One opponent. One rating. One ladder.
Duel is competitive heads-up No-Limit Hold'em, played as a skill sport. One match, one opponent, and the only thing on the line is where you stand.
Free to play — no real money, no prizes, no cash-out.
18+ only. There is nothing to deposit, and nothing to win but rank.
How a duel works
One match, one opponent, head to head. Nothing is staked and nothing is bought — the duel decides where you rank, and that is all it decides.
- One
You are seated
Join the queue and you are matched with a single opponent, head to head. No table of strangers, no waiting for eight seats to fill. Just the two of you.
- Two
You play it out
Heads-up No-Limit Hold'em until one of you holds every chip. The chips are scorekeeping — they have no value, they cannot be bought, and they cannot be cashed out.
- Three
It counts
The result moves your rating, and the whole match is recorded hand by hand so you can replay any decision afterwards and see what it cost you.
How rating works
Duel is ranked the way competitive skill ladders are ranked — not by how long you have played, but by who you beat.
Glicko-2
Your rating is Glicko-2, the rating system used by competitive chess ladders. Beating a stronger opponent moves you further than beating a weaker one. It also tracks how certain it is about you, so a new player's rating moves fast and settles as you play — which means an early run of luck does not leave a permanent mark.
Every rated duel updates it. Nothing else does: there is no way to buy a rating, and no way to inherit one.
Seasons
The ladder runs in seasons. Each one closes and standings settle back toward the middle, so rank is earned again rather than held. A quiet season costs you ground.
Player of the Year
Across the year the seasons add up to one standing. The player who finishes on top takes Player of the Year — the only title the site hands out.
This is the whole product
Screenshots of the live arena, exactly as it is deployed. No mock-ups, and nothing here has been dressed up for a landing page.
What the ladder is
Duel is new, and the board is small enough that publishing it here would say more about our launch than about the game. So here is what you are climbing toward instead.
- Placement
- Your first duels place you. Until the ladder is confident about your rating you are ranked but unplaced — so a lucky first night does not put you on top of the board.
- A season
- A fixed stretch of laddering that closes and settles. Rank does not carry over untouched: each season asks the question again.
- Player of the Year
- The season results add up across the year, and whoever finishes on top takes it. There is one, and it is the only title here.
The live board is public either way — it is on the ladder page.
Take a seat
An email address is the whole sign-up. We send a one-tap link, it creates the account on the first click, and you are in the queue.
Free to play — no real money, no prizes, no cash-out. 18+ only.
Enter the arena
New here? We'll email you a one-tap sign-in link — no password needed.