Senior Casino & Gaming Manager
Free, legal and full of a variety of exciting games, PokerStars Play is the place to play online poker and casino games. Join a worldwide gaming community and compete to win, BUT with PokerStars Play available in over 80 countries and played by thousands of players, building your virtual chip stack won’t be easy. So, we’ve come up with our exclusive list of hacks. Here are our top 5 tips to win at PokerStars Play.
#1 – Earn Free Bonuses at PokerStars Play
Everyone loves a free bonus, and PokerStars Play is absolutely littered with them… you just have to know where to look. You can play free online poker at PokerStars Play, but you should take advantage of all their bonuses to maintain your chip bankroll and ensure you can keep winning.
How to Get Free Bonus Chips at PokerStars Play?
PokerStars Play offers several different bonuses, all coming with the opportunity to win a bucket load of free chip rewards. But how exactly do you get free bonuses at PokerStars Play and how do you earn free poker chips?
Spin the Ad Wheel
Directly from the PokerStars Play game lobby, you can access the Ad Wheel. Here, every four hours you can spin the wheel for a chance to win free poker chips to play with, as well as other prizes. All you need to do is just watch an ad in the PokerStars Play app. But that’s not all, the bonuses don’t stop there! If you complete five spins, you’ll get an extra free spin on the jackpot bonus wheel for a chance to win BIG.
Scratchcards
Each day, you’ll be rewarded a free scratchcard where you can win free chips. You can also earn a free scratchcard by watching an ad, or even purchase a premium scratchcard that gives you the chance to win even better rewards.
Quizzes
Think you know your stuff about poker…why not put it to the test? PokerStars Play rewards you for your knowledge. Play quizzes straight from the mini-games tab from the menu bar at the bottom. Three lives… 10 seconds to answer… if you can successfully navigate all the questions given to you, you’ll be rewarded with (yep, you’ve guessed it)… even more free chips!
#2 – Advance Through the Poker Leagues
Poker at PokerStars Play isn’t just about a few online tournaments, or a handful of cash game tables you might play. It’s about your overall performance over the course of the league season and cumulatively, how many chips you can win. Finishing in the ‘promotion bracket’ and advancing to the next league will result in more free poker chips being awarded. You’ll also collect badges based on your final league finishing position.
What is PokerStars Play Poker Leagues?
The PokerStars Play poker leagues are a weekly system where players can earn badges and rewards. Every Monday, a new league season will start. Here, based on players’ skill levels, each player will be allocated to a specific league with 99 other competitors. If you finish the season in the promotion bracket, you’ll advance to the league above. Finish in the ‘safe bracket’ and you’ll remain in your current league, but finish in the ‘demotion bracket’ and you’ll be relegated to the league below.
The league ranking is based on the number of chips you win accumulatively across the week. You’ll be initially put in a league based on your skill level. The relegation and promotion aspect of the leagues also ensures that you find the right league based on your skill level.
Why play PokerStars Play Poker Leagues?
Playing the poker leagues is a surefire way to help you win at PokerStars Play. Even if you get relegated from your league, the next season (week) you’ll be in a lower league where you’ll have a much better chance of finishing in the higher positions. When you do, you’ll be rewarded with more free poker chips that you can use to crush at the tables and become a winning player at PokerStars Play.
#3 – Complete PokerStars Play Challenges
PokerStars Play offers daily and weekly challenges to complete that will once again reward you with more chips to play with. Each player will receive three daily challenges and one weekly challenge to tackle. IF you complete all three daily challenges, you’ll receive an instant mystery bonus.
What are PokerStars Play Challenges?
PokerStars Play challenges are either poker or casino challenges that you can complete to win free chips. An example of the poker challenges might be to play in five tournaments or win 25 hands. Alternatively, the casino challenges might be spin 10 times (on any slot game).
How to Complete PokerStars Play Challenges
Accessing and completing PokerStars Play challenges is easy. Simply go to the menu bar at the bottom of the screen, click on the ‘Challenges’ icon to the right of the menu and access all the challenges available to you. What’s more, you’ll have a progress bar for each so you can see updates on your progress and know exactly what more you need to do to complete your challenges.
#4 – Don’t Give Up
Whether you’re playing free online poker at PokerStars Play, or playing the highest-stakes cash games at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, results don’t dictate your ability as a poker player. It’s counterintuitive, as with most sports and games, if you lose consistently, it usually indicates you’re not as good as your competition.
Of course, this is probably also the case if you’re consistently losing in the long-term at poker, but short-term results are highly volatile down to the luck element involved in poker. If you have a few losing days, don’t be deterred or down-hearted, thinking you’re not a good player. Variance is a huge part of poker and is something every pro, from Daniel Negreanu to Phil Ivey, has had to deal with at some point in their careers.
Play Free Online Poker Games at PokerStars Play
So, if you’re going through a downswing, the best thing you can do is take some time to compose yourself (don’t go on tilt!), understand that variance is normal and get back to tables. PokerStars Play is completely free, so your money is not at risk if you continue to lose. However, you could turn it around and get back to winning ways.
#5 – Study and Learn Poker
While casino games can have some strategy involved, poker is a game where in the long run, the most skilled players will be the ones who win the most. Nobody is born a skillful poker player – every successful pro to date has worked tirelessly at perfecting their knowledge. If you do the same, you’ll quickly see your skill level rise… and this will have a positive effect on your win rate in the long term.
How to Get Better at PokerStars Play Poker
To get better at PokerStars Play poker, you just have to utilise the array of different learning resources available to you on poker. At PokerNews, we have complete beginners’ guides to every different poker game type, including No-limit Hold’em, Pot-limit Omaha and Stud Poker. Getting to grips with the basics is essential in starting to improve your game.
Once you’ve nailed the basics, you have a springboard to then push on and enhance your poker knowledge and skills. Again, we have articles to help you take your game from ‘meh’ to amazing, essential poker charts you need to read and advanced strategy to help with your game.
Are you ready to put these tips to the test? If the answer is YES, sign-up for PokerStars Play now via PokerNews.
For more information or details of what to play on the PokerStars Play app, check out our full review.
Senior Casino & Gaming Manager