Poker Timer How do you run a charity poker tournament?
Pick a blind-level length that fits how long the fundraiser can run, take the charity's cut off the top of each buy-in before any of it touches the app, and let Poker Timer handle the clock and the leftover split among the players. The only real decision on the night is how much of each buy-in to hold back before the pot even reaches the Payout Helper.
What a charity poker night actually needs from the app
A fundraiser tournament runs on the same clock as any other home game: pick a structure, tap START, the blinds climb on a schedule and a sound marks every raise. The part that is different is the money. Part of every buy-in is a donation, not a stake in the prize pool, and Poker Timer has no field for that split. You work it out before you type a single number into the app.
Choosing a structure for the time you have
Fundraisers run on somebody else's clock, not yours. The hall is booked until 11pm, the volunteers need to get home, and there's a raffle draw at a set time. Match the structure to that window, not the other way round.
| Structure | Level length | Clock total |
|---|---|---|
| Hyper-Turbo | 5 min | 55 min |
| Turbo | 10 min | 130 min (2 h 10 min) |
| Standard | 20 min | 255 min (4 h 15 min) |
| Deepstack | 30 min | 435 min (7 h 15 min) |
| Long Weekend | 45 min | 650 min (10 h 50 min) |
For a three-hour evening slot, duplicating Standard and trimming the levels to 15 minutes works better than reaching for Turbo: 15-minute levels still give people time to actually play a hand, where Turbo's 10 minutes start feeling like a shot clock once a table of newer players is involved, and a fundraiser is usually full of people who play twice a year.
Setting it up on the night
- Settle the buy-in and the charity's cut before anyone sits down: for example a $60 buy-in with $20 held back for the cause, $40 into the prize pool.
- On the home list, tap the structure you picked under Built-in Structures or My Structures, or touch and hold Standard and choose Duplicate to Customize to shorten the levels first.
- Place the phone or iPad where every table can see it, volume up, and tap START once the cards are in the air.
- Collect buy-ins at the door and keep a running count of players; the prize pool is players times the pool portion of the buy-in, not the full amount collected.
- When the last hand finishes, tap Split the Prize Pool on the Tournament Complete screen and enter the pool portion, not the full buy-in.
Splitting the pot without the charity's cut in it
A common mistake: typing the full $60 entry fee into Buy-in, which makes the app split the whole amount, charity's share included, across the winners. Buy-in in the Payout Helper always means money that goes to the players. If part of each entry is a donation, take it out first and enter what is left.
| Figure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Total raised (19 x $60) | $1,140.00 |
| Held back for the charity (19 x $20) | $380.00 |
| Prize pool entered as Buy-in $40, Players 19 | $760.00 |
| Paid places suggested (16-25 players) | 4 |
| 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th (45/25/18/12%) | $342.00 / $190.00 / $136.80 / $91.20 |
Those four numbers add up to exactly $760.00. Nothing is skimmed or rounded away. The $380.00 for the charity never goes near the app at all; the Payout Helper has no line for it and no way to add one, so it only splits whatever number you hand it.
What Poker Timer will not do for a charity event
- No donation or sponsorship tracking, no receipts, no tax paperwork; it is still just a clock and a payout splitter.
- No custom payout percentages: the tables are fixed at 1 to 6 paid places, the same ones any home game uses.
- No player database across events; History keeps the winner, player count and buy-in you type for one tournament at a time, with no names carried from one fundraiser to the next.
- No rake or admin-fee field, so a venue fee or a raffle add-on has to be worked out by hand before it reaches the Payout Helper, the same way as the charity's cut.
Why install it for a one-off event
You could run a fundraiser off a kitchen timer and a calculator, and some people do. What the app buys you is one less job on the night: nobody has to be the designated clock-watcher while you're busy talking to donors. The blinds climb on their own, with a sound, and the payout split at the end takes thirty seconds instead of an argument. It is free, it keeps every bit of this offline except the ads, and you can delete it the next morning if you only ever run one of these a year.
Questions and answers
Is there a standard charity poker tournament payout structure?
How do I organize a charity poker tournament with this app?
What is a good poker tournament fundraiser structure?
Is it legal to charge a buy-in for a charity poker night?
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More Poker Timer guides
- Poker blind timer app: run the tournament clock from your iPhone or iPad
- Poker blind structure for a home game: five templates and your own
- How often should blinds go up in poker, and how long will the tournament last?
- Poker tournament payout calculator: how to split the prize pool
- How to run a poker tournament at home with one phone as the clock
- How do you plan the breaks on a poker blind clock?
- How do you set up a poker clock app on an iPad or iPhone for the table?
- All questions about Poker Timer
- Back to Poker Timer