By Rafael CardosoAugust 17, 20267 min readTop 5 Home Poker Cash Game Trackers
A cash game has one job that a tournament does not: at the end of the night, work out who owes whom, with the fewest possible payments. Everything else a cash tracker does is secondary to that. Here are five, compared on how well they do it.
For a one-off night, a general shared-expense app such as Splitwise or Settle Up nets everyone out fine. For a regular game where you want session history and player stats, a purpose-built poker tracker earns its place. For a group that also runs tournaments, use one tool for both.
The comparison
| Tool | Best for | Platform | Settle-up maths | History | Tournaments too | Free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Club House | Groups running cash and tournaments | Web, mobile | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free plan |
| Splitwise | A one-off night, zero setup | iOS, Android, web | Yes | Generic | No | Yes |
| Settle Up | Groups who already use it | iOS, Android, web | Yes | Generic | No | Yes |
| Poker-specific ledger apps | Regular cash groups | iOS, Android | Yes | Yes | Usually not | Mostly |
| A spreadsheet | Total control, no app | Anywhere | Manual | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What a cash tracker actually has to do
Record every buy-in and top-up as it happens, with a running total per player.
Record cash-outs and flag when the table does not balance.
Net the debts into the smallest number of payments: not everyone paying everyone.
Keep session history, if the same group plays regularly.
Total buy-ins must equal total cash-outs. If they do not, someone has miscounted their stack or a buy-in was not recorded. A tracker that surfaces this before people leave saves an evening’s worth of messages the next day.
1. The Club House
Best for: groups who run both cash games and tournaments and would rather not use two systems.
Strengths: cash sessions sit alongside tournaments with the same player records, so the history is continuous, buy-ins, top-ups and cash-outs tracked live, with the settle-up worked out at the end. Limitations: needs an internet connection, and it is more system than a single cash night requires. Price: free plan available.
2. Splitwise
Best for: a one-off night with no setup at all.
Strengths: free, everyone already has it, and the debt-netting is exactly the calculation you need. Limitations: no poker awareness. You are entering numbers by hand, and there is no concept of a session, a table or a player’s history. Price: free, with a paid tier for extras.
3. Settle Up
Best for: the same job, for groups who prefer it.
Strengths: the same netting maths with a slightly different interface, and it works on the web as well as both mobile platforms. Limitations: identical to Splitwise. It does not know what poker is. Price: free, with a paid tier.
4. Poker-specific ledger apps
Best for: a regular cash group that wants stats.
Strengths: built around buy-ins, rebuys and cash-outs rather than generic expenses, usually with per-player session history and win rates. Limitations: the category changes constantly, quality varies widely, and most do not handle tournaments. Check reviews and recent updates before adopting one. Price: mostly free with ads or a small paid tier.
5. A spreadsheet
Best for: groups who want total control and no app.
Strengths: free, flexible, and it can hold years of history alongside your tournament results. Limitations: the netting has to be built by hand, and nothing warns you when the table does not balance. Price: free.
Why do cash game numbers stop balancing?
A cash ledger has one property a tournament does not: it must sum to zero at the end of every session, always. Money is not created at a poker table, so if the net column does not total zero, something was not recorded. The value of that rule is that it catches errors the same night rather than in an argument a week later.
The failures are boringly consistent:
| Cause | How it shows up | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| An unrecorded rebuy | Cash-outs exceed buy-ins | Record at the moment chips change hands |
| A player-to-player chip sale | Both stacks wrong, total correct | Ban it, or record it as two transactions |
| Someone leaves early | Their cash-out is a guess | Count them out before they go |
| A short buy-in taken as full | Small persistent gap | Write the amount, not the default |
| Chips left on a seat | Cash-outs fall short | Sweep the table before settling |
The player-to-player chip sale is the one worth being firm about. Two players settling between themselves in cash, off the ledger, leaves a session that balances in total but attributes the wrong result to both of them. If your game tracks results over time, that quietly corrupts the record.
How should a session settle up?
Once the ledger balances, settling is a separate problem: turning a list of winners and losers into the fewest payments.
The naive version has every loser pay every winner, which for six players can mean nine separate transfers. The better version nets it down. With the three-player example below, S. Chen owes $90, A. Rivera is owed $85 and J. Lee is owed $5, so two payments settle it: Chen pays Rivera $85 and Lee $5.
Most dedicated apps do this netting automatically, and it is the main practical reason to use one over a sheet. With eight players and mixed results, minimising the transfer count by hand at midnight is genuinely fiddly, and getting it wrong means someone is chased for money they do not owe.
The single biggest source of home-game friction is a session that settles the next day. Counting a stack after its owner has gone home means taking their word for it later, and one disputed cash-out costs more goodwill than the whole pot was worth. Count everyone out at the table.
Running the ledger by hand
If none of the tools suit, the manual version is four columns and it is entirely sufficient.
| Player | Buy-ins | Cash-out | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Rivera | $100 | $185 | +$85 |
| S. Chen | $150 | $60 | −$90 |
| J. Lee | $100 | $105 | +$5 |
| Totals | $350 | $350 | $0 |
If your group also runs tournaments, ten apps for running a home game covers tools that handle both.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app for tracking a home poker cash game?
For a one-off night, a shared-expense app such as Splitwise handles the settle-up perfectly well. For a regular game where you want session history and player stats, a purpose-built poker tracker is worth the setup.
How do you settle up after a home cash game?
Total everyone’s buy-ins, total their cash-outs, and net the differences into the smallest number of payments. Check that total buy-ins equal total cash-outs before anyone leaves.
Why do the numbers not balance at the end of a cash game?
Almost always an unrecorded buy-in or a miscounted stack. Recording each buy-in as it happens rather than reconstructing it at the end prevents nearly all of it.
How do you split payments after a poker night?
Net the results down rather than having every loser pay every winner. Work out each player’s net position, then match the biggest loser to the biggest winner until everyone is square. It usually reduces eight or nine transfers to two or three.
Should players be allowed to buy chips from each other?
No, or only if it is recorded as two transactions. An off-ledger chip sale leaves the session balancing overall while attributing the wrong result to both players, which corrupts any record you keep over time.
Can tournament software track cash games?
Some can; most specialise. Tournament tools are built around a clock and a fixed field, cash tools around buy-ins and settling debts. Check explicitly rather than assuming.
Your next step
If your group runs tournaments too, ten apps for running a home game covers both sides, and how to host a poker night covers the wider planning.
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