind. However, our games treat the big blind as a raise of the small blind. That means that pre-flop, any raise in an unopened pot that is equal to or greater than the small blind reopens the action.
- The Card Room Rules as listed here are intended to complement the General Terms, not replace it. In the event of a discrepancy between the Card Room Rules and the General Terms, the General Terms shall take precedence.