iPokerPal
A cross-platform poker session tracking app for managing live games, player balances, and settlements with real-time and offline-friendly support.
- Designed and developed a cross-platform mobile and web application using React Native Expo, Node.js and firebase to manage real-time poker sessions and financial settlements for 10+ concurrent users.
- Implemented predictable state management using Zustand to support high-frequency real-time update with minimal re-renders and ensuring smooth real-time gameplay.
- Developed consistent financial settlement logic ensuring accurate balance calculations with <200ms latency across session participants.
- Wrote unit and integration tests for critical financial calculations and state transitions, ensuring correctness and preventing regressions during feature updates.
Problem
Live poker sessions are often tracked manually, which makes chip accounting and settlement slow, error-prone, and difficult to manage consistently.
The project needed to handle real-time updates while keeping the experience simple for small groups of players.
Approach
Built a cross-platform application focused on clear state management, fast updates, and accurate settlement logic.
Prioritised correctness for financial calculations and responsiveness for live session use.
Implementation
Session and settlement system
- Built core workflows for poker session tracking, player balance updates, and settlement management
- Designed the system to keep calculations accurate and easy to verify during live use
State management and responsiveness
- Used Zustand for predictable state management under frequent updates
- Reduced unnecessary re-renders to keep the UI smooth during active sessions
Testing and maintenance
- Wrote unit and integration tests for critical calculation logic and state transitions
- Structured the project to make future feature changes safer and easier to maintain
Result
Delivered a working cross-platform app and web presence for live poker session management, with real-time behaviour and verified financial logic.
Lessons
- For financial features, correctness matters more than visual complexity.
- State design has a big impact on both performance and long-term maintainability.