Bitcoin Poker

What Is Poker Online?

Normally, when you hear the word poker online, a few things come to mind:

• Online table game poker
• Online table games hold’em
• Live poker
• Live Texas hold ‘em poker

Basically, there are two main variations of the game: the 5-card game and the Texas Hold’em. And you can play the two versions against a Poker Software AI or against a live dealer or other players. There is also video poker which we have covered extensively here.

Bitcoin Poker – How It Works?

No matter which version of the game you are playing, in poker, your goal is to have the best possible cards and pin them against your opponents.
Your cards vary in strength and while luck is very important, strategy is arguably the most important factor.

You’ll have to consider what your opponents are holding and, more importantly, if you think your hand is strong enough to go against theirs.
At the same time, you also need to consider whether or not your opponent might be bluffing.

How To Get Started with Bitcoin Poker?

It’s actually easier than it sounds. All you need is to find a gambling site that has poker available, a crypto wallet (or a different payment method), and a willingness to play. Almost every online casino out there has at least one variation of poker and many of them accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, so you won’t have a hard time finding a website that works for you.

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to how you can get started with playing poker using Bitcoin:

1. Create a Bitcoin wallet – First things first: you need to create a Bitcoin wallet. There are a lot of great crypto wallets out there so, just pick one that looks best and go for it. We recommend (Binance, Metamask, CoinsPaid, and Electrum). Creating a wallet is almost like creating a website account but it has a few extra steps (for security reasons).
2. Add some Bitcoins to your wallet – If your newly created crypto wallet also doubles as a crypto exchange then you can simply purchase cryptocurrency directly from your wallet account. Just add some Bitcoins, Ethereum Litecoin, or whichever cryptocurrencies you want, and you’ll be ready for the next step.
3. Find an online casino/poker room that accepts Bitcoin – Most online casinos/poker rooms accept Bitcoin, however, you should still do a bit of digging to find a good one. Not all gambling sites offer the same service and some of them will even try to scam you out of your money. Check out our list of reputable online casinos.
4. Deposit your Bitcoin/link your wallet – When you’ve created a Bitcoin casino account, you can either use your crypto wallet to send funds to the casino account or directly link it (not all gambling sites allow this yet). When the funds appear on your casino/poker room account, you’ll be ready to play.
5. Enjoy your poker experience – At this point, there should be nothing preventing you from playing poker. Simply join a poker table or a live poker game and enjoy your time. Don’t forget to play responsibly.

Types of Poker Online

Best Online Poker Hands

If you are new to poker, it can be confusing to remember all types of hand combinations you can have. Down below, we’ve listed all the combinations, from lowest to highest.

We are going to mainly focus on Texas Hold em combinations but the same rules apply for regular poker combinations. If you play a few hands of poker, you’ll end up learning these by heart in a couple of games, but for now, remember these combinations:

• Rank 10: High Card – A high card isn’t actually worth anything, however, if no other player has any winning combinations, the highest card wins. While risky, poker players have been known to go all out with a single high card (Ace, King, Queen) and hope for the best and many of those hands ended up winning through bluffing or for simply being the highest cards.
• Rank 9: Pair – Just like the name suggests, a pair is when you have two cards of the same number/kind. The lowest pair you can have is a pair of 2s while the highest is a pair of aces. A pair can be made exclusively from the player’s hand or a combination of one community card and one player’s card.
• Rank 8: Two pairs – Same as the above except there are two cards with the same number/kind. Just like before this can be a combination of the cards in the player’s hands with the cards from the community pile.
• Rank 7: Three of a kind – When a player is able to create a combination of three cards of the same kind, this combination can beat even the strongest two pairs. A three-of-a-kind should be a combination of one or two cards from the player’s hand with a single or two cards from the community pile. (Note: having three-of-a-kind made exclusively of community cards means that every player, technically, has that in their hands, so don’t rely on this).
• Rank 6: Straight – Straight is when a player has five sequential cards, not of the same suit. This can be as simple as 2,3,4,5 and 6 or something stronger like a 10, a Jack, a Queen, a King, and an Ace.
• Rank 5: Flush – A flush is when a player has five cards of the same suit. The cards do not need to be consecutive. This means that any 5 cards that have the same symbol (club, spade, diamond, heart) get the job done.
• Rank 4: Full House – A full house is when a player has both a three-of-a-kind and a pair. This is one of the strongest combinations that players can usually have in a game of poker.
• Rank 3: Four of a Kind (A.K.A. Poker) – is when a player has four of the same cards. Even players who have never played a game of poker know that four Aces are one of the strongest hands you can have in a poker game. However, there are two more, even stronger hands.
• Rank 2: Straight Flush – A straight flush is a combination of a flush and a straight, meaning that a player has 5 consecutive cards of the same suit. This alone is the strongest possible combination a player has. With that said, a 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of hearts, still isn’t as strong as…
• Rank 1: Royal Flush – A royal Flush is simply the strongest possible straight flush a player can have. This is a flush that contains a 10, a Jack, a Queen, a King, and, most importantly, an Ace. The ultimate winning hand.

Bluffing in Bitcoin Poker

People like to say that Poker is the only game in the world where, even if you constantly have bad luck on your side, you can still end up winning. This is because of bluffing. Even when a player doesn’t have good cards, they can attempt to bluff by raising or calling bets, making other players think that they do have a strong hand.

When playing actual poker, experienced players are able to read facial expressions and body language in order to determine whether or not someone is bluffing. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible with poker online. Even in the most dedicated online poker rooms, many players won’t be able to see eye to eye, so reading bluffs might become a problem.

With that said, there are ways how to tell someone is bluffing even without looking them in the face. Learning to bluff and how to read bluffs is all part of the game that comes with practice and experience.

Bitcoin Poker vs. Online Poker – What You Need to Know

Now that we’ve covered how poker works in general it’s time to get decentralized. If you are already an avid online poker player, you might be wondering why you should even make the switch to Bitcoin Poker.

Other than playing with a different currency, are there any other benefits to playing Bitcoin poker? Indeed there are and we’ve even made a list of some of our favorite reasons.

Top 3 Crypto Poker Sites

Down below, we compiled a list of some of our favorite gambling sites where you can enjoy poker.

Bitcoin Poker Bonus

Arguably, the biggest draw of any online casino or poker room is the BTC bonuses. Bonuses exist to draw new players in and keep existing players from going out and looking for new Bitcoin poker sites. Here’s what you can expect to see when it comes to Bitcoin poker bonuses:

Tips on How to Improve Your Bitcoin Poker Experience

Even when you learn all the necessary rules of poker, some things can take time and effort to learn. To help you gain some early experience, we’ve compiled a list of some basic rules that might just help you win a few more games of poker.

Practice before playing for real money

The best way to perfect your poker game is to play practice games. Fortunately, you can do this just about anywhere. If you already have a casino account you can use free money play/practice mode to play using fake funds.

You can also open an account at one of many social online casinos where you cannot even withdraw any funds (you won’t have to deposit much either). Please note: winning at practice matches does not imply future success at actual poker games.

Learn when to bluff

As we already mentioned, bluffing in poker online is difficult because you aren’t able to read your opponents’ facial expressions and body language.
With that said, you can still bluff at poker.

For example, when you are the small blind and everyone around you simply calls, it can be a bold move to raise. This way you might scare your opponents into them thinking that you have a strong hand, forcing a few of them to fold even before the flop.

Defend your forced bets

In poker, especially Texas Hold ‘em poker, players are required to make forced bets, such as big blind and small blind. When it’s your turn to be in one of these positions, don’t forget to defend it. Don’t make it easy for your opponents to overwhelm you with their cards.

When you reach the flop as the big blind, don’t just check. Make the other players pay to see your cards, even if you have to bluff your way to getting there.

Don’t be afraid to play aggressively

In the poker world, being aggressive can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it can lead to a lot of losses but at the same time, it can lead to a lot of early wins. Nothing scares your opponents more than a sudden rise.

In fact, we’ve seen way too many cash games where the entire table folded simply because they were scared of a single bluff. Be aggressive and don’t be afraid to take risks.

Folding doesn’t mean you’re giving up

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is fold. Many new players see folding as a sign of weakness and continue calling just to prove their worth. Don’t be that player.

If you aren’t required to pay the big or the small bling and have bad cards, simply fold and wait for better cards. Poker is a game about luck, skill, and patience.

Play Poker Online

Playing online poker with Bitcoin honestly sounds harder than it actually is. While it does take a bit of prep work, the outcome is worth it. If you are at least a little bit curious, create an account and find out why this is still one of the most popular table games in the world.