2024's Top Real Money Poker Rooms in NZ

If you're a brand new player in New Zealand, you're in for a real treat. The top 5 poker sites and all of our recommended real money poker rooms have a wide range of generous bonuses and promotional offers coming your way. And, they make it exceptionally easy for Kiwi players to get their hands on their stash.

When you deposit and play for real cash, so many more doors are opened for you. You get access to a huge number of new ways to win real cash. It's easy to play on desktop and mobile, with many players enjoying poker for real money with apps and mobile games.

Here's just a taste of what real money players are in for when they sign up at one of the rated venues on this site:

• 100% 1st Deposit matches
• Other Cash Deposit Bonuses
• Free tickets to Depositors’ Tournaments
• Ability to access great VIP offers
• Access to exclusive real money player events

And that's not all. As a player enjoying real money poker online, you'll be able to play against some of the better players around in 2024. Sharpen up your game, while taking down monster cash pots. And, with our exclusive ratings reviews, you'll be able to find the “softest” cash games in NZ.

Different poker games have different odds, and those will depend on both the online poker room that you choose, as well as on the variety of poker you are partial to. Generally, with poker the odds are in your favour, as long as you know how to play the game. There are also different strategies that ensure that your bankroll is always healthy, no matter whether you lose or win this particular hand.

For example, in poker matching your bet to your final goal for this hand will help you always be set for another round. Your bet will vary according to whether you want the other player to fold, or whether you are making a value bet. It will also vary from hand to hand, else you will become very easy to read if you always bet high when holding a pair of aces. In poker it is vital that you know your opponent and how they think, while concealing where you stand, in order to know how to trick them into doing what you want.

Our recommended real money poker rooms have a wide range of generous bonuses and promotional offers coming your way.

There are a couple of things you should also keep in mind where playing online poker for real money – make sure that you play in a distraction-free zone, get familiar with the poker software before you start making the high bets, and start out on single tables, before moving up to playing multiple tables at once. Following these tips will ensure that your bankroll lasts much longer.

The available poker variants for New Zealanders are as wide as for players from anywhere else in the world, thanks to the widespread popularity of online poker rooms. Online poker sites allow you to engage in any variant that you have ever heard of, and play against top players for real money directly from the comfort of your home, or from anywhere else with a stable internet connection.

Most top online poker sites will offer the basic variations of Five-card draw, Omaha, Stud, Texas Hold'em, and Razz, which differ in the number and type of cards you are dealt. Razz also has the added feature of the member with the lowest hand winning the pot, making the game all that much more exciting.

If this set of poker varieties is already familiar with you, there are also quite a few mixed poker types, such as H.O.R.S.E., which combines Texas Hold'em, Omaha high-low, Razz, Seven-card stud and Seven-card stud Eight-or-better. In H.O.R.S.E. you get to play a couple of hands with each set of rules before switching, keeping you on your toes constantly.

With the freedom and choice that New Zealand poker sites bring, the large online poker rooms offer a lot more than just the above, so you will always be able to find a new poker variety to keep you entertained. If you head over to our recommendations pages, our reviewers will guide you towards the top 5 poker sites for playing online poker for real money.

Most of the large online poker sites offer their players the ability to play their games for free. You won't even need to sign up to play – you can just load up the website, pick you free game and start playing. This is a great feature of online poker rooms which allows you to test out games you are not familiar with, check out the design and user friendliness of games you have played before, and assure you that placing your NZ dollars into this particular poker site is a good investment.

The free game features of poker sites allow you to appreciate better playing for real money. Once you create an account and deposit some real money into it, a lot of perks and features become available to you, such as welcome and loyalty bonuses, various offers, extra levels and design perks, and even a whole new set of game varieties that are not available for free play. And of course, playing with real money means that you can win real money!

There are many different banking options for potential New Zealand players in 2024. One of the most popular payment methods when playing real money poker are credit or debit cards like Visa and MasterCard, which link your internet gambling account directly to your card and allow you to transfer money directly. This is a safe and popular method of online banking, and all New Zealand online poker rooms accept it.

A less direct method of depositing funds into your poker account is through eWallets like PayPal and Neteller. With eWallets your money are deposited into the eWallet and from there to the casino, with this extra step protecting your identity and personal data, and making the process more secure. On the other hand, this seemingly longer process tends to take about the same amount of time, depending on the eWallet.

There are also prepaid methods like e-vouchers and prepaid cards, with which you can never go over your cash limit, and you can remain fully anonymous. Skrill and Paysafecard are some such methods. Finally, for Australian and New Zealand players, there is POLi, which is a safe and reliable alternative to all of the above. POLi always accepts NZ dollars, it links to your bank account but it keeps your personal data safe, and it offers an instant payment process.