Play Free Poker Online

Not sure where to start?

Pick by what you want out of the next ten minutes. If you just want something quick with no decisions against other players, video poker is the easiest way in: you get five cards, hold the ones you like and see what you draw. Jacks or Better is the plain version and the one most people learn on.

If you came here to practise real poker, sit down at Hold’em against three bots. It is no-limit, so you face the same bet-sizing questions you would at a normal table. And if you like puzzles more than playing against people, the Chinese poker and puzzle games are a different kind of thinking altogether.

What each group is about

• Video poker is you against a paytable. Each variant changes the payouts or adds wild cards, and that changes which hands are worth keeping. Start with the video poker group.
• Casino table poker and poker vs the dealer are the games you find on a casino floor, such as Three Card, Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud. You play your own hand against the house, so there is no bluffing. See casino table poker and poker vs the dealer.
• Hold’em and its variants cover the game you see on TV, plus relatives like Omaha, short deck and double-board games. Hold’em table games come first, then the variants.
• Stud and draw are the older formats. Razz, for example, is a seven-card stud game where the lowest hand wins, and Badugi is a four-card lowball draw. Try stud or draw and lowball if you want something that feels different from Hold’em.
• Home games are the kitchen-table games with odd rules: Guts, Follow the Queen, Baseball and others. Good for learning the rules before you host a night. Go to home game poker.

What free play is, and what it is not

Everything here runs on play credits. They have no cash value, you cannot buy more and you cannot cash anything out. There is no sign-up and nothing to download, so you can open a game, play a few hands and leave.

One honest warning: a good run on play credits tells you very little. Poker has a lot of luck in the short term, and nobody is risking anything here, so people tend to call and chase more than they would with their own money. Use these games to learn the rules, the hand rankings and the flow of a hand, not to judge how you would do in a real game.

Getting more out of your practice

• Learn one game properly before you jump to the next. Ten sessions of the same game teach more than one session of ten games.
• When a hand goes wrong, ask why. The poker calculators show the odds behind a call or a fold, and the training games drill the same decisions over and over.
• Read a little between sessions. The strategy guides explain the thinking behind the plays you are trying out.

Quick answers

Do I need an account?

No. Open a game and play. Nothing is saved to an account because there is no account.

Can I win real money?

No. The credits are for play only, they cannot be bought, and they cannot be exchanged for prizes or cash.

Do the games work on a phone?

Yes, they are built to run in a mobile browser as well as on a computer.

Which game is best for a complete beginner?

Jacks or Better video poker. There is only one thing to decide, which cards to keep, and the paytable is on the screen the whole time.