Online Poker Australia
It is true, that since 2017 the Australian Parliament prohibited real money online poker and consequently online poker sites. Some of the big names of the industry had to forfeit their Australian online poker activities, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t still play your favourite poker games.
On this page, we will be exploring the current state of online poker in Australia, how to play poker and win, a few different online poker games, but first, we will start by going through the best real money poker sites in Australia. Stay tuned for more.
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To begin with, the fact that online poker is illegal for all Australian citizens doesn’t mean that there aren’t any solid and legitimate sites still offering top poker games to punters. Our job is to review the best sites, so that poker fans can easily find a safe casino online to play. Consider yourself lucky, as Australian poker players, that the sites on our list still take the risk to offer you the best online poker experience. Why?
All of the poker operators on our list, risk to get fined in order to provide online poker rooms to Australian players, due to the current legislation. Every poker site here is licensed and regulated, offers some great welcome bonus offers for poker players upon their first deposit and also accepts Australian dollars. Nonetheless, two online poker sites amongst the rest from our list have managed to stand out from the rest quite gracefully.
Rolletto Casino
Poker players will love this poker site. It offers some fascinating poker rooms, including texas hold em, where you can play side by side with your competitors. Licensed under a Curacao license, Rolletto Casino has been operating in most countries in the world, including Australia. The poker tournament prizes here are stunning, and there is no time during the day that you won’t find an ongoing one. There is excellent customer support and a welcome bonus upon your first deposit, catered primarily for Australian poker players who tend to bet high stakes.
Aussie Play Casino
The other brand that stood out from the rest Australian poker sites is Aussie Play. This online poker Australia operator offers both free and real money poker rooms, so it is better than the above site for beginners. Mobile poker fans will also be pleased to know that they can play through both Android and iOS mobile apps here. The welcome bonus is not as generous as the one offered by the online poker site above, but it is still amongst the best in Australia. Plenty poker tournaments are also available here, as well as live poker games – offering a solid interactive gambling experience.
How to Play Real Money Poker Online
After going through the best online poker Australia sites, it is important to bring both novices and professional poker players on the same page. If you have been playing poker for years, then you can probably skip the part below.
Basic Rules of Poker
Betting is definitely the most central aspect of online poker, as it is a card game of managing your chips. During each poker round, the players will have one or more opportunities to bet on their hand. In order a player to win on poker, they have to lose the least possible amount of chips with bad hands and win the most possible amount of chips when they have good hands.
Before the dealer calls the beginning of the round, most popular poker variants require a small fee from each player – the ante bet. Then, the game starts from the left to the right with the first player adding a bet on their hand in the form of chips. The rest of the players will either have to ‘call’ the bet or ‘raise’. ‘Drop’ is the action that takes you off the poker round, as it will highlight that you are not even willing to call the bet placed by other players. In the latter case, all the previously added bets on the hand are lost.
When all players have finished performing their moves and the bets are equalized, then the dealer will hand out the first three cards. This identical process happens two more times, as long as at least 2 players keep betting, calling or standing.
If at least two players have remained in the game after the last card is dealt, then they have to open their cards to compare the combinations they have managed.
During each betting round, a player has to bet first based on the game rules. The bettor position moves towards the left at each round – and only when one’s turn has come they are allowed to check, call, drop or raise according to their hands.
The Order of Poker Winning Hands
On the previous section, we broke down the poker rounds’ mechanics and the overall gaming experience in the poker table. Nonetheless, to play poker and win, you must understand how strong your cards are, as well as having a general idea of what your competitors’ cards could be. Below, you can see the poker winning hands in order; each one of these consists of five cards – with the winning hands starting from no pair to five of a kind:
Five of a Kind
This is the ideal hand you can get when playing traditional poker and it can formulate when a wild card is apparent in the card deck.
Straight Flush
If you are playing poker with the mainstream cards deck, then straight flush is the best possible hand you can form. It can be achieved if 5x cards of identical suit are placed in a sequence. The best straight flush is the Royal Flush, which can be achieved when a punter has A, K, Q, J & 10 of the same suit; Royal Flush odds stand at a 1/650,000.
Four of a Kind
To form this hand, the players will need to have 4x the same cards and it comes third in the list with the best poker hands.
Full House
If a player matches 3x same cards and 2x other same card values, it results in a full house.
Flush
When a poker player matches five cards of the same suit, which are not in order, then they have formed a flush.
Straight
Right after the flush, the straight is the next strongest hand; 5x cards in a row make up this hand. Their suit is irrelevant.
Three of a Kind
Matching three same cards and any other two cards make up a three of a kind hand.
Two pairs
This hand consists of two different same card sets. For example, A, A, 3, 3.
One pair
This hand is pretty common, although not very strong, and it consists of two same cards.
No pair
Lastly, this is the hand that will probably not get you too far ahead; it is still the most common hand that players get. The player with the highest card wins, if none of the players has formed a pair or a better combination.
Tips and Strategies to Win Real Money on Poker Sites
Following the basics of poker rules and its gameplay, we will also provide players with a set of strategic tips that they should follow to win on poker often. These tips could be employed by both new and experienced players alike.
Always place low stakes
Even if you have already studied in-depth all the basic information above, you should always start by betting small. There is a lot of ongoing action in a poker table, so the smartest move is to avoid spending a lot of money before you accumulate some hands on experience.
Try different poker variants (you can see some below)
If you are playing poker with the mainstream cards deck, then straight flush is the best possible hand you can form. It can be achieved if 5x cards of identical suit are placed in a sequence. The best straight flush is the Royal Flush, which can be achieved when a punter has A, K, Q, J & 10 of the same suit; Royal Flush odds stand at a 1/650,000.
Four of a Kind
There are more than a 100 different variants of poker available to play at online casinos; understanding the basic poker rules is the first essential step, as most of these apply universally. Nevertheless, no limit poker or fixed bets poker might be more suited to you than classic poker.
Use your position on the poker table wisely
Even if you are betting some relatively low stakes during your gameplay, it is very important that you bet more aggressively when you are holding the best position; this ideal position is when you ‘speak’ last, as all the previous players will have shown their intentions before you have betted any money.
Study carefully the poker odds
As you are learning the ropes of the poker game, it is important that you put some effort to memorize all the different poker odds. Doing this will give you an edge when deciding your next move based on the current cards on your hand and the ones that are opened on the table.
Don’t forget to think of your opponents’ cards
Poker, like blackjack, is a comparative cards game. Even if you have a truly hard to get hand, you should never forget that your opponent might as well have a better one. Never forget this basic, but important, tip if you want to win.
Background to Legal Online Poker Australia
Wondering how we ended up with so many popular poker games in Australia? Well, let’s take a poker history class together to understand how poker in Australia reached this point.
Online Poker Sites and Australian Law
The future seemed to hold great things for casino games and poker in Australia, as well as around the world, but it was forcefully taken away from us. The 2001 Interactive Gambling Act was always intending to ban games like poker for casinos, but it didn’t successfully manage its goal due to a loophole that arose from its wording.
Nevertheless, there was a follow up bill in 2016, the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill, which was passed in 2017 and confirmed the original intentions. Pokerstars, 888 and other huge poker companies stopped operating in Australia following the introduction of this legislation. In this bill, there seems to be a legal space for some online casinos to operate in Australia, but this can’t be achieved under the current state of official gambling bodies in Australia. The outcome?
Online poker sites that still operate and offer real money poker rooms to Australian players are breaking the law. All the casinos on our list take the risk to be fined millions for catering the best online poker rooms to Aussie players, but the players themselves do not personally risk anything under the current law. Gambling online is not a crime, neither is there a fine attached to it for the players.
Getting Started at Australian Real Money Poker Sites
Knowing that you can safely play online and mobile poker on the casino sites listed across this page might have made your hands tickle, right? Well, click on any poker site in our list to visit their homepage. There, you must press on the register button, fill in your personal information, confirm your email address and then you are ready to go.👇👇👇
Deposit Process
All of online gambling sites on this page offer a combination of different deposit methods. To view these, simply click on the Deposit tab and choose one amongst the various options. The most common deposit methods are:
- Visa Cards
- MasterCard
- PayPal
- Skill & NETELLER
After you fill in your card details and the desired amount, the deposit takes place instantly. On most poker sites there are no deposit fee and the minimum deposit is 10$, which comes with video pokies bonuses at most times.
Cashing Out
All of the above deposit methods can also be used to withdraw money back to your personal bank account. To do so, you will need to click on the Withdrawals tab, select the amount that you want to withdraw and confirm.
Withdrawals usually take 2-5 business days, depending on the chosen method. If you feel worried or have any concerns you can contact the customer support of the online poker site 24/7 through live chat or email.
An important note related to withdrawals is that players will have to first complete the KYC process to be able to withdraw funds. For the above, you will need a valid passport or ID, a proof of statement from your bank account and an official bill showing your home address. As long as you have these, it should only take a few days for the KYC process to be completed.
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Useful Poker Terminology
We have tried to cover Australian online poker comprehensively throughout this page. Hopefully, you have understood how to play poker and you find one or more of our online poker site options appealing. You can always return to this page for more information and poker news, as well as to see if other sites in Australia have entered our charts.
Before you leave this page, you should definitely have a close read of the basic poker terminology, which you will require in order to play poker on any poker room in the Australian market.
Poker Chips: poker is universally played with chips; you can automatically exchange real money for chips before the game starts.
Check: this action highlights that the player is happy with their current bet and performs no action.
Raise: the player wants to increase the amount of betting chips for this hand.
Drop: this illustrates that the player prefers to exit the round, as they don’t want to call the betting amount.
Blinds: the blinds are two small bets that the first two player positions on the left of the dealer have to place.
Ante: this is a fee that has to be added by all players before the round even begins.
Banker: this is usually a term that appears when playing poker at home; it refers to the person who has taken the responsibility for stocking the chips and records all future transactions.
Betting limits: most online poker tables have some betting limits in place, so that they create an environment for people with similar gameplay and expectations.
Fixed limit: this is closely linked to the betting limits and it is applicable to most variants/tables. Players don’t have the choice to raise over this limit applicable during each round.
Pot limit: when a player raises by 2 chips, the player who speaks next has to either call or double the betting amount. All poker tables should have a pot limit for the ideal poker experience.
- About the Author
- Affiliate Disclosure
Michael has reviewed and verified all information on this page. Having worked in the iGaming industry for over 8 years, he is the most capable person to help you navigate online casinos, pokies, and the Australian gambling landscape.
