poker

When you do not know something about poker, you simply go to Google and try searching. Sometimes, the search results are disappointing, because they do not contain the information you were looking for. Fortunately, there is another way. Just post your poker query at one of the poker question and answer sites and wait a couple of days for it to be answered by the poker players. If the answer does not satisfy you, try doing the same at some other similar site.

Poker question and answer (Q&A) sites can be easily called a web 2.0 tool, as their content is submitted and generated by the users. However, there are some sites that make a selection of questions and hand them to poker professionals to answer. Sometimes these services are payed, so we will not go too deep into this area. Just mentioning one of the free question and answer sites –  pokerquestions.net where questions should be submitted in a special “contact us” like form. The same situation is with pokeranswers.com, but they do not give the 24 hour guarantee for answering the submitted question.

Some people would say, that if you are not on Facebook, you do not exist at all or simply do not know what a computer is :) No idea what computers have to do with it, as Facebook has a wonderful iPhone app and a mobile version, so it is a perfect way of communicating with no boundaries. If you are on Facebook, you might face another problem – too much information, especially if you are a poker player. We would like to give you some guidelines on which poker pages should be followed.

The information quality in Facebook Pages (same as friends, only belong to some public person or brand) is a matter of discussion. If a website puts only an RSS feed in their Facebook page and nothing else, can it be a quality resource? Most probably NOT. If the website provides all its updates with links promoting some online deals, urging to sign-up, to subscribe, to download or try something out, it also can NOT be considered a quality resource. Some interesting and useful information gathered in 1 place, discussions, games and updates at least once a week may indicate a GOOD resource. So let’s look at the poker pages which provide quality information and should be followed.

Recently I have started investigating Poker Social Networks. I have started some topics on the major poker forums, such as 2+2, FullContact, Pocketfives asking people what poker social networks did they know. Although these threads were deleted rather quickly (people started advertising their websites even though they were not social networks at all), some answers made me worried. 

…a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

Twitter is becoming more and more popular among professional poker players. The long list of Twittering pros witness that, as well as a few nice incentives to collect the pros to one place. Recently a new interesting website appeared – www.twtPoker.com 

Web 2.0 is about sharing the user created content. What content is the most popular in poker 2.0 realm? Pictures with poker buddies, screenshots of tournament winnings, blog posts on how the poker room is rigged :) and, of course, poker hands. The bad beat or a good hand can create a very active discussion and make the player known and popular if he had played some online poker pro. Web 2.0 is not only about creating the content, but also about sharing it. If you post a hand log to your favorite forum, it will not count as web 2.0 as forums are virtual communities and not social networks.