diff --git a/JoshHeaps.Net/wwwroot/css/casino/holdem.css b/JoshHeaps.Net/wwwroot/css/casino/holdem.css
index 87379f9..57b44ee 100644
--- a/JoshHeaps.Net/wwwroot/css/casino/holdem.css
+++ b/JoshHeaps.Net/wwwroot/css/casino/holdem.css
@@ -510,13 +510,53 @@ button,
 
 /* Sitting out, not gone: still a person the dealer may need to deal back in, so
    the name has to stay readable rather than fading almost to the felt. */
+/* Out of the hand, still readable.
+
+   Both of these used to fade the whole seat — opacity 0.5 folded, 0.58 sitting out —
+   and opacity on a box fades the text you still have to read along with the box you
+   wanted to push back. Measured off the rendered pixels at 11.5px text, where AA asks
+   for 4.5:1:
+
+     live     name 13.28   stack 4.75
+     folded   name  4.75   stack 2.22
+     sat out  name  7.00   stack 3.22
+
+   A folded player's stack is not decoration. It's what they'll have next hand and the
+   answer to "how much has Ben got?", and at 2.22:1 it was barely there.
+
+   So the box recedes and the text doesn't: a flatter, darker background and a muted
+   border say "not in this hand", while the name and the stack keep colours that
+   measure. The folded seat keeps its red border and the line through the name, which
+   is the part that actually names the state. */
+.seat.seatInactive,
+.seat.seatFolded {
+    background: linear-gradient(160deg, #232323, #171717);
+    border-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.06);
+}
+
+/* A folded seat already says so twice — a red border and a line through the name — but
+   a seat that's sitting out said it only by being faint, and taking the faintness away
+   took the whole signal with it. A dashed edge is the same thing an empty chair wears,
+   which is right: neither is in this hand. The name and the stack tell them apart. */
 .seat.seatInactive {
-    opacity: 0.58;
+    border-style: dashed;
+    border-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.22);
+}
+
+.seat.seatInactive .seatPuckName,
+.seat.seatFolded .seatPuckName {
+    color: #b0b0b0;
+}
+
+.seat.seatInactive .seatPuckStack,
+.seat.seatFolded .seatPuckStack,
+.seat.seatInactive .seatPuckTotal,
+.seat.seatFolded .seatPuckTotal {
+    color: #8f8f8f;
 }
 
 .seat.seatFolded {
     border-color: rgba(224, 123, 123, 0.4);
-    opacity: 0.5;
 }
 
 .seat.seatFolded .seatPuckName {
@@ -2169,11 +2209,12 @@ body.hasActionBar #holdemSidebar {
 
 /* The undo pill's key, inline rather than pinned to a corner — see actionBar.js. */
 .actionUndoKey {
+    /* See .actionKey below for why these are not fainter. */
     margin-left: 0.4rem;
     padding: 0 0.25rem;
     border-radius: 4px;
     border: 1px solid currentColor;
-    opacity: 0.55;
+    opacity: 0.75;
     font-family: inherit;
     font-size: 0.6rem;
     line-height: 1.4;
@@ -2181,6 +2222,10 @@ body.hasActionBar #holdemSidebar {
     pointer-events: none;
 }
 
+/* A key hint is small — 9.6px — so AA asks 4.5:1 of it, and at the opacity these used
+   to carry they measured 2.97 to 3.33 against their buttons. That's the same fault as
+   the folded seats above: a fade chosen for looks pushing text a dealer is meant to
+   read under the threshold. They're still quieter than the label they sit beside. */
 .actionKey {
     position: absolute;
     top: 5px;
@@ -2188,7 +2233,7 @@ body.hasActionBar #holdemSidebar {
     padding: 0 0.25rem;
     border-radius: 4px;
     border: 1px solid currentColor;
-    opacity: 0.4;
+    opacity: 0.75;
     font-family: inherit;
     font-size: 0.6rem;
     line-height: 1.4;
diff --git a/tests/holdem/uiAudit.js b/tests/holdem/uiAudit.js
index 27d2d03..98b270d 100644
--- a/tests/holdem/uiAudit.js
+++ b/tests/holdem/uiAudit.js
@@ -349,6 +349,16 @@ const LayoutAudit = {
         });
     },
 
+    // Every element between this one and the document, so an opacity set on a
+    // container can be seen from the text inside it.
+    *ancestors(el) {
+        let node = el.parentElement;
+        while (node) {
+            yield node;
+            node = node.parentElement;
+        }
+    },
+
     contrast({ minimum = 4.5, largeMinimum = 3, selector = null } = {}) {
         const offenders = [];
         const unmeasured = [];
@@ -365,7 +375,21 @@ const LayoutAudit = {
             if (rect.width === 0 || rect.height === 0) return;
             const style = getComputedStyle(el);
             if (style.visibility === "hidden" || style.display === "none") return;
-            if (parseFloat(style.opacity) < 0.99) return;     // faded on purpose
+            // Faded text used to be skipped outright as "faded on purpose", and that
+            // exemption hid a real fault: the folded and sat-out seats dimmed their
+            // whole box with opacity, so a folded player's stack measured 2.22:1 at
+            // 11.5px and this check never looked at it. Something invisible is still
+            // exempt — there's nothing to read at zero — but anything in between is
+            // reported as unmeasured rather than passed over in silence, because a
+            // number nobody checked is not the same as a number that's fine.
+            const opacity = parseFloat(style.opacity);
+            if (opacity <= 0.02) return;
+            const faded = opacity < 0.99 ||
+                [...this.ancestors(el)].some(a => parseFloat(getComputedStyle(a).opacity) < 0.99);
+            if (faded) {
+                unmeasured.push(`${this.describe(el)} :: faded (opacity ${opacity}), contrast not checked`);
+                return;
+            }
             // Decoration is exempt by definition: the watermark on the felt is meant
             // to be barely there, and holding it to a reading threshold would mean
             // making it not a watermark. Marked aria-hidden so screen readers skip it