PokerBuddy ♠️
Home poker nights, made simple.
PokerBuddy is a full-stack web application designed to help players organize, run, and track home poker sessions.
It centralizes everything needed before, during, and after a game night — from session creation to in-game tools, player stats, and a friends leaderboard.
Why PokerBuddy?
Home poker nights are typically managed with:
- scattered Social Networks messages for invites
- manual blind timers on a phone
- paper notes or spreadsheets for results
PokerBuddy replaces all of that with one clean, mobile-first app.
Features
🗓️ Session management
- Create, edit and manage poker sessions
- Configure buy-in, blinds, places paid, payout distribution
- View upcoming, active and past sessions
- Host-only controls (edit, invite, submit results)
👥 Player invites
- Invite registered friends or add guests by name
- Accept / decline game invites
- Real-time invite status per player (pending / accepted / refused)
⏱️ Live Game Manager
- Dedicated in-game screen for the host
- Blind timer with structured levels
- Player management during the session
🏆 Results & Statistics
- Host submits final rankings and prizes at end of game
- Per-player stats computed from actual game results:
- Games played, Wins, Losses, Win rate
- Best win streak, Paid places finishes
- Average placement, Net result (€)
📊 Friends Leaderboard
- Ranks friends by: Net result → Wins → Average placement
- Compact view on homepage, full paginated view on
/leaderboard
- Only shows players in your friends list
🤝 Friends system
- Search users by username
- Send, accept, decline friend requests
- Remove friends
- In-app friend invite notifications
🔔 Notifications
- In-app notifications for: game results, friend requests, game invites
👤 Profile
- Avatar upload, username, bio
- Public profile page per user
- Friends list with avatars
📖 Learn
- Poker rules reference
- Hand rankings
- Strategy basics
- Glossary
Tech Stack
Frontend
- Next.js 15 (App Router, Turbopack)
- React 19
- SCSS / Sass — no Tailwind, custom design system
- Zustand — global state (auth, notifications, toasts)
- Axios — API client
- FontAwesome — icons
- PWA — installable, push notification support
Backend
- Express.js 5
- PostgreSQL + Sequelize 6 ORM
- JWT — authentication
- Argon2 — password hashing
- Multer — avatar file uploads
- Node.js ESM (native
import/export)
Project Structure
TFE/
├── TFE_PokerBuddy_Client/ # Next.js frontend
│ └── src/
│ ├── app/ # Pages (App Router)
│ ├── components/ # Reusable UI components
│ ├── features/ # Feature-scoped components (modals, forms)
│ ├── services/ # API service layer (axios)
│ ├── stores/ # Zustand stores
│ └── ui/ # Layout components (header, footer, navbar)
│
└── TFE_PokerBuddy_Server/ # Express.js API
└── src/
├── controllers/ # Route handlers
├── middlewares/ # Auth, upload
├── models/ # Sequelize models
├── routers/ # Express routers
├── seeder/ # Dev seed data
└── utils/ # Shared utilities
Project Context
PokerBuddy is a Final Project (TFE) developed as part of a Full-Stack JavaScript training.
The goal was to deliver a complete, usable product within a limited timeframe, with a focus on:
- real-world features and usability
- clean REST API design
- mobile-first responsive UI
- maintainable codebase
Status
✅ Core features complete and stable
✅ Stats & leaderboard system live
✅ Friends system with notifications
✅ Avatar system
✅ Toast feedback system (no more browser alert())
🚧 PWA push notifications (infrastructure ready, UX in progress)
