How to Play All-in or Fold Sit & Go

What All-in or Fold Sit & Go is and where it fits on Natural8

All-in or Fold is a poker variant built around a single decision. When the action reaches you, you either push your entire stack into the middle or you fold and wait for the next hand. There is no calling, no small raise, no flop play in the usual sense. That strips the game down to the two choices that matter most in short-stack poker and turns every hand into a quick, clean decision¹.

Because there is no multi-street betting, hands finish fast. A table that would take several minutes to play out a normal hand in Texas Hold'em resolves in seconds here. That pace is the whole point of the format, and it is why it sits alongside other fast structures rather than in the standard tournament lobby. If you want the wider picture of how these formats compare, our guide to Sit & Go formats covers Spin & Go, Battle Royale, Flip & Go and All-in or Fold side by side.

On Natural8, All-in or Fold runs as a Sit & Go, meaning you join a table and play begins once enough players are seated rather than at a scheduled start time. Seats in Natural8 tournaments are randomly assigned to players, so you do not pick your spot at the table⁵. That is different from the VIP cash games, where a Push Seat option lets a player running cold choose a desired seat and other players shift one seat counterclockwise if needed⁶. All-in or Fold does not offer that; you take the seat you are given.

The format is available on both desktop and mobile, like the rest of the Natural8 platform⁷. You can play it in a browser or through the app, and the interface is the same either way. If you are new to the underlying mechanics, our poker betting actions page explains what folding actually means: ending your participation in the hand, forfeiting all bets placed, and being barred from making any further bets on that round⁹. In All-in or Fold, that is half of your entire decision tree.

Who can play: country restrictions, age and account rules

The baseline age to open a Natural8 account is 18, provided you also meet the minimum age requirement in your local jurisdiction². In practice that means the higher of the two numbers applies. If you live somewhere that sets the gambling age at 21, you need to be 21 even though the site's own floor is 18.

Promotions can set their own age bar on top of that. One All-in or Fold promotion states that players must be aged 18 and above to take part¹, while another lists 21 years and above for players joining that specific promotion¹⁰. The lesson is simple: read the terms of the individual event before you opt in, because the age rule that applies to the promotion is not always the same as the rule for the account.

Account rules are strict. You are only permitted to open one account, and if you already have more than one you must inform support immediately². The same terms go further and allow only one account for each IP address or household¹¹. That second rule catches people out. Two flatmates who both want to play cannot each register from the same connection without running into it, and a family sharing one home network has the same problem. If you are in that situation, contact support before you do anything else rather than opening a second account and hoping it goes unnoticed.

Country availability is not universal. Natural8 withdrew from India to ensure full compliance with changes in the law there¹², so players in that market cannot use the site. Elsewhere in Asia the picture varies by jurisdiction, and the rules that apply to you depend on where you are resident, not where you happen to be sitting when you log in. Our country guides, starting with gambling in Thailand and gambling in Vietnam, set out the local position for residents and visitors.

Setting up an account: verification and documents

Registration itself is quick, but the account is not fully usable for withdrawals until you have verified your identity. The verification step is where most first-timers lose time, so it is worth doing early rather than the moment you want to cash out.

The core requirement is a current photo ID. For your first withdrawal request you need a copy of a photo ID, which can be a passport, driving license or national ID card, and it must show your full name, your photo and your signature¹³. A document that is missing any one of those three elements will not pass. If your driving license has no signature on it, use your passport instead.

A few practical points that save trouble later:

• Take the photo in good light, with all four corners of the document visible and no glare across the text.
• Make sure the name on the ID matches the name on your Natural8 account exactly. Nicknames, shortened first names and middle-name omissions are common causes of delay.
• Do the verification before you build a balance you want to move. It is far less stressful to sort out at the start than when a withdrawal is sitting in review.
• Keep the same document on file. If you verify with a passport and later submit a driving license, expect questions.

Identity checks are standard across financial and gambling services, not unique to poker. When you open a bank account, for example, you need to provide an ID document to verify your identity¹⁵. The same logic applies here, and the same quality of document is expected.

Deposits and payments through the app cashier

Funding your account runs through the cashier inside the app or the desktop client. The cashier is where you choose a payment method, enter the amount and confirm. Once the money lands, it shows in your balance and is available to buy into All-in or Fold Sit & Gos.

A few things are worth knowing before you deposit. First, the balance you deposit is not the same as the balance you can withdraw. Poker profits from the previous 72 hours are held in your poker wallet and are not immediately withdrawable, though you can still use them at the tables⁴. That hold applies to winnings, not to your original deposit, but it does mean your withdrawable figure and your playable figure can differ.

Second, the fee structure in All-in or Fold works differently from a standard rake.

That last point surprises people. Folding is not always free in this format, because the fee can come out of your balance rather than the pot you did not contest. Budget for it.

Third, keep your deposit method and your withdrawal method in mind from the start. The withdrawal policy does not promise that you can cash out to a different method than you deposited with, and your bank or payment processor may or may not levy a fee³. Any fee is clearly shown on the withdrawal request page before you confirm, so read that screen rather than assuming it is free.

If you are playing from a country where local payment rails are restricted, the practical route many players use is a crypto wallet funded separately, then deposited into the cashier. Whatever route you choose, the account name and the payment method name should match, because mismatches are a common reason for a withdrawal to be held for review.

Withdrawal timing and the 72-hour poker wallet hold

Withdrawals generally take up to 24 hours to process, but in some cases they may take up to 72 hours³. That is the site's own processing window, and it does not include whatever time your bank or payment processor adds afterwards. In practice, a request submitted on a weekday morning is usually settled well inside the 24-hour figure, while a request that lands during a review or over a weekend can run closer to the longer end.

The bigger timing factor is the poker wallet hold. Profits arising from poker sessions are not available immediately to withdraw; they are held in your poker wallet for 72 hours⁴. During that window the money is not frozen in place. You can still use it at the poker tables, so it functions as part of your playing balance. What you cannot do is pull it out. If you win a Sit & Go at 9 p.m. on a Monday, that profit becomes withdrawable at 9 p.m. on Thursday, not before.

The sequence for a first withdrawal looks like this:

1. Check that your photo ID has been submitted and accepted. The first request needs a copy showing your full name, photo and signature¹³.
2. Confirm that the amount you want to withdraw is outside the 72-hour hold. Anything won in the last three days stays in the poker wallet⁴.
3. Open the withdrawal request page and read the fee line. Your bank or payment processor may charge a fee, and it is shown there before you confirm³.
4. Submit the request and allow up to 24 hours, or up to 72 hours in some cases, for processing³.
5. Allow additional time for your bank or processor to credit the funds after Natural8 releases them.

One more thing to plan around: if Natural8 ever terminates its business in a specific country, pay-outs may be subject to reasonable processing charges³. That is a clause rather than a current charge, but it is the reason to keep your withdrawal details current and your balance not sitting idle for long periods.

The All-in or Fold leaderboard promotion and eligibility

All-in or Fold has its own leaderboard promotion, and the rules for earning points in it are specific. Points can only be earned at All-in or Fold tables, and VIP tables are not included¹⁶. A hand only counts toward your total when there are three or more active players at the table¹⁶. That last condition matters in a fast format where tables can thin out quickly; a heads-up hand will not add to your score.

Promotions on Natural8 generally require you to be older than 18 at the time of participation to be eligible for the bonuses and promotions on offer¹⁶. Individual events can raise that bar, as the 21-and-above promotion shows¹⁰, so the terms of the specific leaderboard or series always govern.

For players who want to move beyond the fast format, the standard game is worth learning properly. Our Texas Hold'em rules page walks through blinds, betting rounds and the board, and poker hand rankings covers the order of hands including the short deck and lowball differences.

Safer gambling tools and self-exclusion

Natural8 provides a self-exclusion facility that lets you close your account for a temporary period ranging from one hour up to five years, or permanently². You can select it through the Cashier dashboard or by emailing support@natural8.com². Once you choose to self-exclude, your account is closed for the duration of the period you picked, you lose access to the games, and any remaining balance is returned in line with the withdrawal policy².

If you want to take a break from gambling, self-exclusion is a tool you can use. It is a program you enter voluntarily with an online or land-based gambling operator, and you agree not to gamble for a chosen time¹¹. It can be an effective tool to support your commitment to stay away from gambling².

Self-exclusion is a well-established tool and it works best when you treat it as a commitment rather than a formality. It prevents you from gambling by blocking access to the site you have excluded with, for a set period or indefinitely, and you can extend it if you need more time¹⁷. It is a program you enter voluntarily with an operator and agree not to gamble for a chosen period¹⁸, and used properly it is an effective way to support your commitment to stay away¹⁹.

Budget and time limits are the lighter-touch version of the same idea. Many mobile and internet gambling sites provide tools to help you monitor your play, and setting a budget and a time limit before you start is the simplest version of that⁹. Poker has its own version of this advice: consider using cash only and leaving credit cards at home, and set a budget and a win limit in advance¹⁵. In an all-in or fold format, where every hand is a binary decision, a pre-set stop point is especially useful because the pace makes it easy to play far more hands than you intended.

If gambling stops feeling like a choice, help is available and it is worth using early. Support services exist for people who want to change their behavior²⁰, and there are dedicated routes to finding help²¹. Some operators build self-diagnosis tools for players who are struggling and pair them with self-exclusion options²². None of this is a sign that something has gone wrong with you; it is the same set of tools that experienced players use to keep the game in its place.