Poker

Gather your friends around the virtual poker table for the ultimate poker night and try your luck as you play live poker online at Stake Casino!

What is Poker?

Poker is a popular card game of skill that is widely played around the world, and particularly at online casinos such as Stake.com.

The objective of this classic table game is to create the highest ranking five-card poker hand to beat the dealer and other players at the poker table.

Whether you're a beginner to casino games , or advanced, you can have fun playing our online poker game against your friends and other keen poker players at Stake Casino!

Poker Gameplay & How to Play Poker

To play poker online at Stake.com, you must first create an account. Once you're all set up, you can take a seat at the virtual poker table and be in the chance to win big.

The objective of the game is to form the best five-card poker hand according to the hand rankings below. Be sure to check out our ultimate guide to playing poker online. You should also consider the following rules before getting started:

Basic Poker Rules

• You are then dealt two cards face up, while the dealer also receives two cards face down.

• To continue playing, you must make another bet 2x the original bet. Alternatively, you can fold and lose the initial bet.

• The dealer then adds three community cards to the table, face up.

• Each player will have the opportunity to decide if they're going to check or fold, as the cards continue to be dealt.

• This will continue until all hands are finalised and the winner is revealed.

Types of Poker Games

Texas Hold'em

The object of Texas Hold'em is for players to form a five-card poker hand that ranks higher than the other players’ five-card poker hands. Each player may use any combination of the two cards initially dealt to them at the beginning of the game, referred to as “hole” cards, and the five cards dealt on the table throughout the course of the game, referred to as “community” cards or “board” cards. They may play the board by using no hole cards and using the five community cards, to make the highest ranking five-card poker hand, according to the rankings as shown below.

Omaha

The rules of Omaha are very similar to the Texas Hold’em rules. The only difference is that every player receives four cards face down (the ‘hole cards’) and has to pick exactly two of his four hole cards and three of the five community cards to make his or her best five card hand.

Poker Game Modes

• Rapid Ring Games: Are a special type of cash tables where you are immediately moved to a new table to start a hand after you folded the previous one. The players' seats at the table are randomly moving on each hand. The player with least count of posted big blinds among all other players at the table posts a big blind.

• Rapid Tournaments: Rapid tournaments work according to the same principle as Fast Fold tables: the moment the player presses Fast fold button at the table, he stands up and is seated at another table to start a new hand. The players' seats at the table are randomly moving on each hand. The player with least count of posted big blinds among all other players at the table posts a big blind. If you want to learn more about poker tournaments available in Stake Poker , check out our guide.

• Rabbit Hunting: It provides players the opportunity to test their luck and see what other community cards would be in case the game ended before some of them were dealt. The players can use rabbit hunting during a special break that occurs in rabbit hunting allowed tournaments after a game that meets the rabbit hunting criteria is finished. The payment for rabbit hunting is taken from the player’s balance (i.e. not from the chip stack).

• Rebuy: Rebuy is a feature that allows players to buy additional chips when they reach a certain threshold of the remaining amount of chips. That threshold is usually very low, and the option to rebuy might even appear only when the player lost all of his stack in the tournament. Rebuys are usually available for a certain tournament period called rebuy period.

• Straddle: Straddle is a special way of raising during the blinds posting (before the hole cards are dealt). It can only be posted by the person sitting next to the BB and is double big blind. Straddling can only be done at a table with 4 or more players

• Run It Twice: For the tables with Common RiT mode enabled, all of these all-in players should also have Run It Twice checkbox enabled at the table. In such scenario, the players build a hand in each of two separate card boards. Once the remaining cards have been dealt to both boards, the pot is distributed equally to each winning hand, according to the usual rules of the game. If one player holds the winning hand for both boards, he will take the entire pot.

• Bomb Pot: Bomb Pot is an engaging table feature that activates a special game mode once in a random number of hands. When bomb pot is activated, the users skip the pre-flop, pay a certain fixed ante (it usually equals several big blinds) and then compete for this big pot. The game starts with the flop and goes as usual from that moment.

• Bounty: A feature in some poker tournaments that rewards a player for eliminating another player. Depending on the tournament, a player might be rewarded for eliminating either a specific player, or any player.

• Shootout: A special mode of the tournaments that includes several rounds. During the first round, the players are evenly distributed on the tables and play until the last player wins all the chips at his table. When the winners are determined, they are seated at new tables and a new round begins. The game is started from the beginning for the remaining players – they have new initial stakes and blind levels are reset. Eventually, in order to win a tournament one should win every table he is seated at. Such tournaments cannot have late registration and re-entries. Note: It would be better if the number of players was divisible by the number of table seats. Otherwise some players will have to wait for an empty table (for instance, a good configuration would be the tournament for 36 players with 6-seat tables).

• Is Lucky One Hand: A special lucky one hand tournament mode. Its main distinctive feature is that players do not make any bets. They just go all-in every round.

Stake Poker Hand Rankings

Royal Flush

A Royal Flush is the best hand in poker, comprising the ace, king, queen, jack and ten of a suit. It stands as the unbeatable pinnacle.

Straight Flush

A sequence of five cards, all sharing the same suit. In the event of a tie, the winner is determined by the highest-ranking card at the top of the sequence. A Straight Flush can only be beaten by a Royal Flush or higher Straight Flush.

Four of a Kind

Four cards of the same rank, accompanied by a single side card or 'kicker.' Should a tie occur, the winner is established by the highest four of a kind. In community card games with matching four of a kind, the highest fifth side card ('kicker') takes precedence.

Full House

Three cards of the same rank, paired with two cards of a different but matching rank.. If two players both have a Full House, the player with the highest three cards of the same rank wins. For tied three matching cards, the pot is settled by the highest value between the two matching cards.

Flush

A flush in poker is a hand where all five cards are of the same suit, but they do not need to be in numerical order. The value of a flush is determined by the highest card in the hand.

Straight

A straight in poker is defined as a hand containing five consecutive cards of different suits. The cards in a straight are ranked sequentially, with the highest card determining the value of the straight. The suits of the cards do not matter, only the sequence. If two players have flushes, the flush with the highest top card wins. If those are the same, the next highest cards are compared, and so on.

Three of a Kind

Three cards of the same rank, accompanied by two unrelated side cards. In a tie, the highest-ranking three of a kind prevails. In community card games with similar three of a kind, the highest side card, and if necessary, the second-highest side card, determines the winner.

Two Pair

A pair of cards of one rank, matched with another pair of a different rank, along with one side card. In case of a tie, victory goes to the player with the highest pair. If both players have identical highest pairs, the highest second pair takes precedence. If a tie persists, the highest side card becomes the deciding factor.

One Pair

Two cards of the same rank, accompanied by three unrelated side cards. In a tie, the winner is determined by the highest pair. If the pairs are identical, the highest side card wins, and if necessary, the second-highest and third-highest side cards can be used to break the tie.

High Card

Any hand not falling into the aforementioned categories. In the case of a tie, victory is awarded to the player with the highest card, followed by subsequent cards in descending order until the tie is resolved.

For further information about our poker card room rules, tournament cancellation and refund policy, please visit our policies.

Read about slang terms heard in poker and what they mean in our poker terms glossary.

How to Deposit Funds to Play Stake Poker Online & Bet Responsibly

You can play Poker at Stake online casino by depositing in a local fiat currency or via cryptocurrencies.

Right now, you can play at Stake.com with the following local currencies – ARS, CLP, BRL, JPY, INR, and PEN. Depending on your preferences, you can also view your balance in numerous other currencies too. You can find more information about our local currency options on our community forum, as well as our local currency payment guide.

To play Poker with crypto, you can easily deposit crypto units into your account using coins like BTC, ETH, Doge, and LTC. You can find the full list of available cryptocurrencies on our blog, as well as our recommendations and guide for choosing the right coin for you.

Stake offers live support to players via our customer support staff for help with issues like depositing and withdrawing units and more.

Moonpay supports multiple payment options, including Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and others, to buy cryptocurrency to enjoy all kinds of Poker. For a full list of supported payment options, please refer to the Moonpay documentation .

Learn how to use the Stake Vault to securely store your funds online for all future gameplay at Stake Casino. You can also read our crypto security guide to learn more about keeping your funds safe and secure at Stake.com.

Please always remember to bet within your means and gamble responsibly . You can find out how to stay in control with our Stake Smart guidelines . You can also use our monthly budget calculator to determine how much of your disposable income you can afford to allocate to gambling.

Other Popular Stake Original Casino Games

If you love our exciting game of poker, then be sure to have a go at our poker and slot game hybrid - Video Poker ! We also offer a range of other types of online slot games , and Stake Table Games and live casino games , available to play.

Also be sure to check out other poker guides we have available, like our guide to the 3-bet poker strategy .

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Keen to learn more before getting started? Read up on our online casino guide which gives you more tips and tricks to playing the best games on our platform.