Poker Forums

Poker Forums are an integral part of getting better at poker. You can use poker forums to chat with other poker players about the latest strategies, hand histories, and other industry news. A lot of forums are just useless banter, but finding an active forum that has good discussions will be invaluable to your growth as a poker player.

Poker Forums and Hand Histories

You can’t just join a poker forum and expect to become a remarkable player. There are some key factors involved in order to get better at poker. The first thing you will probably notice is that other people will be posting their hand histories that they are confused about. If they get in a situation where they aren’t sure what to do, they take the hand history from the poker room and post it for other players to review. Your first step should be to read the posters hand history and any information he may provide. Then without reading all of the other posts, you should figure out how you would play the hand. I like to post my thoughts and then go back and read everyone else’s opinions. I can compare how I felt about the hand to other players and learn a lot about the game this way.

There is another part to hand histories and poker forums though. Not only should you be responding to people’s posts, but you should be posting your own hand histories. If in a cash game you get to the Turn and your opponent shoves all in when you bet and you aren’t positive if you should call or fold, I would post the hand history when you are done with your session and ask other players what they would have done. Remember to include information about your opponent and yourself. Any of the following information could be useful to players analyzing your hand.

• Is your opponent aggressive or passive?
• Are they loose or tight?
• Do they appear to be tilting or multi-tabling?
• Have you played any hands with him recently? What happened in them?
• Have you ever played with him in the past?

All of this will help other people consider every possibility in order to give you the very best response. Just posting a hand history and nothing else is not going to be enough to take the most out of the whole experience

Poker Forums Discussion

You can find many other discussions going on at poker forums. Some of them will have players reviewing online poker rooms and the poker bonuses they offer. This is a great way to find out what other players think are the best deals available today. Whenever new poker software comes out, players will inevitably talk about it and if it helps them or not. I’ve even seen big name poker players like Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein post on public forums.

Top Five Poker Forums

TwoPlusTwo – TwoPlusTwo is headed up by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth and their main focus is their poker books. It is one of the most popular poker forums, but it is also a bit elitist. You will always receive a lot of responses to your hand histories, but some people might be a bit rude about it. It’s still an invaluable source of information for any serious poker player.

PocketFives – This poker forum is mostly dedicated to poker tournaments. They track all of the tournament wins and keep track with leader boards. If you are primarily a tournament player, PocketFives is going to be an awesome source of information for you.

PokerTrikz – PokerTrikz is home of FREE POKER TRAINING VIDEOS. The community isn’t as large as the previous poker forums, but there is constantly discussion of hand histories and new strategies. You will mostly find micro stakes discussion, but the owner of the site plays up to $1000NL so he can answer higher limit hands as well.

LiquidPoker – Liquid Poker is a forum with a very dedicated user base. It originally was formed from Starcraft players coming over to poker. It has been around for a long time so you will be hard pressed not to find at least some good information when you check out their poker forums.

InternetTexasHoldem – These are a great forums for players that like TwoPlusTwo, but can’t handle all the snide remarks. The community is really great and everyone is very nice. Matthew Higler leads the site and providers some great information for the players that visit the forums.