Have you ever wanted to organize a private online poker tournament with your friends as the only participants? If the answer is yes, then we have some exciting news. Gamblers that are looking to set up an online poker tournament can easily do it from the comfort of their home by signing up on a platform that allows creating private rooms.
Many casino operators let gamblers create rooms and invite people they know. From there they can adjust the rules and decide if they want to play for fun or real money. Before you provide any financial or personal information, we recommend you choose a casinobonusca.com verified gambling site, because you wouldn’t like to sign up as a member on a shady casino that could bring you concerns regarding your online privacy.
We made a little research and ended up finding the best private poker platforms, PokerStars, 888poker, and BluffAve. We chose them because they are free and easy to get started with. Additionally, they are also among the leading online poker sites, which ensures that you and your friends will be playing in a safe environment and without worrying about security issues at all.
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that for this guide we tested many other apps, such as Poker Heat, Pokerrrr 2, Blockchain.poker, and more. While some of them had great interfaces and were easy to set up, they were forcing us to complete some in-app purchases in order to proceed with our game, which was supposed to be entirely free.
Get started with Poker Stars Online Home Games
Below, you will find an in-depth guide on how to quickly set up a private poker game online. The easiest method is through Pokerstar’s Online Home Games. This feature allows the members of the platform to choose between tournaments and cash games. To get started with your first private poker game, you just have to:
- Sign up on PokerStars;
- Download and install the PokerStars client;
- Navigate to the “Home Games” section on the bottom right menu;
- Create a room and configure it based on your preferences.
Once you’re done with the setup, tap the “Manage Games” tab and decide what type of poker game you would like to play, the format, the number of players, and the currency. The available poker games on this website are:
- Texas Hold’Em;
- Omaha (play money only);
- Stud;
- Razz;
- 5-Card Draw;
- 2-7 Single Draw;
- 2-7 Triple Draw;
- Horse;
- NLHE / PLO;
- 8 Game;
- Badugi.
Read our article on the most popular poker games to learn more about the various ways you can play it and increase your winning chances.
How to configure a private room
The available stakes vary depending on whether you want to play with real or free money. For example, if you want to go for a real money private game of Stud, the stakes will range from C$0.01 up to C$1.
The free play equivalents are within a completely different range, moving from 100 all the way up to 1.000.000 coins.
PokerStars Home Games allows you to configure your room to your liking by tweaking the number of players per table, the buy-in, the format, the game speed, breaks, payout, and so on. Once you’ve decided on your tournament configuration, click on Create and you’re good to go.
To invite your friends, you need to add them as members of your poker club. To do so, you just have to access the “Manage Club” section and select “How to Invite New Members”. You will receive a message containing the Club ID Number and the invitation code. Now send this information to your friends and they will be able to use it to join your club and see all the private poker rooms you created.
Now that you have a better understanding of how to get started with PokerStar’s private rooms, you should know that this platform is ideal for beginners. It has an intuitive user interface, a large selection of cash games and tournaments and it is available on both desktop and mobile devices. On top of that, you have the best banking methods available for gambling, like Skrill, FirePay, Neteller, VISA, or MasterCard.
888poker
This is an alternative platform on which you can quickly set up your private poker games for free.
To get started, you have to download the 888poker client, register a new account, and access the “Play with Friends” feature under the Extra Games tab. You can either host your own games or join a private room by clicking “Join the Game” after you’ve received the invitation.
An advantage of 888poker is that you don’t have to create a poker club, you just have to follow the on-screen instructions, select your stakes, starting times, and format.
Once you’re done, click “Create” and you will create the private cash game available. Similarly to the PokerStars process, you will receive a text that you need to share with the people that you want to play with.
Bluff Avenue
While PokerStars and 888poker are the most popular choices when it comes to private casino games, we have found a faster way to organize a poker night with your friends. Bluff Avenue is one of the favorite platforms in the online poker community because signing up doesn’t require any sensitive personal information (only name and e-mail) and once you’ve created your account, you can create a room right away and start having fun!
While this website is still in the beta and from time to time the server goes down for maintenance, Bluff Ave is one of the better platforms for having a fun poker game from the comfort of your home. All you have to do is click the “Create” button, choose the game rules and you are all set. Invite other members of the website and the tournament can begin!
Now that you have a brief overview of the most reliable sites where you can organize private poker rooms, it is up to you to choose the best one from the list. Of course, the results might vary based on your preferences, but by trying out these platforms you will for sure find the perfect place for a nice casino night with your buddies.