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Poker Hawk

Tournament Director alternative

Everything you run in Tournament Director — on every screen you own.

The Tournament Director is a deep piece of software, but it lives on one Windows PC. Poker Hawk is the modern alternative: the same tournament fundamentals, synchronized live across Mac, Windows, phones, and the TV over the table — with a free app for every player.

Free for players · Free trial for hosts · Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Fire TV, Google TV
Why hosts switch

TTD was built for one PC. Your game outgrew one PC.

The Tournament Director earned its reputation: for two decades it has been the most configurable tournament desktop program you can buy, and if you run it on a dedicated Windows tower wired to a monitor, it still does that one job well. If that is your whole setup and it works, keep it — this page is for everyone who has hit its walls.

The walls are real: there is no Mac version, no phone app, no way for a player to check the clock, their table, or the payouts without walking over to the screen. Structures, players, and results live in files on one machine. And every league update means you at the PC, typing, while the room waits.

Poker Hawk starts from a different premise: the tournament lives in the cloud and every screen in the room is a view of it. You host from a Mac or Windows desktop (or your phone), players follow along on their own phones for free, and the TV shows the clock with no casting tricks. Blinds, rebuys, eliminations, table balancing, payouts — one change, every screen, instantly.

What you get

The fundamentals you expect, minus the single-PC ceiling.

Poker Hawk covers the tournament core TTD is known for, then adds the parts a one-machine program never could.

Full tournament clock

Levels, blinds, antes, breaks, audio cues, saved structures. Auto-advances and keeps running through Wi-Fi blips.

Custom blind structures

Rebuild your TTD structure in minutes with the structure editor — or start from Standard, Turbo, or Deepstack presets.

Payouts, rebuys, bounties

Flat, ICM, and PokerStars-style payout schemes recalculate live as entries change. One-tap chops included.

Free player app

Every player sees the live clock, their seat, stack, and projected payout on their own phone. TTD has no player-facing anything.

Native TV displays

Fire TV and Google TV apps (or any browser) mirror the clock for the room — no HDMI cable snaked across the kitchen.

Table balancing & seating

Auto-balance as the field shrinks, collapse tables, and send players their new seat on their phones.

League & season tracking

Persistent club rosters, POY leaderboards, lifetime stats, and results that post to your club feed automatically.

Mac and Windows, equally

The host desktop app is native on both. No Boot Camp, no Parallels, no dusty Windows laptop kept alive for poker night.

Switching

Move your game in one evening.

Most TTD hosts run their first Poker Hawk event the same week they try it. There is a guided path in the Academy written specifically for you.

  1. Step 01

    Rebuild your structure

    Recreate your favorite TTD blind structure in the editor — most hosts finish in under ten minutes — and save it as a template.

  2. Step 02

    Create your club

    Spin up a private club, invite your regulars with a link, and your roster builds itself as players join.

  3. Step 03

    Run the next night on Poker Hawk

    Start the clock on desktop, put the TV app on the big screen, and let players follow along on their phones.

Head to head

Poker Hawk vs The Tournament Director.

Honest comparison based on publicly documented features as of 2026. TTD wins on one-time pricing and two decades of niche configuration options — we tell you that below, too.

Feature
Poker Hawk
Tournament Director
Windows desktop · one-time license
Runs on Mac
iOS + Android apps
Native TV apps
Live sync across devices
Free player app with clock + payouts
Player RSVPs & self check-in
Auto table balancing
League / points tracking
One-time purchase option
Two decades of edge-case settings
FAQ

Switching from Tournament Director

The questions TTD hosts actually ask before moving.

Is there really no Tournament Director for Mac?
Correct — The Tournament Director is Windows-only and always has been. Poker Hawk's host desktop app is native on both macOS and Windows, and the account is the same either way, so a mixed Mac/Windows household just works.
Can I import my TTD blind structures?
There is no automated file import, but the structure editor makes rebuilding fast — level duration, blinds, antes, and breaks are a single screen, and most hosts recreate their favorite structure in under ten minutes. The "Switching from The Tournament Director" path in our Academy walks through it step by step.
How does the price compare to TTD's one-time license?
TTD charges a one-time $39.99 personal license, and that is genuinely cheaper over several years for a one-PC setup. Poker Hawk is a subscription (host plans from $9.99/mo, with a free trial and roughly 50% off for life via Founder pricing during Early Access) because it runs a live cloud service: real-time sync, the free player apps, TV apps, and hosted league history are ongoing infrastructure, not a boxed executable.
What is actually better about a synced platform for a home game?
The clock and payouts stop being trapped on one screen. Players see blinds, their seat, and the money on their own phones; rebuys and eliminations update the prize pool everywhere instantly; and the TV display needs no cable. You stop being the person who reads the screen aloud all night.
Does Poker Hawk handle leagues and points like TTD?
Yes — clubs have persistent rosters, configurable points/POY leaderboards, lifetime player stats, and results that post to the club feed automatically after each event. TTD's stats engine is deeply configurable and some exotic formulas may not have equivalents yet; if yours is one of them, tell us in Support & Feedback.
What happens if my internet drops mid-tournament?
The host's clock is local-first: levels keep running on the host machine through Wi-Fi blips, and phones/TVs resync automatically when the network recovers. A fully offline permanent setup, though, is the one scenario where a single-PC program like TTD remains the right tool.

Related

Poker Hawk vs Tournament Director

The full head-to-head comparison.

Switching from TTD — guided path

Step-by-step migration in the Academy.

Poker tournament clock

What the clock does in a live room.

Poker club management

Leagues, leaderboards, and rosters.

Compare all software

How the whole field stacks up.

Pricing

Host plans and Founder pricing.

Make the switch

Your next game night can run on Poker Hawk.

Free trial, no credit card to look around. Rebuild your structure, invite your regulars, and see the whole room in sync before you commit to anything.