Pool format
A bracket pool follows one tournament from the first Wild Card game to the last out of the World Series. Every player gives each of the twelve postseason teams its own number of units — 1 to 12, each number used once — and a team earns its units every time it wins a series. One entry and one lock, at the tournament’s first game — so set the pool up and send the link before it starts. From there, the standings move every time a series ends.
Pooldit is not a gambling site — no real money, ever. Pools play for dits, an in-app currency that keeps score of whatever your group already agreed on.
How it works
A traditional playoff bracket asks you to call every series before it starts, and one early upset can wreck the whole sheet. A confidence bracket asks a different question: not only who goes far, but how much each team is worth to you. You rank the entire field at once by handing out units, and your score is the units riding on every team that wins a series.
Everybody holds the same twelve numbers, 1 through 12. To enter, tap a team and choose its units from the numbers you have left; the sheet counts the teams still without units, so nothing is left blank by accident. Put your 12 on the team you trust most and your 1 on the team you trust least — every team gets a number, including the ones you think are going home first.
best of 3
Four series, two in each league. The top two seeds in each league have a bye — and a bye is not a win, so those four teams earn nothing this round.
best of 5
The byes end. Each winner earns its units once more, whichever round it came from.
best of 7
One series per league. Win it and a team pays its units again.
best of 7
The last series of the tournament, and the last chance for a team still alive to pay out.
How a weekly confidence pool works · How a bracket compares with the other pool types · Running an MLB playoff bracket pool for your group
A worked example
Because a bye is not a win, where a team starts matters as much as how good it is. A team that plays its way through the Wild Card round has four series to win; a top-two seed has at most three. Take three numbers from one entry:
earned 12
Bye through the Wild Card round, so nothing there. Wins its Division Series for 12, then loses the League Championship Series.
earned 0
Bye, then out in the Division Series. Your second-biggest number never scored once.
earned 16
Wins its Wild Card series, its Division Series, the League Championship Series and the World Series — 4 units, four times.
Those three teams are worth 28 units, and the smallest number of the three earned the most. That is the whole game: every player has the same twelve numbers, so the pool is decided by where you put them.
The lock
There is no weekly deadline. The whole entry locks when the tournament’s first game starts, which means a bracket pool has to be set up, shared and filled in before the Wild Card round begins. Until then you can change your numbers as often as you like.
Entries stay private until the lock. Before the first game you see your own entry and a count of how many players have entered — so nobody can copy your 12. After it, the standings rank every player by units earned, with how many of each player’s teams are still alive and the most units that player could still finish with.
Series results score themselves as they go final. Nobody tallies anything, including the commissioner.
For commissioners
The one deadline is the first game. Every entry in the pool locks when the Wild Card Series starts, and after that the sheet takes no new numbers — so send the link well before it. You do not have to wait for the field either: a pool can be created, joined and filled in before the twelve teams are known. An entry made then gives its units to seeds, and the clubs fill in when the bracket is announced.
Step 1
Bracket is its own format in the pool setup. Confidence is the bracket style you can create today.
Step 2
Pick the 2026 MLB postseason. There is no separate league step: a bracket pool plays exactly its tournament’s league.
Step 3
A bracket pays out once, at the end of the tournament, down the list of places you choose. There is no weekly payout to split.
Step 4
Everyone who opens it can join and fill in an entry before the first game. The lock, the scoring and the standings take care of themselves.
The 2026 MLB postseason bracket is under way — it is free for everyone playing in it, and its entries locked at the first game, so a new one cannot be started; other tournament brackets will be Players Club when they arrive. Free for everyone through October — open beta, all features on. From Nov 1: playing in pools stays free forever; commissioners/power users $5/month.
Two other bracket styles, Classic and Custom, are on the roadmap and cannot be created yet. Autopick agents are not available in bracket pools either, so every entry is filled in by the player who owns it.
It is a bracket pool where, instead of picking the winner of every series, each player gives every team in the tournament its own number of units, using each number once. For the 2026 MLB postseason that is twelve teams and the numbers 1 to 12. A team earns its units every time it wins a series, so the most units at the end of the tournament wins the pool.
Every series a team wins pays the units you gave it: the Wild Card Series, the Division Series, the League Championship Series and the World Series. The top two seeds in each league have a bye through the Wild Card round, and a bye is not a win, so those teams can win at most three series while a Wild Card team can win four.
The whole entry locks once, when the tournament’s first game starts, and you can change your numbers as often as you like until then. Before the lock you see only your own entry and a count of how many players have entered. After it, the standings rank everybody by units earned, with how many of each player’s teams are still alive and the most units each player could still finish with.
Yes. A pool can be created, joined and filled in before the twelve teams are known: an entry made before the field is named gives its units to seeds, and the clubs fill in when the bracket is announced. The one deadline is the tournament’s first game, when every entry locks, so send the invite link well before it.
Once, at the end of the tournament, down the list of places the commissioner sets. There is no weekly payout in a bracket pool. Pools play for dits, an in-app currency that keeps score of whatever your group agreed on, and Pooldit never takes, holds or moves real money.
The 2026 MLB postseason bracket is under way — it is free for everyone playing in it, and its entries locked at the first game, so a new one cannot be started; other tournament brackets will be Players Club when they arrive. Playing in any pool you are invited to is always free, with no per-player charge.
Not yet. The one tournament available is the 2026 MLB postseason and the one bracket style is Confidence. Classic and Custom brackets are on the roadmap, and no football or college basketball bracket can be created today.
No. Autopick agents are not available in bracket pools, because a bracket entry is a set of units across teams rather than a pick on a game. Every entry is filled in by the player who owns it, before the first game.
After the first game
The 2026 MLB postseason bracket has started: every entry locked at its first game, so a new bracket pool cannot be started on it. The pools set up before then score themselves as each series goes final, and their standings rank every player by units earned, teams still alive and the most units each could still finish with.
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