How to play

Four ways to play: two that run a season, and two that run a night. Everything below is the standard game — a host can tune most of it when they create a pool, and each pool's own screen states the rules it is actually running on.

Pick'Em

Pick a winner in every match. Points for each one you get right. Most points wins. ▼

1. Every game week, pick a winner in each game on the slate. If the sport allows draws you can call the draw instead. Pool rule · Offer "draw" as a pick: Yes
2. A round opens 7 days before its first kickoff. Until then you can read the games but not pick them. Pool rule · Picks open (days before): 7 days
3. Your picks lock together when the round's first match kicks off. Change them as often as you like until then. Pool rule · Pick lock: Round start
4. One game each week carries a tie-breaker: predict its combined final score. It counts as one of your picks, and it is only used if two of you finish the week on the same points — then the closest answer takes it. Pool rule · What to predict: Combined final score
5. Results score automatically as matches finish — there is nothing to submit.
6. Top score takes the game week. Every week is its own contest, settled after its last game. Pool rule · What the pool plays for: Weekly + season
7. The leaderboard adds every week up. Most points at the end of the season takes the pool. Pool rule · What the pool plays for: Weekly + season

Winners

Every game week

Top score takes the week, and if two players finish on the same score the tie-breaker decides it.

End of the season

Most points takes the pool, and if two players finish on the same points it goes to whoever answered the tie-breakers most accurately across the year.

Weeks won

Counted on the standings, shared weeks included, so a run of weeks reads as a season.

Scoring

Correct pick

1 point

Wrong pick

0 points

Match ends in a draw

Called the draw: 1 point. Backed one of the teams: 0 points.

A pick you never made

Nothing, either way. Nobody picks for you and there is no extra penalty — you simply score no points for that game.

Tie-breaker

The question

Predict the combined final score of one game in the week. Everybody in the pool answers the same one. Your host can move it to a different game while the week is still upcoming.

When it closes

When the week's picks lock, or when that game kicks off — whichever comes first.

How it is judged

On how far out you were: the gap between your answer and the real number. Over or under makes no difference — say 45 when it lands on 48 and you are 3 out.

Two players tied on the week

Whoever is closest takes the week outright. Equally far out and they share it. Leave the answer blank and you finish behind everyone who gave one, however wild their guess.

Two players tied on the season

Add up how far out each of them was every week — the smaller total takes the title. A week you left blank counts as one worse than the worst answer anybody gave that week, so a wild guess always beats no answer at all.

When it decides nothing

It needs its game to have finished. If that match is postponed, or nobody in the tie answered, the result is shared exactly as it would have been without a tie-breaker.

Timing

Picks open

7 days before the round's first kickoff.

Picks lock

At the round's first kickoff — the whole week at once.

Everyone else's picks

Hidden until the game week is under way and the picks can no longer be changed.

Start a Pick'Em pool

Survivor

One pick a round. Get it wrong and you are out. Last player standing takes the pool. ▼

1. Every round, back one team to win. That single pick is your whole round — there is no draw to choose, because Survivor is about backing a winner.
2. A team can only be used once for the whole pool. Ride your best side early and it is gone for the rest of the season. Pool rule · Allow team reuse: No
3. A round opens 7 days before its first kickoff. Until then you can read the games but not pick them. Pool rule · Picks open (days before): 7 days
4. Your pick locks when the round's first match kicks off. Change it as often as you like until then. Pool rule · Pick lock: Round start
5. Your team wins, you go through. A draw is a push — nobody is eliminated. Your team loses, you are out. Pool rule · Treat a draw as a survival: No
6. The pool ends when one player is left standing.

Surviving the round

Your team wins

You are through to the next round.

Your team draws

A push — you survive, but it counts as neither a win nor a loss.

Your team loses

You are eliminated. There is no way back.

Team reuse

Off — every team you pick is spent for the rest of the pool. Spent teams show struck through on the board.

Timing

Picks open

7 days before the round's first kickoff.

Picks lock

At the round's first kickoff — the whole week at once.

Everyone else's picks

Hidden until the game week is under way and the picks can no longer be changed.

Start a Survivor pool

Lightning Round

A night that starts the moment the host opens it. Call one wrong and it lands on your tab. ▼

1. The host opens a session — one night, with its own room code. Everyone else joins by reading the six characters off the screen. No account, no email.
2. Tonight's card is whatever the room is calling: games off the schedule, and props the host writes on the spot. Pool rule · Let the owner write props: Yes
3. Call every line on the card. Everyone's calls are visible as they come in — this is a game played out loud.
4. Games settle themselves as the matches finish. The host calls their own props. Pool rule · Auto-score missed picks: Yes
5. Call one wrong and 1 point lands on your tab. Call it right and you may hand 1 point to somebody else. Pool rule · Owed per miss: 1 point
6. The tab settles when the host closes the night.

The tab

Wrong call

1 point on your tab.

Right call

Nothing owed, and you may assign 1 point to another player.

Not calling at all

Nothing. A no-show is not a miss — if the room disagrees, that is what a manual entry is for.

What one is called

A point. The board only ever counts them — what one actually is, is between the room and itself.

Manual entries

On — anyone may add a line to the tab by hand for whatever the system cannot see.

Props

Who writes them

The host, during the session. A prop is any line worth calling that no game covers.

How many

Up to 20 a session. A room-code night costs nothing to join, so the cap is the only thing bounding a card.

Editing one

Only while it is still a draft. Opening a prop freezes its wording, so nobody's call can move under them.

Getting one wrong

The host may re-call a prop. The earlier stakes are reversed rather than erased, so the tab shows the correction happened.

Points

Correct pick

1 point

Wrong pick

0 points

Standings

Games on the card score points as well as stakes. A pool with no games — one played on Social — has a tab and no leaderboard.

Start a Lightning Round pool

Bluff

Everyone writes a claim about themselves. The room calls which are true. Fool them and they owe you. ▼

1. The host opens a session — one night, with its own room code. Everyone else joins by reading the six characters off the screen. No account, no email.
2. Write one claim about yourself, and mark it fact or fiction as you write it. Only you can see which. Pool rule · Claims each per round: 1
3. Everyone else calls your claim — Fact or Fiction. You never call your own, and the host does not get to see the answers either.
4. Reveal it when the room has called. Anyone who got it wrong owes you 1 point — the claimant is paid, not the house. Pool rule · Owed per wrong call: 1 point
5. Being believed is the whole game. A good lie earns as much as a good call.
6. The host closes the round when the room has called everything. Whatever is still hidden is revealed, the round's winner is whoever took the most off it, and everyone gets a fresh claim for the next one.

The tab

Called it wrong

1 point to the claimant.

Called it right

Nothing owed. You stay clean.

Fooling the room

Every player who called your claim wrong owes you 1 point.

Your own claim

You never call it and are never charged for it.

Not calling at all

Nothing moves. A claim nobody called costs nobody anything.

What one is called

A point. The board only ever counts them — what one actually is, is between the room and itself.

Manual entries

On — anyone may add a line to the tab by hand for whatever the system cannot see.

Rounds

What ends one

The host closes it. Anything still hidden is revealed on the way out, so no claim is left on the card for a player who has gone home.

Who won it

Whoever the round moved the most to. Being believed is what moves it, so the winner is the best liar, not the best caller.

Starting the next

Automatic. Closing a round opens the next one and everybody's claim comes back.

How many rounds

As many as the night has in it. The tab runs across all of them and settles once, when the host closes the session.

Claims

Each per round

One. The classic round is one each.

Called with

Fact or Fiction. Fact is the truthful one.

Who knows the answer

Only the author, until it is revealed. Not the host, not the board, not the API.

Changing your call

Freely, right up until the claim is revealed.

A claim you regret

Withdraw it yourself while nobody has called it. Once somebody has, only the host can take it off the card.

Revealing

The author reveals their own. The host can do it for whoever has wandered off. It happens once — there is no outcome to argue with, so there is nothing to re-call.

Start a Bluff pool