Changelog

Invite-only beta for Texas private clubs. Contact us to get on the list.

Visa/Mastercard deposits. iGaming-licensed processor spec written and vendor selection in progress.

Self-exclusion, deposit limits, session time reminders, and cooling-off periods. Spec complete — implementation queued post-beta.

Location verification to restrict play to Texas and other permitted jurisdictions. Geofence admin dashboard is already shipped — enforcement layer in scope.

iOS and Android. Responsive web is already playable on mobile — native app to follow post-launch.

The web client moved off file-based page routes onto a persistent multi-tile workspace. Lobby, tournament lobby, profile & settings, cashier, hand history, and live tables are all tiles in one grid now — draggable, side-by-side, layout persisted across sessions. A single shared WebGL context powers every tile instead of one per table, which is the unlock for serious multi-table play on laptops and older devices. Per-tile action bars, smart portrait/landscape orientation, an acting-table glow ring, and atomic seat-claim resolution all landed alongside it. Old URLs still work — they just spawn the right tile.

New table look: larger avatars, per-seat colored rings, a gold ring on the active player (distinguishable by shape, not just hue — colorblind-safe), brighter green stack labels, cleaner nameplates. Seats are now mathematically even around the felt, with bet labels at consistent offsets. New dark table theme alongside the original classic theme — charcoal felt, three-band metallic silver rail, geometric web lines, floating name/stack text — selectable per club. Club logos now render with proper transparency for interior letterforms. A pile of small visual bugs gone: phantom cards after reconnects, observer badge alignment, hole-card scale on rapid hand turnover.

Click-to-sit: tap the “+” on any empty seat and the buy-in dialog opens with the seat pre-reserved — the old separate seat-picker is gone. New hamburger menu replaces the old bell icon: Profile & Settings, Cashier, Hand History, Help / Wiki, Log out are all one tap away. The bankroll chip in the header is now a button that opens the cashier tile. Mobile fit improved — the SPN brand hides on narrow screens so the mini-tables strip and “+” button get the room they need. Native fullscreen button added to the workspace.

Hardened the dependency-audit pipeline: one source-of-truth audit script with structured allow-listing — every accepted advisory now requires a reason, who verified it, and an expiry date. Pre-merge audit gate on PRs. Nightly cron is now non-blocking alerting so live-advisory churn can’t flip main red overnight without any code change. Patched a wave of dependency advisories across axios, vite, fast-jwt, postcss, follow-redirects, and fast-xml-parser (plus a couple of transitives). Tightened admin-route authorization to check the proper roles claim.

Visual-regression job moved post-merge so it stops blocking PRs. Docker build/push step now skips cleanly when the registry is unreachable instead of failing the whole pipeline. TypeScript build errors that were blocking Docker images — fixed. Internal wiki publishing pipeline cleaned up (naming standards, manifest fixes) so docs ship reliably. RNG and shuffle functions also got proper documentation around their guarantees and seed-zeroization behavior.

Designed for Multi-Table (May 18) — the post behind the May workspace rollout. Why we tore the interface down, what one shared GPU context unlocks, and the path to 16 live tables in a single window.

Two more posts in the four-part series on what an AI-driven build sprint actually ships and what it leaves to the human at the keyboard.

• None of Those Fixes Worked After Refreshing the Page (Apr 17)
• Integration Testing Is the Part AI Can’t Skip For You (Apr 19)

Every post in the blog now reads in all 11 supported languages — Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, German, French, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Arabic — when you switch the locale or visit a /{locale}/ URL. Listing card titles and excerpts translate too. Translations are AI-assisted and still being refined; if something reads wrong, let us know.

The hero image was a generic MacBook mockup showing an unrelated app. Replaced with an HTML/SVG poker table rendered directly in the page — green felt, community cards on the board, five players with chip stacks, action buttons, and the tick-fee reminder. Three supporting sections were also rebuilt without external images: "Play Your Way" tabs became a 4-card icon grid, "How It Works" became a centered 3-step flow, and "Why Choose SPN" became a 3-column icon layout. No external images required anywhere on the page.

Games page updated to clearly present SPN's three native variants: No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Omaha Hi-Lo. Additional variant cards (Stud, Razz, Mixed Games) now reference the roadmap.

We Built salty.poker with AI. Here's the Part Nobody Saw. — The first post in a four-part series on what integration testing actually looks like after an AI-driven build sprint. The parts that don’t make the changelog.

Login, lobby, seat selection, buy-in, and table observation are all tested end-to-end against the live dev environment. Table engine, web app, and real-time connection service confirmed working together. Bug triage and fixes are running in parallel as issues surface during testing.

Several bugs fixed in the in-game table view discovered during testing: the lobby navigation button, table name and stakes display, seat selector with buy-in dialog, and in-game help overlay ("?" button) are all working correctly. Multi-table tab switcher also added for players at more than one table.

Dedicated rules pages added to the Help Center for every game type SPN supports — Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, Draw games, and mixed formats. The help index now lists all game categories with direct links to each rules page.

Every service now reads its credentials from Azure Key Vault at startup via managed identity — no secrets in code or environment files. This is the final infrastructure step before the platform can serve live traffic end-to-end.

Automated velocity monitoring flags accounts that exceed deposit or withdrawal thresholds within a rolling time window. All flags are reviewed by compliance staff before any action is taken — no automated bans.

Full smoke test suite passes against both staging and production. Application Insights telemetry is live. Platform is operationally ready for go-live.

Rate limiting on all authentication endpoints, strict Content Security Policy headers, CORS locked to production domains only, database audit logging, and an anti-fraud velocity baseline for deposit and login events.

Every hand's shuffle seed and deal sequence is recorded and cryptographically committed before cards are dealt. Players can verify any hand independently using the open-source spn-rng-verify CLI tool.

Structured logging and telemetry across all services. Alert rules fire on error spikes, latency anomalies, and failed health checks. Correlation IDs trace every request end-to-end across microservices.

End-to-end tests covering login, lobby, cashier, and table flows. Unit test coverage at or above project thresholds for all services. Integration smoke tests run automatically on every build.

Staging environment can be suspended and resumed on demand. Promotion and demotion workflows manage the lifecycle between staging and production. Zero-downtime deploy runbook documented for operations.

• Part 4: Competition Made Texas Poker Better. The Lodge Closing Makes It Worse. (Apr 5)
• Part 5: Why Compliance Isn't Optional -- What We're Building Differently (Apr 7)

Full React web application with a PixiJS-powered canvas table renderer. Animated hole cards, community cards, chip stacks, and pot display. Lobby with live seat counts, stake filters, and waitlist support. Cashier UI for deposits and withdrawals. Tournament HUD with blind level timer.

Felt color, card back, and extended theme choices saved per player. Audio system with 8 event types and per-event toggles. Action bar bet presets and big-blind/dollar display toggle, all persisted across sessions.

Staff-facing dashboard covering player management, tournament controls, finance reporting, marketing tools, knowledge base editing, and geofence management. Compliance scrutiny queue with KYC override and flag review. Live table list with hand history and hand replay viewer.

In-platform help center with 18 articles across 5 categories covering rules, deposits, withdrawals, KYC, and tournament formats. Searchable and versioned. Admin editor for creating and updating articles without a code deploy.

Simplified site navigation to 6 items. Merged Contact into About page. Added Help Center with FAQ. AI search optimization with llms.txt and structured data. Updated author to The Salty Korean across all posts.

• Part 1: The Lodge Got Raided. Here's What We Know. (Mar 31)
• Part 2: What The Lodge Raid Means for Every Texas Poker Player (Apr 1)
• Part 3: The Legal Gray Area That Texas Poker Has Always Lived In (Apr 3)

Full ring game and tournament play — cryptographic RNG, provably fair hand histories, all betting actions, side pots, and showdown logic. Verified against 10 million hand simulations. NIST statistical randomness tests pass.

Full state-machine table engine managing seat assignments, hand lifecycle, action timers, and auto-fold logic. Real-time updates streamed to all players with no polling.

Multi-table tournament support with blind schedules, late registration, re-entries, bounty and PKO formats, satellite qualifiers, freerolls, scheduled recurring events, entry codes, and automated prize distribution.

SPN's no-rake model. A flat time-based seat fee replaces pot-percentage rake. Charges are aggregated per session, dormancy holds managed, and processes account closure per state requirements.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and more — deposited instantly via iGaming-licensed payment rails. On-chain confirmations verified automatically.

Real-time table chat with automated moderation and per-player mute controls. Social features including player follow, referral tracking, and promo code system. Announcements and content service for in-app messaging.

Daily financial summaries and monthly settlements sync automatically to our accounting system.

Behavioral analytics capturing session and engagement data. Login survey system for post-session player feedback. Email marketing integration with birthday bonus triggers and opt-out management.

20+ microservices deployed across cloud infrastructure with managed database, Redis cache, and global CDN routing traffic to play.salty.poker. Automated CI/CD pipeline deploys on every merge to main. Separate production and staging environments with isolated secrets and container registries.

Players register and log in with Face ID, Touch ID, or a hardware security key — no password required. Passkeys are bound to play.salty.poker for phishing resistance. Password fallback with secure hashing also supported.

Player identity verification powered by a licensed third-party KYC provider. Document upload, liveness check, and AML/sanctions screening fully integrated. Required before first deposit. KYC re-verification triggers on account changes.

Every transaction — deposits, withdrawals, tick fees, tournament buy-ins, prize payouts, and revenue splits — is recorded in a double-entry ledger. Balances are always reconciled. Full audit trail per player.

Online poker platform infrastructure. Table creation, player management, house rule configuration, and automated revenue tracking.

Every login and deposit is screened for proxy/VPN usage, bot activity, and high-risk IP patterns. Flagged sessions are blocked before reaching the table.

• Everyone Gets a Seat at the Table (Mar 7)
• Bots Don't Play Poker. We Make Sure of It. (Mar 6)
• How We're Building Salty Poker: Spec-Driven Development (Mar 4)
• Competition Is Good. Monday Night Was a Reminder. (Mar 3)

• Introducing the Salty Poker Network (Feb 27)
• We're Building a Poker Platform and AI Just Tried to Deploy Our Infrastructure (Feb 27)