Best Australian Real Money Poker Sites in 2026

Ever since PokerStars and other top brands became unavailable to use in Australia, Ignition quickly replaced them as an absolute powerhouse of a poker website, offering all of the tournaments, cash game formats, and features you need for an enjoyable poker experience.

Features I Like

First off, while most of the poker sites now available here in Australia are limited with their offerings, Ignition kicks it up a notch with cash games in three formats: Hold’Em, Omaha, and Omaha Hi/Lo. There’s plenty of traffic at each of these tables – at all hours.

I could play all of these on a regular cash table and via Ignition’s Zone Poker feature, which finds you a new seat as soon as you fold, effectively getting you in on the action at another table. Blinds range from $0.02 / $0.05 to $10.00 / $20.00, so there’s a suitable poker table whether you’re a high roller or a complete beginner.

Ignition just launched a new tournament called Triple Header Sunday, with a massive prize pool of $218,333 guaranteed every week. The buy-ins start at just $10 + $1, and the qualifiers run throughout the week, culminating in the grand finale on Sunday. I have to mention, though, that the $10 + $1 buy-in applies only to the Warm Up, where the prize pool is $10k GTD.

The Kickoff, which has a prize pool of $75k GTD has a $100 + $9 buy-in, while the Main Event, with a prize pool of $133,333 GTD has a $1,000 + $55 buy-in. Still, these are the biggest weekly tournaments available to Aussie players right now.

The most recent tournament is the $250 Social Media Freeroll, which, as the name suggests, is a freeroll tournament where you sign up via Instagram or X (you need to follow Ignition on their social media pages), and you’ll get a unique password that you use to enter the tournament that takes place every Tuesday at 10:05 AM AEST.

Besides the tournaments, which are too many to count, Ignition offers a welcome bonus that covers both real money online pokies and poker. On your first deposit, you can claim a 200% bonus up to $2,000 (300% up to $3,000 for crypto deposits), half of which will remain locked in your account for poker. This is a very nice way to get started, and it gets even better with the dedicated Royal Flush and Bad Beat bonuses. There’s also a Tell-a-Friend referral bonus in which all you need to do is invite friends, and you can get up to A$200 in bonus money for poker.

Last but not least, the $2,500 weekly freeroll for crypto depositors. Anyone who has deposited using crypto (at least $20) is eligible for a free tournament ticket. The tickets are issued every Friday for qualifying depositors who have made at least one deposit using crypto in the previous week, and the tournament starts on Sundays at 2:05 ET.

Features I Didn’t Like

Okay, time for my signature trashtalk.

Ignition isn’t an old poker site, but it acts like one. The cash tables, while working with no lag whatsoever and being intuitive to use, look as if they were designed in the 90s. Another gripe I have with Ignition is that I couldn’t track players’ stats. Sure, this is great news for the beginner, but poker sharks like me won’t find it fun.

Okay, considering that most of you here are not professional poker players, this is likely a good thing for you.

The Bottom Line

Ignition Poker has grown to an absolute powerhouse in the past few years. I went from not being able to find a packed cash table four years ago to not knowing which one to join today.

It’s a brilliant Australian poker site all around – it has tournament and cash traffic at all hours, offers plenty of cash game formats, a diverse range of tournaments, and handy features like Zone Poker and anonymous tables. It’s top marks all around, really.

CoinPoker is a community-owned, crypto-only cardroom that’s making a big name for itself thanks to a very modern-looking lobby, plenty of tournaments, and good traffic. So, let’s see what I like and don’t like about it.

Features I Liked

If I had one verdict after doing my review on CoinPoker, it’s that this site is a gambler’s parasite.

When I say this AU poker site has action, I really mean action. You won’t see any limit online poker games here, as your only options are NLHE, PLO, OFC, short deck poker, and 5-Card PLO.

All of this combines to create lots of betting and big pots, so if you’re a tight player, this might not be the cardroom for you (I’m as loose a poker player as one gets, so this was great for me). The traffic is surprisingly good for such a niche site, too, and you can usually find over 500 players and 10 or more poker tournaments running at any given time.

The welcome bonus is also a pretty nice one. It’s a 150% match up to $2,000, which gets released into your account as you earn rake. I deposited $500 and got a $750 bonus, but I was only able to release some $70 since you need to regularly play until you get the full amount.

The 33% rakeback is also great news, though you need to hold CHP (the native currency of CoinPoker) in your account to get it.

Now, let’s talk tournaments. I like how CoinPoker has neatly separated them into four sections: Frerolls & Centrolls, Sunday High Roller Specials, Satellite Tournaments, and Sunday PKOs. As with Ignition, the biggest tournaments in terms of prize pool are held on Sundays, with the Sunday Main Event offering a prize pool of $15,000 GTD with just a $50 buy-in.

They also run their own CSOP (Coin Series of Poker) high-roller event that works like a poker league for whales and includes multiple tournaments.

Besides the year-round tournaments, CoinPoker regularly hosts special event tournaments. The biggest active tournament at the moment is the Winter Festival, which lasts from December 26 to January 26 and has a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000,000.

Compared to Ignition, CoinPoker doesn’t have as many tournaments, but if you’re a low roller or are looking for some free rolls or low buy-ins, I would go with CoinPoker.

Features I Didn’t Like

While there is plenty of action at the table formats that are available, there isn’t too much variety. It makes sense, though. If CoinPoker adds more tables, the traffic will spread, and then you’d have 100 half-full tables instead of 50 packed ones. Still, there’s not much to choose from.

Another issue is that you can only deposit using cryptocurrencies. It says right there on the homepage that it’s a crypto poker site, but that leaves many Australians in the dust who aren’t familiar with this alternative payment method.

The Bottom Line

If you’re okay using crypto to deposit, then it’s really a tough decision between Ignition and CoinPoker. This poker site also does many things right – it offers plenty of tournaments and cash tables, there’s traffic at almost any time of the day, and payouts are instant.

The catch? The action here gets really crazy, meaning that CoinPoker will be more suitable for loose players with deep pockets who aren’t afraid to follow the action. If you play tight, you might just get eaten alive here.

The next best thing to playing poker tournaments is taking a chance against a live dealer – and HellSpin hosts a bunch of live dealer poker games for you to try.

Features I Liked

So, the closest you can get to the real thing at HellSpin is by playing Live Texas Hold ‘Em. The hand combinations are the same, with the difference being that your cards are dealt face up and you can’t bluff the dealer. I had tons of fun playing Poker 6+, too. Both games ran very nicely during my marathon sessions.

Other poker games I enjoyed at HellSpin include single-player variants such as Three Card Poker, Caribbean Stud, and Trey Poker, as well as Poker Teen Patti, American Gold, Poker Ways, and various video poker titles.

As far as payments go, I could choose from credit cards, Apple Pay, eZee Wallet, Jeton, AstroPay, Sticpay, Luxon, Neosurf, and CashtoCode, as well as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Tether, Ethereum, and 15 others. That’s a really solid line-up.

Overall, barring the absence of tournaments, HellSpin holds up pretty well when it comes to live dealer and RNG poker.

Features I Didn’t Like

Are you a night owl? If so, you won’t get the pleasure of playing Live Texas Hold’Em – it doesn’t run during off-peak hours. Apparently, there aren’t enough players to fill the table during the night.

Another thing to note is that here, you won’t find tournaments. Heck, Ignition, CoinPoker, and a few more poker sites that didn’t pass my tests offer tourneys, so it’s hardly a surprise that you won’t find them here (as well as in the other two sites reviewed below).

The Bottom Line

HellSpin really is a casual poker site where you can play some live poker with a dealer or simply enjoy an RNG game. You won’t find live poker here, so it’s an easy skip if you want to compete with other players and put your bluffing skills to the test.

If, on the other hand, you’re a beginner, then it’s a good starting point. Everything regarding security, payout speed, licensing, and terms and conditions checks out here.

If you’re a complete beginner in poker, then Joe Fortune is likely the best place to start. Here, you can explore 10 video poker games with simple rules and easy payouts. Once you’re comfortable playing these, only then should you try playing tournaments with the big boys.

Features I Liked

Since there is no live poker at Joe Fortune, I had to lower my expectations and step into a beginner’s shoes while reviewing it. As a complete beginner in poker, I’d rather get started with video poker – and that’s what Joe Fortune does best.

At Joe Fortune, you can play Jacks or Better, Joker Poker, and Deuces Bonus, available in 1-hand, 3-hand, and 10-hand variants. You can also enjoy some action with Let ’em Ride and Pai Gow Poker, the first of which had an A$25k jackpot at the time of writing.

The welcome bonus is also a pretty nice one, and I was able to claim $500 more on top of my $500 deposit, thanks to Joe Fortune’s 100% welcome bonus across five deposits. Interestingly, if you use Bitcoin, you will get an even bigger 150% bonus.

To go along with being a great poker site for newbies, the minimum deposit here is just $5 via USDT.

Features I Didn’t Like

As mentioned, there’s no live poker here, and the overall poker offering is limited outside of video poker and Let ’em Ride. Also, the design of the site feels a bit old-school compared to other Australian online casinos.

While there are just enough payment methods to cover the base (cards and crypto), there is a notable absence of e-wallet services like MiFinity and prepaid cards like Neosurf.

The Bottom Line

I haven’t played video poker in a long time, and Joe Fortune reminded me just how fun these games can be. There’s also a modest selection of other poker games, like Let ’em Ride and Pai Gow Poker (they even come with a jackpot), but not too many outside of those.

All in all, I would recommend this Australian poker site to newbies just starting out and to players wanting to have some single-player fun with video poker. If you’re an experienced poker player, you would be better off with Ignition or CoinPoker.

Thunderpick didn’t make this list just for its poker offering. Yes, it offers more than 35 poker games, but I really like some other features that make the poker here better – like the high withdrawal limits and the fact that games like video poker contribute towards the wagering requirements.

Features I Liked

I’ll start with poker. Yes, Thunderpick is not a dedicated poker site like Coinpoker, nor is poker its main attraction, like Ignition. However, it has one of the most diverse poker libraries I’ve seen in any Australian casino, with 35+ poker variants to choose from.

Yes, some overlap, like the multiple variants of Texas Hold’em by different software providers, but if I were to play Texas Hold’em, I’d probably choose a site like Ignition. At Thunderpick, I would play some of the more ‘exotic’ RNG poker variants, like Deuces Wild.

I wouldn’t get into much detail here, but I explained in my video poker guide that video poker games, especially variants like Deuces Wild, have some of the highest Return-to-Player ratios of any casino games (with the perfect strategy, you can get very close to 100%).

“Well, yes, Mike, but many other Australian casinos offer video poker”, – I hear you say. You’re right, they do, but how many of them have a maximum withdrawal limit of over A$700,000 per month? Exactly.

See where I’m going here? If I were to play high-roller video poker, I want a site where I don’t have to worry about withdrawal limits, and Thunderpick is THE site for high-roller video poker.

You know what’s even better? Games like video poker contribute 10% towards the wagering requirements here! You’re probably wondering why I am getting so excited that some games contribute ‘just 10%’ towards wagering, but if you’ve read my guides on games like Three Card Poker, Pai Gow Poker, or even other casino games like Crash, you’d know that casinos that count games like video poker towards wagering are very rare!

This means that you can really make the best out of the welcome bonus that awards a 100% match of up to A$3,500, or any of the other Thunderpick promos and bonuses.

Another feature I like is that you can use a variety of payment methods here, including cards, vouchers, and e-wallets, to buy crypto. I’ll get to the point of why this is important in the next section, but what’s important to know here is that even if you’re not familiar with crypto, Thunderpick will be happy to convert your AUD into any cryptocurrency you want.

Features I Didn’t Like

Thunderpick is not a ‘poker only’ site like Coinpoker, so you won’t find live poker tables here like you would at Ignition and Coinpoker. This means that you can only play games like the RNG poker variants I mentioned above (Video Poker, Three Card Poker, etc), or ‘bet on poker’ games with live dealers.

Another feature I don’t really like is the policy that only allows withdrawals in crypto. This is not a major drawback for me personally because I use crypto regularly, but it can be an inconvenience for some. The site’s T&Cs say that you can only cash out with crypto, which means that you need to have a crypto wallet.

So, even if you used your card, like Mastercard/Visa or PayPal, to deposit here, you will need to create a crypto wallet to withdraw your poker winnings.

Admittedly, the process is really simple, and Thunderpick offers a great FAQ page and a dedicated blog post that explain it from start to finish, but I would prefer it if they had the option to let you cash out using more traditional payment methods.

The Bottom Line

Thunderpick is very much deserving of a top 5 spot on my best online poker sites in Australia list. Are there better sites for online poker? Yes, there are, because they’re dedicated poker sites, and Thunderpick isn’t.

But if you’re looking for a site where you can play all types of RNG poker (and trust me, there are some really good video poker games that are fun to play and provide excellent value RTP-wise), Thunderpick is an excellent choice. It has more than enough poker variants with a wide betting range, and all of them contribute towards the wagering requirements, which means that you can use the casino bonuses that are available.

And if you intend to play some high-stakes poker, Thunderpick has some of the highest withdrawal limits in Australia.