Felt — The Operating System for Poker Venues

What This Is

Felt is an all-in-one poker venue operating system built on a resilient edge-cloud architecture. An ARM64 SBC "Leaf Node" runs the venue autonomously with NVMe storage. Ultra-cheap wireless display nodes replace HDMI cables. Players interact via their phones (PWA). A cloud Core layer handles cross-venue leagues, player profiles, public scheduling, and remote access. Everything flows through a self-hosted Netbird WireGuard mesh — network agnostic, zero-config, encrypted end-to-end.

The product targets poker venues of all sizes — from a 3-table Copenhagen bar to a 40-table casino floor — replacing fragmented tools (TDD, whiteboards, spreadsheets, Blind Valet, BravoPokerLive) with one integrated platform.

Core Value

A venue can run a complete tournament offline on a €100 device with wireless displays and player mobile access — and it just works, on any network, with zero IT involvement.

Requirements

Validated

(None yet — ship to validate)

Active

Phase 1 (Development Focus): Live Tournament Management

Platform-level player identity (players belong to Felt, not venues — UUID profiles span all venues, tournament history/stats/league standings are portable, data travels with the player if a venue leaves Felt; this is the core network effect and must be in the data model from day one)
Virtual Leaf architecture (same Go codebase runs as physical Leaf on ARM64 SBC or as virtual Leaf instance on Core cloud infrastructure for free-tier venues; free tier gets full tournament engine requiring only internet)
Full tournament clock engine (countdown, blinds, antes, levels, breaks, chip-ups, pause/resume)
Financial engine (buy-ins, rebuys, add-ons, bounties, payouts, prize pool calculation, rake — all int64 cents, never float64)
Player management (database, registration, bust-out tracking, chip counts, action history)
Table & seating (configurable layouts, random seating, auto-balancing, table breaks, drag-and-drop moves)
Multi-tournament support (run multiple tournaments simultaneously)
League & season management (configurable point formulas, standings, archives)
Regional tournament organizer (free-tier feature — anyone can create cross-venue tournaments/leagues, automatic result aggregation across venues, unified leaderboards, finals management; this is the viral adoption mechanism that hooks venues from outside)
Wireless display system (node registry, view assignment, tournament clock/rankings/seating/schedule views)
Digital signage (info screens, event promos, drink specials, sponsor ads, playlists, auto-scheduling)
WYSIWYG content editor with AI assist (template gallery, AI-generated promo cards/imagery, venue branding)
Player mobile PWA (QR code access, live clock, blinds, rankings, personal stats, league standings)
Player access via Netbird reverse proxy (public HTTPS → WireGuard → Leaf, same URL from anywhere)
Custom domain support (venues point CNAME to felt subdomain, Netbird handles TLS termination and routing automatically, felt subdomain as fallback — zero IT complexity for professional venue presence)
Events engine (triggers, conditions, actions — sounds, messages, view changes, webhooks)
Export (CSV, JSON, HTML)
NATS-based sync (Leaf → Core, queued offline, replayed on reconnect)
Operator UI (mobile-first, touch-native, dark-room ready, TDD-depth with modern UX)
Authentication (PIN login offline, OIDC via Authentik when online, operator roles)
TDD data import (blind structures, player database, tournament history, leagues, payout structures — this is the primary competitive weapon for adoption, not just a feature; zero data loss migration makes TDD obsolete on day one)

Phase 2 (Development Focus): Cash Game Operations

Waitlist management (by game type and stakes, display integration, notifications)
Table management (open/close, game types, stakes, seat tracking, status board)
Game type registry (all poker variants, configurable stakes, betting structures)
Session tracking (player sessions, buy-in/cashout, duration, history)
Rake tracking (percentage/time/flat, per-table reporting, financial analytics)
Must-move tables (automated progression, main game priority)
Seat change requests (queue tracking, notification on availability)
Table transfers (cross-table moves within sessions)
Player alerts (waitlist position, seat available, preferred game opened)

Phase 3 (Development Focus): Complete Venue Platform

Dealer management (scheduling, skill profiles, shift trading, clock-in/out, rotation) — dealer profiles are platform-level identity like players: work history, verified skills, and shift records belong to the dealer's Felt profile and are portable across venues
Player loyalty system (points engine, tier system, rewards catalog, automated promos, cross-venue loyalty for multi-venue operators)
Private venues & memberships (privacy modes, invite codes, member tiers, guest system)
Venue analytics & reporting (revenue dashboards, player analytics, operational analytics, multi-venue benchmarking)
Public venue presence (venue profile page, online event registration, schedule publishing, SEO-optimized)

Phase 4 (Development Focus): Native Apps & Platform Maturity

Native player app (iOS + Android — push notifications, Wallet integration, social features)
Native venue management app (iOS + Android — push alerts, biometric auth, background sync)
Social features (private groups, activity feed, achievements, friend-based venue discovery)

Out of Scope

Online poker / real-money gambling — Felt is a management tool, not a gambling platform
Payment processing — tracks amounts, doesn't process transactions
Video streaming / live poker broadcast — not in the product vision
BYO hardware — Felt ships pre-configured, locked-down devices only
Third-party cloud dependencies (Cloudflare, AWS, etc.) — self-hosted everything

Context

Technical Environment:

Leaf Node: ARM64 SBC (Orange Pi 5 Plus reference board, ~€100) with NVMe storage
Display Node: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (~€20) running Chromium kiosk
Core: Hetzner dedicated server running Proxmox VE with LXC containers
Backend: Go (shared codebase for Leaf and Core, different builds)
Frontend: SvelteKit (operator UI, player PWA, admin dashboard)
Database: LibSQL on Leaf (embedded SQLite), PostgreSQL on Core
Message Queue: NATS JetStream (embedded on Leaf, clustered on Core)
Identity: Authentik (self-hosted OIDC IdP)
Networking: Netbird (WireGuard mesh, reverse proxy, DNS, SSH, firewall policies)

Design Philosophy: "TDD's brain, Linear's face." — Match The Tournament Director's depth and power while looking and feeling like a modern premium product. Dark-room ready, touch-native, glanceable, information-dense without clutter.

Color System: Catppuccin Mocha-based dark theme (default), with Catppuccin Latte light alternative. Typography: Inter (UI) + JetBrains Mono (data/timers). Poker-specific accents (felt green, card white, bounty pink, prize yellow).

Competition:

The Tournament Director (TDD): Feature-rich but Windows-only, 2002-era UI, no mobile/cloud/wireless
Blind Valet: Simple cloud timer, dead without internet
Poker Atlas: Discovery only, zero operational tooling
BravoPokerLive: US waitlist app, no tournaments, no displays

Business Model:

Free tier: Full tournament engine on virtual Leaf in cloud (requires internet, ~€0.45/mo infra cost per venue)
Offline tier (€25/mo): Dedicated Leaf hardware + wireless display nodes + offline operation + custom domain + remote admin. Leaf hardware (~€120) free with 12-month annual plan
Pro tier (€100/mo = €25 offline + €75 features): Everything in Offline + cash games + dealer scheduling + loyalty + memberships + analytics + TDD import + priority support
Casino Starter (€249/mo): Independent casino, 1 poker room, 5-15 tables
Casino Pro (€499/mo per property): Small chain, 2-5 properties, 15-40 tables each
Casino Enterprise (€999+/mo custom): Large operators, 5+ properties, 40+ tables
Display nodes: Sold at cost + shipping (~€30 each), no recurring fee — stateless render devices
Hardware: No BYO. Felt hardware only — pre-configured, encrypted, secure boot

User's Development Phases vs. GSD Planning Phases: The user's spec describes 4 product development phases (Tournament → Cash Games → Full Venue → Native Apps). These are the user's product focus areas, not to be confused with GSD's planning phases which break down the work within those development phases.

Constraints

Hardware: Must run on ARM64 SBC with 4GB+ RAM, NVMe storage. Display nodes on Pi Zero 2 W (512MB RAM)
Offline-first: Entire tournament operation must work without internet. Cloud is never a dependency during operation
Network agnostic: Must work on any internet connection via Netbird WireGuard mesh. No firewall config, no port forwarding
Self-hosted: No third-party MITM. Self-hosted Netbird, Authentik, Core. Full stack ownership
Security: LUKS encryption at rest, WireGuard in transit, RLS multi-tenancy, GDPR compliance, audit trail on all state changes
Performance: State changes propagate to all clients within 100ms via WebSocket. Display views readable from 10+ feet
Solo developer initially: Architecture must be manageable for a single developer to build and maintain

Key Decisions

Decision	Rationale	Outcome
Go for backend (Leaf + Core)	Single binary, ARM cross-compile, goroutine concurrency, excellent stdlib	— Pending
SvelteKit for all frontends	Shared codebase, PWA support, SSR for public pages, SPA for operator	— Pending
LibSQL over plain SQLite on Leaf	SQLite-compatible with replication support, better concurrent writes	— Pending
NATS JetStream for sync	Runs on Pi (~10MB RAM), persistent queuing, survives offline, ordered replay	— Pending
Netbird as infrastructure backbone	WireGuard mesh + reverse proxy + DNS + SSH + firewall in one self-hosted platform	— Pending
Authentik as IdP	Self-hosted, OIDC for Netbird + Felt, lightweight (~200MB RAM), Apache 2.0	— Pending
Catppuccin Mocha color system	Dark-room optimized, established palette, systematic accent colors	— Pending
Platform-level player & dealer identity	Players AND dealers belong to Felt, not venues — portable profiles, cross-venue history, network effects, platform lock-in	— Pending
Virtual Leaf for free tier	Same codebase runs on physical SBC or as cloud instance — enables free tier without hardware	— Pending
No BYO hardware	Security, reliability, support consistency, controlled full chain	— Pending
Free tier with virtual Leaf	Full tournament engine for free, costs ~€0.45/mo per venue, drives adoption flywheel	— Pending
Proxmox VE for Core hosting	LXC + KVM, web management, PBS backup integration, scales by adding nodes	— Pending

Last updated: 2026-02-28 after initialization + gap review (platform identity, virtual Leaf, regional organizer, custom domains, business model details, dealer portability)

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