Most Popular Poker Blogs

This review of the most popular poker blogs covers as wide a range of bloggers, poker subjects, and gambling topics as possible. Some of these blogs are actually clusters of blogs maintained by one of the big online poker rooms or a gambling publication. Others are one-man (or one-woman) operations, bloggers discussing what they find interesting about poker. Many of these include plenty of anecdotes and stories.

Other prominent poker blogs offer insight into online poker, Las Vegas poker games, or specific games like Omaha or stud.

This list of poker weblogs provides a good start on reading up on the poker industry, whether it’s the traditional brick-and-mortar casinos, the beleaguered (American) online cardroom operators, or private games somewhere out in the vast poker landscape.

RealMoneyPoker.org’s Best Poker Blogs List

I : Poker Industry / Media Blogs

(Note: Ordering is in no particular order – this is not a ranking)

• Cardplayer Poker Blogs

  Card Player Magazine’s online site has more than 26 personal poker blogs from some of the world’s best professional poker players. Some of the featured bloggers include Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Hellmuth. Other bloggers include ‘Dr. Al Schoonmaker’s Poker Psychology Coaching,’ ‘Piper on Pot-Limit Omaha,’ ‘Nick Heather’s Tournament Tales’, and Galen Cranston on ‘Omaha and “Beyond”’.

• PokerStars Blog

  The Pokerstars official blog is divided into several sections: news, online tournaments, live tournaments, Team Pokerstars online posts, the latest tweets, and archives. The blog gives the online poker giant a format to offer quick directions to good games, along with the latest news updates.

• Prof’s Vegas Poker Blog – The Vegas News Blog

  The Prof’s Vegas Poker Blog offers news about gambling in Las Vegas and beyond, including Las Vegas casino news, global poker event information, and analysis of the latest Full Tilt criminal case news by Wendeen H. Eolis.

• Res Ipsa Poker

  Describing itself as “a weak/tight blog mostly about poker”, the Res Ipsa poker blog has devoted itself to discussing Black Friday, Full Tilt Poker, and the fallout of little-to-no online gambling in the United States and where US poker playing is headed in the years to come. In other words, Res Ipsa Poker is talking about the same thing most other American poker bloggers are focusing on these days–only in a better fashion.

• PokerGreed Blog

  Poker Greed blogs about software, poker in China, general poker tips, mistakes, three card poker, knowing when to fold, the European Poker Tour, the World Poker Tour, and the psychology of poker. Posts have been going live since March of 2005 and continue into 2011.

• Tao of Poker – Dr. Pauly’s WSOP Poker Blog

  The Tao of Poker offers sports betting discourses and thoughts about poker. Readers can follow links to the Tao of Pauly, the Tao of Fear, the Tao of Bacon, and to the Tao of Pokerati Podcast Archives. Blog posts are still coming at a pace of about 1 per day as of November 2011.

• Ramblings of a Mad Man – Online Poker Thoughts

  The Ramblings of a Mad Man is one blogger’s thoughts about online poker, though a lot of blog posts are dedicated to football picks during certain parts of the year. Also included are rants about Waffles’s wife (yes, the blogger’s Internet name is “Waffles”).

• Poker Guru Blog

  The Poker Guru Blog links to a poker forum, articles, poker news, strategy, rakeback, rake races, and offtopic discussions. The blog has been covering the World Series of Poker and the Full Tilt scandal heavily in recent months.

• Poker Girl in Vegas

  Poker Girl in Vegas is a blog about the adventures of “CarmenSinCity,” who moved to Las Vegas in 2006 and has been blogging about her wild life there ever since. She writes about stumbling through the “greedy, superficial, money hungry, godforsaken town”. Readers can learn about everything from Carmen’s latest movie choices to her appearance in drug court.

• Pokerblog.com

  Pokerblog.com offers posts on poker strategy, poker room, industry news, professional players, casino reviews, and social gaming. Most of the reviews tend to be advertisements for the cardroom in question, with standard signup bonus and incentive program information. The poker news tends to be first rate and up-to-date, while the strategy section is complete and detailed. Examples of posts include “Disguising Your Bluffs”, “The Art of Small Ball Poker”, “Mastering the Value Bet”, “Utilising the Check-Raise”, and “Avoiding Betting Pattern Repetition”. These are all concepts that a good intermediate player needs to understand.

• Table Tango

  Table Tango is a prominent poker blog that claims to go back all the way to 1982–which makes me laugh. Apparently, the poker blogs back in 1982 were mainly poetry about losing at poker. The more recent blog archives include around 55 blog posts in 2011, along with a commensurate number of posts stretching back over the last ten years. The posts appear to go back to 1994, though the posts in the 1990s are sparse. The best and most production is from the years 2003-forward, which is probably no surprise to poker readers. Posts are written by Linda R. Geenen.

• Betfair Official Poker Blog

  Betfair advertises itself as “The World’s Biggest Betting Community”. The Betfair blog offers insights, opinions, and advice on all aspects of poker. Featured bloggers include Matthew Pitt, John Tabatabai, Dave Allen, and “Annette15”, the youngest ever winner of a World Series of Poker Europe Main Event (at the tender age of 18).

• Poker Lessons Blog

  The Poker Lessons Blog, which features blog posts from Gary Freedman, has the tagline “Learn to Cash in Online Tournaments”. That should tell you all you need to know about this smartly designed blog. Read this blog if you want to learn how to win Internet poker tournaments. Topics for discussion include mutli-tabling, moving up limits, “5 signs you’re a fish”, sunglasses at the poker table (non-online), satellite tournament strategy, and trouble hands in Omaha.

• ESPN Poker Blog

  ESPN has not only been a top leader in sports for the past 30+ years, but ESPN had an important hand in putting televised poker on the map. When the World Series of Poker started airing on ESPN in 2003, the North American viewing public suddenly took notice of young Chris Moneymaker taking down the competition, creating the Moneymaker Boom. Since then, ESPN has been a leading purveyor of televised poker, so it’s no surprise the network would provide good blogging content, especially if you’re interested in the World Series of Poker. The current poker editor, columnist, and lead poker blogger for ESPN is Andrew Feldman.

• Poker News Blogs

  Poker News offers a number of English-language blogs, including “The Miscellaneous Rantings of Marie-Lizette”, “Around the World with Lynn Gilmartin”, “Musings on Poker and Other Stuff” by Sarah Grant, and the official blog of PokerNews hostess and writer, Kristy Arnett. If you want to read about poker from female bloggers, Poker News is the place.

• Pro Poker School Blog

  “Learn before you earn” is the slogan of Pro Poker School. Their poker blogs include ‘Poker High Stakes,’ ‘Smoking Aces,’ ‘For Free Poker,’ ‘Fashion Ace,’ ‘Legalize Me,’ ‘Railbird Poker,’ and ‘Gank Owns’ by Brett Jungblut.

• Bill’s Poker Blog

  Bill’s Poker Blog has been blogging about poker since 2546, or so it claims. This blog offers a rakeback report, poker job search information, a greatest hits section, and a tremendous amount of coverage and insight about Black Friday and the Full Tilt Poker legal proceedings. The writer and publisher of Bill’s Poker Blog is Bill Rini, who’s been covering the poker industry since 2003. Topics include interesting titles such as “Bonus Whoring” and “Is Online Poker Rigged?”

• NoahSD’s Awesome Poker Blog

  NoahSD’s Awesome Poker Blog offers categories like ‘Life as a Poker Pro–By the Numbers’, ‘Poker Security and Ethics,’ and ‘Poker-Free Content.’

• Thomas Bakker’s Online Poker Blog

  Thomas Bakker offers an analytical outlook on the strange world of online poker. Subjects for discussion include poker bots and detection methods. Thomas Bakker was hired by Cake Poker to test whether anyone had exploited security vulnerabilities and eventually ran extensive tests on 80 million games during Cake Poker’s vulnerability phase from 2007 and including the next 18 months. All of that is to say that Thomas Bakker is qualified to write about poker bots and offer detailed statistical analysis of online poker.

• Subject: Poker – Poker News Done Right

  Subject: Poker is a poker news blog with Noah Stephens-Davidowitz as editor-in-chief, while writers include Isaac Haxton (“Ike”), “Brian Horton (“ZBTHorton”), Nate Meyvis, Aaron Wilt “WiltOnTilt”, and Diamond Flush. The site has sections on criminal case information, civil case information, and news. Also included is a section with poker news features.

Update 2012: Subject:Poker has been discontinued due to funding issues, but the archives have been left in place. The editors of the previous site launched a new brand with similar content called Diamond Flush Poker.

• The Lucky Donut Poker Blog

  The Lucky Donut is a poker blog about playing poker in the United Kingdom, along with periodic travel logs of a UK gambler’s trips to Las Vegas. Recent blog entries include a review of the playlists of Vegas casinos and Steve Wynn’s surveillance operations.

• Kebzweb – Just Another Online Poker Perspective Blog

  The Kebzwebs blog started in 2008 and covers everything from tv cover to advice columns. Examples of poker advice include “beating tight players”, how to make the transition from Hold’em to Omaha, “winning hands with middle pair”, how to avoid chip leaks, being a winning player instead of being a good player, and tips for multi-tabling.

• Dutch Boyd Likes You

  Dutch Boyd Likes You is the poker blog of World Series of Poker bracelet winner Dutch Boyd. You may remember Dutch Boyd from the ESPN broadcasts of former WSOP events, which I recall promoted the young poker pro quite aggressively. Dutch Boyd Likes You has been online since 2004 and has built up quite an archive of blog posts. Topics include everything from tips for six-handed holdem, the death of online poker, and how Black Friday hurts everybody to off-topic discussions like “Underwear Goes Inside the Pants” and how to make the perfect smoothie.

• Hard-Boiled Poker

  Short-Stacked Shamus, the pseudonym for a respected poker writer, reporter and University professor has one of the best poker media blogs around. He blogs once a day religiously covering one major news piece or issue of the day with a professional approach from which any reader can benefit.

• Nat Arem

  Nat blogs about his life as a young internet entrepreneur, the Poker Industry, SEO, Affiliate Marketing and much more. He was a central figure in uncovering the Absolute Poker cheating scandal, and Nat sold thePokerDB to Bluff Media for an undisclosed amount of money. This is one of our favorite blogs here at RealMoneyPoker. You can follow his blog here.

• Taylor Caby

  Taylor blogs about his thoughts on the poker industry, and a lot about business, being a very successful young entrepreneur as CEO of Cardrunners.com. Taylor has recently partnered with Terran Marketing to branch out into internet marketing, and is now blogging about his new venture. He recenrly launched a new project about Fantasy Sports, draftday.com.

• Kara Scott

  One of the most popular poker hostesses keeps a blog about her life and adventures in and out of the poker world.

• Amy Calistri

  The independent voice of Amy Calistri is exhibited in all her erudite and well research missives on poker and politics.

• Lou Krieger’s Keep Flopping Aces

  The author of 11 best-selling poker books keeps an informative poker blog detailing the highlights from the poker world.

II : Top Professional Poker Player Blogs

Disclaimer: The blogs by these top poker players vary tremendously but offer insight into their lives, their results and their strategic play. One important caveat is that most poker blogs are voluntary, so their frequency and quality varies tremendously.

• Daniel Negreanu

  One of the most popular and accomplished poker player in the world. He is one of the game’s true ambassadors. His blog is regularly updated and contains candid thoughts on his play and issues in the poker world.

• Gus Hansen

  The great dane has a new site he’s blogging on and he’s never short of sharing his opinion on his high stakes lifestyle and travels around the world.

• Phil Galfond

  The respected high stakes pro keeps an occasional blog at his training site Bluefire poker where he gives blog updates as to his poker playing and business moves.

• Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt

  One of the original online grinders and mass tabling players, Dusty has become a training site fixture at a series of sites currently Bluefire.com and PokerStrategy.com. He is an author of a couple of poker strategy books and has always been quite confrontational and opinionated in his blog, making for an interesting read.

• Annie Duke

  Annie blogs about her various poker, charity and business endeavors. She can blog about her latest book, poker project, or the Epic Poker League.

• Tom “durrrr” Dwan

  Although he has never been a regular or particularly revealing blogger, as one of the top cash game players in the world with a fearless approach, he has a tremendous following. Durrrr is probably the best representative of younger generation who has burst into the highest echelons of the game over the last few years. He is tied to Full Tilt Poker and has been very quiet since Full Tilt’s problems in the wake of Black Friday.

• Shane “Shaniac” Schleger

  The popular poker pro, avid Twitter user, is also a thoughtful blogger. He relishes his role as an PokerStars Online Team members and shares his interesting insights on poker and life in his blog.

• Andreas “Skjervoy” Tobergsen

  The top Norwegian high stakes PLO players blogs about his results on his Nublocker PLO resource site. Watching the swings that top players go through is eye-opening.

• Doyle Brunson

  Known as the grandfather of poker, Doyle has had a popular blog filled with his Doyleism of the day over on CardPlayer. He seems to be close to hanging up his tournament playing hat and his blog has been inactive for most of 2011, but it is an entertaining archive of posts regardless.

• Tony G.

  The poker pro and PokerNews owner enjoys the limelight and self-promotional aspect of keeping a blog. All of which adds up to entertaining blogs.

• Padraig Parkinson

  The Irish poker pro blogs with his experienced poker eye and European sensibility.

• Randy “nanonoko” Lew

  The legendary multi-tabling poker player, Lew is now a popular PokerStars pro. His blogs share his love for poker as well as video games. He also includes some interesting video blogs sharing his interesting lifestyle.

• Scotty Nguyen

  For fans of the Prince of Poker, Scotty keeps an interesting blog all about his life, baby! He moves to the beat of his own drum and shares his writing, pictures and videos in a very positive manner, baby.

• Shannon Shorr

  Although not a particularly prolific blogger, this WPT winner and top tournament player shares his insight into his tournament travels.

• Scott Clements

  Two-time WSOP bracelet winner shares his occasional thoughts on his tournament results

• Ashton “theashman103” Griffin

  The high stakes poker pro and college wrestlers contributes the occasional blog into his roller coaster lifestyle.

• Aaron “aejones” Jones

  The young poker pro and training site owner likes to writes about his thoughts on poker, sports and life.

• Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies

  The infamous and temperamental Finnish pro’s occasional blog is rarely easy to decipher for the native English speaker, but always full of entertaining comments on his massive swings in the high stakes PLO games.

• Brian Hastings

  The young Cornell graduate blogs about his live and online play. He reflects on his young life that has been distinguished so far by having won the biggest single session in online history ($4.2 million).

• Andrew Foucalt

  A thinking poker pro who shares helpful individual hand analysis.

• Mike “Timex” McDonald

  The young Canadian tournament specialist blogs on CardRunners about his decisions on the felt and in and out of poker.

• Pawel “Verneer” Nazarewicz

  The popular instructor and low stakes specialist keeps the most popular blog on the top CardRunners training site. He gears his blogs for players who are newer in their poker career.

• Lars Luzak

  Occasional blogs from the former online high stakes cash game specialist who is now starting to make his mark throughout the European tournament scene.

• Andrew “good2cu” Robl

  Insight into the former Ship It Holla Balla boy who has established himself in the high stakes games over the years. He has been quiet though since Black Friday.

• Mike “Gordo16” Gordinsky

  This high stakes PLO specialist blogs about his youthful lifestyle and the swings he encounters in the live and online world.

• Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen

  The young Danish online tournament phenom blogs about his poker world that now includes being a PokerStars sponsored pro.

• Adam Junglen

  The young poker pro blogs about his travels and results.

• Ben “milkybarkid” Grundy

  The English poker pro blogs about his high stakes cash game and tournament play.

• Katie Dozier

  The female poker pro blogs about the local Las Vegas poker scene.

• Alex “Assassinato” Fitzgerald

  The expressive young pro shares his thoughts on poker and life.

• Terrance Chan

  Canadian poker pro shares his introspective approach to his poker journey, pulling no punches in relating his life in and out of poker.

• Tom “LearnedFromTV” Chambers

  This analytical PLO specialist likes to share his mathematical analysis in evaluating PLO hands.

• Galen “Gakn29” Cranston

  The mid-stakes pro gives insight into his life and poker playing

Both the poker pro blogs and poker media blogs can give you an insight into the game and also allow you to live vicariously through them as you develop as a player. I highly recommend you check out some of these valuable free resources to improve your game and become more familiar with the serious poker world.