Playing Poker on Camera with Strangers: Blocking, Reporting and What Gets You Muted

Putting a camera and a live mic on a public poker table is a great idea right up until the first person who ruins it. So before we shipped free voice and video for everyone, we built the tools that keep the room worth being in. Here is how they work, and where the line is.

Every player, two buttons

Tap any player in the voice bar or on their chat message and you get:

Block. They are muted and their video is hidden for you, immediately, and at every table from now on, not just this one. They cannot message you, and you cannot message them. They are not told. You can undo it any time from Profile, under Blocked players.

Report. Pick a reason, add a note if you want, and send. A screenshot of the table as it looked when you tapped is attached automatically, so a moderator sees what you saw instead of reading a description of it. Reports go to a real queue that a human works.

Both take one tap. Neither requires leaving your seat or losing your hand.

The one line

PokerSweepStars is a free-speech room. Trash talk, needling, celebrating a suck-out at someone's expense: all of it is poker, and none of it gets you in trouble.

Racial and ethnic slurs are the exception. The line is narrow on purpose, and it is enforced:

1. The message does not send. You get a warning instead. Nothing is stored, nobody sees it.
2. Get around that anyway (a modified app, a creative spelling) and the message is removed, a moderator notice is posted at the table, and a strike goes on the account.
3. Second strike: chat muted for 24 hours. Third: seven days, and the account is flagged for review.

Usernames are held to the same standard. Ordinary profanity is not filtered and never will be.

What we do not do

• We do not record voice or video. Calls are live only.
• We do not run an AI listening to your table.
• We do not filter opinions, arguments, or language that is merely rude.

The moderation surface is the block button, the report button, and the slur filter. That is the whole system, and it is enough.

Practical advice for public tables

• Camera off is fine. Plenty of players use voice only. You will never be at a disadvantage for not being on video.
• Block early. If someone is a problem in the first minute, they will be a problem all night. Block costs you nothing and the other player is never notified.
• Report with the screenshot. It arrives automatically; let it. It is the difference between a report that gets acted on and one that becomes a he-said-she-said.
• Play with your crew. Groups and home games are private by nature. Most of the video poker on PokerSweepStars happens between people who already know each other.