Find the Best Poker Sites in the UK
Looking to play poker online? Learn about online poker for beginners and professionals and find the best poker sites for Omaha, Texas Hold’em, Video Poker and more here!
Best Online Poker Sites
- No wagering requirements
- Cashback on every bet with OJOplus
- Daily, exclusive bonuses with OJO Kickers
- Large game selection (over 3,000 games) including bingo
- Quick deposits and withdrawals
- More than 3,000 games offered
- Lots of promotions and a VIP-club
- 24/7 customer support
- MuchBetter, Visa, PayPal, Trustly, Paysafecard
- Modern and well-designed website
- Generous welcome package
- Lots of promotions & free spins
- 24/7 customer service
- More than 3,000 games
- PayPal, Apple Pay and more popular payment methods accepted
- 100 daily no-deposit free spins
- Wagering free winnings
- Large game selection including bingo
- No deposit bonus
- Low wagering requirements
- 24/7 customer support
- Nice theme and concept for UK players
- Always 10% cashback
- Fair wagering requirements
- Exclusive welcome bonus
- Lots of promotions and rewards for all players
- Over 2,000 casino games
- PayPal, PayViaPhone and other popular payment methods accepted
- Promotions to join every single day
- Fun tournaments and rewards
- Large game selection including bingo
- Free spins with low wagering requirement
- Welcome bonus for casino, live casino and sport
- Sportsbook, bingo and scratch cards in game selection
Online Poker for Beginners at the Best Poker Sites UK
Poker online is played like poker at land-based casinos or tournaments, but just played from anywhere worldwide – whenever you want. With no download required and so many safe poker sites around, it has never been easier to start playing.
Of course, the setup will look a bit different playing from a computer compared to an actual poker table in front of you, but it is mostly to your advantage. With online poker, there is no need for a poker face or to know all the rules by heart. You can start playing for free and learn as you go before playing for real money.
To cover the very basics for beginners, poker is a group of card games where the aim is to have the best hand (or bluff the other players to believe you have the best hand). This is a casino game where skill and strategy are important parts of becoming a good player. But you can get the hang of it quite quickly!
It is important to note that poker is not one specific game with a set of rules, but rather an umbrella of similar card games. This includes the popular versions Omaha and Texas Hold’em, and also the combination of slot games and poker in video poker. It is just always important to know which version you are playing and how that specific game is played.
Should you Play Online Poker with Real Money or a Bonus?
If you are brand new to online poker, we recommend that you play for free first. This can either be done by playing the demo versions available or by playing with a bonus.
When signing up to poker sites online, you will normally be awarded a welcome bonus which you might be able to use at poker games to play online. You might get a no deposit bonus which lets you play for free without making any deposit. Or the casino might offer a cashback scheme (in poker: rakeback) or for double or nothing games.
Once you are ready to start playing with real money, you can start staking your deposits for cash games. Find a game that fits your budget and start playing your hands. You can start by playing machine-generated poker games and then move on to live casino games once you get the hang of it.
Differences Between Online and Conventional Poker Sites
There are significant variations between online poker and traditional poker.
The players do not sit directly across from each other, eliminating the opportunity to monitor others’ reactions and body language. Instead, online poker players learn to pay more attention to their opponents’ betting habits, reaction times, the pace of play, use of checkboxes/auto-plays, opponents’ fold/flop percentages, chatbox, waiting for the big blind, beginners’ calls, and other non-physical activity calls.
Effective online poker players learn to master the new frontiers of their surroundings because poker is a game that needs adaptability.
Online poker is much cheaper than offline poker in various ways. This is because most of the expenses, including incidental expenses, are non-existent in online poker. An online poker player can play from the comfort of their own home, eliminating the need for transportation to and from the poker room. There are no additional upfront equipment expenses if the player already has a reasonably modern computer and an Internet connection.
When you’re at an actual poker table in a casino, there are a lot of extra costs. Tipping the dealers, chip runners, servers, and other casino workers, in addition to the rake, is almost universally predicted, further depleting a player’s earnings. Furthermore, unlike an online player who can come and go as they please, once seated at a poker table, a player must stay there until they want to withdraw, or else they will be relegated to the bottom of the waiting list.
Common Poker Terms & Their Meaning
In order to play poker well, it is important to understand the rules of the game and to be strategically smart with your actions. But it’s not just the rules that you have to grasp – there are also a lot of poker terms that might be used in the games.
If you are not used to the poker phrases or poker slang being used, you might end up losing your bet out of pure confusion. We therefore decided to go through some poker terms explained. Here, we have outlined a full poker glossary covering all common (and some less common) terms you might come across while playing poker. Hopefully, it can help you become an even better poker player!
A
- Ace in the hole: One of the hole cards (face-down cards) is an Ace.
- Act: Making a play (such as bet, call, fold or raise).
- Action card: A community card on the table that causes a lot of betting action, as it is helpful for two or more players.
- Active players: Players that are still playing and involved in the pot.
- Aggressive/aggression: A player’s style of opening with an opening bet or raise rather than check or call.
- All-in: The act of betting all chips for the current hand. “To go all-in.”
- Ante: A forced bet that is required by all players before the dealing begins and cards are seen. This is to have a starting pot and works as a entry fee to the hand. It is not used in all types of poker games.
B
- Backdoor: A hand that requires two or more draws, the turn and the river, to fill it (including community cards). For example, if you have a diamond on hand and there are two on the board, you require at least two more draws to (hopefully) get two more diamonds for a flush.
- Bad beat: An unlucky losing hand where a player loses against someone who had a slim chance starting off but got “lucky”.
- Bet: To make a wager.
- Bink: A big win in a tournament.
- Blind: A type of forced bet by specific players before the dealing begins and cards are seen. A two-blind structure of a small blind and a big bland is typically used.
- Board: The community cards that are available in some games. Face-up cards that all players can use for their hands.
- Burn: Discarding the top card of the deck at the start of a deal in order to prevent cheating.
- Bubble: The last finishing position in a poker tournament before the payout structure. For example, if 10 players get paid in a tournament of 100 people, the 11th position is the bubble.
- Button: The position of the dealer at the table.
- Bluff: Betting or raising on a hand that is unlikely to win in the hope that the opponent(s) will fold in “fear”.
- Buy-in: The minimum amount of chips required to join a game/tournament. The minimum bet.
C
- Call: To call someone is to match or raise the amount of the previous bet to stay in play.
- Cooler: Slang describing the second-best hand – a player with a good hand losing to a player with an even better hand.
- Cutoff (CO): The position to the right of the button (dealer).
- Check: If no one has opened the betting round yet, it is possible to pass/bet zero by checking. Declining to make a bet while still keeping their hand in play.
- Chech-raise: Raising after previously checking in the same betting round.
- Community cards: Cards that are dealt in the centre of the table, showing face up. In games using community cards, all players can use these cards to make their hand. Also called “board”.
D
- Dealer: The person distributing the cards. The position of the dealer on the table is called “button”.
- Donk/donkey: A weak player (known as donk, donkey or fish).
- Draw: Staying in play and drawing more cards hoping for a stronger hand.
- Drawing dead: Drawing for a hand that will lose to an opponent even if the desired cards are dealt.
F
- Fish: A weak player (see “donk”).
- Flop: The act of dealing – and the name for – the first three face-up cards to the board after the first round of betting.
- Flush: A hand made of five cards of the same suit.
- Fold: Discarding one’s hand and getting out of the game round, forfeiting any wins from the pot.
H
- Hijack: The position second right of the button (dealer).
- Heads up: Playing a pot or tournament against just one opponent.
- Hole cards: Cards that are dealt face down, individual to each player. Also known as pocket cards.
J
- Jam: Another (slang) term for going all in.
K
- Kicker: Cards that are not used to make a hand but as side cards to determine a winner. If two players have the same hand, the best kicker will win.
L
- Limp: Slang for entering a pot by calling, not raising.
M
- Muck: The pile of discarded cards.
- Mucking: Another word for folding, as the cards are discarded into the muck (or pot).
N
- Nit: A player that doesn’t take any risks and hardly plays any of the starting hands, only waiting for premium holdings.
- Nuts: The best possible hand that can’t lose.
O
- Overcard: A card that is higher than the board or a player’s current holding.
P
- Pot: The sum of money that is wagered and collected during play and that the winner(s) wins.
Q
- Quads: Four of a kind.
R
- Raise: Increasing the size of an existing bet in the same betting round.
- Re-raise: A second or subsequent raise of a betting round.
- River: The fifth and final community card dealt out of five.
- Rag/ragged: A low-valued card.
- Rainbow: A flop in which every card is of a different suit.
S
- Set: A hand with three of a kind, where two cards are from the hole cards.
- Shove: Another term for being all in, “shoving” all chips in
- Straddle bet: An optional and voluntary blind bet after small and big blind, before cards are dealt.
T
- Tilt: Playing with reckless abandon due to negative emotions.
- Trips: A hand with three of a kind, where only one card is from the hole cards.
- Turn: The fourth community card dealt out of five.
U
- Under the gun (UTG): The player positioned to the left of the blinds and therefore has to act first in the first betting round.
W
- Whale: A weak player with a large bankroll.
Basic Poker Terms You Have to Know
In the list above, there’s a lot of poker terminology and slang covered. And while it might be nice to know it all, it can also feel a bit overwhelming all at once. Therefore, if you are an absolute beginner, you can get started by focusing on the rules of the game and the following poker terms:
- Pot: The sum of money that is wagered and collected during play and that the winner(s) wins.
- Ante: A forced bet that is required by all players before the dealing begins and cards are seen. This is to have a starting pot and works as a entry fee to the hand. It is not used in all types of poker games.
- Bet: To make a wager.
- Call: To call someone is to match or raise the amount of the previous bet to stay in play.
- Raise: To increase the size of an existing bet in the same betting round.
- Fold: To discard one’s hand and get out of the game round, forfeiting any wins from the pot.
Where to Find the Best Poker Sites UK
Here at Kabono, we list some of the very best UK casinos offering different poker games to play online. From our casino reviews, you can read about the game selection of these casinos and also the bonuses, safety etc. We only recommend poker gambling sites that are completely legal and safe for UK players.
While there are specific poker websites offering poker games and tournaments only, we prefer playing at online poker sites that are part of an online casino. This way, you can switch up your gambling experience with some slots, Roulette and possibly sports betting too.
We find that the best online poker sites are ones that offer variety both in terms of poker versions and bets available. We want to recommend sites where you can play for real money to make money, while also offering play with freerolls to learn the games first. And when it comes to staking, we want to make sure there is something for every budget: For micro stakes, low stakes, and high rollers.
How Kabono Picks the Best Poker Sites
It’s always worth it to go back and think about how we arrived at our conclusions. How did we come up with and distinguish the best from the worst with so many existing and new online poker sites open, each claiming to be the best in the business?
At Kabono, we’ve spent hours and days scouring the internet for the best poker sites. We looked at things like the incentives, user-friendliness, and whether it has a modernized mobile app. And these sites, in our humble opinion, are the most trustworthy, most honest, and best poker sites on the internet.
Browse our top list and reviews of safe poker sites and start playing today!
- No wagering requirements
- Cashback on every bet with OJOplus
- Daily, exclusive bonuses with OJO Kickers
- Large game selection (over 3,000 games) including bingo
- Quick deposits and withdrawals
- More than 3,000 games offered
- Lots of promotions and a VIP-club
- 24/7 customer support
- MuchBetter, Visa, PayPal, Trustly, Paysafecard
- Modern and well-designed website
- Generous welcome package