Best Poker Forums
The online gaming industry has seen unprecedented growth in the last decade. At the moment, this growth seems exponential thanks to the improvements in internet connectivity, gaming technology, and mobile connectivity. This has meant that the online gaming community has grown into a global force. Platforms like Twitch showcase millions of gamers who form communities around games and players.
3.8K Live Poker Hands; 507 Coaching & Commercial; 2.5K Online Poker Hands; 936 Tournament Poker Hands; 49 Omaha Variants; 141 Local Poker Groups; 2.6K General Concepts; 318 New To Poker Questions; 182 Podcast, Articles, Freebies; 100 CORE; 336 PRO Products; 789 Off Topic Chat; 23 Nutrition & Fitness; 107 Challenge Forum; 17 Poker. I quit poker after 3 years of being in denial Every time I got paid I would buy food, pay my bills and all the leftover money I would deposit into poker. I thought I was a good player and I would generally be in profit after an hour or 2 of playing.
Twoplustwo is hands down the largest poker forum on the internet. If you have never heard of TwoPlusTwo, then it seems as if you must have had your head under a rock for the majority of your poker career so far! Unlike other forums, twoplustwo. This site requires JavaScript and Cookies to be enabled. Please change your browser settings or upgrade your browser. The Internet's most comprehensive poker source: poker news, poker videos, poker tournaments, poker player results, poker blogs, poker odds calculator, free online poker and deposit bonuses, and a.
Games like Fortnite and Rocket League showed the size of the online gaming community. In much the same way, online poker is forming its own online gaming community. As the game grows in popularity and becomes increasingly legalized across the world, you can expect to find an international community of people who play poker online.
As it happens, these communities are already thriving. These days you can share in the enjoyment and understanding of online poker through online clubs, communities, forums, and social media platforms. You can find answers to questions for beginners, tips to improve your strategy, new friends to play poker online with and different versions of the game that you might be unfamiliar with. Here is a list of the top online poker sites that you can join in with others.
Societies
Poker, like most games, is enjoyed by millions of people across the world. While it’s not for everyone, those who enjoy it will often play regularly. This is similar to how a football fan will support a team, or join a local side to play regularly. If you go to your local casino over the course of a few weeks, you might see familiar faces.
As a result, societies or clubs form in areas so that like-minded players who enjoy poker tournaments or poker games online can meet together. These societies are often based on location. Most universities have their own society that organizes poker tournaments. The best thing to do is to search for a society in your area. Almost all have an online presence and will direct you to some like-minded individuals. Some examples are: Bluff Bath Poker Society, Woman’s Poker Association and the American Gaming Association.
While societies and clubs are often for in-person poker, the rise of live poker online and the platform improvements means that many are starting to branch out to schedule online poker tournaments.
Online communities
While societies are often based on location, online communities are based on culture or personal approaches to online poker. Societies will have a website predominantly as a space to send out meeting information; online communities have their engagement and interactions on the website itself.
While communities for online poker players have existed since the late 90s, they drastically grew in popularity after 2003. The main contributing factor was Chris Moneymaker, who won the WSOP main event. What made this special was that he qualified for the event through playing online poker tournaments. People realized that being the best online poker player could lead you to become world champion. It immediately gave credibility to online poker and the top online poker sites.
Chris Moneymaker also drew more attention to the game, and many more people tried out poker games online. For many players, this was their first experience of poker and others simply wanted to emulate Chris Moneymaker. A need was born for online poker communities to help players learn how to improve their game and develop their strategy.
Here are some of the best communities online.
PokerNews
PokerNews releases updates of the latest news, live reporting from poker tournaments and multimedia content like videos and podcasts about poker and the industry. It’s a great place to dive into the game and discover what the latest developments internationally are.
ReplayPoker
ReplayPoker is an internationally focussed community site where players can enjoy playing online for free. One of the interesting offerings from ReplayPoker is that you can play in a choice of eight different languages, whereas most online communities default to English. There are also Player Reps who will offer guidance on strategy when requested.
YourPokerDream
YourPokerDream is an online community that focuses on sending members information about the best tournaments, deals, and promotions. They also offer support members who have questions or problems. They have been running for over a decade.
Forums
Forums are a great way to learn from other players from across the world. With the developments to Google’s search algorithms, any player can ask questions when they are stuck and be redirected to an active online poker forum that has answered the same question. In this way, many players have helped teach thousands of others about various rules and strategies.
Forums are also a great way to interact with people on a regular basis who share an interest with you. Many forums organize meetups or have facilitated new friendships between people who would otherwise not have met. Here are some of the best forums online.
TwoPlusTwo
TwoPlusTwo has facilitated conversations that have helped countless players understand the game in finer detail. It is perhaps the biggest poker forum in the world. There are easy ways to find the types of discussions that you’re looking for and the layout is intuitive. Chances are, if you’ve ever Googled a question about poker, you would have been taken to this site.
PokerStrategy
PokerStrategy also draws on years of discussions to help players improve their game. There are thousands of threads to explore that cover every nuance of poker. They also house discussions outside of poker, giving the community an opportunity to express themselves more and get to know each other.
BeastsofPoker
Beasts of Poker has an in depth forum page that houses discussions based on various categories. These include categories with discussions on learning about poker, hand histories, general discussions, gambler’s diary and lifestyle. There are also discussions on recent online poker tournaments and the best online poker moments.
Social media
Social media is centered around communication between remote-based individuals. It’s no surprise that many of the most active online communities are on social media. Here are some of the best places to find communities and forums for those who play poker online.
Facebook is perhaps obvious, but not all people know how much you can find there. There are countless international Pages and Groups that are either region specific or internationally focused. Not only that, but there are many apps where you can play poker for free through Facebook. With the social nature of the platform, it’s a great way to make friends with other players.
Reddit is another excellent way to discuss all things poker. You can do so semi-anonymously which helps to encourage asking questions without feeling stupid. There are subreddits for almost any aspect of Poker, especially current events. It’s a great place to learn from others and contribute.
YouTube
Best Online Poker Forums
YouTube first started out as a video hosting platform but now is a legitimate career path for people. Part of the reason for this is the ability to subscribe to channels. Many people enjoy watching the best online poker players explaining concepts and strategy tips for poker, or even just playing live poker online. It’s also a great way to answer questions by watching a tutorial on how to play or what to do in certain scenarios.
Building your community
Traditionally, poker is not a single player game. It is best enjoyed with others. It makes sense to enjoy who you play with. Finding the best communities and forums is one thing, but always make sure to play on the top online poker sites. Register with BetMGM for an excellent online poker experience with great opponents.
Forum Best Poker Site
We’re going to go out on a whim and say that PokerVIP.com's poker forums are probably the best place to study poker online. OK, in reality, we don’t know if that is 100% true, but a little bit of site loyalty never hurt anyone!
Besides, there are some unique features here at PokerVIP.com which are not offered by any other site. For example, did you know that at the time of writing PokerVIP.com is the only site that offers professional hand evaluations for free?
That’s right, a selection of professional players are paid to respond to your posted hands! While this feature is not entirely unique in itself, any other site that offers such a service charges a subscription fee.
PokerVIP.com is also known for giving out free video reviews to anyone who is interested along with prizes for competition winners. PokerVIP.com also boasts a large amount of written and video strategy content, all available without a subscription fee.
Paid vs Free Poker Forums
The truth is that some of the best poker discussions happen only in the members only section of sites which require a subscription fee. However, there are also a number of strategy forums which do not require a fee, and still generate a decent amount of discussion.
Perhaps it is unfair to compare free forums with paid forums, so we’ll split this into two different sections. We’ll review the best 4 free forums, and the best 4 paid forums. We’ll then give a list of all other forums worthy of an honorable mention.
The Best Free Poker Forums
1. TwoPlusTwo.com
Twoplustwo is hands down the largest poker forum on the internet. If you have never heard of TwoPlusTwo, then it seems as if you must have had your head under a rock for the majority of your poker career so far!
Unlike other forums, twoplustwo is not technically a poker training site, and does not offer courses or training videos. However the sheer wealth of information available on the site makes it a must-visit place for any serious poker player.
All variants of poker are discussed. There are sections of the forum for gossip and news, strategy, bad-beats and brags, coaching; the list goes on. There are also a whole range of off-topic boards which surprisingly generate regular discussion.
If there is any hot topic in the poker news, it will usually blow up on the TwoPlusTwo forums before anywhere else. They also host a regular podcast known as “pokercast” which is probably the most popular poker podcast online.
2. Pokerstrategy.com
Unlike TwoPlusTwo, Pokerstrategy.com is actually intended to be a training site. No subscription fee is required, but the site makes its money via referring its members to poker sites. The players generate rake and Pokerstrategy.com gets a percentage of that rake as commission. This is similar to how PokerVIP.com and the majority of other “affiliate sites” work.
There is a large amount of strategic material available here, and regular discussion on the forums.
However, given that much of the strategic content is not available until certain amounts of rake are generated, perhaps it would have been fairer to list Pokerstrategy.com among the non-free forums. Certain parts of the forum are only available to those with a certain status, along with many of the training videos.
Pokerstrategy.com was likely the first site to offer paid hand evaluations for free, but this was discontinued due to budget cuts and a transfer of ownership in 2014.
3. Pocketfives.com
An active poker forum along with written strategy articles and other information. Pocketfives.com also possesses its own selection of MTT coaches which are available for hire.
As of 2015, the statistics it gives -
- Roughly $1.5M in profits generated by its students
- 240 students in total
- 35 coaches in the team
It’s also possible to get a staking/coaching agreement here, although it seems their speciality is MTTs and not so much cash games.
4. Donkr.com
Another affiliate site with an active forum and a selection of written strategy articles.
The strategy articles are really excellent though and a great resource for improving the theoretical side of poker!
Honourable Mentions
The Best Subscription Forums
1. Cardrunners.com
An active forum and some great coaches for a competitive price. Cardrunners has been around for a long time and was one of the first commercial training sites.
Originally it was known as Stoxpoker and featured videos from the infamous Dusty “leatherass” Schmidt, making it extremely popular.
Subscriptions start at $30, although there is an initial signup fee to discourage subscribers from paying $30 and proceeding to rip every single video from the site.
Matt Janda is an active coach for Cardrunners making it a great resource for the latest in game-theory approximated strategies.
2. Iveyleague.com
Ivey League is a new training site, but it grew out of a popular and long running coaching site known as LeggoPoker. Phil Ivey contacted the original owners (Aejones and friends), and struck a deal to transform LeggoPoker into Phil Ivey’s own personal training site known as Ivey League.
The list of coaches really speaks for itself. But to name a few...
- Paul Otto (Internet) (also made some vids here at pokerVIP.com)
- Andrew Lichtenberger (LuckyChewy)
- Chris Kruk (Apotheosis)
There are even videos from Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, although somehow these training videos are very basic. Either they do not want to give away much information or they don’t understand the game as well as we’d imagine.
Similar to another training site that started around the same time (Run-it-Once), there are two subscription packages. So depending on which you choose it can work out as cheaper or more expensive than Cardrunners.
The basic plan is only $9/month, while the full package costs $75/month. It used to be over $100, so the price has come down noticeably in recent times. There are a selection of videos available for free, but they are not especially useful or in depth.
3. BlueFirepoker.com
This site used to be considerably more expensive than it is now, with a hefty sign-up fee. Currently, you can subscribe for a mere $30/month, although once again there is a hefty sign-up fee. For a long time, Bluefire poker was where the best training content was at, and possibly the number one training resource used by seasoned professionals.
One of the things that made the site so great was the presence of Phil Galfond. The training content he created for the site was truly epic. After a reported dispute over his contract and rumours of non-payment for his video production, Phil Galfond left Bluefire to start his own training site Run-it-Once.
Even without Mr. Galfond, the site is still formidable, but a little bit of a ghost town compared to pre-black-Friday. The presence of HM2 specialist Alan Jackson (creator of Notecaddy Advantage HUD), really boosts the value of the site. You might think you know a lot about HM2, but after you watch expert Alan Jackson get to work, you realise you know nothing!
4. Run-It-Once.com
Unlike Iveyleague which started at around the same time and spawned from Leggopoker, Run-It-Once was a fresh startup training site, and grew at a huge rate.
It was the creation of Phil Galfond after leaving Bluefire, and it’s really difficult for anything Phil Galfond does to be mediocre!
Notable Coaches -
- Phil Galfond (Mrsweets28)
- Ben Sulsky (Sauce123)
- Jens Kyllonen (Jeans89)
- Jason Koon (NovaSky)
To put it simply, a number of the coaches on the list could easily be considered competitors for the title of world’s greatest poker player.
Honourable Mentions
In reality, we have barely scratched the surface here. There are so many places to discuss and learn poker online that we must resign ourselves to picking a selection of them. Keep in mind that the poker forums listed here don’t necessarily appear in rank order, you can make up your own mind which is best.
Anyway, so long as we are interested in learning and talking about poker, we’ve already made a great start by visiting PokerVIP.com. Why not check out the forums here and connect with your fellow poker players as a good start?
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