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Whether you’re looking for somewhere to play a few relaxing hands of Texas Holdem or you’re on the prowl for fish that you can smash to make a huge profit, you’ve come to the right spot. Our teams of experts have analyzed and tested all of the top real money Texas Holdem poker rooms on the web to find the best options for you. These are the safest, most trusted, and most reliable online poker rooms available, offering high-quality real money action.
This article is meant to help beginner’s through the transition from play money to real money Texas Hold’em. I remember back in 2003 playing my first play money tournament on PokerRoom.com and eventually deciding that I wanted to give real money games a try about 6 months later once I had gotten the swing of things.
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4 Reasons These Are the Best Real Money Texas Holdem Poker Sites
Games Filled With Recreational Players (Not Sharks)
Cash, Sit and Go, and Multi-Table Tournament Action
Smooth Table Animations and Quality Game Controls
Deposit Bonuses, Rakeback, and VIP Programs
Games Filled With Recreational Players (Not Sharks)
Unless you’re not a fan of money, you probably aren’t seeking out the toughest Texas Holdem games on the web. Smart players understand that game selection is critical to being a long-term winning player. But it’s impossible to game select properly if all of your options are tables filled with professional players.
For this reason, all of the real money online Texas Holdem sites we recommend are filled with recreational players. Our review teams have professional poker players who regularly test the sites we recommend to ensure the games are still profitable. Even if you’re not looking to make money playing poker, this will help stretch your entertainment dollar a lot further.
Cash, Sit and Go, and Multi-Table Tournament Action
In order for a real money Texas Holdem site to be worth your time, there needs to be sufficient action available. Before we recommend an option, we ensure there is regular action available across all Texas Hold’em formats.
Whether you play cash games, sit and gos, or multi-table tournaments (MTTs), you’ll want to know you’re not joining a ghost town, but that there will actually be players for you to play with on a regular basis.
Smooth Table Animations and Quality Game Controls
Regardless of whether you’re playing for fun or to make money, you want a poker site that has smooth animations, high-quality graphics and, most importantly, game controls that are easy to use. When the interface is confusing and not user-friendly, it not only lowers the quality of your experience, but it also creates the opportunity for mistakes. It’s very hard to win playing Texas Hold’em online if you’re constantly misclicking, calling when you want to fold, and/or betting incorrect amounts.
Deposit Bonuses, Rakeback, and VIP Programs
Many of the best real money Texas Holdem poker rooms online offer some great perks to loyal players. While you should never solely base your decision on where to play Texas Holdem online based on the promotions, it can be a great way to decide between a few top options. All of the online poker rooms we recommend offer some sort of deposit bonus, rakeback program, or VIP rewards. If they’re giving out free money online just for playing poker, we want you to be able to take advantage of it.
Tips for Choosing the Best Real Money Texas Holdem Sites
Knowing what makes top real money Texas Holdem sites rank above the rest is an important first step in choosing the best poker room for you. But to help you in the picking process, here are a few additional tips to help you make the right selection.
Check Player Volumes When You Plan on Playing
Utilize the Play Money Tables to Better Gauge the Interface
Confirm Deposit and Withdrawal Options
Check for Overlays, Tournament Series, and Upcoming Events
Check Player Volumes When You Plan on Playing
If you’re someone who likes to play poker online during the day, it won’t do you any good if the site is slam-packed busy at night but a ghost town during the day. When you’re picking out the best real money Texas Holdem option for you, log into the site during the hours you’re planning on playing. See what the volume levels look like and determine if they’re sufficient for you. If things look slow, check again on a different day, as there are slow days from time to time.
If you like to play during the day and you live in the US… you may want to look into joining a Texas Hold’em poker room with predominantly European players. Nighttime is usually the busiest time for a poker room, so you’ll be hard-pressed to get a lot of action during the day in the US. But due to time zone differences, it will be nighttime in Europe.
If you like smaller tournament fields and less aggressive action… you’ll have good luck with US poker rooms during the day. The tournaments are going to be smaller in size, and as a whole, the players who play are typically less wild and aggressive as the maniacs that come out at night.
Utilize the Play Money Tables to Better Gauge the Interface
Misclicks and mistakes can be costly at the online poker table. Additionally, keeping your cool is important. Both of these issues can be agitated by a bad layout and poorly designed user controls. If the interface is tilting, you’re not going to be as relaxed when you play. Additionally, you’ll be more prone to making betting mistakes if the controls are set up properly.
Take advantage of the play money tables offered at these real money Texas Holdem poker sites. Play a few hands from the device you’ll normally be playing on to get a feel for how things work. If you don’t like the controls or see the potential for mistakes, go somewhere else.
Confirm Deposit and Withdrawal Options
Hopefully, none of you are looking for real money Texas Holdem poker rooms to try and lose money. Even if you’re just a recreational player, you’re still interested in winning money. Because of this, it’s important that you make sure there are withdrawal options available that work for you. Take a few minutes before creating an account and make sure the deposit and withdrawal options available fit for you. Make sure they’re banking methods you have access to, and make sure the time frames mentioned work for you as well.
Check for Overlays, Tournament Series, and Upcoming Events
Mostly for MTT players, check to see what their current tournaments and upcoming series and events look like. If they are getting big overlays on events, you’ll certainly want to take advantage of that.
Additionally, if they have some lucrative tournament series or events like leaderboard races coming up, that could be a big reason to join. Make sure you’re joining the best real money Texas Holdem site for today and for the future.
Free Online Poker vs. Real Money Poker
We get a lot of questions about the differences between playing free online poker and playing online poker for real money. To answer these questions, we’d like to address the differences between the two.
To be more specific, though, there are two main types of free online poker that we need to address differently—social casino free poker and free poker at real money casinos.
Social Poker Apps vs. Real Money Texas Holdem
Social poker apps are those that you’ll find on Facebook or through the app store that have no real money option attached to them. You might be able to pay for a subscription to play more or get more chips, but the ability to cash out real money is not there.
These social poker apps are wildly different from real money Texas Holdem for several reasons:
The decks are often rigged in these games – Because these are not real casinos, they don’t have to follow the same rules. Often, that means they spice up the action with better flops and better hands for all players. This can be more fun, but it can really restrict your view of how real money poker will be.
The players are nothing like real money players – When there’s nothing on the line, people are going to play like maniacs. When there’s not even the ability to move up to real money, the play money players are even wilder. If you’re looking to get better at Texas Holdem, this is not the environment to do it in.
There’s nothing wrong with social casino apps, but make sure you understand their purpose.
Free Play Poker at Online Casinos vs. Real Money Texas Holdem
Your second option for playing Texas Hold’em for free online is to utilize the play money options at the real money rooms. These are closer to what “real poker” will be like, but there are still some major differences. There are also some major differences with the social poker apps.
First, the decks in these games will not be rigged. They will operate under the same random number generator dealers as the real money games. This is nice, as it does start to give you the ability to see how cards will actually fall. Second, the players will still be pretty far from what you can expect in real money games because they still have nothing at risk. The one perk of these over social poker apps is a lot of these players have hopes of moving to real money, so they may play a little more in line.
Can You Win Money Playing Online Texas Holdem?
Yes! Online Texas Holdem games give you the ability to win big without having to leave the house. Additionally, poker is a game of skill played against other players and not the house. Because of this, it is completely possible to win real money online on a consistent basis. There are plenty of professional poker players around the world that make a consistent living playing online Texas Hold’em.
Real Money Texas Holdem Poker Bonuses and VIP Rewards
Another popular topic we get questions about is the different kinds of bonuses and rewards available to Texas Holdem players online. Here’s a quick summary of the different options. All of the top real money online casinos with Texas Holdem recommended in this guide offer some variation or a variation of all of these bonus programs.
Texas Holdem Deposit Bonuses
Rakeback or Cashback
VIP Reward Points
Free Tournament Tickets
Freerolls
Texas Holdem Deposit Bonuses
A deposit match bonus is one of the most common you’ll see at online poker rooms. The room will match your initial or reload deposit up to a certain percentage and to a certain dollar amount. This means you could make a deposit of $200 and end up with $400 in your account to play with! Most deposit bonuses are a 100% match up to anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand.
These deposit bonuses are credited in one of two ways to your account. The first way is they put all the funds in your account immediately as bonus funds. You can start playing with them right away, but you won’t be able to cash them out until you play a certain amount of hands to prevent people from just taking the bonus money and running for the hills. The second and more popular way is for the funds to incrementally be dropped in your account as cash as you play more.
For Example,
A $100 bonus might be split into 10 $10 bonuses, and as you play a certain number of raked hands, they will credit your account with cash.
Rakeback or Cashback
Some real money Texas Holdem sites will give you a percentage of the money they collect in rake back to you. With a program like this, as long as you break even at the tables, you will turn a profit because of the rakeback. You can think of this as a profit share from the site for every hand or tournament you are involved in.
VIP Reward Points
Many of the online poker sites listed in this guide offer VIP rewards programs for their players. The more you play, the more points you earn toward rewards and tier status. With these points, you can usually cash them in for cash, tournament tickets, trips, or swag.
Free Tournament Tickets
Either through a welcome bonus or through VIP rewards, you may be awarded free tournament tickets at that real money online casino. These are free entries into real money tournaments that don’t cost you anything. If you happen to win the tournament or make any money, it’s all yours to keep.
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Freerolls
Freeroll entries are usually awarded through a welcome bonus or as a VIP reward for loyalty. A freeroll tournament is a tournament where nobody pays an entry fee, but the poker room adds money or prizes to the prize pool. For no money, you have the chance to win real money, tournament tickets, or other prizes.
Often, freerolls are a great way to earn extra cash because a lot of people skip them for some strange reason. You may find yourself at a table in the tournament with a lot of players sitting out because they failed to show up for the free money. Your win!
Real Money Texas Holdem FAQ
Are Real Money Texas Holdem Poker Sites Safe to Use?
Yes. The online poker industry has come a long way since its early days and is completely safe and secure for you to use. This is, of course, assuming that you’re only using the safest real money Texas Hold’em sites that we’ve selected. Other sites may be safe, but we can’t vouch for them if we’ve not tested them.
Can I Play Poker Online If I Live in the US?
Yes! Online poker is not illegal in the US. There are many great online poker rooms that offer services to American players for you to choose from. If you’d like to check the specific laws and legal guidance for your state, check out our US legal guide where we break down our most current interpretation of the laws state by state.
Can I Try Playing Poker Online for Free Before I Play for Real Money?
Yes. All of the real money Texas Holdem sites we’ve listed in this guide offer play money or free money options. You can use these for as long as you’d like to determine if you’re interested in playing for real money. All free play games at these sites use the same software and digital dealing software as the real money tables. The only difference is you have no money at risk.
What Kinds of Texas Holdem Games Are Available to Play for Real Money Online?
The options you have to play Texas Hold’em online at these sites are immense. They offer different stake levels, including micro, low, medium, high, and nosebleeds. Regarding the game types available, they offer cash games, sit and go tournaments, heads up action, multi-table tournaments, and short-handed action.
Once your comfortable with the game of Texas Hold’em you may at some point consider playing for real money. This article is meant to help beginner’s through the transition from play money to real money Texas Hold’em. I remember back in 2003 playing my first play money tournament on PokerRoom.com and eventually deciding that I wanted to give real money games a try about 6 months later once I had gotten the swing of things.
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Texas Holdem Online Poker Real Money Free
Back then I didn’t know much about playing real money poker however over the years I’ve learned the ins and outs which I will try to share with you here to answer any of the questions you may have about real money poker.
Texas Holdem Poker Online Real Money Australia
Real Money Poker Basics
First things first, you need to choose which poker site you want to start playing at – chances are you’ve already checked out their software in play money mode so if that’s the case great, but if you are unsure of which site to sign-up at check out our Texas Hold’em poker sites page that will give you some tips of selecting a good poker room. Once you’ve chosen your room, your going to need to figure out which poker deposit method you’re going to use to load funds onto the site. There are a number of different ones to choose from depending on your location and what’s easiest for you as a player – we’ve reviewed most in our poker deposit methods section.
Texas Holdem Online Poker Real Money Sites
Depositing Money – Once you’ve download the poker site’s software and created a real money account you’ll want to navigate to the cashier where the deposits and withdrawals take place. Here you’ll find a number of different methods for putting funds onto the poker site. Most poker rooms have minimum deposits depending on the method you select which can range from $5 – $50 depending on the site. For the lowest deposit minimums I’d recommend Titan Poker which has a number of options that allow for $5 minimum deposits. Once you’ve selected a deposit method and it’s been approved, you’re ready to begin playing at the real money poker tables.
Withdrawing Money – Hopefully once you’ve won some money at the tables you’ll be looking to withdraw and cash out from the site. To do this, go back to the cashier again and select withdrawal entering the method and amount you would like to withdraw from your poker account. Some of the common withdrawal methods include paper check, one of the many e-wallet solutions or for large withdrawals wire transfer payment.
If you are trying to withdraw from some US poker sites you may only have a few options available however for other players there should be lots of options for you to withdraw your funds. The best site I can recommend if you are looking for the widest range of banking options is definitely PokerStars.com since they are the largest room and tend to have a stronghold on the best processors in the industry. The only other major things you need to know about withdrawals is that some sites won’t allow you to withdraw until 48 hours after your deposit was made. Once your withdrawal has been made you’ll be looking at a turnaround of 3 – 21 days depending on the site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below I’ve written some common questions and answers that I’ve gotten from new real money players. I’ll try to update this with any new questions I hear from friends but this should give a solid overview of the basic topics.
Q. How Do I Join A Real Money Poker Site? Joining a real money poker site is really simple, simply find the poker room that you want to sign-up at using a search engine or review website and then visit the official website of the poker room. From there they will walk you through downloading their software and provide instructions on creating a new real money account.
Q. How Do I Deposit Real Money? Download the poker software from the site you want to play at and then open the cashier to see what deposit methods are offered. Create an account with one of the available options and follow instructions to deposit.
Q. How Do I Join Real Money Games & Tournaments? Each poker room will outline within their software which games are real money and which games are for play money. Scroll down until you find the real money games and limits you want then double click to open the table. Click on an open seat at the table, load up the amount of chips you want from your balance and being playing.
Q. What Is The Best Option For Real Money? This is a highly subjective question and will depend a lot on your personal tastes, however I personally enjoy both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker since they have the most players, biggest tournaments and juiciest cash games.
Q. What Limit Should I Start Out Playing? Once again this is a very broad question but you should look to play at limits that make sense within your given bankroll when you start playing. Most “experts” recommend having 100 times the big blind in your bankroll to ensure you can endure the swings of playing poker, however most players start out with less than this when they play. The best advice I can give is to start small and only move up limits once you can continually beat the current limit you are playing. If you move up and find it too difficult, don’t be ashamed to move back down.
Q. Which Real Money Poker Sites Accept US Players? This is a pretty common question from American poker players – we have a page on US poker sites however the major rooms that accept US players are PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. There are a few others that also accept people from the United States but those are the largest sites I’d recommend.