Best Poker Casinos in Ireland 2024

Our team of online casino experts is always on the lookout for the latest and greatest poker sites. Drawing from a wealth of combined experience in the field, we focus on new online casinos that innovate in terms of quality and quantity. This includes a casino’s welcome offers, customer support availability, game selections, accepted payment methods, and overall reputation. We also take a special interest in a site’s licensing status and any past violations that they may have been involved in.

Keeping yourself informed is the best way to get ahead in any gambling activity, including poker. Knowing what to look for in a new casino and what promotions are worth taking is an important step to making the most out of your bankroll. And that is why we are here to help. If you are ever in doubt, you can always refer back to this guide by bookmarking it in your browser.  

The majority of modern online casinos provide players with the option to play from their mobile devices. Whether it is a mobile-optimised website or a dedicated app, more and more online casinos have been investing their efforts into providing a seamless mobile casino experience. The Apple and Google Play stores are home to countless online casino apps that you can install on your Apple or Android devices.

The convenience of being able to play from virtually anywhere is great. There are, however, some drawbacks to playing online casino games on your mobile device.

A reliable internet connection is required, which may not always be possible when on the move.

The smaller screen can also get in the way of clearly seeing all of the information presented. It also makes additional tools like betting trackers harder to use purely from a user interface perspective.

The first thing you need to know is how betting rounds work, from pre-flop to the river. Betting rounds make online poker so intriguing; not knowing when you will be forced to make a raise can boost your adrenaline in this exciting game. Texas Holdem poker is an easy-to-learn card game that you'll be playing with friends and family in no time.

A betting round is a phase of play in Texas Hold’em poker, where players bet and raise the value of their hands. Each betting round ends when all active players have matched the highest bet on the table or folded. The four phases of a betting round are as follows:

Poker: Pre-Flop

Pre-flop is the first betting round in Texas Holdem poker. After receiving your cards, you have the opportunity to bet or fold.

The dealer button (the person who is dealing) moves one player to the left of each hand. This method ensures that all players get an opportunity to be the dealer and post blinds.

The first two players to the left of the button post the small and big blinds. Depending on the stakes you are playing and your table’s preference, there may be an ante posted by each player (as opposed to only blinds).

In poker, the action starts to the left of the big blind and goes clockwise around the table. Each player has three options in this game: fold, call or raise.

• If a player folds: they give up their cards and chips in that hand.
• they match the amount of the big blind.
  
• If a player raises: they increase the size of their bet (i.e., if it costs €2 to call and a player wishes to raise, they must make it €4).
  

The betting round ends once all players have had a chance to act, and if only one player is remaining after a bet, then the hand ends, and that player wins the pot.

Poker: The Flop

The first three community cards are dealt after your pre-flop and face up, so everyone can see them. The dealer will burn the top card first, then deal the following three cards face-up on the table.

After the flop, you will have two cards in your hand and three on the table to combine in the game. But not all these five cards are for use. If you have a pair of aces in your hand, you will only use three of the community cards to make your hand – there are always five cards that make up a player’s best hand.

So, once the flop has been dealt with, what happens next? The first player left of the button (the ‘dealer’) has two options: they can either check or bet; they do not need to fold as they are not facing a bet (unless they raise).

• If they choose to bet: they need to bet at least the size of the big blind, whatever that may be (e.g. 2xBB).
• If they choose to check: they do not make a bet and pass on their turn. In poker, the play moves clockwise to the next player.
  

In this game, the betting round continues until all players have made an action. If any player bets at any stage, that betting round will end when all players who haven’t folded have spent the same amount of money.

Poker: The Turn

It is the fourth community card dealt in Texas Holdem Poker. It’s also known as the fourth street. Once the dealer deals the flop, a second betting round begins. The dealer burns another card and then deals the turn face up. Once the dealer has dealt the card, the next betting round starts.

This time the player to the left of the button is first to act. The players’ betting options are the same as on the flop: check, bet, call, fold or raise. All post-flop betting rounds work the same way as discussed above.

When playing limit Holdem, the turn is where the size of the bet doubles from small to big bets (€4/€8, for example). In a no-limit game, a player can bet how much he wants, including his entire stack, when the dealer allows him to make a bet. If the players match all the bets and all players have made an action, the betting round ends.

Poker: The River

It is the final round of betting in Texas Hold’em — and it’s what separates the amateurs from the pros. This round begins once the turn betting round ends.

At this point, the dealer dealt a fifth community card (called the “river”). After dealing the “burn card” face down for the third time, all betting options are the same as the flop and the turn. If the players don’t make a bet, they can check or make a bet. If they face a bet, they can choose to fold their hand or make a raise.

When two or more players remain after all bets are made, the dealer turns their cards face up to see who has the best five-card poker hand rankings. Whoever has that hand wins the pot.

There are many online poker websites, for example, PokerStars. The more you practice, the more you will understand how to play live poker and other poker games.

There’s no answer to which starting poker hand is best to determine what makes good starting poker hands. You have to consider two factors: your playing style and the composition of the table. Examples of the three types of poker hands:

• Texas Hold’Em - The most popular and well-known form of Poker. Texas Hold’em is played with 2 cards in each player’s hand with 5 community cards on the table. These cards are revealed over the course of 3 main betting rounds. Small and big blinds are included, and most top poker tournaments are played using Texas Hold’Em rules.
• Omaha (Omaha Hi & Hi-Low) - Otherwise known as Omaha 8, this ruleset deals 4 cards to each player with an additional 3 community cards. Players must use 2 of their 4 cards to match with the community cards to get a higher-valued hand than their opponents.
  
• 7-Card Stud - Players at a 7-Card Stud table are dealt face-down cards and 1 that is faced up to begin with. This is where the betting decisions start, and the player is then dealt an additional 4 cards throughout the game round. This leaves the player with a total of 3 cards face down and 4 that are faced up. You can, therefore, make your betting decisions based on the face-up cards of your opponents.
• Caribbean Stud - 5 cards are dealt to each player and the dealer in a game of Caribbean Stud. All of the player’s cards are faced up, while the dealer only shows 1 of their cards. After the first round of betting, the dealer has to show their whole hand. The dealer must have at least an Ace and King high card combination to qualify for the subsequent betting rounds.
  
• Five-Card Draw - A simple version of poker, Five-Card Draw involves dealing 5 cards to each player. No cards are revealed until after the final betting round, and there are no community cards. It is simply a matter of pitting the 5 cards in your hand against the 5 cards in your opponent’s hand.
  
• HORSE - The name HORSE is an abbreviation for the 5 different types of poker played at the table. The 5 different types of poker are played in the following order: Hold’em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Stud Hi/Lo (Eight or Better).
  

The first and most noticeable difference between live poker and online poker games is the environment. Live poker tables emulate the experience and feel of an actual land-based casino. A live feed to dealers who are actively handling a physical deck of cards while calling out the game adds a layer of authenticity you can’t get with online games.

Online poker can be a lot more relaxing than live casino versions, as there is no outside interference from other players, and you get to dictate the pace of the game. It is possible to play around twice as many hands in online poker as with its live counterpart.

This is because all of the shuffling and dealing happens automatically and instantly. The game won’t progress until you’ve made a decision, though, so a round can still be as leisurely as you chose it to be.

With a pace dictated by the player, it allows them to use more gambling tools and options. This includes bet tracking software that can help you keep account of the outcome of previous rounds, as well as suggestions for your next bet. With online poker, you can also play across multiple tables. This provides a lot more action but can also provide an added risk of spreading your bankroll too thin.

Poker Freerolls are virtual rooms and tournaments that you can enter to play poker with others online and for free. While there is a required buy-in, it is still possible to win real money prizes. Most virtual poker games also offer a demo mode that allows players to play for free without any other part of the game being affected. While you can play in this environment with unlimited virtual funds, there is no possibility of winning any real money prizes.

Real money poker is staked with real money or bonus funds with real money payouts. There are a variety of different real money live casino tables, virtual tables, and video poker available to players. Real money poker games make up the bulk of poker games available online.

Welcome offers that include deposit, no-deposit, or free money bonuses are available to spend on poker games at many online casinos. However, those sites that do allow poker with an active bonus will reduce the progression of wagering requirements. While a typical slot game will provide 100% progress towards the requirements based on your bet amount, poker games will typically only account for 25% progress. 

As an example, a 100% deposit bonus of up to €100 will allow you to play with a balance of up to €100. Placing a bet on a slot may progress your wagering requirements to being 1% complete. That same bet on a poker game will only progress your requirements by 0.25%. 

Most online casinos require a minimum deposit of at least €10. As can be seen in our mini-reviews above, though, some sites increase that minimum to €20. The difference in minimum deposit amounts has no bearing on your poker gameplay. There is no correlation between the minimum deposit amount and the game selections offered by the casino either.

It is very likely that a €10 minimum casino will even have some of the exact same games that you can find at a €20 casino.

However, it should be noted that some poker tables may have a minimum stake amount that is higher than the casino’s minimum deposit amount.

Online poker tournaments offer players the opportunity to play for some potentially large prizes with other poker enthusiasts. This can all be done from the comfort of your own home, with tournaments either being playable from your browser, app or a downloadable client. A buy-in is required for the majority of tournaments, but there are also freeroll events that provide relatively smaller prizes without requiring a buy-in. 

There are a variety of different tournaments to play in. Multi-table tournaments, Sit & Go events, freezeout, bounty, rebuy, and progressive KO tournaments are just some examples. Sit & Go tournaments only begin play when the table has been filled, while Bounty tournaments provide an additional prize for knocking out a specific player. With a lot of different tournament types available, there is sure to be something that suits your playstyle.

Before committing your buy-in, we always recommend that you double-check the rules of the tournament and the variation of poker being played. Additionally, you should always confirm that the online poker site is fully licensed and its games are verifiably fair.