Poker Forums: Your Guide to Getting the Most Value

Matt VIP• 9,469 Views • on 27/4/16

In this article, you'll learn how to use poker forums to their full potential, become a better poker player by using them and hopefully have some fun in the process.

Above - The Roman Forum, placed at the center of the ancient city of Rome, is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.

Spending time on a poker forum is both one of the most fun and potentially most productive activities you can choose as a poker player. It can also become just another stop on a procrastination-highway so like with everything else poker related - planning is a key.

While there are many great poker forums most of them offer somewhat similar functionality and because of that, we'll use PokerVIP forum as a baseline for our discussions.

In this article, you'll learn how to use poker forums to their full potential, become a better poker player by using them and hopefully have some fun in the process.

Introduce Yourself

It's very important to approach this whole poker forums thing with a proper mindset. While there's nothing wrong with being a silent lurker and your level of community involvement will ultimately depend on your personality there's no excuse not to say 'Hi'.

Almost every poker forum has a specific thread or even entire section for that purpose. Again, there's nothing wrong with functional approach and you don't have to socialize if strategy discussion is what you're really after, but in my experience almost every forum is a bit too elitist for its own good and while PokerVIP is a great example of the place with friendly, non-discriminating community where everyone is welcomed you have a higher chance of getting meaningful responses if you familiarize yourself with the userbase.

Below - It is very important to introduce yourself to the community.

Don't Neglect the Lifestyle/Offtopic Forums

This is the next natural step if the community aspect of poker forums appeals to you. It can also suit the functional approach. Want to learn about interesting TV shows you can watch to relax after a poker session? Maybe you want to talk some upcoming MMA fights or other sporting events with fellow enthusiast? You're looking to upgrade your poker workstation and you want to consult resident forum tech geek?

Look no further. You can find all of this in much more in Lifestyle/Offtopic sectionsof many different poker forums.

Below - Lifestyle/Offtopic sections will help you to relax after poker session.

Line Check/Hand History Discussion

Now it's time to talk your bread and butter. Posting your hands on the forum and getting involved in a discussion about other member's hands histories is arguably one of the best ways of improving your game. While you have to carefully evaluate the advice of other users you'll quickly learn who's advice is worth following. Besides every voice in the discussion has the potential to improve your game by causing you to consider some aspect you (or even experienced coach) might have missed.

Get in a habit of posting 3-5 hands from your last poker session every day and you'll improve your game in no time. Remember to provide other users with any relevant information like the player statistics, notes, history, game-flow etc. to receive the best answer possible.

The optimal decision in a certain spot can be dramatically different vs. regular player, recreational player, average player etc. so keep that in mind both when posting and responding in line check threads.

Below - Get in a habit of posting 3-5 hands from your last poker session every day and you'll improve your game in no time.

Statistics Analysis

While not every forum will have a thread for that purpose you can find one at PokerVIP. If you have a solid sample size (>20k hands) in your database and you're not sure about your game allowing other players to take a closer look at your statistics can quickly uncover flaws in your game-plan and all the places you're leaking money from.

External feedback can be absolutely invaluable since we tend to overestimate our ability to objectively evaluate ourselves. Simple leaks like folding too much to 3bet or cbetting too rarely can go unnoticed for thousands and thousands of hands and since poker is a game of small edges those simple mistakes that you're unable to catch on your own can quickly add up and have a real effect on your win rate.

Below - A closer look at your statistics can quickly uncover flaws in your game-plan.

Discussing Poker Concepts

Ever wondered what other regulars preflop ranges look like? Maybe you're unsure about your barreling strategy? Want to learn more about GTO?

Poker forums can serve as a great knowledge base for the general poker topics and you can play an active role in generating meaningful discussions by posting in threads or even creating your own.

Post Your Gameplay Video for Review

PokerVIP gives you an amazing opportunity to submit your video for a free coaching video review. Follow the rules in this topic to apply.

Even if the poker forum of your choice doesn't offer this amazing opportunity you can still record your session and upload it to the cloud service like Dropbox or share it on YouTubefor other viewers to see and evaluate your play.

Below - Poker pro Parker 'tonkaaaa' Talbot streams his game.

Staking

If you're looking to get backed to play cards, poker forums are a great place to find investors. Assuming your skill is high enough and intentions pure staking can be very lucrative and building up your image as a reliable 'horse' can prove invaluable in the future.

Where it comes to staking options it's hard to beat PokerVIP forums. You can apply for a long-term cash game staking and sell any piece of your tournament poker action (as long as you follow the rules provided in this topic).

If staking is what you're looking for PokerVIP has you covered. You can also buy action from other players which might be a great form of short-term investment, just remember to do your due diligence to ensure the safety of the transaction.

Below - Buying action from other players could be a great form of short-term investment.

As you can see poker forums can be extremely useful to any poker player and it's a great idea to become an active member of one. Use your poker forum of choice to its full potential and you'll quickly improve your game.