Last changed September 29, 2026
Backing this project buys cosmetic decoration and helps cover the cost of continued development. You cannot buy advantage: no extra chips, no rule changes. If you never pay anything, you can play every game, at every open table, forever.
This page answers the questions people ask about backing. Everything else about how the games are played is on the How to play card on the game selection page, and you can open it in the middle of a hand from the settings button at the table.
What does backing get me?
Things that change how the game looks. All of these are built and working, and more are planned:
- The table felt. The green the cards are dealt on, in any of six finishes. When a backer is hosting, everybody at the table sees the felt the backer has laid. A backer joining somebody else’s table does not change it for them. There is a set of finishes rather than a color wheel for a reason worth knowing: every one of them is checked against everything the table draws on it, so no felt you can lay is harder to read than the green everybody already plays on.
- The fringe. The strip of color around the felt. When a backer is hosting, everybody at the table sees the color the backer has picked. A backer joining somebody else’s table does not change it for them, because a host’s choices are theirs to make. You can still set your own view of a table that has not been given one.
- Your card back. A color, and up to three letters, or one of the designed backs: Circuit, Imperial and Pirate’s Chest all year, and seasonal ones that come and go. It goes on the back of your own cards, or on every card at a table you host. This is what your cards look like face down, across the table. When a backer is hosting, their card back becomes the whole table’s deck, on the same rule as the fringe: the host sets the table.
- Seasonal themes. Felt, fringe and deck chosen together, in one press: Spooky Stakes in October, Santa’s Stakes in December, Countdown Gala at the New Year. When a backer is hosting, everybody at the table sees it.
- Your token. The mark beside your name becomes the backers’ rhombus, or a star if you prefer. Everybody at the table sees it.
- A place on the backers plaque. Three letters of your choosing, each letter in a color you pick, in the style of a high-score screen from a coin-op cabinet. It is shown in the order people backed this project.
More is intended: chip colors and felt textures. Neither is built yet, and your support can make them possible.
Can I win more often if I pay?
No, and it is built so that you could not. Chips reset to the same number for everybody at the start of every hand, so there is nothing to accumulate and nothing to buy. Nothing purchasable touches a rule, a card, a seat or a score.
The test applied to anything new is a single question: could a player who paid win a hand that a player who did not could not have won? If the answer is yes, it is not built. That is why everything on the list above is a color.
How much is it?
Whatever you decide, from $3. There are no tiers: every backer gets every backer feature, and the amount you pay changes nothing about which ones. Paying more does not unlock more; it is a contribution to a card game, not a price list.
The $3 minimum is there because of transaction fees and fraud: every payment carries a fee, and very small payments are how stolen cards get tested.
The list of features is not fixed. Things may be added, improved, retired or replaced over time, and what you get is whatever is on offer while you are playing. The intention is that it grows.
How does it work?
There are no accounts on this site and there is not going to be one. You pay through a separate shop: a company that handles the payment, the receipt and the tax, and is the seller of record. When you finish paying, you come back here and are given a link with a key in it. Opening that link marks this browser, on this device as a backer, and the extra controls appear in Settings.
The page shows you the link once, with a button to copy it. Save it somewhere you keep things. If you clear your browser or move to a new phone, opening it again sets everything up. There is nothing to log in to and no password to lose: the link is all there is.
What do you know about me?
From the game, nothing that identifies you — the privacy page is the full account and it is short. From a purchase, the shop knows what a shop knows, and we can see the name and email address you bought with. We use them for one thing only: answering you when you write to us for help.
That does mean anyone who gets hold of your link, or uses your browser, would have your backer benefits. There is no account, so a link that has gone astray cannot be switched off for somebody else without switching it off for you. If that happens, ask for a refund, which switches that link off everywhere, and back the game again for a new one. If you lose yours, email us from the address you bought with and we will send it again. It will be the same link, because it is made from your payment.
The three letters on the backers plaque are the one thing you would publish about yourself, and they are three letters you chose.
Can I have my money back?
Yes, any time, no questions asked. That is the entire policy, and the refunds page says exactly that in its first two lines; the rest of it is only how it works.
Is this gambling?
No. Gambling needs something of value at stake, and there is nothing at stake: chips cannot be bought, cannot be cashed out, and reset to the same number every hand. Nobody wins money here and nobody can lose any. The terms say this at greater length.
Who is on the plaque?
Under Backers, everyone who has backed the game, in the order they did. Under Special thanks, people who helped me build this and get it online. They don’t get anything for it except an acknowledgment.
How do I back it?
Press the button below. It takes you to Stripe’s checkout page, where you choose the amount, from $3, and pay. When you finish, you come back here with your link.
I have a question that is not here
Write to [email protected] and ask. If it is a question somebody else would also ask, it will end up on this page.