“We want to try and provide a platform for competitive online poker without having to risk your own money” Tired of subscription poker sites where none of your opponents take the game of poker seriously? Uninspired by “free-play” poker rooms when there’s no real money on the line?

Then you might be interested in Quarter Poker—a new online poker room that says its unique take on online poker makes it fun and competitive and gives you the chance to cash out real money—while remaining fully legal in every state in the US.

Here’s how it works: Quarter Poker gives each player 25c per day and allows players to cash out real money when they have amassed $50. Withdrawals go to your PayPal account.

The only catch: Cashouts are processed on a 2:1 basis, so a $50 withdrawal nets you $25 in real dollars. In the future, an optional monthly membership will give you a 1:1 cashout option.

Getting Competitive

“We want to try and provide a platform for competitive online poker without having to risk your own money,” Klinghoffer told pokerfuse.

“The games are definitely more competitive,” Klinghoffer says. If you bust your account, you have to wait 24 hours until you get your next free 25c—so players are always incentivized to take the game seriously. Losing your bankroll means sitting out of action for a whole day.

“It’s in your benefit to always play competitively,” Klinghoffer adds. “Sure, some users may play on tilt when they first start out, but once you get a few dollars in your account, you’re going to play competitively as you try and make your way to $50. That’s the thought anyway.”

The Quarter Poker team have sought expert advice on the legality of the model. According to their lawyers, the format is not classified as gambling anywhere in the US, as no money is given from the player to the operator. This allows it to offer its games to more players than even subscription sites and the new “auction” site, which are restricted in some states due to sweepstakes laws.

“We had the model approved by one of the top gaming attorneys in the country. And while the reason is actually kind of complicated, it boils down to the fact that this isn’t gambling,” Klinghoffer explained. “For something to be gambling, 3 things must be present: consideration, chance, and prize. At Quarter Poker, chance and prize are present, but consideration isn’t.”

Games and Bots

At launch, only Sit and Go tournaments are available in 6-man, 10-man, and 20-man formats. As player liquidity builds larger tournaments will be added, and cash game functionality after that. To kick-start action, Quarter Poker has deployed house bots.

“As a necessary evil, we’ve had to put bots on the site to fill the games when there aren’t very many players online, and the bots are admittedly not very good,” says Klinghoffer. As the player pool expands, the bots will be withdrawn.

The site plans to create revenues from monthly memberships, but the first stage is to implement display advertising at the tables to help offset some of the costs. The membership program will come later (“something like $5/10 a month”, says Klinghoffer).

The site was launched back in October, and gained early attention from a popular thread on Reddit.

“Having only been live a month, we just wanted to get a basic version of the site up to gauge the response from the poker playing community. The response has been really positive. We’re excited about the future.”

Quarter Poker uses Cubeia software. The intention is to roll out both a Facebook app and iPhone/Android app in 2014.

You can check out their promo video (which they call “a less funny version of the Dollar Shave Club video”), and give the format a whirl on quarterpoker.com.