MLB playoffs
An MLB playoff bracket pool on Pooldit is a confidence bracket. Every player ranks all twelve playoff teams by giving each one its own number of units — 1 to 12, each number used once — and a team earns its units every time it wins a series. You send one link; the lock at the first pitch, the scoring and the standings take care of themselves.
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.
The field
The MLB postseason is a bracket of twelve teams: six from the American League and six from the National League. The top two seeds in each league have a bye through the Wild Card round; the other four play their way into the Division Series. The bracket is not reseeded after the Wild Card round, so every seed’s path to the World Series is fixed before the first pitch.
best of 3
Seeds 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 in each league, while the 1 and 2 seeds wait.
best of 5
The 1 seed meets the winner of 4 v 5, and the 2 seed meets the winner of 3 v 6.
best of 7
The two Division Series winners in each league play for a place in the World Series.
best of 7
The American League champion against the National League champion.
Why a confidence bracket
In a bracket where you call the winner of every series, one upset in the Wild Card round can wreck a sheet before the Division Series starts. A confidence bracket asks a different question — how much is each team worth to you — and you answer it for the whole field at once. Every team carries some of your units, and every series that ends pays its winner’s units to each entry, at whatever number that entry gave it.
Where a team starts matters as much as how good it is. A bye is not a win, so a top-two seed can win at most three series while a Wild Card team can win four — which is how a 4 on the right Wild Card team can outscore a 12 on the wrong top seed.
The deadline
A bracket pool has exactly one deadline: the first game of the Wild Card round. Until it starts, each player can change their numbers as often as they like, and sees only their own entry and a count of how many players have entered — so nobody can copy your 12. When it starts, every entry locks for the rest of the tournament.
So the time to start one is before the postseason begins, not during it: set the pool up, send the link, and get every entry in before the first pitch.
For commissioners
at setup
Bracket as the format, Confidence as the style, the MLB postseason as the tournament, and the places your pool pays. There is no separate league step: the tournament sets it.
before the first pitch
Follow your link, join, and hand out their twelve numbers.
the whole postseason
Locks every entry at the first pitch, scores each series as it goes final, and keeps the standings: units earned, teams still alive, and the most units each player could still finish with.
Where a bracket pool sits among the other pool types
A bracket pool pays out once, at the end of the tournament, down the list of places you set. There is no weekly payout to split.
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.
Autopick agents are not available in bracket pools, so every entry is filled in by the player who owns it.
It is a pool that follows the MLB postseason from the Wild Card round to the World Series. On Pooldit it is a confidence bracket: each player gives every one of the twelve playoff teams its own number of units, 1 to 12, each used once, and a team earns its units every time it wins a series. The most units at the end of the tournament wins the pool.
A traditional bracket asks you to call every series before it starts, so one early upset can sink your sheet. A confidence bracket asks how much each team is worth to you instead. Every team carries some of your units, every series win pays out, and a Wild Card upset stops only the units riding on the one team that lost.
Once, at the first pitch of the Wild Card round, for the whole tournament. Until then players can change their numbers as often as they like. After it no entry can be changed, so a bracket pool has to be set up and filled in before the postseason starts.
Not automatically. The top two seeds in each league have a bye through the Wild Card round, and a bye is not a win, so they can win at most three series. A Wild Card team can win four, which means a small number on a Wild Card team that goes deep can outscore a big number on a top seed.
For a commissioner running an MLB playoff pool: 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. The players you invite never pay to join your pool or to fill in their entry.
No. 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. A bracket pool pays out its dits once, at the end of the tournament, down the places the commissioner sets.
After the first pitch
Every entry locked at the first pitch of the Wild Card round, so a new MLB playoff bracket pool cannot be started. The pools set up before it score themselves as each series goes final, and their standings show units earned, teams still alive and the most units each player could still finish with.
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