Online poker is one of the most popular ways to gamble in Malaysia. Although domestic poker is prohibited, many offshore casinos accept players from this country. In this guide, we reveal which sites are the best for online poker in Malaysia as well as what they have to offer when it comes to bonuses and special features. You will also discover all of the different poker games, exciting tournaments, bonuses, variants you can expect to find at online poker rooms and more.
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After extensive research, we found the following sites to be the best for those who would like to play online poker in Malaysia. Each offers a unique gameplay experience and can be accessed on both desktops and mobiles.
We look at our top five sites to play online poker in Malaysia in more detail now. Here, we’ve highlighted some key components of each site, such as their bonuses, tournaments, rakeback and more.
Our number one site, CoinPoker, is a blockchain-based platform that is popular worldwide. It’s one of the only sites for online poker for real money in Malaysia that offers full anonymity, as there’s no KYC, and all transactions are with crypto, which also means instant withdrawals.
CoinPoker’s RNG is 100% decentralized. This means players can view their effect on card shuffling at any time. This feature is the first of its kind in the industry, and it means that there’s full transparency, and users can be 100% sure of fairness.
The CSOP tournament is held here, and with $1,00,000 it’s one of the biggest regular poker tournaments in Malaysia. There are various other exciting tournaments, including Bounties and progressive knockouts. In addition, CoinPoker holds the record for the largest online jackpot poker pot of $7,750,000.
When you make your first deposit here, you can claim a welcome bonus worth up to $1,100. Making deposits couldn’t be easier as you can connect your Meta Mask wallet and deposit straight from an exchange. Several other ways to boost your poker bankroll include 33% rakeback, freerolls and special jackpots.
What We Like:
What We Don’t Like:
BetOnline is an all-in-one gambling website that has existed since the mid-1990s. Its survival in such a crowded industry proves it’s doing something right. This real money poker site is on the Chico poker network, which has decent traffic at any time of the day.
Malaysia poker players who play at Betonline are spoiled for choice of multi-table tournaments. Hundreds of tournaments are held every week, and buy-ins start at around MYR5. Sunday majors are the biggest day of the week for tournaments here, with guaranteed prize pools reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.
There are lots of regular Sit and Go tables running all the time, plus there are also jackpot Sit and Go games. These thrilling jackpot games are played with three players in a lightning-fast format. The prize is randomly determined before the game starts and can be up to 2500x buy-in. Players can also get non-stop action with Betonline’s boost poker format.
With rakeback, things operate a bit differently at Betonline to most other sites. Rather than give a set percentage back. Instead, players are given rake rewards based on the amount paid. These rewards can be cash, tournament money or free entry into tournaments.
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America’s Card Room (ACR) operates on the World Poker Network (WPN) and usually has thousands of people playing at any given time, so there’s no shortage of action. Compared to some real money poker sites, the rakeback is not the highest at 27%, but it is one of the lowest at just 1-5%.
ACR runs many satellite tournaments, and prizes include entry into real-world tournaments. These tournaments are seasonal, and the prizes change throughout the year. Many satellites include entry fees and travel expenses to the tournament’s location. Las Vegas, Aruba, and the UK are just some destinations these satellites could take you to.
On top of the satellite tournaments, there are a plethora of other excellent paid-entry tournaments. There are seasonal special tournaments throughout the year, with some of the highlights being the Online Super Series, which has a prize pool of $16 million, and the Venom tournament, which has a $12.5 million prize pool.
At ACR, you can get some practice in and win up to $50 without spending a penny in their daily freeroll tournaments, which run every three hours. Other ways to boost your bankroll include a massive welcome bonus worth up to $2,000 and their fantastic benefits program, where you can exchange points you earn for some lucrative cash prizes.
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Blackchip is another live poker site with games on the WPN. You can sit at a cash game at any time, and waiting times for Sit & Go tournaments are minimal. The site has excellent downloadable software for MacOS, Windows, and Android, which looks great and functions well.
Daily tournaments are held 24 hours a day, every day of the week, and a big prize pool of $12 million is spread among these tournaments every week. You’ll also find a variety of seasonal tournaments throughout the calendar year, many of which have prize pools of tens of millions.
There’s also a weekly tournament with a guaranteed $200,000 prize pool, but the buy-in is fairly high, set at $1,050. However, if this is a bit above your budget, you can gain entry to this huge tournament via their Sit ‘n Crush or The Beast satellite tournaments, which have much smaller buy-ins and are held every Sunday.
Like ACR, Blackchip also has a generous 100% welcome bonus deposit match worth up to $2,000. Once you join, you are also entered into the site’s Elite Benefits program. In this program, you can earn points based on the rake you have paid and cash in these points for real money. At the highest level, you can get as much as $10,000.
What We Like:
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Yapoker is also on the WPN, like Blackchip and ACR, so traffic is never an issue. You can download their software directly onto any Windows, Mac, or Android device. There are various payment methods, including P2P, crypto and bank cards.
You can find great satellite tournaments at Yapoker year-round. There are weekly tournaments with entry to tournaments with huge prize pools and many satellite tournaments, where the top prize is entry to an in-person tournament and money for your travel costs.
The tournament page is packed full of other major tourneys throughout the year. The online Super Series, with a $12 million prize pool, the $10 million Venom, the Venom PKO, and the Mini Super Series are some of the best features. You can also play Blitz Poker here, which is Yapoker’s form of speed poker.
A generous welcome bonus of up to $2,000 awaits new members at Yapoker. Existing players can claim cash prizes through the superb loyalty program here. You can also earn extra cash for your poker bankroll by playing at one of the many available daily freerolls.
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In the table below, we show how our top sites compare in some of the most important areas, including rake, rakeback, and the types of games they have to offer players in Malaysia.
Site | Poker Software | Rake | Rakeback | Tournaments | Freerolls | Cash Games | Sit & Gos |
CoinPoker | Proprietary | 5-8% | 33% | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
BetOnline | Chico | 5-10% | N/A | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
ACR | WPN (Winning Poker Network) | 1-5% | 27% | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Blackchip | WPN (Winning Poker Network) | 1-5% | 27% | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Yapoker | WPN (Winning Poker Network) | 1-5% | 27% | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Sportsbetting.ag | Chico | 5-10% | N/A | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
TigerGaming | Chico | 2.75-10% | Up to 25% | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Our team of experts spend hours researching and testing several sites whenever they review poker websites. They consider several factors when ranking gambling websites in Malaysia, be it sports, poker, or casino games. Security, customer service, payment options, bonuses, etc., are important factors that should be considered before registering at an online gambling site.
They use specific rating criteria when ranking the best places to play online poker in Malaysia. Key elements include rake, rakeback, poker software, traffic and the types of games and tournaments available. We also test out the site’s downloadable software on all available operating systems, both for computers and mobile devices.
Traffic in online poker rooms refers to the number of players who visit and play on the site. When choosing where to play poker online, traffic should be one of the key factors you take into account.
It’s important because if traffic is low, your game options will be much slimmer. It will be harder to find a cash game that meets your preferences, and even if you do, there might only be one or two other players. In addition, Sit & Go waiting times will be much higher, and prize pools for MTTs will be lower as fewer people pay the buy-in.
There have never been more options when playing online poker in Malaysia than there are now. The best poker sites provide various poker games catering to all players and budgets. Next, we’ll run through some of the most popular types available at online poker rooms.
Freerolls are one of the best things about poker in Malaysia online. These are tournaments that players can enter without paying an entry fee. Despite not having to stake any money, players can still win cash prizes or prizes with a monetary value, like free entry into a tournament with a buy-in fee.
Sit and Gos are among the most popular tournaments on poker sites because they are faster and more flexible than larger MTTs. S&Gs have no set start time. Instead, they start as soon as the required number of players register. The number of players varies from two to the hundreds. The most common types you will find, though, are single-table tournaments with 6-9 players.
Players start with the same number of chips, and the game ends when all but one player is knocked out. The prize pool is pre-determined, and the positions that pay out depend on the number of players and the rules of the specific S&G. In a typical 9-player Sit and Go, the winner will win roughly half of the pot, second place will collect about 30%, and third place will get about 20%.
Speed poker is a relatively new form of poker that has become a big hit in the online poker world. It can be played with any poker variant but is almost exclusively Texas Hold’em that is played in this format. You can find both cash and tournament-speed poker games.
The way these games work is that as soon as you fold a hand, you are immediately moved to another speed poker table and put right back into the action. This means you can fit more poker in less time and cut out the boring time between hands.
There are multiple differences between cash and tournament games of online poker. One of the main differences is that your chips have a real monetary value. When you enter a tournament, you are given a set amount of chips, no matter the buy-in. You may buy into a tournament for $1 but receive 1,500 chips. In a cash game, 1,500 chips represent $1,500.
Other variances are that cash games are always played on one table, and you can leave or join a cash game at any point. Also, in tournament games, blinds rise over time, but the blinds remain the same at a cash table.
KO (knockout) tournaments are a special type of multi-table or Sit and Go tournament in which the prize pool is split. Part of it goes to the main prize pool. The other part of the pool is used as a bounty. Each player has the same bounty on their head, and the player who knocks them out wins that bounty.
There are also progressive KO games which put a little twist on the KO format. In this format, when you knock a player out, you win a part of their bounty (usually half), and the other half is added to your bounty.
Multi-table tournaments, or MTTs, offer some of the best prizes from any type of online poker in Malaysia games. This is because these are big tournaments, often with hundreds or even thousands of players. Everyone pays an entry fee, which is put into the prize pool. MTT prize pools can reach into the millions of US dollars.
MTTs begin at their scheduled start time, and all players start with the same number of chips. The game is played until only one player remains, which means big tournaments can take several hours. Typically, anyone who finishes in about the top 10% will win a part of the prize pool.
In poker, satellites are tournaments that don’t come with a cash prize. Instead, the prize is a reduced fee entry (often free entry) into larger tournaments. In some cases, online poker in Malaysia websites may offer satellites, which come with entry into big in-person poker tournaments.
As you’ve seen above, the best online poker sites offer a diverse selection of poker games. All the sites we have reviewed are great choices for any of these games. However, in the table below, we’ve included what we believe are the top one or two sites for each poker game.
Poker Game | Best Sites |
Freerolls | CoinPoker & Betonline |
Sit & Go | ACR, & Blackchip |
Speed Poker | BetOnline & Sportsbetting.ag |
Cash Games | CoinPoker & TigerGaming |
KO Tournaments | CoinPoker |
MTT | CoinPoker & Betonline |
Satellites | ACR & YaPoker |
Poker is a diverse card game with dozens of different iterations. In this section, we discuss the most popular and widely available poker variants at casino poker sites in Malaysia and the three standard betting types.
Omaha Hi, often referred to as just Omaha, is a very popular online poker variant that can be found at almost any poker casino. If the hand makes it to the end of the river stage and two or more players remain, then players reveal their hands, and whoever has the strongest hand wins and collects the pot. It’s important to know that in Omaha, your hand must consist of exactly two of your four hole cards and three community cards. In this variant, there are four stages of play:
Omaha Hi/Lo is played in the same way as Omaha. However, in this variation, the pot is split between the player with the best high hand and the player with the lowest hand. To win the low hand share of the pot, your 5-card hand must consist of cards, all of which are 8 or lower. You do not need to use the same hole cards for your low hand as your high hand. It’s possible to win both pots (known as scooping) in two ways. The first is to have the best high hand and low hand. The other is if you have the best high hand and there are no qualifying low hands.
Texas Hold’em has been around since the early 20th century, but its popularity skyrocketed in the 2000s. It is now the most commonly played poker variant in the world. The rules are very similar to Omaha Hi in that players have to make the best possible five-card hand, consisting of a combination of their hole cards and the five community cards dealt in the same stages as Omaha.
However, there are two key differences. The first is that players receive only two hole cards in Texas Hold ’em. The other is that players can use any combination of their hole cards and community cards, whereas, in Omaha, you have to use two hole cards and three community cards.
No limit is not a poker game but rather a betting rule you’ll find at poker online for real money games. When a game is “No limit” it means that there is no maximum limit on how much a player can bet or raise.
No-limit games are probably the most popular betting format for poker. This is because the games tend to be more exciting, as you can lose everything in one hand. No-limit games also allow players to implement aggressive and bluffing strategies by betting big and scaring players out of the hand.
Fixed-limit games, commonly called limit games, limit the amount players can bet and raise. The limit is predetermined and usually equal to the small blind. There’s also a limit on how many raises there can be, which again is set before the game begins. Typically, players can collectively place one bet and three raises per betting round.
In pot-limit games, the maximum players can bet or raise is equal to the current pot plus the amount it would cost to call. For example, if the pot is $10 and the player before you bets $10, making the current pot $20. This means you can raise a maximum of $30 ($20 pot + the $10 you would need to call).
Rake and rakeback are important terms to know if you play online poker. As a Malaysia poker player, you want to see a low rake and a high rakeback, and we will explain why.
Rake is the commission online poker sites collect from tournaments and cash games. In tournaments, the rake is a percentage of the entry fee, and in cash games, a percentage of the pot in each hand is collected as the rake.
Rakeback is a reward offered by poker sites that returns a percentage of the rake a player has paid over a set period. So, a higher rake means more money coming out of your pocket. On the other hand, higher rakeback means more money is going back into your pocket.
One of the major perks of playing poker online in Malaysia is the bonuses. Online casino poker websites offer a wide range of bonuses and promotions to attract new players and keep existing users loyal. Here are some of the most common casino bonuses you can expect to find online.
Welcome bonuses are usually the most lucrative bonuses offered by sites for online poker in Malaysia. Below, we have listed a few more details about the welcome bonuses available at our favourite poker websites.
Site | Poker Bonus | Wagering Requirement | Min. Deposit | Qualifying Payment Methods |
CoinPoker | 150% up to $2,000 | 2 x playthrough | $20 | Crypto |
Betonline | 100% up to $1,000 + 8 days of free entry into selected tournaments | $5 released for every $50 in rake | $50 | Crypto, eWallets & credit cards |
ACR | 100% up to $2,000 | $1 released for every 27.5 points acquired | $25 | Crypto, P2P & credit cards |
Blackchip | 100% up to $2,000 | $1 released for every 27.5 points acquired | $25 | Crypto, P2P & credit cards |
Yapoker | 100% up to $2,000 | $1 released for every 27.5 points acquired | $25 | Crypto, P2P & credit cards |
Sportsbetting.ag | 100% up to $1,000 + 8 days of free entry into selected tournaments | $5 released for every $50 in rake | $50 | Crypto, eWallets & credit cards |
Tigergaming | 100% up to $1,000 | $5 released for every $50 in rake | $50 | Crypto, eWallets & credit cards |
The Betting Act 1953, the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 and subsequent amendments to these acts prohibit almost all forms of gambling, with a few exceptions, such as horse racing, lotteries, and the casino at the Resorts World Genting.
This means that, technically, playing games at online casinos Malaysia and playing online poker for real money is not legal in Malaysia. However, the laws around poker in Malaysia online are a bit of a grey area. No specific legislation allows the government to act against online gambling websites based outside of the country. This is why many offshore poker rooms are happy to accept players in Malaysia.
In the online poker world, you may hear the terms ‘shared player pool’ and ‘ring-fenced poker’. Next, we’ll explain a little bit more about what these two terms mean and the advantages and disadvantages you can expect from each.
If a site has ring-fenced poker, it means that the players you can play against are limited by geographical region. This means you can only play poker against people from your country or, in some cases, just from your state or province.
Pros
Cons
A player pool poker site just means there is one player pool for the whole site, and all players can play against each other regardless of their country or region. Although this seems like it would be the preferred choice for many, there are a few drawbacks to consider. Let’s take a look at a few of the main advantages and disadvantages below.
Pros
Cons
To play online poker in Malaysia for real money, you must first add money to your account. Luckily, the best sites offer various safe and secure payment methods. We take a look at three of the most popular types below.
When you join an online poker-for-real-money site, you will usually need to download software for whatever device you want to play. Some sites also have the option to play games directly from their website, but not all of them.
The top poker sites we’ve reviewed all allow users to play poker games on mobile devices. They either provide downloadable software for mobiles or allow games directly from the phone’s browser. Downloadable apps for Android devices can be found on almost any site, but iOS apps are not always available.
This short step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of getting started at a poker website. We have used CoinPoker as an example, but most poker sites use a similar process.
First, choose your site and head to their homepage using either your desktop or mobile. Once the page has loaded, click on “Register”.
To create your account, you must provide your email and create a nickname and password. Once you’ve entered your details, click “Sign Up”.
After completing step 2, a download button will appear on the screen. Select this and then choose the device’s operating system you are using.
Once your account is set up, verified and the software has been downloaded, you can add some money to your account. Head to the cashier section and choose the amount you’d like to deposit. Next, follow the instructions for your chosen deposit method. Once the money is deposited, you can enter the live poker action.
Playing online poker in Malaysia is a great way to spend your free time if you enjoy the game. With all the different variations and game modes available at top poker sites, you can expect to find loads of options to suit your bankroll and the amount of free time you have to play. The best site for you depends on what features you are looking for. However, you will find that all of our recommended websites offer a fantastic gambling experience.
Although each site is worth considering, we found CoinPoker to be the best site overall for several reasons. For example, you can be fully anonymous while playing and receive your winnings instantly. It also has innovative features, superb cash games and many tournament variations, most of which have huge prize pools.
Yes, you can play online poker for real money in Malaysia at any of our top-rated poker websites: CoinPoker, BetOnline, ACR, Blackchip, Yapoker, Sportsbetting.ag and TigerGaming.
CoinPoker is the best poker site in Malaysia. It has a good amount of traffic, tournaments with big prizes, allows users to have complete anonymity, provides great bonuses, and reasonable rake rates.
There’s no one poker game that can be labelled the most profitable, as there are many factors to take into account. However, the biggest reward-to-risk ratio is large multi-table tournaments, as if you place high in the tournament, you can often win 20-100 times the buy-in amount.
Yes, sites like CoinPoker, Betonline, and ACR all offer real-money online poker games, and players can earn money by playing poker tournaments or cash games.
Based in Penang, Malaysia, Lokman See is a seasoned writer known for his experience in crafting iGaming articles that are both informative and engaging. Whether he’s reviewing casinos or putting together useful game guides, he strives to provide readers with well-researched content that offers valuable insight into the world of online gambling in Malaysia.
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