House rules

1. Eligibility

1.1 You must be at least 18 years old, or the legal age for gambling in your jurisdiction if higher, to hold a real-money account.

1.2 Real-money play is available only in the jurisdictions listed under Where you can play. We block prohibited jurisdictions server-side; using a VPN, proxy or any other means to disguise your location is a breach of these rules. The account's real-money balance is withheld while the checks are made, winnings made while play was not permitted from your location may be voided, and the rest is returned where the law allows, as set out in Terms of Service 2.3.

1.3 One account per person. Sharing, selling or transferring an account is prohibited. See Fair Play §4.

2. Play-money tables

2.1 Play chips have no cash value, cannot be bought, sold, transferred or converted, and never affect a real-money balance. Play-money tables may seat clearly labelled house bots so that games are always available.

2.2 Play-money balances are topped up automatically to 10,000 chips at most once every four hours when your balance is below that floor.

3. Seating and blinds

3.1 New player. When you join a cash table where a game is running, you are dealt in when the big blind reaches your seat, and you post it then. You may not enter between the button and the big blind. At a table where no game is running yet, everyone seated is dealt in at once.

3.2 The button. Cash tables use a dead button. The big blind moves one occupied seat to the left every hand, the small blind is the seat the big blind has just left, and the button is the seat the small blind has just left. When a player leaves, the seats they were due to occupy still take their turn: the button can sit on an empty seat, and a small blind on an empty seat is not posted at all. Nobody posts the same blind twice in a row, and nobody misses one by leaving and coming back. Heads-up the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop, last after it.

3.3 Missed blinds. If you sit out through your blinds you wait for the big blind to reach you again before you are dealt in. You are never charged for the hands you missed.

3.4 Sit out. You may sit out at any time. A player who has been sitting out for more than 10 minutes at a cash table is removed from the seat and their stack is returned to their balance.

3.5 Leaving and rejoining. Leaving a cash table and sitting down again with less than you left with, so that the money you won is out of play, is hit-and-run play. It is not blocked by the software, and a persistent pattern of it is dealt with under Fair Play §5 rather than by a timer.

3.6 Straddles, antes, bomb pots and run-it-twice are shown in the lobby for each table before you sit. By taking the seat you accept them.

3.7 Seat change. You may request a seat change; it is honoured in order of request when a seat opens, and you may be required to post when you move past the blinds.

4. Action and timing

4.1 Every action has a time limit shown on the table. Each player has a time bank which refills as published for the game format. When both expire your hand is folded (or checked, if no bet is pending) and you are sat out.

4.2 All-in. A bet of your entire stack is always permitted. When a player is all-in and no further action is possible, all remaining cards are dealt and hands are shown.

4.3 Showdown. Cards are shown in order. A losing hand is mucked automatically unless you have turned Auto-muck off in Settings. After folding you may choose to show one or both cards; the choice is yours alone and is not a breach of any rule, but see Fair Play §3 on collusion.

4.4 Odd chips. When a pot cannot be divided evenly, the odd micro-unit goes to the first seat clockwise from the button among the winning hands.

5. Disconnection

5.1 Neither the operator named on the site nor the Riverline platform is responsible for your internet connection, device or software. If you disconnect during a hand, the timer continues; when it expires the hand is treated under 4.1. No all-in protection is offered, and no hand is reversed or compensated because of your disconnection.

5.2 If you reconnect before your timer expires, you resume the hand exactly where it was.

5.3 Server fault. If a hand cannot be completed because of a fault on our side, the hand is voided and every player's stack is restored to its value at the start of the hand. The action journal holds every stack at the start of every hand, so the restoration is read from the record rather than computed.

5.4 Tournament server fault. A tournament that cannot continue because of a fault on our side is cancelled. Every buy-in and fee paid into it is refunded to the balance it was paid from, and a ticket used to enter returns to your Bonus Center. Where prizes had already been paid, the prize money still unpaid is divided among the players still in the event, and each of them is told the calculation that was used. This is the whole rule for a tournament that cannot continue: no other page states a different one.

5.5 Completed hands settled in error. Where a hand completes but a malfunction, a software or settlement error, or an obvious mistake causes a pot, payout or balance that would not have resulted without it, the hand may be voided and the stacks restored as in 5.3, or the settlement corrected from the action journal, including by debiting an amount credited in error. This is the rule referred to in Terms of Service 6.6.

6. Tournaments

6.1 Registration opens when the tournament is listed and closes at the start, or at the end of late registration where offered. Late registration closes at the published time, or earlier when the money bubble is reached or the maximum field is full.

6.2 Unregistering is allowed until the tournament starts, except for tickets won in satellites, which may be exchanged only as in 6.9.

6.3 Re-entry, rebuys and add-ons are permitted only where published for the event and only with sufficient balance.

6.4 Blinds and antes follow the published structure. Riverline uses a synchronised clock across all tables of an event. When a big-blind ante is used it is posted by the big blind for the whole table.

6.5 Table balancing. Players are moved to balance tables and tables are broken from the end of the list. A moved player takes the first open seat and posts the big blind only if the new seat is the big blind; there are no dead blinds in tournaments.

6.6 Hand-for-hand play applies on the money bubble and at every payout jump the tournament director designates.

6.7 Simultaneous eliminations on one table are placed by stack at the start of the hand: the larger stack places higher. Across tables in the same hand, players are placed equal and the prizes for those places are pooled and split evenly.

6.8 Deals. When a deal option is offered at the final table it is computed by ICM and requires every remaining player's agreement in the client. A portion of the prize pool may be reserved for the winner as published. Deals made outside the client are not recognised.

6.9 Satellites. A satellite seat is a ticket to the target event. Winning more than one seat converts the extra seat to tournament credit of equal value. Ticket holders cannot unregister from the target event for cash.

6.10 Bounties. In knockout events the bounty is paid on elimination as published (a fixed amount, or in progressive events half to your balance and half added to your own bounty). Agreements between players about bounties are collusion (Fair Play §3).

6.11 Sitting out in a tournament keeps your stack in play; blinds and antes are posted for you. An absent player's stack cannot win a pot except by being all-in for the blinds.

7. Rake and fees

Rake and tournament fees are shown in the lobby for every table and event. Current schedule: Rake and fees. No rake is taken from a cash pot that ends before the flop ("no flop, no drop").

8. Chat and conduct

8.1 Table chat is filtered and moderated on our servers, and recorded. Abuse, harassment, spam, solicitation and discussion of live hands by players not in the hand are not permitted. Chat is disabled for players in a hand while other players are still contesting it.

8.2 Sanctions escalate: warning, temporary mute, chat ban, account review. Every sanction is recorded and can be appealed to support.

9. Nicknames and identity

9.1 Your nickname is permanent. Your legal name is never shown to another player, at a table or anywhere else on the site.

10. Rounding and currency

All money on Riverline is held and settled in integer micro-units of the account currency. Displayed values are rounded for readability only; the ledger is never rounded.

11. Decisions

Floor decisions are made by Riverline staff according to these rules, the published structure and the action journal. Decisions are final on the day and can be appealed once, in writing, within 72 hours, through the Help page; the appeal is read by someone who did not decide it. The Security & Fair Play policy §9 uses the same window for a sanction. Where these rules are silent, the current Tournament Directors Association rules guide the decision. An appeal decision is final within the operator's internal process; it does not affect section 15 of the Terms of Service.

12. Changes

We may change these rules with notice on this page. The version and effective date appear at the top. Changes never apply to hands or events already in progress.