Why play at PokerStars?

The answer is simple. PokerStars offers you the best poker experience anywhere online, whether you are new to the game, or have been playing for years. It’s free to download the software and start playing, which means you can learn the basics of poker at your own pace. Once you’re comfortable with how things work, you can then start competing for real money across all the different poker games that are on offer. There’s a game starting every second, with buy-ins to suit all bankrolls.

Everything takes place on our award-winning software with 24/7 support always available. You can play tournaments or cash games at all limits, and you qualify for all of the benefits of our VIP Club as soon as you start playing for real money.

Here are more reasons why PokerStars is the only place to play online poker:

Start playing for free

You can download the game software and start playing Texas Hold’em for free right now. We have more free-to-play tables than any other site, so you can try out everything we have to offer for free. To start playing on PokerStars now, download the game software and look for the ‘Play Money’ tabs in the lobby.

State-of-the-art software

Our software includes many special industry-leading features. You can choose different table themes, select card designs, change your avatar, resize your tables, change your position at the table, switch off animations and sounds, keep notes on opponents, chat with other players, and request hand histories and statistics. You can also play at PokerStars in many different languages, currencies and time zones. The game software is also available in both Windows and Mac formats. For more information, visit our special features page.

We constantly try to make our software even better, so if you still think there's something we could improve please contact ideas@pokerstars.eu.

Award-winning support

PokerStars customer service is consistently voted the best in the business, and our team is the most knowledgeable in the online poker industry. Our support staff will provide you with answers to your questions around the clock, seven days a week. If you have any questions about PokerStars contact support@pokerstars.eu.

Safe and secure accounts

We have developed the most stable gaming system available, able to handle hundreds of thousands of players and millions of transactions each day - a commitment to safety and security that’s second to none. We value the integrity of our gaming system above all else and use the latest encryption technology. Your funds are kept in segregated accounts and are not used for operational purposes. To find out more, please visit our integrity page.

Easy deposits and fast cashouts

There are many quick and easy ways to deposit money into your PokerStars account, including credit and debit cards, E-wallets, prepaid cards and wire transfers. We understand your needs and provide lightning fast cashouts using your chosen payment method. For a complete list of available options see our real money page.

The best selection of games and limits

PokerStars is the world’s largest online poker room so there's always a seat waiting for you. There’s a huge range of games, including Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Stud, HORSE, Five Card Draw, Razz, 8-Game and Badugi. Blinds start from as little as $.01/$.02 and go all the way up to $1,000/$2,000, meaning there's a game for everybody. All of our real money games are also available in play money, so you can practice your skills and play poker for free.

The biggest tournaments

PokerStars is the world record-breaking home of tournament poker. Our multi-table tournaments (MTTs) have buy-ins for players of all stakes, including the biggest weekly online poker tournament - the Sunday Million which has a massive weekly guarantee of $1,500,000. You can also play our Sit & Go tournaments, which run around the clock with buy-ins from $1.

And when it comes to event satellites, PokerStars is the only place to play. Qualifying satellites to online tournaments like the Sunday Million and Sunday Warm-Up, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) are hugely popular. Meanwhile every year our live event satellites send hundreds of players to events like the European Poker Tour (EPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and the World Series of Poker*. In fact we qualify more players to the WSOP* than all the other poker sites combined.

Unrivalled rewards scheme and VIP Club

As a reward for playing at PokerStars, you automatically become a member of the VIP Club from the moment you start playing for real money. The more cash games and tournaments you play, the more Frequent Player Points (FPPs) you earn. You can then use these to obtain items from our VIP Store. As your points mount up, your VIP status will increase, meaning even more rewards and incentives including bonus FPPs and free entries to PokerStars events.