How to Play Poker Offline With Friends (No Internet Needed)
To play poker offline, open Poker Offline as a free browser app on each phone, connect the phones directly to each other over local WiFi or a hotspot (no internet needed), and have one phone host a table while everyone else joins by scanning a QR code. From there the app deals the cards, tracks the chips, and runs a full No-Limit Texas Hold'em game with nothing physical at the table.
What you need
- Two or more phones (up to 10 players).
- A shared WiFi network. No internet required — a phone hotspot everyone joins works perfectly.
- Poker Offline open in each phone's browser (load it once, then it works offline).
Step-by-step: hosting a table
The whole flow takes under a minute once everyone has the page loaded. Here's exactly what happens on each side.
- Load the app first. Everyone opens Poker Offline in their phone's browser while they still have any connection at all — even a weak one — so it caches locally. After that first load it works with zero connection.
- One phone hosts. That player taps Host a table, picks a display name, sets the starting chips (buy-in), the small and big blinds, and an optional ante, then taps Create table. That phone now shows a QR code and becomes the dealer for the session.
- Everyone else joins. Each other player taps Join a table, types a name, and scans the host's QR code with their phone camera. Their own device then shows a code back that the host's phone reads to confirm the connection. Repeat for every seat.
- The host starts the hand. Once everyone is seated, the host taps Start hand. Two hole cards are dealt privately to each phone.
How does play actually work?
Tap your own cards to peek at them, and tap again to hide them — useful if someone's sitting close enough to glance at your screen. On your turn you'll see Fold, Check, Call, and a slider for Bet or Raise. The pot, the community cards, and every player's remaining stack are shown in the middle of the table, updating live on every phone as the action moves around. At showdown the app compares hands automatically and names the winning hand — no arguing over whether a flush beats a straight.
What if there's no WiFi at all?
You don't need a router or an internet connection — you just need the phones to be able to see each other on a local network, and a personal hotspot does exactly that. Have one player turn on their phone's mobile hotspot (Settings → Hotspot/Tethering on most phones), give the others the hotspot name and password, and have them join it like any WiFi network. No mobile data is actually used once everyone's connected — the phones are just talking to each other over that local link, not out to the internet. This is exactly how it works on a plane in airplane mode with WiFi switched back on, at a campsite, or anywhere else signal doesn't reach.
Troubleshooting: phones can't see each other
Almost every connection issue comes down to phones being on different networks. A few things to check, in order:
- Confirm everyone's on the same network. If you're using a hotspot, make sure every phone joined that specific hotspot and not their own mobile data or a different WiFi network.
- Some routers isolate guest networks. Public or "guest" WiFi (hotels, cafés) sometimes blocks devices from talking to each other by design. If joining stalls, switch to a phone hotspot instead — you control it, so it won't have that restriction.
- Re-scan the QR code. If a join attempt hangs, back out and have that player scan again. It usually connects on the second try if the first scan happened before the host's screen fully loaded.
- Turn WiFi off and on. A quick WiFi toggle on the joining phone often resolves a stuck local connection faster than restarting the app.
What happens if the host disconnects?
The game state is mirrored across every connected phone as it plays out, so a dropped host isn't a lost session. If the host's phone loses connection or the app closes, the table pauses; reopening the app and rejoining generally reconnects it. For a longer game, it's worth choosing whoever has the most reliable phone and battery to host, since a mid-hand host dropout is the one hiccup worth planning around.
A quick Texas Hold'em refresher
If it's been a while, here's the shape of a hand: each player gets two private hole cards. Betting happens in four rounds — pre-flop (before any community cards), the flop (three shared cards), the turn (a fourth shared card), and the river (a fifth and final shared card) — with a round of Fold/Check/Call/Bet/Raise after each. Your best five-card hand is made from any combination of your two hole cards and the five community cards. Whoever has the best hand left at showdown — or the last player still in after everyone else folds — takes the pot. Poker Offline handles the blinds, the deal order, and the hand comparison automatically, so this is really just useful as a refresher, not something you need to track by hand.
Poker Offline vs. installable offline poker apps
There are offline poker apps you can download from an app store that also work without internet once installed. The honest trade-offs: an installed app takes up storage and needs an app-store account to download in the first place, and updates require another download. Poker Offline runs entirely in the browser — there's nothing to install, no account of any kind, and no app store required, which matters if you're trying to get a game going on someone else's phone or in a hurry. The trade-off going the other way is that you do need one successful page load before you're fully offline, whereas a pre-installed app is ready from a cold start. If everyone already has the app installed, either approach works; if not, a browser link that anyone can open in seconds is usually the faster path to actually playing.
Why play poker offline this way?
- No chips to count — stacks, blinds, side pots, and payouts are all automatic. See playing poker without chips.
- No cards to carry — a fair shuffled deck lives on the phones. See playing poker without cards.
- Nothing to lose — the game survives a dropped phone; the host can resume or another phone takes over.
- Truly private — your hole cards never leave your device and are hidden until you tap.
Common questions
Do you need the internet? No — only local WiFi or a hotspot. How many can play? Up to 10. Is it free? Yes, completely, with no accounts. More answers are on the FAQ page.