We’ve played them all and there are three free play sites that really stand out. They are the biggest and best freeplay poker sites online with lots of players online at all hours to play with. Keep in mind however that these sites do entice players to spend money on playing poker. Also check out my picks for best freerolls sites to see where you can play in real money tournaments for free.
#1 – Zynga
Zynga is by far one of the most popular free play poker sites. At any given time there are hundreds of thousands of players on the site.
There are different rooms and stakes to play at depending on your bankroll. The site also has tournaments and and VIP Club.
There are some cool built in features for those looking to learn how to play the game. The Hand Strength Meter shows you how strong you hand.
While you can play on Zynga for free and the hands are not worth real money, there is still an option to spend money on the site buying chips and gifts. So while you are not technically gambling with your money, you can still spend money to play poker at the site.
#2 – PokerStars.net
Poker Stars offers one of best free to play poker sites available, and it doesn’t have all of the distractions that Zynga does. Their free play version is a mirror of their real money games (they are the largest real money poker site in the world) and uses the same software. This site has a variety of free play game options.
Game Variations: A good variety of games to play including: Hold’em, Omaha, 7 Card Stud, Razz and Tripple Stud. There are a variety of game options including Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit.
Drawbacks: The only downside is that the software can have somewhat of a steep learning curve. But once you figure everything out, it is actually pretty easy to use.
About Playing for Free.
The best place to learn to play poker at is a free poker room. There are many web sites that allow you to play with no money. However a word of caution. Once you’ve become familiar with playing poker at a free play site, don’t expect to play exactly the same in a real money game online and win big. When no money is involved, players tend to have a different playing style as their losses are not for cash. As a player, you need to learn how to read the other players at a table, anticipate their hands and
thanks for providing free site to learn basics
I am looking forward to playing poker online for free.
Your statement about Poker Stars being a good poker site is far from true. Spent over $300 buying chips to play in a free game and have lost over 180 million chips so far this year. I play regularly in real game on Friday nights and do pretty good. Won 1st in 2 of 3 past weeks. Poker Stars rigs game to get players out too much. I lose with AA to 2,4 a lot. River hits too often knocking players out.
I agree which is why I’m looking for a new site to play.
I also agree, why cant they use a software that can shuffle and deal without using enhanced hands so the tournament goes faster (time is money) even if it is FREE lol
Right on, poker stars free is now a rip off. They want you to buy, buy buy the free chips so the free games are programmed for you to lose. Try one of the other sites is my advice. I am delisting my poker stars app.
Carver
Could not agree more. I am suspicious that the program doesn’t deal from a new 52 card deck each hand. Probability has no room in PokerStars games as it simply doesn’t hold up as the reviewer here says. I’ve sat in tournaments and just to see, went all in time after time. I would obtained about 6,300 chips and sit out to come in 44th of about 300 players many times. It is more a bingo game than real poker. Those that say it familiarizes one with poker is false. The only thing it can do is teach one what hands beat other hands. Any dolt can find that anywhere. This is a far, far, far reach from play live poker.
You’re right Kevin, this is not live poker. This is one of the biggest challenges I hear from live players making the move to online. While very similar, live and online play each have their own nuances. Some players find it difficult to transition. Here is a great starting article that talks about the differences: http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/live-players-transitioning-to-online-poker-don-t-make-these-22607.htm
My complaint about the free PokerStars site is that it doesn’t much resemble the actual tournament poker I am trying to practice for. Too many limpers. Too many shove monkeys (who seem to be South Americans in large part).
It has been around 13 years now have played online poker started out on fulltilt poker tournments only to lose to monster hands to the 1 outer they need , moved to 888 poker , pokerstars tower gaming ect ect and bottom line is is a bad player , if i win playing some junk hand im a donk if i lose playing aces im a donk or fish , guess my best friend is shrek and i have the voice of eddie murfy lol ive finally hung up the gloves or cards in this instance for the final time ….the whole feel of online poker is horrible as everyone wants each others money and the site sites back and rubbs its hands together over the commission or rake for holding the game .. one big fat joke ..
I just posted and i may come of as a bad player , and if that is what you think thats cool!! i trully believe that im a very good player who faced so many bad beats its too late to ever recover… fulltilt lost me as a customer when i had some many tournment loses ,a few away from the money ,but failed to cash out ..with strong hands if i had an set aa kk qq they lost time and time again ,to some crappy hands i noticed j9 off was a hand that pushed me out of a lot tournments, and im talking all in before the actual flop, the last two tournments just before the money was a 588,000 tournment had jack jack with a flop of ace jack queen giving me a set of jacks ,,,i raise half my stack and there where two others in the hand they both called and i thought shit one of these players hit a straight on the flop. NOPE quess again…..they both had ace queen deal to them and i was ahead with tripe jacks and yes you guessed it the turn did,nt help them, but the magic river card was a queen giving them a full house aces over queens and splitting my chips to get me out before the money.so fulltilt lose me about 10 years ago . please be carefull when playing on these sites as there is some type scam going on out there …..
Have played on pokerstars for over 10 years, now the free play amount of chips per tournament has gone up huge. Meaning, I have built up 5.4 million chips starting with 1,000… but now it’s jacked up to do free play as of today.
My name is Rodney love to play poker.Been playing for 20 years.
I believe I have played all the major play chip poker sites: America’s Cardroom, Zynga, WSOP, ClubWPT, Poker Stars, Absolute Bet, Full Tilt, Card Player, and Replay Poker, as well as a few others whose names I don’t now remember.
Sadly, it has been my experience with ALL play chip poker sites that the dealing does not result in statistical poker norms. In other words, you are not playing poker, as you would with live, random dealing. You are playing a betting game, with poker cards, and poker rules, but without the same outcomes as in live poker. You are also dealing with people who play any two cards (play every hand), and who over bet, especially pre-flop.
I’m not sure if the RNG’s are designed to produce a certain result, especially since most of the sites now SELL play chips, so it is in their interest for players to lose, or if the RNG’s are just so faulty that they don’t closely approximate live dealing.
The ONLY play chip site I’ve ever played, where the results were essentially the same as live poker, was the old “Doyle’s Room,” when Doyle Brunson represented in, and played there.
Therefore, I have essentially given up on play chip poker, as an outlet for my love of the game of poker.
Andrew, your frustration with free poker sites is not uncommon. I’d suggest playing the micro stakes on real money sites to get something a bit more realistic. While it will cost a little bit to play, but it will mirror reality a little more closely.
I’ve been playing Zynga poker for several years and I’ve watched it slowly decline to where it’s painful to play. The deals do not nearly resemble real life probabilities, which makes the game poison for one who like to play the live game. Recently Zynga is being overrun with bingo players going all in on the first hand. It’s a waste of time. Still looking for a game that somewhat resembles real life.