Poker education can come from many different sources. The trend in today’s world is to sign up to a live or online poker school, or from the pages of a popular poker strategy guide. What has been forgotten is the power of collective knowledge. Groups of poker players use to come together and share personal stories and strategies to help one another achieve the skills needed to become a great poker player. The Internet has only made it easier for poker players to come together and spread their knowledge in groups as was done in the past.
Where are the Best Places to Find a Poker Group Online
The issue is not where to find a poker group online, because the Internet has developed some amazing online poker sites and forums. The issue is where the best places to find a poker group are. The first place that should come to mind is online poker communities like Pokerspace and PokerNations, rather than the massive poker forums like Two Plus Two. Poker communities offer more opportunities to really talk about poker strategy and the best places to play, while strict poker forums are places to just talk about the industry.
Pokerspace is one of the leading online poker communities today just like online-casino-espana.es and describes itself as a poker social network. Besides Pokerspace bringing together thousands of poker players from around the world, it even allows member to create individual poker groups like Facebook members can. Whether members are searching for a group dedicated to Pot Limit Omaha, or a Lithuania, Russia, United Kingdom or U.S. poker group there is a place for people from all over the world to come and talk. This means that no matter what nationality a player is there is most likely a group already set up for them.
PokerNations has a similar set up as Pokerspace, but on a smaller format. Their community brings together poker players from around the world too, but the community as a whole is less than a third of the size of Pokerspace. However, having a smaller community may be what a particular player is searching for. The main advantage in finding and becoming part of an online poker group should not be to socialize, but also to learn.
How to Use an Online Poker Group to Improve
Gaining entry into a poker group is an excellent step in the right direction in any player’s development in the game of poker. The ability to instantly swap and debate particular playing styles or finding out the best online poker room is very important. As with any group of friends the spreading of knowledge brings about positive improvements. With social networking pushing our collective knowledge to a new level it is no different for online poker.
The ability to enhance a player’s poker knowledge is becoming easier and easier with the increased spread of poker information growing across the web. The step by step process to improving one’s poker game through a poker group should be as follows:
Find the best poker community to join
- Join a specific poker group based upon needs/wants (i.e. poker game, poker style, geographic location)
- Share poker knowledge as it is important to share and not just take from the group
- Actively play against those in the group to apply new knowledge and continue to share with the group
The importance of actively learning with the group instead of just taking from the group is important. By actively participating in the group it is more likely that the players will be more open and accepting. Plus, sharing thoughts and knowledge will only increase the possibility of a player retaining knowledge just as universities have seminar classes to create engaged students. Poker groups help encourage engaged players to increase their own skill. This is why joining a poker group is important to a player’s overall development.
Best Poker Learning Tools from Books to Schools to Forums
If it’s possible, poker has become even more competitive over the past 5 to 10 years and doesn’t seem to be slowing down as the online poker industry continues to grow despite being in the midst of a major worldwide recession. Given the added competition and the development of better players from around the world, poker education has become even more important. There are especially a few key learning tools any poker player can take advantage of.
Free Online Poker Schools as Learning Tool
The obvious place to start when a poker player is trying to improve their game is with a poker school. There are number of great places to start. From CardRunners to DeepStacks University there are poker schools out there that have world class instructors to teach students what they know. The problem is places like CardRunners costs hundreds of dollars to get into and while DeepStacks is a cheaper and better alternative, it still has a cost attached to it.
Luckily, the Internet age has brought about a few very good online poker schools that are comprehensive and best of all free to use. Pokerspace is an excellent choice as its online poker school is very comprehensive and also has a series of quizzes and tests that truly push a players’ ability to take in information and stick to it. Another free online poker school suggestion would be the Full Tilt Poker Academy. The school has videos, written articles, and even free tournaments every so often. All players have to do is register with Full Tilt’s poker room and they can take advantage of the Academy. The only issue is that there is no way for a player to test what they have learned.
Using a Poker Forum as a Learning Tool
One of the most undervalued poker learning tools are poker forums. Many people use them to discuss just poker gossip such as the most recent high stacks poker games, but poker forums hold some of the best poker minds in the world. With a poker forum what should be looked for is not necessarily how many people use the forum, but the quality of the answers. TwoPlusTwo has the largest poker forum in the world, but just because it is very large does not mean the best advice will come from it. The smaller forums help create a one-on-one learning experience.
Pokerspace and PokerNations are probably the two best poker forums for this. They are diverse and hold knowledge about several different online poker rooms. Pokerspace, besides having a poker forum, hosts a variety of small private tournaments too that help create a nice community feel so fellow members can help develop another players game back on the forums or with a blog post. PokerNations hosts these types of tournaments as well, just not as many per week.
Using Poker Training Books Effectively as Learning Tools
Many people choose the traditional route in learning to play better poker and by buying a popular training book. The best poker training guides are often left up to personal preference, especially if the writer is a popular poker pro, but there are many common and easy tips to follow with any poker training book.
When using a poker book study the material. Do not read it passively and simply turn the page. Make notes, go over each scenario carefully, and if possible read a few chapters and try to apply the lessons into a real poker session before moving on. By actively learning there is a better chance the information will transfer into a player’s poker game much better than by just reading and flipping the page.
No matter what learning tool a player uses it is important to keep focused on improving your poker knowledge. With millions of new players coming to the game every year the game is changing, so be sure to give yourself every opportunity to get better and win more.
