Cryptocurrency Poker vs Regular Poker: What's the difference?
Crypto poker and regular poker are almost identical games, with two main differences. The type of payments used and the environment.
As the name suggests, crypto poker is a game of poker, but instead, you're using the decentralized payment system of crypto. This allows for anonymity, quicker payments, and many more benefits which we'll get into in a moment. What this means is that the player who is playing crypto poker needs to already own the form of crypto needed in the game.
Most people like to use either Monero or Bitcoin. The player needs to purchase the crypto off an exchange and then send it through to the crypto poker website. Similar to the way a player needs to trade their fiat currency for chips at a casino.
Then instead of playing at a physical casino where you play alongside other players, crypto poker is online, and you generally won't physically see the other players. This opens doors to shady dealings on the websites, but there are ways to ensure you're playing a legit game. That being said, this gives crypto poker a different vibe to traditional poker as you aren't able to see the other players and so it may be harder to find their "tells".
Pros
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Anonymity: Cryptocurrencies provide the opportunity for users to remain anonymous at all times. This is easily one of the greatest draws to using crypto to play poker. Nobody has to know what they're doing as it's their right to remain anonymous.
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Low Transaction Fees: Depending on how much you're looking to spend on your poker games, playing poker using crypto can be much cheaper. Especially if you're a high-roller, you'll only need to make payments of just a few dollars to transfer the funds from your wallet into the dedicated website account.
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Play Games Faster: Since cryptocurrency works as a decentralized system, it doesn't belong to a bank who could hold your funds, and trading takes place 24/7. Taking this fact along with the fact that most cryptocurrency gambling websites include "instant deposits" that only need a single confirmation on the transaction, by using crypto you could jump into a game of poker in a matter of minutes after joining the website.
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Reliability: When choosing your crypto casino, it's essential you find ones that either offer live games or provably fair results. Since there are many well-established gambling websites out there that include poker, it is not difficult to either!
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No Cheaters: When it comes to online crypto poker, you can know you're not up against a card counter or somebody with a slight of hand. The provably fair systems that the casino's provide mean you can rest assured your opponent was truly dealt their cards fairly.
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Crypto Tournaments: While most casinos will run Poker tournaments often, some crypto site provide crypto poker tournaments that add an extra ounce of joy to the experience.
Cons
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Ain't nobody telling me nothing: One of the best skills to have in a game of poker is being able read your opponents. Many people have a tell when they have a good hand, or when they're bluffing. It's a key component to the game. While some skilled players may still be able to pick up skills according to their opponents betting habits, there's generally no way to pick up if the player is bluffing or not.
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The environment: While crypto casinos have made every effort for the player to have an immersive experience as they spend hours on their favourite games, it's never going to quite match the feeling of walking into a casino. That being said, crypto sites like BC.Game have options for "live poker" where the player watches a live host play out the cards. This helps you feel like you're in the environment.
How to Play Crypto Poker: Tips and Tricks
So we're not going over every rule on how to play Poker, but here's a solid guide to understanding the game rules. But we will go over how you can play Crypto Poker.
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Step 1: Find the right crypto casino that offers poker. See our list of the best crypto poker casinos
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Step 2: Set up an account. This process is fairly straightforward, some websites allow for logging in with Google, or Facebook. We suggest avoiding this as it pretty much removes all anonymity.
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Step 3: Deposit your crypto. Each crypto casino provides its users with a unique crypto wallet. Depending on what the website's crypto options are and the currency you're looking to play with. Some casinos will allow you to connect your ConnectWallet or Metamask but most will just provide a unique address and QR code to deposit funds into.
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Step 4: Wait for the funds to show in your account. The amount of time varies according to your gas fees and traffic at the time, it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to show up on your site balance. If it takes longer than this, we suggest contacting customer support on the website.
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Step 5: Navigate to the poker game you're looking to play. Different P2P games will have their own betting limits. This way, casinos separate the high-rollers from placing bets that other players can't afford to compete against the high-rollers.
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You'll find the options of low-stakes ($0.25-$50 blinds) mid-stakes ($1-5$ blinds) and high-stakes ($5 +). Depending on the website there could be a few poker versions to choose from. Once you're in the game start praying you'll be dealt the best hands and walk away with an enjoyable experience and a profit 🙂
Tips and Tricks
Incentives: There are multiple poker sites to choose from, but some of them provide greater incentives and reasons to join their site. Take your time to look for a poker website that offers the following
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Provably fair results, or live games
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A decent deposit bonus
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A Rakeback and VIP program
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An existing community
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Best if they have a greater focus on poker games, and a variety of different poker versions
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Supports multiple cryptocurrencies
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Low KYC requirements for anonymity
Low-Stake Start-Up: If you're new to the online poker scene, start with low-stakes. Online poker is not just about luck, there's a ton of skill that takes time and experience to get the hang of. Even if you have quite a bit to play with, start with low-stakes to gain a little experience before jumping into the big leagues.
Learn the tricks of the trade: It may go without say but, Poker is a game with many rules and if you don't know the rules properly, you'll miss great opportunities thinking your hands sucks, and blunder some winning opportunities. Take time to learn exactly how to play the game properly and where each hand ranks, and you'll outperform many of your opponents.
Choose your game mode and master it: As we mentioned earlier, different crypto casinos will offer different versions of the game. Whether it's Crypto Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Blitz Poker, Jackpot Poker, etc. each have their own variant in game play, but we suggest sticking to what you know when you're playing with some real money.
Don't Bluff The Fish: Bluffing may work in some cases, but especially if you're playing a low-stakes game, people are more willing to call and take the loss than to fold what could be a potentially good hand. This is especially true when playing against "inexperienced" poker players (the fish). Opportunities to bluff on high-stake games are more viable, but online Poker bluffing doesn't work as well as it does in person.
Avoid Bot Games: The house always wins, and that seems to be even more true when playing against bots. Ensure the game you're playing is actually against real human opponents. This will always be the case on live casino games, and if you can engage with them in a live chat.
Where to play
Crypto poker is easily the best way to play poker online, there are many benefits that come along with it, including greater incentives to the players, and jumping on to your first games can be very simple. But don't just take it from us; try it out and experience it yourself! You won't regret it.
And so, here are a few of the best crypto poker rooms for you to try out!
Ignition Poker
Ignition Poker is easily one of the most popular crypto betting websites as it caters to players in the US as well. They have almost 3,000 people active on the site at every given moment, meaning you'll always find yourself a table that caters to you. With such a large player base it's also easy to immerse yourself into the gambling world.
We found Ignition Poker to be the best crypto poker website for high-rollers as some high stakes require a minimum of $2,000 buy-ins. Loyal players and whales will find themselves enjoying some of the best Rakeback and rewards as they play at Ignition Poker
Join Ignition Poker with our affiliate link and grab a 150% deposit bonus of up to $2000.
Chipstars
If you've ever heard of Chipstars it's probably fair to their online Poker games. They run daily Poker tournaments and allow users to create custom games to play poker with their mates. They offer low-stake games starting at just 0.02 blinds and even cater to high-rollers. They accept multiple currencies and offer instant deposits.
While their community is relatively small, they only started in 2020 and have been growing rapidly since. Join Chipstars and you'll grab 250 free spins with your first deposit, and after a few bets, you'll already start benefiting from their VIP program rewards.
BC.Game
BC.Games have turned many heads in the crypto industry since their release back in 2017. The site concentrates on Provably Fair gameplay and the best user experience, which has worked well enough to bring in over 3 Million users so far. BC.Game has its own original Provably Fair Video Poker game, as well as multiple Live Casino options with Evolution Gaming and Playtech.
Join BC.Game with our affiliate link and grab yourself up to 240% deposit bonus, 15% rakebacks rewards and more.
Bitcoin Video Casino
bitcoinvideocasino.com is one of the best anonymous crypto casinos to play Video Poker. While there are many great crypto Poker casinos out there, very few of them cater to players who want to remain completely anonymous while enjoying a game of poker. The website is not the prettiest of them all, but this is more than a worthwhile compromise to keeping anonymous in 2022. They do not require users to create an account but rather just provide an address and a session token.
I should note that the casino doesn't provide the best aesthetics and there aren't any sign-up rewards due to its lack of KYC. But these are benefits that are worth sacrificing to remain anonymous during some of the best games of poker of your life!
