# Getting Started: Main Lobby

The main lobby is the screen you see when you first start Poker Academy. It is a launching screen to take you deeper into the program.

You can perform any of the following options.

### Select a game lobby so you can launch a game

- Ring Games — Practice playing cash games against the bots. These games are played with fixed stakes and with any bankroll you wish. The object is simply to make money.
- Tournaments — In a tournament each player starts with the same number of chips, and the blinds increase periodically. As players lose all their chips they are removed. The object is to be the last one standing. Poker Academy supports a variety of tournaments from single tables to large multi-table events with thousands of computer players.
- Poker Academy Online — Play against other Poker Academy users over the Internet (requires an Internet connection). From this lobby you can connect to our game servers and play against other users. You can sit down in a room or create your own. Ring games and single table tournaments are supported. All games are for play money and there is no fee to use this service.

### Launch an analysis tool

- Hand Evaluator — Analyze a specific player holding and board context, listing its potential and outs in detail. The hand evaluator can be run on its own to analyze an arbitrary hand, or loaded with the current hand from an in progress game.
- Showdown Calculator — Analyze a set of up to 10 hands and board cards and determine the probability of each holding winning, losing, or tieing assuming that all players see the showdown. This is often called all-in equity. Some or all of the hole cards or board can be left unspecified.
- Player Statistics — Analyze all of the hands you have played against the bots and display statistics. This tool shows you how well you are doing versus other players, in various positions, with various types of hole cards, and much more.

### Other options

- Get assistance from this help system, and the built-in Hold'em tutorial, or read our About screen to get some general information and to see the build number. (This can be useful for technical support).
- If you have a game in progress and come back to the lobby screen there will be a "Resume Game" button at the bottom of the screen which will take you back into the game.