Poker is big business. Just look at the poker sites such as Full Tilt or Pokerstars ready to pay anyone who makes a televised event final table a small fortune only to wear a branded blazer, baseball cap or say « I play at… » whenever they win the tournament. Every night there is the prospect of a poker player to win thousands, if not tens of thousands for a relatively small buy-in either in cash games or tournaments. Poker is an authentic chance to make real money, so it is in your interest to maximise your chance of victory by making an effort to enhance your game. But how do you improve? All of us know it is important to study and practise, but there are a lot of ways to do it where do you start?
You can find a selection of credible poker books that you should study and you will always go to the local casino and persuade the top player to give you individual lessons, but this article concentrates on top 5 places to go online to improve and improve your poker play right from the place you are right now; in front of your computer screen.
Poker Forums – The biggest online poker forums have thousands of active members. These cover anything from new players yet to play an individual hand of poker to well recognized pros and every type of player in between that dissect poker hands and argue things poker. Just reading the discussions will improve your game. If you feel brave you can add your thoughts in to the threads. But beware you will be flamed (internet speak for shouted at) should you not quite answer correctly. But fear not as this is a great place to get raw feedback on the way to play winning poker, so take a deep breath and dive into the shark waters and prepare to be cut down to size, but ultimately helped.
Poker Blogs – You’ll find a mass of poker blogs to read. Players will talk about all facets of their life and poker from their actual hands to things happening on the poker scene. Look for the well recognized blogs and then surf throughout the blogs on their link lists. Participate in the blog by leaving comments. Blog owners (like this author) love receiving comments and you will most likely get a positive response. Work your way through and find authors which provide the poker blogs that you identify with, that teach you what you want to know and provide you what you wish to read about. You will soon build a list that you visit everyday.
Poker Training Web sites – Pros were quick to take advantage of the thirst for poker knowledge and there are various sites you can pay a monthly subscription to and watch the videos to tutor you on the way to play. There are several types from those that simply list the videos to those that offer a far more curriculum type lesson approach. When looking for the most effective site for you remember that many of the review websites will be actually affiliates so finding objective reviews could possibly be tricky. The trusty poker forum members will give their thoughts freely and very honestly if you ask them. Ensure you pick a site which is constantly adding video in order that you maintain value for your subscription fee.
Poker Podcasting – You’ll find a number of large Internet Radio stations emerging for poker, npfarmer.soisweb.uwm.edu official and they often have weekly podcasts that you should download. This is a great way of picking up advice straight from several of the very best players on this planet, or individuals that are good at conveying their thoughts about poker topics which could confuse you when discussed on forums. Search through iTunes, Poker Road, and Bluff online for a start. No matter if you play Stud, Holdem, Razz or Omaha you will discover podcasts discussing strategy. You may listen to these podcasts whilst you walk or drive to work and many last for over one hour which are not simply great learning tools but excellent entertainment.
Railbirding – Make certain you check out some of the higher stakes cash games online. You may watch the top pros show you how they play cash games. You will see the showdowns when players are called down and you can write down several of the hands that you see played out. If you wish make use of a screen recorder so you may go back and watch the hands again if you would like. This really is watching the top players do what they do best, an amazing chance to learn. Also make sure you tune in to the Pokerstars replay of the Sunday Million Final Table every week. These guys have beaten thousands of others in the biggest weekly tournament for a lot of money, so you will find some excellent tips on tournament play to pick up from them.