As a poker player and software engineer, I spent years watching tournament organizers wrestle with spreadsheets, miscounted chip stacks, and clock software that looked like it was built in the 1990s. Players had no way to check blind levels from their phone, track friends across tables, or even know when the next tournament started.

I knew there had to be a better way. In 2015, I started building one.

Andrei Alecu

@andreialecu

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🎥 The Journey of LetsPoker Proud to share the story of @LetsPokerApp as I presented at @EdgeGamingExpo ! From its early days to becoming a trusted platform for poker organizers and players worldwide, we’re redefining what’s possible in live poker. In this panel, I discuss our

11:32 AM · Nov 12, 2024

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Here’s how LetsPoker went from a side project to the live poker platform used across six continents:

How a 1,000-Player Festival Proved the Concept

The kind of tournament software I was determined to replace

In 2015, I started building LetsPoker — not as a startup pitch, but as a tool I personally needed. I spent months on the floor with tournament directors and dealers, mapping every pain point: manual chip counts, paper-based rebuys, clock errors, and blind structures that only the TD could see.

The result was something new: affordable tablets at every table, connected to a central system that tracked eliminations, rebuys, add-ons, and chip counts in real-time. For the first time, every player in the room could see exactly where they stood.

The real test came at a major international festival — over 1,000 entries in the Main Event, a 500K+ prize pool. The system handled it without a hitch.

LetsPoker at its first large-scale event — rough around the edges, but it worked.

The feedback from players and staff convinced me to build a public app. I launched LetsPoker v1.0 on December 1st, 2015 — tournament clocks, prize pools, blind schedules, and real-time updates, all on players’ phones.

Side events that used to run half-empty suddenly had full tables. Players were sharing the app with each other between hands. Within months, thousands were using it daily.

Blind structures — right in players' hands for the first time.

Players could browse upcoming events and plan their week.

Real-time final table updates brought spectators into the action.

How LetsPoker Turned Romania Into a European Poker Hub

LetsPoker gave Romanian poker clubs something they never had before: a turnkey solution for running professional events. Clubs in cities that never hosted a tournament could now launch and operate at the same level as established venues.

A new poker club during setup — LetsPoker tablets ready on every table

The effect was measurable. New clubs opened in remote cities. International players started traveling to Romania specifically for the well-run events. Today, monthly tournaments draw players from Eastern, Central, and Western Europe, as well as Israel — making Romania one of the most active poker scenes on the continent.

Why PokerStars Chose LetsPoker for Eureka Bucharest

Trusted By

In 2016, PokerStars — the biggest name in poker — chose LetsPoker to run their Eureka festival in Bucharest. That wasn’t a favor; it was because the system outperformed everything else they’d tried.

LetsPoker at the PokerStars Eureka festival in Bucharest, 2016

They came back in 2017 for the PokerStars Festival, where the clock system ran four simultaneous tournaments on a single display.

Four tournaments, one clock display — PokerStars Festival 2017

Those two PokerStars partnerships opened the door to 888 and Unibet, who both adopted LetsPoker for their live event series.

LetsPoker at a Unibet Open event

What Pro Players Say About LetsPoker

In 2019, we brought on Alex Papazian — holder of two World Series of Poker bracelets and the #1 spot on Romania’s all-time money list. We needed someone who understood the game from the player’s seat, not just the server room.

Alex Papazian (photo by Tomas Stacha)

In an interview with PokerNews, Papazian put it bluntly:

Top-ranked pro Ana Márquez had a similar experience after encountering LetsPoker at an 888Live event:

PokerStars Campione Goes Live with LetsPoker: A New Era for Italian Poker

Regency Casino Case Study: Cash Game Breakthrough with LetsPoker

"LetsPoker App Looks to Revolutionize the World of Live Poker"

From Local Platform to Global Standard

When COVID-19 shut down live poker in 2020, we used the downtime to rebuild the platform from the ground up — rethinking the UX, adding club management tools, and preparing for the scale we knew was coming.

It paid off. When live poker returned in 2022, we expanded to Australia, Canada, and the Caribbean. Today, LetsPoker serves thousands of players daily across six continents and 27 countries — from small-town clubs running weekly games to international festivals with thousands of entries.

In 2025, PokerStars chose LetsPoker again — this time to power its brand-new poker room at Casinò di Campione, one of Europe’s most iconic gaming venues with over 50 tables. That same year, we ran the infrastructure for the Israeli Poker Championship in Varna, where 2,386 Main Event entries and over €1.6 million in prize pools made it one of the largest poker festivals in the region.

The LetsPoker app now covers the full player experience: nearby event discovery, real-time tournament updates, friend tracking, waiting lists, and direct club communication. For operators, it’s a complete poker club management platform with business intelligence, real-time collaboration, and the tools to run professional events regardless of club size.

Most recently, Regency Casino Thessaloniki — home to Greece’s biggest poker festivals — used LetsPoker’s cash game management system to transform daily operations, hitting near-record cash game revenue on a regular weekday within weeks of going live.

We’re not done. Read our mission statement to see where we’re headed.