How to Play Poker for Free at Sweepstake Casinos
We’ve found that it’s pretty easy to sign up to a
sweepstake casino
and play poker online. However, it’s important to remember that these gaming platforms work very differently from standard online casinos.
This is because these
sweepstakes websites
don’t actually feature any real money gambling, and instead let you play with virtual currencies that are usually called Gold Coins and Sweepstakes Coins.
The cool thing is that sweepstakes casinos have to let you enter their sweepstakes for free.
This means that you can pick up some free Sweepstakes Coins via a special offer, use them to play poker free of charge, and if you win back enough Sweepstakes Coins you might be able to redeem a real-world prize.
Confused? Then here is a quick step by step guide that details just how easy it is to play poker at one of our recommended sweepstakes casinos:
- Click on any of the sweeps casinos featured in the banners of this page
- Navigate to their website from the browser of your computer or mobile
- Create a customer account by filling in the registration form with your personal information
- Enter in any required promo codes to get your free credit welcome offer
- Log into your account and navigate to the poker section
- Click on the poker game to load it up from your web browser
- Pick whether you want to play with Sweeps Coins or Gold Coins
- Enter in your stakes and start playing poker online
Best Poker Sweepstake Casinos
It can actually be surprisingly hard to find a sweepstakes casino with a decent range of poker games. So we’ve done the hard work for you and handpicked five quality sweeps casinos who can be counted on for online poker:
Pros and cons of Stake.us
- Exclusive welcome offer
- Excellent Poker Stake Originals game
- Play for free
- Redeem crypto prizes
We’d best start by noting that if you sign up to Stake.us using our exclusive TGTSOCIAL code, you could get a welcome offer consisting of 55 Stake Cash, 260,000 Gold Coins and 5% rakeback.
From here you can use the Gold Coins to play quality Stake Originals like Poker for free, or use the Stake Cash to redeem prizes like cryptos, gift cards and merchandise. There’s also a pretty good Video Poker game to give you another way to play.
Stake.us Social Casino Promo
56 Stake Cash + 560K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback
Clubs Poker – Perfect for serious poker fans
Pros and cons of Clubs Poker
- Stunning poker tournaments
- Good poker variants
- Top sit and gos
- Great welcome offer
We had a blast at Clubs Poker and we think that all hardcore poker fans will think the same. After all, this site is packed with over 20 types of poker including Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and plenty of progressive tournaments, sit and gos and a whole lot more.
You can sign up here and get a welcome offer that gives you 20 SC for free and 100,000 Gold Coins for a cut price. Perfect for enjoying plenty more poker tournaments from your computer or mobile.
Clubs Poker Social Casino Promo
100% Purchase Bonus: Spend $20 Get a 200K GC and 40 SC Bonus
Sweeptastic – Plenty of fun poker options
Pros and cons of Sweeptastic
- Four poker options
- Excellent welcome offer
- Free gameplay
- Redeemable cash prizes
This is a sweeps casino that is well known for the sheer variety of gaming options. As such, it’s little surprise to find that Sweeptastic would have no less than four poker games. These include everything from standard video poker to Triple Edge Poker, Caribbean Poker and Caribbean Stud Poker.
You can play all of these poker games for free, and there is a great welcome offer to start you off. This will give new customers 33 Sweeps Coins and 67,777 Lucky Coins that can be used to redeem cash prizes and play for fun respectively.
Real Prize Social Casino Promo
625K Golden Coins + Up to 125 SC FREE + 1250 VIP Points
Zula Casino – Good choice for video poker fans
Pros and cons of Zula Casino
- Great for video poker
- No purchase required
- Cash prizes redeemable
- Good welcome offer
Video poker might be an acquired taste but there is no doubt that Zula Casino has got you covered with this gaming option. After all, it’s got top titles like Jacks or Better and Joker Poker that’ll give you a quick and easy way to play.
What’s best is that you can sign up to this sweeps casino and get a welcome offer that gives you 250,000 Gold Coins and 10 Sweeps Coins completely free of charge. Perfect for playing video poker without having to spend a single cent.
Zula Casino Social Casino Promo
Get your FREE 10 SC + 120K Gold Coins
Funrize – An honorable mention for this sweeps casino
Pro and Con
- Fun Poker Dogs game
- No payments required
- Redeem cash prizes
- Playable from web browser
OK, so this sweeps casino doesn’t have the widest range of poker games, but it still manages to have a fun game of Poker Dogs for you to play.
Plus we had to include Funrize here as it has just launched a massive welcome offer that’ll give you 3,600 Sweeps Coins and 1,225,000 Gold Coins just for signing up. Perfect for edging your way towards redeeming some cash prizes or playing for fun.
Funrize Social Casino Promo
3600 Entries FREE + 1.225 Million Coins
Free Poker Vs Real Money Poker
While we’ve been recommending that you play online poker at one of our featured sweeps casinos, we’re aware of the fact that many gamers will still want to enjoy some real money gambling. So here are the main pros and cons of playing poker at sweeps casinos rather than their real money counterparts:
Pros and cons of sweeps casinos
- Legal in most states
- Always free to play
- Redeem cash prizes
- Less risk involved
- Potentially smaller game selection
How We Rate Free Poker Sites
While each poker platform will have something unique to offer, we usually look for certain key ingredients in these brands before we recommend them to you. Here is what we look out for:
We’ll be checking to see the quality and quantity of the games on offer. We’d expect more than just a solitary game of video poker, and would be hoping for lots of variants ranging from Texas hold’em to Omaha poker and beyond.
It’s obviously a whole lot more fun to play poker against other people, and we’ll be checking to see what social gaming options there are. From massive poker tournaments and sit and gos to some simple banter on the social casino chat channel, it should all add up to giving you plenty more entertainment.
Naturally you will want to get lots of free credit to use on those poker games. So we’ll be sifting through the small print of all of these welcome offers and daily login deals to see which are worth getting.
While it’s nice to play online poker for fun, it gets a whole lot more enjoyable when you know that you can redeem a prize at the end of it. So we’ll be checking out easy the prize redemption process is and reveal exactly what kinds of real-world prizes you can redeem.
Obviously we’ll be checking to see that the sweeps casino is legally allowed to operate in the US and you’ll get to see if it’s available in your state. Plus we’ll make sure that there is SSL-level encryption and plenty of player protection tools to keep your gameplay in check.
Basic Poker Rules
While poker is a card game with plenty of variants, it usually involves you having to get a winning hand over the other players. This means that you will be dealt some cards and have to make choices as to whether to stick with the cards you’ve got or exchange them for others.
Here is a list of the main poker hands that you should be aiming to get with the highest value at the top and the lowest at the bottom:
| Poker hand name | Featured cards |
| Royal Flush | 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, all of the same suit. |
| Straight Flush | Five cards in a row, all in the same suit. |
| Four of a Kind | Same card in each of the four suits. |
| Full House | A pair plus three of a kind in the same hand. |
| Flush | Five cards in the same suit, not in numerical order. |
| Straight | Five cards in numerical order, but not in the same suit. |
| Three of a Kind | Three of one card and two non-paired cards. |
| Two Pair | Two different pairings of the same card in one hand. |
| One Pair
| A pair of the same card |
| High Card | High card with no matching cards |
Poker Terms You Should Know
Poker is a game that is awash with all manner of weird and wonderful jargon. While you don’t have to know all of these terms to enjoy the card game, it’s worth having a basic understanding of the following terms:
- Bluff – Making the other players think that your hand is stronger than it actually is
- Buy-in – The amount you have to spend to join a game of poker
- Call – This means that you have to match the existing wager in the current poker round
- Community cards – The cards placed in the middle of the table that can be used to construct your hand
- Face card – A jack, queen or king
- Flop – The second round of betting in the community cards
- Fold – To discard the hand and not match the wager in the round.
- Free roll – Poker tournaments with no minimum buy-in
- High roller – Someone who plays poker for high stakes
- Hole cards – Cards that are dealt face down and kept secret
- House – The establishment that runs the poker game
- Limit – Where all bets and raises are kept within a strict structure
- Pot – The central part of the poker where all the bet chips are put
- Raise – To increase the size of your bet
- Rake – The small amount of commission taken by the establishment for running the game
- Sit and go – A poker tournament that will have a minimum number of participants
Best Poker Games to Play
There is a seemingly limitless number of poker variants out there and each one will have something unique to offer. While everything from Razz to Caribbean Stud Poker will have its merits, your most likely to find the following poker options at a sweepstakes casino:
This is where you are dealt two cards face down and there are five community cards that are dealt face up in stages of three cards, followed by two single cards. Probably the most popular poker variant.
This is very similar to Texas Hold’em, only that you are dealt four cards face down to begin with, rather than two. You’ll also be able to make your hand out of three of the five community cards.
There are multiple video poker games ranging from Deuces Wild to Joker Poker and beyond. While each will have their quirks, they are all designed to be played as a single player.
Find the Best Poker Strategy
There are all manner of poker strategies out there that are designed to help you maximize your wins and minimize your losses. While each of these strategies will usually be worth checking out, it’s worth remembering that even the best poker players lose every now and then.
This is why the best poker strategy is always to set a sensible budget and stick with it.
Even if you are just playing with virtual currency at a sweeps casino, it’s still smart to only play with small stakes that you don’t mind losing. Perfect for making sure that even the nastiest of losing streaks doesn’t hurt too much.
Beyond that basic advice, we’d recommend doing the following things:
- Fold early if you are unsure about what to do next
- Don’t be afraid to bluff but don’t do it too much
- Calculate the pot odds and understand the laws of probability
- Minimize the amount of hands you play to avoid people figuring out your playing style
Free Poker Vs Real Money Poker
While we’ve been recommending that you play online poker at one of our featured sweeps casinos, we’re aware of the fact that many gamers will still want to enjoy some real money gambling. So here are the main pros and cons of playing poker at sweeps casinos rather than their real money counterparts:
Pros and cons of sweeps casinos
- Legal in most states
- Always free to play
- Redeem cash prizes
- Less risk involved
- Potentially smaller game selection
How to Start with Real Money Poker
If you are determined to play poker for real money, you’ll need to be very careful. After all, real money online casinos are only legal in a handful of states and you will need to make sure that you are only using a site that is legally allowed to operate in your state.
Not only that, but you will need to have to think carefully about what payment methods you use to fund your poker gameplay. Some casinos might not accept your preferred payment option and there might even be some charges involved.
This is why we’ve built up a comprehensive resource that will help you find a suitable real money casino for playing online poker. But for most people in the US, it’s clear that sweepstakes casinos represent the best way to play this classic card game.
Conclusion – Get ready to play poker at a sweepstakes casino
We’ve shown you that there are a growing number of sweeps casinos who will be more than happy to let you play online poker for free. Regardless of whether you’re playing video poker or Texas Hold’em in a tournament, each of these sites featured will let you redeem some pretty cool cash prizes too. So be sure to sign up to one of our recommended
Sweepstakes Coins casinos and enjoy playing online poker for free.
Check out our picks of the best sweepstakes casinos
1.
625K Golden Coins + Up to 125 SC FREE + 1250 VIP Points
2.
56 Stake Cash + 560K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback
3.
27.5 SC FREE and 57.5K Gold Coins
4.
150% Purchase Offer: 25 SC FREE and 50K GC
5.
27.5 SC FREE and 57.5K Gold Coins
Sweepstakes poker FAQ
🙋 What is sweepstakes poker?
Sweepstakes poker is just like regular poker except for the fact that you play with virtual currencies rather than your own money. Plus you can play for free and even redeem cash prizes too.
🤔 How old do I have to be to play sweepstakes poker?
It depends which sweepstakes casino you are playing at and where you are playing from. You will usually have to be at least 18 years old, but this age limit rises to 21 years at Stake.us.
❓ How do you get more Sweepstakes Coins at sweepstakes poker?
You can get free Sweepstakes Coins for doing simple things like signing up to a sweeps casino for the first time to logging into your account every day. Plus don’t forget to pick up more free credit via one of those social media giveaways.
💭 Can you play in tournaments on sweepstakes poker sites?
Yes, sweepstakes brands like Clubs Poker have an extensive range of poker tournaments. Just note that such sites are the exception to the rule when it comes to most sweeps casinos.
💰 How many Sweepstakes Coins do you need to redeem for cash prizes at sweepstakes poker sites
It depends which site you are playing at, but most will require you to have at least 100 Sweepstakes Coins in your fully verified account before you can redeem a prize.
