Poker is arguably the most recognizable card game in the world, being regularly enjoyed by tens of millions of players around the world. The game has been around for hundreds of years, but only achieved huge popularity in the 1970’s with the advent of World Series of Poker, an annual poker tournament held in Las Vegas.
The origins of poker remain hotly debated, but the general consensus is that it is derived from a Persian game known as ‘As-Nas’, which is strikingly similar to poker as it is played today. Unlike modern poker, As-Nas uses a 25 card pack with 5 different suits, and does not feature flush or straight hands, with players instead looking to obtain the best hand out of the four players in terms of points or sets.
Poker has remained hugely popular due to the fact it has transitioned so well from traditional to online casinos. Nowadays, online Poker is found in pretty much every online casino, with the very best of these casinos taking it one step further and allowing you to play poker with Bitcoin. Gone are the days of walking to your casino only to find the poker tables empty, or being forced to play at restrictive limit tables. With online Bitcoin poker, you are free to enjoy a huge variety of poker game types with the freedom to choose your limits!
The essence of poker is very simple, the goal is to simply acquire the best 5 card hand on the table, with a hand being comprised of any combination of the (up to 5) shared cards and 2 hole cards. If the game reaches a final showdown, then the player with the best hand wins. There are dozens of poker variants, but the most common version you will find when playing with Bitcoin is Texas Hold’em.
Texas Hold’em can technically be played with an unlimited number of players, though most online casinos usually restrict this to 2-10 players at a table. To begin the game, the dealer hands each player 2 cards face down in clockwise order. Each player is free to check their own cards. 2 forced bets are required from the players in the big blinds and small blinds, with players after these being able to call or raise these bets.
Once the “pre-flop” betting is finished, the dealer then deals three faceup cards to the table center in “the flop”, these cards are considered to be shared between the players. After the flop, there is a second round of betting, which is followed by a fourth card being dealt to the center in “the turn”. At the river, there is a third round of betting, followed by a fifth and final card being dealt to the center in “the river”, before a final round of betting. During each reach, players are given the option to each fold (forfeit the round), call (match the current bet), or raise the bet, this will continue until everybody either folds or until two or more players two more players have called or checked the bet.
The winning player is the one with the strongest 5 card hand out of the 7 total cards dealt (5 shared cards and 2 hole cards). In poker, the absolute strongest possible hand is a royal flush, occurring in just 1 in 649,740 hands. Consider yourself very lucky if you ever get one!
Besides Texas Hold’em, you can find dozens of other poker variants available, including Spin and Go, Head to Head, and Omaha Hi-Lo. So, whether you are somebody who wants some great competitive action (Head to Head) or the chance to win a huge jackpot (Spin and Go), there is definitely a variant out there for you.
Absolutely! In fact, poker is one of the most common games offered by Bitcoin casinos. Many of these casinos also offer a wide range of table limits for you to choose from, ensuring that both low stakes and high stakes players are catered for. If you are somebody looking for something extra special, be sure to check whether your favorite Bitcoin casino offers a VIP table.
Typically, Bitcoin casinos usually offer poker games in two major formats: live dealer poker or video poker. Live dealer poker is as close to the traditional experience as you will get playing online, featuring a real casino croupier that handles the operation of the game via a live video link. If you are somebody looking for a fully immersive experience, then live dealer games are the way to go, most of these games feature talkative dealers that make the game that much more exciting!
Video poker is similar to an online slot machine in that it is played with virtual cards and sound effects, video poker is similar to a simplified version of poker where you play directly against the house rather than other players. Generally, video poker has a higher house edge than traditional poker.
Playing poker using Bitcoin offers several advantages over playing with USD, EUR, and other traditional currencies. For example, Bitcoin is not regulated as a true currency, which means that residents in the US and other restricted gambling countries can play using the cryptocurrency without worrying about breaking any laws! Not only this, but the great majority of Bitcoin poker casinos are completely anonymous, they do not require you to input any personal information such as your address or ID, allowing you to play in complete privacy.
Bitcoin casinos also offer players speed and value not seen at traditional casinos, allowing them to make deposits and withdrawals for just pennies, whilst virtually eliminating waiting times to credit your deposits. Simply put, this means that playing with Bitcoin is much faster and cheaper than using traditional currency, whilst offering a level of privacy that traditional casinos simply cannot offer. On top of this, Bitcoin poker often features an extremely low rake, giving you excellent value for your money!
To get started playing Bitcoin Poker, you will of course need to get yourself some Bitcoins! This can be achieved in a few different ways, the first is to purchase them from an exchange or in person using a site such as Localbitcoins, and the second is to receive BTC as payment from somebody else. The last way to obtain Bitcoins is through a process called mining, to do this, you simply install a trustworthy Bitcoin mining application on your computer, which will use your computing power to contribute to the Bitcoin mining network, hence earning you BTC as a reward.
Once you have got yourself some BTC, your next step would be to find yourself a suitable Bitcoin casino to play at by browsing through our casino review section. BitcoinCasino.info works tirelessly to bring you all the latest updates for all of our preferred casinos, ensuring that our readers have all the details they need to choose a casino. Time is money as they say, and we are here to help you save both! After selecting your favorite casino from our highly reputed list, be sure to check out our bonuses section to see if there are any lucrative special offers for you to take advantage of!
