Apr 16 2010

Poker Blogging Update

Category: Poker Blogmalcolm @ 2:23 pm

The top poker blogs in the world continue to churn out content at a steady rate. These blogs are maintained by willing and dedicated authors who are not paid for their work, usually earning money through additional writing contracts and advertising. The professional poker players who blog give a great insight into their day-to-day thoughts and the blogs below are my favourite examples of these types of post.

As a reader you can read their work for free, and learn plenty about how to play online poker effectively. It is always a good idea to read about other people’s experience of poker and pick up some good tips that you can use to improve your own poker game.

Bwin Poker Blog

As you would expect from a poker room affiliated blog the bwin poker blog really hits the spot when it comes to design and you know you are in a bwin.com site when you read the content. The blog focuses specifically on happenings on bwin.com and in particular coverage of their satellite tournament winners. The big story this month was Bibaxxxx winning the WSOP package and thus guaranteeing himself a return trip to Vegas on behalf of bwin.com, having represented the team in 2008 at the World Series of Poker also.

Bwin.com will have a specific WSOP poker blog which will be updated regularly throughout the upcoming World Series of Poker, so be sure to keep your eyes open for that.

Full Contact Poker – Daniel Negreanu

My own personal opinion of Daniel has grown over the past few months. I do feel for him because he lost his mother and I hoped we would not get a whole host of memories of his mother in his blog as this would be difficult to connect with when the majority of readers knew of her but did not have the connection a son would. To his credit, Daniel has handled his grief in a very dignified way which has certainly impressed me and I am sure his many fans.

His blog has discussed his efforts to return to being one of the best in the world at poker. He said he locked himself in a room for four days straight and only saw the room service lady. In that time he said he worked solidly on his game. His blog post said that he wanted to challenge Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey to a one million dollar no limit texas holdem freezeout match, but then revealed that was an April Fools joke!

What is very true is Daniel is going to be working extremely hard both mentally and physically preparing for the World Series of Poker. He always does and it usually pays dividends for him.

Doyles Room

The poker blog of Doyle Brunson is always keenly read, particularly now as he is on an R and R break after dental work. Doyle reports that apart from looking after his cats he is going crazy living the slow life, he is a man that is used to being in the action. In Bobby’s room he laments that games are now usually $400/$800 mixed games which is exactly 10% of the stakes they used to play. Unfortunately with Chip Reese passed away and the realities of the economic recession and the high standard of poker playing these days, it is little wonder. I wonder if we will ever see a return to the nosebleed stakes in Bobby’s room when most of the online poker action is the only place the high stakes action seems to happen these days.

Look out for more poker blogosphere updates in the near future.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Jan 06 2010

The Flourishing Relationship Between Poker and Web 2.0

Category: Poker Blogmalcolm @ 11:04 am

Online poker is changing and developing just like the rest of the Internet. In 2001 my cousin and I had an idea that we thought might catch on. We thought that music bands would benefit from having a space on the Internet where they can share their music. My cousin and I were right. Today they have myspace because of the “Web 2.0″ capabilities which due to the development of broadband gives users more things to do online. Video, audio and social networking and interaction with other cyber users are available to all and Facebook, Twitter and other interactive services are becoming the future of the Internet.

Millions of poker players are registered in various poker rooms and play poker games nearly everyday. As the Internet develops it is only natural that the poker community follows suit and takes advantage of the new opportunities that web 2.0 offers.

Currently there are around five major poker training websites with more in development that are entering the market to help players improve their online poker game. They are Stox Poker, Card Runners, Deuces Cracked, PokerVT with Daniel Negreanu and many more. They offer training videos that are streamed via a media player on demand to the player seeking training. Depending on the coaches at each site who are mostly online poker professional players they specialise in SNG, Cash games, Short Handed poker or poker tournaments. Using content management systems they are able to quickly upload videos to help players learn to play better poker. For a subscription fee users have access to new videos getting uploaded by the poker coaches every week.

Web 2.0 new media can be blamed (or thanked) for the increase in the standard of Texas Hold ‘em online. Before the release of poker training websites players had to read books and independently study away from the poker table. Many players simply did not do this and improvements to their game took longer to achieve. Now players can learn in front of their computer and their learning experience is made fun by the use of video, Skype and the Internet. This has improved Texas Hold ‘em play across the Internet and made it important for players to start learning other games such as Omaha or Stud.

There was a social network launched recently that mimics Facebook in style and purpose specifically for poker players. Whilst poker is an individual game that involves each player trying to win all of the money these social networks which are perhaps unlikely to work considering the selfishness of poker, are flourishing in popularity and allowing players to share ideas and help each other improve. This mutual tuition is another reason why the advancement of the Internets functionality is improving the standard of play you encounter when playing online poker. Before VOIP, Skype and web cams players only had email to keep in touch.

As the normal Internet user can use more video and more ways of connecting with other users the standard of poker will continue to improve. The technology used by poker rooms in their poker software will also develop which should make for a more enjoyable experience of online poker. Pokers development is closely linked with progress made online and as sites like YouTube, Google and Microsoft improve their sites and services we feel a direct benefit when playing online poker.

I very much enjoy discussing poker via Skype with many people around the world most of whom I have never met! The development of the Internet in this way means social contact in person is becoming rare in the context of poker. We can now discuss hands via Skype, replay hands using hand history replayers and easily post them to forums for feedback from other poker players. All you need do is get involved and feel the benefits of using web 2.0 to begin to improve your online poker game.

By Malcolm Clarke

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