Before you play on a weak connection
The desk describes what happens when a round is interrupted. Whether a particular interruption costs anything is decided by rules that are printed before the round, not after it. This page is the checklist: the handful of figures to read in the terms and the game rules first, so that a break is a known quantity rather than a surprise.
- checks before play
- 8
- rounds interrupted
- 12.0%
- the drop that costs
- 19.3%
- the void rate
- 40.0%
- outcomes changed by a break
- 0
- runtime javascript
- none
The stake is committed and the round is running. A break here, before the round is decided, is the only break that can void the stake - and only if the rules have no default action.
The decision window is open. A dropped connection or a timed-out decision is decided here: by a default action, by a void, or by the window expiring.
The outcome is fixed on the server. A break now is a display problem only: the round settles as decided and the result is shown on reconnect.
The round is voided and the stake returns to the balance. This is a rule outcome, not a loss: the money is where it started.
Before playing on a connection that has dropped, read five things in the terms: the disconnect policy, the decision timer and its default action, the void conditions, the reconnect window and the route to the record. Each maps to one stage of a round, and together they decide whether a break can cost anything.
Eight checks, mapped to the round stages
- Does the game have a decision window, and how long is it? A game with no window has no decision to lose to a break.
- What default action applies on a timeout - stand, fold, check - or does the round void?
- What is the disconnect policy: does a bet stand into the round or return?
- For a live hand, is a void for the player or for the table?
- What voids a round: no default, an expired window, an operator interruption, or a round that never starts?
- How long does the client have to reconnect before the round is resolved without it?
- Where is the record of the round, so the authoritative outcome can be read rather than guessed?
- What is the escalation route if a void and the balance disagree?
The list is deliberately short. Eight questions cover the four stages of a round and the four ways it can break, and none of them requires reading a whole agreement.
The one figure to remember
Worked example / samples B and C
- rounds that met an interruption: 12.0%
- of interruptions, a dropped connection: 1,536 of 2,880 (53.3%)
- of drops, those that landed with a decision window open: 19.3%
- of drops, those that landed after the outcome was fixed: 72.9%
- rounds whose outcome a break changed: 0 of 24,000
The figure to carry is the stage, not the break: only about one drop in five lands where a rule can change the stake, and the rest are a display that catches up.
What none of this changes
- It does not make a weak connection safe for games with a decision window; it makes the risk known.
- It does not promise a void; a void happens where the rules define one, not on request.
- It does not return a round that has already settled as decided; a break after the outcome changes nothing.
- It does not replace the terms; the terms are the source, and this checklist is only a way to find the lines in them.
- It is not advice on whether to play; it is a list of the rules that decide what a break can cost.