How-To Manual

Your first tournament, start to finish

This is the whole night in order. Every step has its own section with more detail — follow the links if you want the long version.

1. Open Poker Director. On the welcome screen choose Build New Tournament (see The welcome screen).
2. Move your mouse to the Game Controls button in the corner of the clock screen. The drawer slides open. Click Setup & Settings (see The Game Controls drawer and keyboard shortcuts).
3. Under Tournament, open Blind Structure and build your levels, or click Load Saved Structure to reuse one (see Building a blind structure).
4. Open Prize Pool and enter what each paying place gets, or work them out from the buy-ins with Working out the payouts (Prize Pool Calculator) (see Setting the prize pool).
5. Open Buy-in & Extras and set the buy-in price, any add-ons or bounties, and whether rebuys are allowed (see Buy-in, extras and the rebuy rule).
6. Open Players and add everyone — by hand, from a saved group, or let them check themselves in with the QR code (see Adding players to the roster and Letting players check themselves in (QR code)).
7. Tick Bought In as each player pays (see Taking buy-ins).
8. Still in Players, set Seats per table and click Draw Seats. The seating chart appears automatically (see Drawing seats).
9. Close the hub and press Space (or click the button at the bottom of the clock screen) to start the clock (see Running the clock).
10. As players bust, open Players and click Eliminate on that player's row — or do it from your phone (see Eliminations and rebuys and Running the game from your phone).
11. When it's over, look at Tournament Results under the Season group, and print it if you want (see Tournament results).
12. Closing the app asks whether to save the tournament. Say yes and give it a name if you might want it back (see Saving and loading a tournament).

The welcome screen

The first thing you see. It makes you choose on purpose, so nothing left over from last week can be mistaken for tonight's game.

• Build New Tournament — a genuinely blank game: no players, no blinds, clock at 00:00. Your saved structures, groups, scoring and settings are all still there to load; it's only the game that starts empty.
• Load Saved Tournament — resume a night you saved earlier, exactly where it left off, including who's out and in what order (see Saving and loading a tournament).
• Exit — close the app.

What's on the clock screen

The clock screen is what the room sees. Everything on it can be moved, resized, recoloured or hidden (see Designing the clock screen).

• The clock — time left in the current level.
• Blinds — small blind, big blind and ante for the level being played, plus what's coming next.
• Players left and entries — entries counts rebuys, so it goes up when someone rebuys.
• Prize pool and payouts — one line per paying place.
• Game label — a text box you can type into ("Game 3 - Mar 5"). It becomes the default name when you save the tournament.
• Unseated players — only appears when someone on the roster has no seat, and disappears again once they do (see Late registration and unseated players).
• Game Controls — the drawer in the corner (see The Game Controls drawer and keyboard shortcuts).

The Game Controls drawer and keyboard shortcuts

The drawer holds only what you need while a game is running. Everything you set up before or after lives in Setup & Settings, so there's one obvious place for each kind of job.

To open it: move the mouse onto Game Controls in the corner and slide down into the list. It hides again when you move away. Holding Shift also holds it open.

• Prev Level / Next Level — jump the clock a level either way.
• +1 Min — add a minute to the level being played.
• Players — the roster. The screen you'll use most (see Adding players to the roster).
• Start Next Game — finish this one and start the next with the same blinds, payouts and settings but a fresh roster (see Starting the next game).
• Seating Chart — the fullscreen chart (see The seating chart).
• Setup & Settings — everything else (see Setup & Settings: how the hub works).

Shortcuts (they work whenever the clock screen has focus):

Setup & Settings: how the hub works

One window with a list down the left. Click a name, that screen opens on the right. You never have to close one to reach another.

• Tournament — everything about tonight's game.
• Season — scoring, past games, standings across many nights.
• Display — how the screens look, voice announcements, phone remote.
• System — email.
• Help — this manual.

Screens with a Save button keep your edits when you click it. If you click away with unsaved edits, the hub asks first rather than losing them. Cancel on a page means "discard my edits", not "close the hub".

Note: Blind Structure only appears before the tournament starts — editing the levels underneath a running clock would invalidate it.

Building a blind structure

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Blind Structure.

1. Click Add Level. A row appears.
2. Click into each cell and type: the small blind, big blind, ante, and how many minutes the level lasts. Tick the break box for a break instead of a level.
3. Move Up / Move Down reorder the selected row; Remove Selected deletes it.
4. Click Save at the bottom to apply it to tonight's game.

To reuse a structure another night:

1. Build it once, then click Save as Structure and give it a name ("Thursday 20 min", "Turbo").
2. Next time, click Load Saved Structure and pick it from the list. It replaces whatever is in the table.

Note: This screen disappears once the clock has been started. Use Next Level / Prev Level and +1 Min to adjust a running game instead (see The Game Controls drawer and keyboard shortcuts).

Setting the prize pool

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Prize Pool. This is what gets paid back out to finishers, and it's what the room sees listed on the clock screen.

1. Click Add Place for each paying position.
2. Type the amount for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on.
3. Remove Selected deletes a place you don't need.
4. Click Save.

Note: To work the amounts out from the buy-ins instead of typing them — rake off the top, the rest split by percentage — use Working out the payouts (Prize Pool Calculator), which fills this table in for you. Money taken at the door is tracked separately, because extras like bounties and tokes aren't paid out the same way (see Money Collected: cashing up).

Working out the payouts (Prize Pool Calculator)

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Prize Pool Calculator. Buy-in money in, rake off the top, whatever's left split by percentage into whole dollars. Every number updates as you type, so you can see what taking 10% instead of 8% does before you commit to it.

Money in is the buy-in money on the roster, counting every rebuy as another entry. It shows the player count, the rebuy count and the entry total so you can check it against the room.

• Count players who haven't paid yet — off, you're working from money you actually have; on, you see what the pool becomes once everyone settles up.
• Use a different amount — type your own figure instead, for planning a night in advance or for cash that didn't go through the app.

Taken off the top — three rakes: the club's, plus two more if you need them (a dealer toke, food money, a charity cut).

Rebuys are not raked is ticked by default: a percentage rake is charged on the initial buy-ins only, and every dollar of rebuy money goes into the prize pool. Untick it to rake everything that came in. A flat amount comes off the total either way — a fixed dealer toke is one amount out of the box, not a charge per entry.

1. Tick the box at the left of a rake to take it.
2. Name it, so the printed breakdown says what the money was for.
3. Choose Percent of pool or Flat amount, and set the number.

Note: A percentage rake is always a percentage of the money in, never of what's left after another rake. That's deliberate: 10% then 5% would otherwise give a different answer depending on which was listed first.

Pay spots — one row per paying place, each with its share as a percentage.

1. Set the number of places beside Suggest a split for and click places for a typical descending split to start from, or build the table yourself with Add Place and Remove Selected.
2. Type each place's percentage. The Pays column updates as you type.
3. Check the summary underneath: money in, each rake, the pool after rake, and the total being paid out.
4. Decide when the room sees them with Show these payouts on the game screen: Straight away, or held back until the tournament reaches a level you pick.
5. Click Use These Payouts to commit them.
6. Print... gives you the whole breakdown on paper.

About the rounding. Payouts are whole dollars that add up to the pool exactly. Rounding each place on its own doesn't do that — three places at 33.33% of $100 would round to $33 each and lose a dollar — so each place gets its whole dollars and the odd ones left over go to the places with the biggest fractions, highest place first. Anything genuinely unpayable (stray cents, or percentages adding to less than 100%) is called out under the table rather than quietly disappearing.

Holding payouts back until a level. Payouts firm up once late registration is over — calculate them whenever you like, but choose a level and the room won't see them until the clock gets there, so the numbers never change under someone who already read them. While they're held back the game screen shows Payouts posted at Level 5 in gold instead; when the level arrives they go up on their own and are announced out loud. Skipping forward past the level posts them too, and they survive closing and reopening the app — but they are never posted twice.

Note: This works from buy-ins only. Add-ons, bounties and tokes are handled separately because they're spent differently (see Tracking extras per player and Money Collected: cashing up). Save keeps your rake and percentages for next time without touching the prize pool — only Use These Payouts changes what the room sees.

Buy-in, extras and the rebuy rule

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Buy-in & Extras. This is what players see on the check-in page when they scan the QR code, and what drives the money screens.

Tournament buy-in — the price of an entry. Leave it at $0.00 to show no amount at all.

Extras — three slots you name yourself, because every game calls them something different: add-on, bounty, dealer toke, food money.

1. Tick the box at the left of a slot to switch it on.
2. Type its name and its price.
3. Repeat for up to three. A slot that's ticked but unnamed is ignored — players can't answer a nameless checkbox.
4. Click Save.

Each switched-on extra then appears as its own column on the Players roster and its own line in Money Collected, tracked per player and kept separate from the prize pool (see Tracking extras per player).

Rebuys

• Allow rebuys — untick it and the +Rebuy button greys out everywhere, including on the phone remote.
• Rebuys per player — Unlimited, or Limited to a number you type. Once a player hits the cap their +Rebuy button greys out with the reason on it; everyone else's still works.

A rebuy costs the tournament buy-in and counts on the same line in Money Collected.

Cash game — tick Ask players if they want a cash game afterwards to add that question to the check-in page. Anyone who says yes goes onto the waitlist automatically when they bust (see The cash game waitlist).

Adding players to the roster

Game Controls → Players, or Setup & Settings → Tournament → Players. There are four ways to get names on the list — mix them freely in one game.

1. One at a time

1. Type the name into the box at the top. First and last name is fine.
2. Press Enter, or click Add Player.

2. From your regular list

1. Click Save Names as Template once, after a night with your usual crowd.
2. Any later night, click Load Saved Names to re-add them all.
3. Manage Saved Names removes one name from that saved list without clearing the lot.

3. From a player group — groups are separate named sets that get added to whoever is already on the roster, so several groups plus walk-ins can be combined for one game.

1. With the people you want on the roster, click Save Players as Group and name it ("Thursday Crew").
2. Another night, click Add Player Group and pick it. Anyone already on the roster is skipped rather than duplicated.

4. Players check themselves in with the QR code — see Letting players check themselves in (QR code).

Reading the roster: names show as "Scott B." the same way the room sees them on the seating chart. Tick Show full last names for full surnames on this screen only, or hover any name to see it in full.

Note: Remove deletes a player entirely — it's for a mis-typed name, not for someone busting out. Use Eliminate for that (see Eliminations and rebuys).

Letting players check themselves in (QR code)

Players scan a QR code with their phone camera, type their own name, tick any extras they want, and land on your roster. You get on with taking money instead of typing names.

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Player Check-In (QR).

1. If the phone remote isn't running yet, the app offers to switch it on — say yes (see Running the game from your phone).
2. The check-in screen opens with a big QR code. Click Full Screen and cast or plug it into the room's TV, or click Print... and leave the sheet on the buy-in table.
3. Leave Check-in open ticked while people are arriving.
4. Get on with the rest of your setup. This screen stays open alongside everything else — it doesn't block the app.
5. Untick Check-in open when registration closes.

Two codes, in order. If you've filled in your Wi-Fi details under Running the game from your phone, the screen shows 1 — JOIN WI-FI and 2 — CHECK IN. Scanning the first joins the phone to your network; scanning the second opens the check-in page. Without Wi-Fi details it just shows the check-in code.

• Phones must be on the same network as this PC — that's what the first code is for.
• The check-in page needs no PIN, which is exactly why Check-in open exists: it's the switch that stops strangers adding names later.
• Check-in isn't tied to one tournament. Start a new game and the same code keeps working for it.
• The same name can't check in twice, and someone you already typed in by hand can't also check themselves in.

The Check-Ins screen: who still owes

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Check-Ins (who owes).

Everyone who registered themselves via the QR code, in one list, with what each of them owes — rather than hunting for them among the players who are already paid up.

• Only show players who still owe narrows it to the queue in front of you.
• Each extra has its own column — tick what they actually asked for.
• Owes is the buy-in plus their extras. Paid is the confirmation.
• Add Player here puts a walk-in with no phone through the same "who owes what" flow as everyone else.

Taking buy-ins

On the Players screen, each row has a Bought In tick box. That tick is the confirmation that this player has settled up — buy-in and any extras together, the way a home game actually collects it.

1. Player hands you the money.
2. Tick Bought In on their row.

Buy in all players at the top ticks everyone at once — useful when the whole table pays up front. It unticks itself the moment you clear any one player, so it always reflects reality.

Note: A player who checked in on their phone arrives with their chosen extras already ticked. You still tick Bought In when they pay.

Tracking extras per player

Every extra you switched on under Buy-in, extras and the rebuy rule gets its own column on the Players roster, headed with its name and price, and its own column on the Check-Ins screen.

• A player who ticked it on their phone arrives already ticked here.
• Tick or untick any box yourself to correct a pick, or to record someone changing their mind at the table.
• Bought In is what says it's been paid for.
• Every extra is counted on its own line in Money Collected and never folded into the prize pool — a bounty pays out on eliminations, a toke goes to the dealer, and an add-on might go either way (see Money Collected: cashing up).

Money Collected: cashing up

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Money Collected.

One line per item — buy-ins, then each extra — showing how many are down for it, how many have settled, the price, what's collected and what's still outstanding.

• Rebuys count as buy-in money, so the buy-in line counts entries, not people.
• Extras collected is totalled separately from buy-ins and is not part of the prize pool.
• Total in the box is the two added together — for reconciling the cash only.
• Prize pool to be paid out is shown for comparison and is never added in: it's what you typed under Setting the prize pool.
• Print... gives you the breakdown on paper for cashing up.

Drawing seats

On the Players screen, at the bottom.

1. Set Seats per table to how many you're sitting at each table.
2. Click Draw Seats. Everyone active is assigned a table and seat at random, and the fullscreen seating chart opens by itself.
3. Drawing again when players are already seated asks first, then replaces every assignment.

To move one player without redrawing everyone, click Edit Seat Assignments, change the table/seat for whoever you need, and save. Everyone else stays where they are.

The seating chart

Opens automatically when you draw seats, and any time you press S or click Seating Chart in the drawer.

• Fullscreen, sized for the room to read from across it. With one table on screen the block grows to fill it; with many it fits them all.
• More tables than fit on one screen are split across pages that cycle automatically, so a 20-table field still reads.
• Change how it looks — table image, colours, fonts, seat positions — under Designing the seating chart.

Late registration and unseated players

The tournament can start with registration still open. Anyone who arrives after the seat draw has no seat yet, and the app makes that impossible to miss.

• Their row on Players shows Needs seat in gold.
• A panel appears on the clock screen listing registered players with no seat. It disappears again the moment everyone is seated, so it never clutters the screen for nothing.

To seat a late player: use Edit Seat Assignments on the Players screen, or tap Seat next to their name on the phone remote — it finds them an open seat without you leaving the table (see Running the game from your phone).

To close registration automatically, set a rule under Setup & Settings → Display → Phone Remote: never, when the tournament starts, at a given level, or after a number of minutes of play. Clock time is what counts, so a long break with the clock paused doesn't burn through your late-registration window.

Designing the seating chart

Setup & Settings → Display → Edit Seating Layout. You design one table; every table on the chart is drawn from it.

1. Drag any box — the table, a seat, the title — to move it. Drag a corner or edge handle to resize it. The opposite edge stays put.
2. With a box selected, use the panel on the right for exact X %, Y %, Width %, Height %, Font, Font Size, Bold, Italic and Visible.
3. Text Color... and Fill Color... set colours; Clear Fill (Transparent) removes a background.
4. Image... puts a picture behind a box — a table felt, a logo. Clear Image removes it.
5. Set Seats per table, Block width, Block height and Spacing between tables to control how the chart tiles.
6. Fit to Window re-centres the canvas if you lose your place.
7. Click Save. Save As New Layout... keeps it under a name; Load Layout... and Delete Layout... manage the ones you've saved.

Note: Cancel discards everything you changed since opening the editor.

Running the clock

The button at the bottom of the clock screen starts, pauses and resumes; Space does the same thing without aiming at it.

• Next Level / Right — move on early.
• Prev Level / Left — go back a level.
• +1 Min / + — add a minute to the level being played, for when the table needs a moment.
• Levels advance on their own when the time runs out. Breaks in your structure are handled like any other level.

If voice announcements are on, level changes and breaks are called out loud (see Voice announcements).

Eliminations and rebuys

On the Players screen, each active player's row has +Rebuy, Eliminate and Remove.

• Eliminate — busts the player out and records their finishing place. Places are assigned from the bottom up as people go out, so the last one standing wins.
• +Rebuy — another buy-in's worth of money, counted in entries and in Money Collected. Greyed out if rebuys are off or the player has hit the cap (see Buy-in, extras and the rebuy rule).
• Remove — deletes the player entirely. For a mis-typed name, never for a bust-out.
• Undo Last Elimination at the top puts the most recent bust-out back in, for when you click the wrong row. It only works while the tournament is live — once it's finished, fix a wrong finish from Scoring & History's editable Game History instead (see Game history).

You can do all of this from your phone instead of walking back to the PC (see Running the game from your phone).

The cash game waitlist

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Cash Game Waitlist.

Anyone who ticked the cash-game question at check-in joins this list the moment they bust — which is exactly when they're standing up looking for something to do, and exactly when you're busy recording the elimination.

• The list is in elimination order, longest wait at the top.
• Click Seated next to a name once they're actually in a cash seat.
• If a player rebuys back into the tournament they drop off the list automatically, and rejoin it if they bust again.
• Players who ticked interested but are still playing are shown separately, so you can see how many seats are likely to be wanted later.
• Print... for a paper list.

This screen stays open alongside the rest of the app — the cash game fills up while the tournament is still running.

Note: Turn the question on under Buy-in & Extras, or nobody will ever be asked (see Buy-in, extras and the rebuy rule).

Running the game from your phone

Setup & Settings → Display → Phone Remote. Your phone becomes a remote control over your own Wi-Fi — no account, no internet, nothing leaves the room.

1. Tick Enable phone remote control.
2. Leave Port alone unless something else is using it.
3. Note the PIN, or click Generate New PIN for a fresh one.
4. Note the PC address shown. If several are listed, pick the one on the same network as your phone.
5. Click Save.
6. On the phone, open a browser and type that address. Enter the PIN.

From the phone you can: start/pause the clock, jump levels, add a minute, eliminate a player, record a rebuy, tick a buy-in, seat a late arrival, and watch the clock, blinds and payouts live.

Wi-Fi details — fill in Wi-Fi Name, Wi-Fi Password and Wi-Fi Security here and the check-in screen shows a second QR code that joins a phone to your network before it scans the check-in one (see Letting players check themselves in (QR code)).

Close check-in — the automatic registration cut-off lives on this screen too (see Late registration and unseated players).

Note: This is built for the room you're in: a local network, a short PIN, plain HTTP. Don't forward the port through your router to the open internet.

Tournament results

Setup & Settings → Season → Tournament Results. Tonight's finishing order, 1st to last, with what each place won and the points it scored.

• Print... opens your printer settings and prints the list in finishing order.
• Points come from your scoring sheet (see Scoring sheet).
• If email is configured, results can be sent automatically when the game ends (see Emailing results).

Starting the next game

Start Next Game in the drawer (or N) finishes this tournament and sets up the next one: same blind structure, same payouts, same settings, fresh roster and a clock back at zero. It's the right button for a second game on the same night.

For a completely blank tournament — no structure, no payouts — close and reopen the app and choose Build New Tournament (see The welcome screen).

Saving and loading a tournament

Closing the app with a game in progress asks whether to save it first. Say yes, give it a name, and the whole night is kept — the roster, who busted and in what order, the clock, the money.

To bring one back: Load Saved Tournament on the welcome screen, or Setup & Settings → Tournament → Load Tournament while the app is open. The same screen deletes old saves you don't want.

Note: Every action is written to a log as it happens, so an unexpected shutdown doesn't lose the night — it replays from that log.

Seasons (profiles)

Setup & Settings → Tournament → Seasons (Profile). A profile holds one season's worth of setup and results: blind structure, payouts, scoring sheet, saved names and game history.

• Save As New Profile... starts a new season, leaving the old one intact.
• Load Profile... switches to another season.

Use one profile per league or per season, and the standings stay separate without you having to clear anything.

Scoring sheet

Setup & Settings → Season → Scoring & History, Scoring side.

1. Click Add Place and set the points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on.
2. Remove Selected drops a place.
3. Set how many worst results each player may drop across the season, if your league does that.
4. Click Save Scoring Sheet.

Points are awarded automatically as each tournament finishes, and feed Season standings.

Game history

The Game History side of Scoring & History is the record of every past game and the points it awarded.

• Double-click a row to correct it — this is where a wrong finishing order gets fixed after a tournament is over.
• Delete removes one game entirely.
• Standings recalculate from history, so a correction here flows through immediately.

Season standings

Setup & Settings → Season → Season Standings. Total points per player across every game in this profile, best first, with the drop-lowest rule applied.

Print... prints it in order, 1st to last.

Designing the clock screen

Setup & Settings → Display → Edit Game Screen. Every element on the clock screen can be moved, resized, restyled, hidden or removed.

1. Drag an element to move it; drag a corner or edge handle to resize it.
2. Use the panel on the right for exact X %, Y %, Width %, Height %, Font, Font Size, Bold, Italic and Visible.
3. Text Color..., Fill Color... and Clear Fill (Transparent) set colours; Image... and Clear Image handle backgrounds.
4. Add Banner adds your own line of text — a house rule, a sponsor, "food at 9". Type it into Banner Text.
5. Tick Scroll on a banner to make it travel across the screen, and set its speed.
6. Remove Selected deletes the selected element or banner.
7. Fit to Window re-centres the canvas.
8. Click Save, or Save As New Layout... to keep it under a name. Load Layout... and Delete Layout... manage saved ones.

Note: Cancel discards everything changed since you opened the editor.

Voice announcements

Setup & Settings → Display → Voice Announcements. Level changes and breaks are called out loud, so the room doesn't have to watch the screen.

1. Tick Announce tournament events out loud.
2. Set Speech Pace and Volume.
3. Click Test Announcement to hear it.
4. Click Save.

Note: The voice runs entirely on this PC. No account, no login, no internet connection involved.

Emailing results

Setup & Settings → System → Email Settings. Optional — fill it in and finishing a tournament emails the results out.

1. Enter your SMTP Server, Port, Username and Password.
2. Set From Address and Send Results To.
3. Leave Use TLS ticked unless your provider says otherwise.
4. Click Send Test Email to prove it works before you rely on it.
5. Click Save.

Note: The password is stored on this PC in plain text so the app can log in without you. Use an app-specific password if your mail provider offers one.

Clearing stored data

Setup & Settings → Season → Purge Data. This is the blunt tool: each row wipes an entire category, with its own confirmation. There is deliberately no "clear everything" button, so one wrong click can't take more than one category with it.

• Blind Schedule — back to the built-in placeholder. Only before a tournament starts.
• Payout Amounts — clears every paying place.
• Scoring Sheet — clears the points table and the drop-lowest count.
• Saved Player Names — clears the saved name list. Doesn't touch tonight's roster.
• Game History and Season Standings — deletes every recorded game. Standings are calculated from history, so clearing one clears both.

To remove one item rather than a category, use that item's own screen: one level in Building a blind structure, one place in Setting the prize pool, one name via Manage Saved Names in Adding players to the roster, one past game in Game history.

Your licence

Setup & Settings → Help → Licence. Shows the licence number this copy was issued under and the Installation ID of the computer it's running on.

A licence key works on one computer. That's why the two numbers are here: if you ever need support, or a key for a replacement machine, quote both and whoever supplied the program can look up exactly what you have.

• Copy Details puts both numbers on the clipboard, ready to paste into a text or an email.
• A new computer needs a new key — its Installation ID will be different. Reinstalling on the same computer does not: the same key still works.
• If a licence has an expiry date, it's shown here too.

Where your data is kept

Everything is stored on this PC, under your own user folder:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\PokerDirector

• profiles — seasons: blinds, payouts, scoring, history.
• saved_tournaments — saved nights you can reload.
• blind_structures — your saved structures.
• player_groups — your saved groups.
• seating_layouts and game_screens — saved screen designs.
• config — settings (email, phone remote, voice, buy-in).
• data — the running event log the app replays after a crash.

Back that folder up and you've backed up everything.

Troubleshooting

The phone can't reach the remote. Check the phone is on the same Wi-Fi as this PC (not mobile data, not a guest network). If several addresses are offered under Phone Remote, try the other one — a VPN can add addresses that go nowhere.

Nobody can check in. Make sure Check-in open is ticked on the check-in screen, and that the phone remote is switched on (see Letting players check themselves in (QR code)).

+Rebuy is greyed out. Rebuys are switched off, or that player has hit the cap. Hover the button for the reason; change it under Buy-in, extras and the rebuy rule.

Blind Structure isn't in the list. It's hidden once the clock has started. Use Prev/Next Level and +1 Min instead (see The Game Controls drawer and keyboard shortcuts).

Someone was eliminated by mistake. Undo Last Elimination while the game is live; Game History after it's finished (see Eliminations and rebuys).

A name is on the roster twice. Use Remove on the duplicate row — that's a data-entry fix, not an elimination (see Adding players to the roster).

The app closed unexpectedly. Reopen it. The night is replayed from the event log (see Saving and loading a tournament).

No sound. Check Announce tournament events out loud is ticked and the volume isn't at zero, then use Test Announcement (see Voice announcements).