This page is part of our where to play poker series of guides at Unknown Poker. There's not a poker room on the internet that doesn't offer Texas holdem games, since it's the most popular poker game in the world these days, but there are a limited number of places to find decent high stakes action. The purpose of this page is to be a guide to where to play high stakes Texas holdem online.

To me, high stakes Texas holdem is any limit holdem game at a $10/$20 level or higher, and any no limit game at $2/$4 or higher. High stakes Texas holdem tournaments are, to me, any tournament costing $200 or more to enter, whether they're multi-table or sit-and-go tournaments.

The philosophy of our online poker rooms site has always been to defend and praise smaller poker rooms, and to point out the benefits of playing at those lesser-known poker rooms. But when it comes to high stakes Texas holdem on the internet, smaller and less well-known poker sites are NOT where you want to play. The action just isn't there.

The places to play high stakes holdem are the big daddies of online poker, like Party Poker and PokerStars. One of the benefits to playing these games at Party Poker is the level of competition there. Even at the higher buy-in's, the competition at Party Poker is just not that tough. Pokerstars, on the other hand, offers a little more solid opposition. They also offer some neat features like 1 on 1 high limit games that aren't available at Party though, and honestly, one of the best ways to improve your poker game is to spend some time playing with some players who are better than you.

Ultimate Bet is another great choice for high limit Texas holdem action. The players at this level at Ultimate Bet are somewhere between Party Poker and Poker Stars in terms of how competitive they are. (In other words, the players at UB are tougher than Party Poker but not as tough as at Stars.) But you can generally find plenty of action at Ultimate Bet, and that's what you're looking for if you found this page on our site.

And if you like short-handed high limit Texas holdem games, consider giving Poker Room and Interpoker a shot. They both have good action for those kinds of games, and the competition at both rooms is pretty soft. Especially compared to Poker Stars.

Last updated on January 16th, 2007.