Replay Poker: the best place to learn for free

Poker is a game of opinions and differences, but let’s agree on one thing: you need to play to get better.

If you’re risking your own cash when you start out, chances are you’re going to lose it. In which case, why not start out at a play money site? Make all your mistakes there while learning the basic strategies of the game, and you won’t lose a cent. The most popular play-money-only site is Replay Poker, where a thriving community is waiting to welcome you to the tables. It’s an ideal place to learn risk-free and have great fun while doing so.

Signing-up for free poker is easy

There’s no download required to play Replay Poker, simply go to the site, select your preferred language (there are nine) and click on the sign-up form. A few quick and easy fields to fill out, and before you know it, you’re taken through to your main dashboard.

From here, you can dive straight into the action, view your progress, free poker promotions, messages and loads more. Happily, everyone is given free chips, so there’s no barrier to sitting down at a game straight away. You’ll find a full range of ring games, multi-table tournaments and sit and go tables running around the clock, so there’s always a game available for you. As with other sites, Replay Poker majors on Texas Hold’em, with no limit, fixed and mixed variations. There are also Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo games, together with Royal Hold’em, an intriguing variation that only uses tens, picture cards and aces from the deck (and only five people can sit at a table).

Ring games at Replay Poker

Just because this is free poker action, it doesn’t mean players are not taking it seriously. Far from it. Across all free-poker-chip buy-in levels, the action is much better than you might expect. That’s not to say the games are hard – more that people are playing at a decent level and not simply throwing chips around.

Choose from fast speed tables or normal – there are plenty of games going on at six and nine-seater tables across the stake levels and game variants. The table layout is much as you’d expect anywhere else, and it’s simple to follow the action, with the usual audible alerts should you not realise the action is on you. The chat box is normally respectful, which makes a nice change!

Free-to-play poker tournaments

A quick glance at the tournament lobby shows just how much action there is to be enjoyed at Replay Poker. Tournaments are scheduled around the clock, with many having a guaranteed prize pool. There are even plenty of freerolls, so you don’t even have to spend your play money chips.

When you enter a multi-table tournament, you’re given clear updated information about the status of the tournament, the structure, prizes and chip count leaderboard.

If sit and go tournaments are more your bag, plenty of these kick off all the time as well, including nine, six and three-seat games. While most are no-limit hold’em games, you do occasionally get Omaha sit and go tables running, too.

No mobile play an issue for some

While we love the action and buzzy community to be found on Replay Poker, there is no ability to play the game on your mobile. You have to do so on your desktop/laptop. However, we’re told the guys at Replay are working on this, and hope to introduce mobile gaming towards the end of the year. If this is a real issue for you, then perhaps look at alternatives.

Cool promotions and badges

Replay Poker quite rightly makes a big thing of the fun element of playing on the site, bringing its large and active community together. One nice touch is receiving badges for the many achievements you’ll unlock as you play – a bit like a video game rewards system.

The economy of the site is play chips, and while you’ll be given some to start off with, you can always purchase more. The first purchase special currently stands at 99 cents for 60,000 chips, payable by major cards or PayPal. You get rewarded with more free chips each day you log in and play, and there are various one-off promotions to make the action even more fun.

One thing the site is very strong about is leaderboards. You’ll find leaderboards for ring games and tournaments, where you can see how you stack up against your friends or how you measure up in general against the opposition. Thousands participate in these leaderboards, showing just how active the player base is.

Your standings, together with your activity, settings and stats are all accessible from your account screen available on the main menu. From the drop-down, you’ll also be able to access the ‘Getting Started’ page, which is perfect for beginners to see quickly what the site offers. You can also access the help centre and support.

Cool community and help

We already mentioned the community spirit at Replay Poker. You’ll find this in abundance on Replay Poker forums, where you can discuss poker strategy and offer help or receive help as a beginner. With no real money being won or lost at the tables, it makes it a much friendlier place. If you learn on one of the real-money sites, you’ll find people trying to eat you alive. That’s not the case at Replay Poker where people genuinely like to get along. They add each other to their friends’ list and enjoy each other’s company. It’s all quite refreshing!

Have fun while you learn

While the software/graphics are not up to the standards of the big poker operators, like PokerStars, the sense of community and the fact that you can splash around at Replay Poker for free while you learn, makes this the ideal choice for a beginner. Let’s not forget those who are already good at the game but just want to have fun without the expense, and also those who by law cannot play for real money in the US, and together you have a busy site which will keep you entertained for a long time.