As poker players, we were never left without a place to find each other on-line. Both MySpace and Facebook have poker communities that are searchable in their respective Groups functionality. As a Ning.com member I belong to various special interest networks created by members. Although limited, I found my share of poker buddies in his manner.

The search for a poker playing social network branched out to other dedicated web sites. Most added to the poker network category as a group blogging engine and little else.

Which brings me to the good news: Poker players now have a bone fide community in PokerNations.com. It has all the trimmings one would expect: user profiles, commenting, blogging, events, polls, forum…think MySpace. Don’t think Facebook because the design and functionality is not nearly as refined as Facebook. Yes, think MySpace, only without the glitter and animated gifs. (thanks God)

I’m not trying to discourage you from joining, just trying to manage your expectations. PokerNations is a very young web site and is bound to improve. They are off to a good start. They have relationships with the Poker Player’s Alliance, the Twitter Poker Tour and other online poker organizations. They have courted a few pros as members. They are integrated with Twitter and use keywords like apps and widgets to define them self. They even have a chip earning system to encourage activity on the site which can be used as entries for prizes including a (non-main event) WSOP Vegas trip.

Long story short, every on-line poker player should probably be a member of PokerNations just for the sake of community. They will no doubt host PokerNations endorsed tournaments and freerolls and rakeback and all the other poker playing/marketing tropes, some of which I may want in on and some of which I may block. When it comes down to it, poker players are online to play more than network, but when you’re invited to the party, I say there is no reason to be antisocial.

PokerGauge is a mobile odds calculator that I deem the mobile odds calculator. While the marketplace for odds calculators on the App Store in no way rivals the plethora of tip calculators (seriously, who buys those?) PokerGauge isn’t the only one on the scene, just the best.

The screen displays a series of gauges, each representing your hand’s chance of winning against 1, 2, 3…up to 9 opponents. The needle of the gauge represents hand strength, to the left (empty if it were a gas gauge) means poor, to the right (full) means strong. To make things even clearer, the gauge changes color, green for play, red for fold. When you touch a gauge, it opens a detailed view outlining the odds of completing all the various poker hands and, if made, the odds of said hand winning. The app even shows pot equity and can be adjusted for a tight or loose table.

I’m not going to recommend whipping out your iPhone at your local cash game. This would fall somewhere in the range of annoying to outright cheating in the eyes of the host. No doubt it would be a shootable offence in the Old West…mostly for witchcraft as this kind of technology didn’t exist back then. As far as live action goes, I would only drop the touch screeny knowledge when proving that you did indeed make the correct play when calling your friend after the hand is won.

I only warn against the perception of cheating, using PokerGauge is in no way cheating in my book. There is no information within that couldn’t be drawn from a book and a calculator. This app’s value is how easily it places the odds at your fingertips. For live play the best practice is to run some common scenarios before the game and commit the odds to memory. This will only make you a better play in the end.

For online play, go sick. Green means play, red means fold is the mantra for the bots that still swarm the less secure online tables. I would imagine running on that same premise alone could make you profitable, but even better is adding your human experience and intuition to the mix. We all know poker is part math/part psychology…allow PokerGauge to help with the math.

The Grandslam Poker Source

Author KC, also known as Gobbs of Twitter and CardsChat, has been churning out awesome poker articles for some time now. Recently his site has featured book reviews and an emphasis on home games. KC has even been featured as a guest writer on this very site!

Dad’s Poker Blog

Steve Brogan is a relatively new entry to my subscription list, which makes his body of work that much more impressive. The “Dad” in question is father to social media guy Chris Brogan. If you need some proof of his poker prowess, how about this: he is a two time Twitter Poker Tour winner!

From here on out, I’m assuming you either have or want an iPhone or iPod Touch. I’ve found a few gems in Apple’s App Store already. Two on which are poker related: Motion X Poker and the new Texas Hold’em game. Both are time wasters and both are the best poker games available on any mobile platform.

First off, Motion X Poker. At first it resembles video draw poker, but as soon as you start playing you’ll see how wrong you were. It’s a dice game where the six sides of each die are ace, king, queen, jack, ten and nine. The goal is to beat the dealers “hand” after three rolls of the dice. Standard poker hand values apply except that straights trump full-houses. I learned that the hard way. (Note to self, read directions.)

The game uses the iPhone accelerometer—meaning you roll by shaking your hand as if you were actually casting real dice. It will either be a fun gimmick or an annoyance at first, but in time it feels very natural. You chose which dice to keep between rolls via the touchscreen. The game also has some added replay value by rewarding winning streaks and other “accomplishments” with new die, table designs and reward gems. The game is $4.99 and worth it.

I was skeptical of Apple’s Texas Hold’em game at first. I have never been one to enjoy playing hold’em against a computer. However, the game has won me over in spades.

Keep in mind, if you buy a poker game branded for any console you’ll be paying somewhere between $20 and $50. Most mobile phone games from the cell network go for $4.99 and are close to unplayable. After about a hour of game play, I can say that the iPhone’s Texas Hold’em is the most fun hold’em game available for any system, mobile or otherwise.

First off, the graphics way surpass what I thought the platform was capable of. The player models are limited in their actions, but better looking than the poker games on the Xbox. I can even forgive the dealer’s resemblance to an ex-NSync singer. No, not him, the other guy.

The game play is easy and intuitive. Tap the screen to check, drag your cards to the center of the table to fold. Turn the screen sideways to change your first-person perspective into an overview of the table (similar to on-line poker sites.) The table views allows for a more speedy game. No need to wait to fold and get on to the next hand. That speed is something missing from nearly all other poker games I’ve played.
The only thing this game is missing is the ability to play for money. The functionality for wireless multiplayer is there, but the legality isn’t. You can still keep track of your imaginary bankroll and use it to play in higher stakes venues with, I’m guessing, smarter AI. There are good in-game statistics so you can track your progress. All-in-all, this is a superior training exercise than playing free poker on-line, but that isn’t saying much.

I give Motion X Poker an A and Texas Hold’em an A+, and I promise Apple’s not giving me any money to say this…althought they are welcome to. I will be reviewing other poker games that come my way, but the bar is set pretty high. If you have the cash to buy them, do so. If not, win some.

For starters, a podcast is a show distributed over the internet. In this case it is audio, so you can think of it as a weekly radio program lasting  around an hour. Except it is better than radio in that it is commercial free.
Learn Poker From The Joes is a play on Full Tilt’s podcast Learn Poker from the Pros. Full Tilt’s show is also very good and also comes in a video format. However, it doesn’t get “pick” status because the episodes are too short to hash out any real information.

The host “Joe,” a guy called Judge, knows his stuff keeps his various guests on track, as all good hosts should. My favorite guest goes by KOOGE. There is no reason to listen to the episodes in order, so I suggest listening to a recent show featuring KOOGE first. For most, meaning iPod users, it is easiest to access the show on iTunes.

These guys are not pros, and yes, anyone can start a podcast, but the “Joes” go over more solid poker than the other popular poker podcasts (say that five times fast.) Many, like PokerRoad radio, spend the whole time complaining about bad beats at whatever tournament they are recording from.

Learn Poker From The Joes is a great podcast for beginning players and anyone who needs to re-examine their game. The “Joes” have brought up many aspects of the game I never considered or have forgot the importance. If you like this blog, give them a listen.

You don’t want your chips plastic, but you do want your cards plastic. My recommendation goes to KEM cards, but really any plastic deck will work. They are far more durable than paper. It takes some real effort to bend or mark these, which is good considering they are much more expensive that paper decks. The economy of KEM shows in the long run in that they will last you for life. Okay, your mileage may vary, but they will last much longer than paper. You can even wash the cards when they are dirty, try doing that with paper.

Speaking of which, I have tested their aquatic ability. On one occasion my friends and I have used plastic cards to play a round of hold’em on submerged table in a pool. They were as good as new when we were finished.

They probably don’t sell plastic decks in your neighborhood super-store, but never fear, you can buy anything on-line. If you want to go with KEM, you can buy yourself a deck here.

If you find me at a big-money live game, you’ll find me in shades. Your eyes are a hard tell to conseal without sunglasses. Sure, I suppose if you practice your poker face enough you could minimize the tell, but for me that would require constant awareness. I want all my mental resources devoted to playing my cards and reading my opponents, not damage control.

One complaint about shades is that they interfer with your vision. I don’t think they have to. Your glasses need to be either tinted or mirrored to conceal your eyes, and I agree that tinted glasses used in an already dim room will make gameplay difficult. Mirrored glasses, on the other hand, don’t have to be dark barely at all. Even the infamous holographic specs of the “Fossilman” barely darken the view. If you have trouble viewing your cards, you can always try wearing your glasses upside down like TV’s Marcel Lewis. He knows the importance of shades is so much that he completely sacrifics style. Nowadays you will find him wearing poker-specific glasses that open at the bottom for easy hole-card access.

Personally, I wear Oakley half-jackets. Nothing about them is specially better for poker then any other good pair, but the ability to easily switch out lenses was a draw for me. I have both a dark tinted lense and the lighter mirrored “fire” lense. If I ever made it to the WSOP main event I’d take the shades off for the camera, but there is no way I would go against the pros without them.

I know what you’re thinking, it’s almost the end of January and at the last minute I’m giving you a stress ball because I couldn’t think of a more useful hardware pick. And you’d be right. Nevertheless, the stress ball can be a valuable addition to every poker player’s utility belt. It’s main purpose: tilt control. When you flop the high straight with no flush draw out there and someone calls your all-in with two pair, causing you to lose on the river to a full house (and yes, it happened to me yesterday) don’t get mad, don’t get even…get a stress ball.Although I’m making no guarantees that you won’t still fume for a while, results may vary after all, but a little ball to squeeze out the tension can make you feel a lot better. It can also make your opponent feel better now that you are inflicting violence on the ball and not on him.

Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. Besides, it can double as a card guard.

The best way to stay motivated, learn and grow in life is to be part of a community. The same is true for sports, the same is true for poker. Interacting with like-minded people makes your passion more fulfilling and legitimate. You don’t have to play solo. There is CardsChat.

Before I go on with my website pick this month I will say this: The more interaction you have with your friends, of course, the better. I recommend that you go out and play cards socially and find people you can relate to in the real world. That being said the Internet provides a path to meet more people more quickly from around the world to share your hobby/profession/habit. That’s when CardsChat is your best bet.

CardsChat.com is a forum/message board for and about poker. It is a great place to go for advice, empathy, or just to chat about your favorite game. It acts as a soundboard for ideas and an avenue to find more places to play–even freerolls.

It is a great place, but not the only place. Google “poker forum” and CardsChat is the third site to come up out of dozens. So why post there? I have tried many forums, and like a few, but CardsChat stands out for a number of reasons. First, I am a graphic designer and the site just looks better. Other sites are overloaded with ads, look like they were built ten years ago, and barely have what can be called any structure or organization. Second, it has great moderators and better yet, doesn’t seem to need much moderation. Which leads into the most important reason–the community itself. Many posters know their stuff but don’t act like the poker elitists of other sites. Everyone has something to learn and something to teach. There are many beginners and many advanced players on CardsChat and amazingly, they all get along. Of the other forums I use, I would say this is the only one for beginners and experts alike. There is something for everyone here.

If you are serious about becoming a better poker player, don’t go solo. Make some friends, find a mentor, and try out CardsChat.

Disclaimer: This has been an unpaid message by a real CardsChat member.

The guy (or girl for all you know) across the digital table from you has gone all-in. It is too early in the tournament for you to know if he/she is a good player or just a wild gambler. What if you could get a little more information? That’s where SharkScope comes in.

SharkScope.com is a search able on-line database of all the players from PokerStars, FullTilt, PartyPoker and other sites. It lists their average stakes, their return-on-investment, how many games they have played, and overall profitability. If the player you look up has a profit of say, -$2,000, there is even a cute fish icon next to their name.

Look yourself up to see how it works. You get five free searches a day, then you have to pay. Personally, I’ve only been getting a game in here and there lately, so free has worked for me. This “background check” is extremely valuable if you are a single-table tournament player as the stats reflect those games.

Safe bets aside, gambling is good as long as the stakes are not high. This is why people love lottery and online poker.