The Game
What is wordpoker?
Poker with letters instead of card ranks. Two to six players, each dealt 2 private letters, with 5 shared letters revealed one stage at a time. You bet between each reveal. At showdown, everyone still in the hand builds the best word they can and reveals at the same time. Highest-scoring word wins the pot.
Modes
How You Can Play
There are a few different ways to get a hand going:
Heads-Up
1 vs 1. Fast and tactical — both players in every hand.
6-Max
Up to six players at one table. More positions, more strategy, longer hands.
Fast Fold
A shared pool. The moment you fold, you're whisked into a new hand with whoever's free — no waiting between hands.
Vs Bot
Heads-up against a computer opponent. Good for learning the flow before playing other people.
The Structure
How a Hand Works
Same flow in every mode. Each hand follows this sequence:
1
Deal - every player receives 2 private letters (their "hole cards"). Only you can see yours.
2
Pre-flop betting - a round of betting before any shared letters are shown.
3
Flop - 3 shared letters are revealed face up. Another round of betting.
4
Turn - 1 more shared letter revealed. Another round of betting.
5
River - the final shared letter. Last round of betting.
6
Showdown - everyone still in the hand types their best word and reveals simultaneously. Highest score wins the pot.
Words
Building Your Word
You must use both of your hole letters in your word. You cannot play just one and ignore the other - both must appear. You can combine them with any of the 5 shared letters. Words can be 2 to 7 letters long.
Example
Your hole cards (outlined in gold) - shared letters below
NOTES
Invalid
- K is missing
STOKE
Valid
- uses both K and E
SKATE
Valid
- uses both K and E
Scoring
How Words Are Scored
Every letter has a point value printed on the card. Common letters like E and A are worth 1 point. Rare ones like Q and Z are worth 10. Add up the values of every letter in your word - that's your score. Higher total wins the pot.
Use all 7 available letters (both hole cards plus all 5 shared) in a single word and earn a +20 bonus on top of your letter score.
If both players score the same, the pot is split equally.
Betting
How Betting Works
A round of betting happens before the flop and after every reveal. The dealer button rotates one seat each hand, and action moves clockwise around the table. In heads-up the small blind acts first preflop; in multi-way the player left of the big blind acts first preflop, and after the flop the small blind acts first.
Check
Pass without betting. Only available if nobody has bet in this round yet.
Call
Match the current bet to stay in the hand.
Raise
Increase the bet. Everyone still in must call, re-raise, or fold.
Fold
Give up the hand. If everyone else folds, the last player standing wins the pot without showdown.
The betting is no-limit - you can bet any amount up to your full stack. Default blinds are 1/2 (the table creator can change them). Your stack carries across hands until you leave or bust.
Showdown
The Showdown
When all 5 shared letters are out and the final betting round is over, it's showdown. Everyone still in the hand has the showdown clock (table-configurable, usually 40-100 seconds) to type their word and hit Submit. All words are revealed at the same time - no peeking.
If your word is not in the dictionary (CSW24 - Collins 2024), it scores zero. If everyone's word is invalid, the pot is split equally between all players who reached showdown.
Letters
The Letter Pool
Letters are drawn from a weighted pool of 100 tiles. Common letters appear more often, rare ones are scarce. No blank tiles, no wildcards. The same letter can appear more than once in a hand.
Total: 100 tiles
Still confused?
Honestly, just play a hand.
It clicks way faster in practice than on paper. Try a few hands against the bot to get a feel for the flow, then jump into a real table when you're ready.