Whether you play with cash or play for fun, poker is an excellent strategy game to test your mettle, and with the arrival of social casinos, you have even more opportunities to play the way you want, when you want.
If this is your first time hearing about social casinos, however, then you may wonder what they are, and, most importantly, how poker is played in them. To help you get started, we’ve put together a flashfire guide to cover all the basics and get you playing:
What are Social Casinos?
Social casinos are digital casinos where you play with a digital currency. In a social casino, you can win tokens to play, pay to play, or win tokens to keep playing on online poker. Since you can win play tokens, they usually operate under sweepstakes or promotional laws. This means they’re legal in most states, though not all.
How to Play Poker at Social Casinos
Video poker or social casino poker (sometimes known as sweeps poker) is the same as traditional poker. You will be using the same strategies and gameplay to win. To play poker on social casinos for free, you’ll want to follow these steps:
- Sign up and receive your free virtual credits.
- Find and join a free video poker game. This may be in the free section of the site, rather than the sweepstakes version.
- Play poker as usual.
- If you win, you’ll earn more virtual credits to continue playing poker or other casino games.
- If you lose, you won’t have your credits paid back. Don’t worry, though! You can usually get more by waiting or by buying credits with real money.
To play poker in the sweepstakes (known as sweeps poker or sweepstakes poker), you’ll need to use sweeps coins instead. These are the coins that can be redeemed for real prizes, like gift cards, if you have enough.
Acquiring Tokens
There are generally two different types of coins:
- Gold coins are the free-to-play coins that you can get more of just by logging in daily (most sites top you up, for example, 5000 gold coins just for logging in once per 24 hours).
- The other type is sweep coins. These are the ones that can be redeemed for prizes. You can win them, or buy them.
General Rules
You can play traditional poker or poker with a twist in a range of free or sweepstakes video poker games online. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Free Games
You can use gold coins (the free ones) to play in video poker or its fresh alternatives. You can either use the coins you win to continue playing, or, if you’re out, buy more or simply wait for your next day’s allotment.
Sweepstakes
To play for prizes, you’ll need to play sweeps poker instead.
Each site offers a different system. Club GG, for example, requires players to pay a subscription fee to access the Sweeps Coins tournaments. Other sites, like Global Poker, offer weekly and monthly tournaments where winning earns you a share of the prize pool in sweeps coins, which, again, can be redeemed for prizes.
It’s Time to Get Playing
You now know everything you need to get started playing poker on a social casino. To get the most out of the experience, remember to maximize the social element. Use the chat feature, forums, or even talk if you’re on live video to really get the most out of this new social poker experience.