Are the 10 top poker rooms secure? All of the best poker sites that we list use cutting edge security measures to ensure that your data and payment details are kept secure. Remember, professional poker players often have hundreds of thousands of dollars in their online accounts, so poker sites are very fussy about security. Top 100 poker books, places 71 to 80 takes a look at a new batch of top poker books which will helo you to become a better poker player. Take a look at our previous blog post Top 100 Poker Books for Learning Texas No-Limit Holdem: Places 61 to 70. CardRunners.com Review - the 'Original' Poker Training Site, 2,000+ Videos. CardRunners.com was the first major online poker training site, and to this day they have maintained their edge on the competition with over 32,000 blog posts, over 2,000 strategy videos, and the top instructors in the game.
Players who are completely new to the world of poker or who have considered advancing their skills to the next level might be wondering how to take the next step. Of course, there’s simply no replacement for the raw experience that can only be gained by playing poker around the felt: whether that’s a physical felt, in a card room or on the sleek digital green lines of the Internet’s many online poker websites.
However, there’s a new popular choice emerging: online poker training sites. These provide tutorials, demonstrations, and key tips and tricks for all skills levels in a familiar, easy to use format. So, how can you make the best choice?
Our Recommended Poker Training Sites:
Betonline Poker - #1 in the U.S
- Accepts U.S. customers with large player pool
- 10+ years with a strong reputation
- $2,500 deposit bonus
How we review poker training sites
In order to provide you with honest recommendations, we analyze and personally use each of the websites that we review so you can get the best experience. For the poker training sites we look at 5 specific items:
- Reputation: We look to see who endorses the site, the number of active users and how long it has been around.
- User Interface: We to see if the site is clean, easy to use, and has working navigation links.
- Video Quality: We analyze video quality which reflects the level of investment platforms are using for their tutorial videos.
- Speed: A worthwhile and reputable platform will be on that loads its pages quickly and will be able to direct players to their required content as quickly as possible.
- Presence: Who uses the site and is it well received by the online poker.
If you want to do some additional research, we suggest you keep these five items in mind when visiting a poker training site.
Reputation
All poker training sites should be built on platforms that deliver authoritative advice that has proven itself to be useful around the table. There’s no one universal standard that proves this though. It’s perhaps best to tackle the issue of how users perceive websites and how we’ve ranked them according to our reviews as these will ensure players are getting first-class advice from excellent resources. There are a few telltale signs that a platform is reputable though:
- Endorsed, sponsored by, or was even created by a leading poker professional. This is quite possibly the best way to ensure a poker training website is a good one. After all, what player who gives his name to the game will lend his image to an inferior product?
- Significantly large community size. If more users are involved with a platform, then it’s quite obviously offering good value for money (where charges apply).
- Longstanding poker training website that has been around for quite some time.
User Interface
The UI of a website will be a key indicator of whether or not its operators actually want users gaining any sort of valuable insight from its teachings. When a website is clean, easy to use, and has working navigation links, then it’s quite obvious that operators want users going to their intended resources in order to better themselves as poker players.
Broken, poorly constructed websites will do little to actually improve a player’s poker abilities beyond frustrating them to trying out another platform – something that can be avoided altogether by taking the advice contained within these reviews.
Video Quality
Long gone are the days when poker players were forced to endure text-based tutorials. While these still exist and can indeed provide some valuable insight, poker platforms today usually base their lessons on videos and these alone can be a deciding factor for many.
The level of the video quality directly reflects what sort of investment platforms are making in their tutorial videos. Low quality, grainy, pixelated videos are best avoided altogether since it’ll be pretty hard to gain any sort of valuable information from them. Instead, players should stick with bright, clear, vivid videos that simply present what’s happening in an easy to access fashion.
There are indeed some worthwhile platforms that offer text tutorials, but these are decreasing in number or are upgrading their content to video. There’s just not a better way to go about it.
Speed
Today’s Internet-connected world is based on broadband connection speeds, which are meant to provide quick and snappy browsing experiences. Any sign of lag or long loading times are an immediate red flag as to a poor quality platform since the hardware supporting them is obviously of poorer quality.
A worthwhile and reputable platform will be on that loads its pages quickly and will be able to direct players to their required content as quickly as possible. It is important to note, though, that video loading time shouldn’t necessarily reflect on this – since higher quality videos will take much longer to process and this is largely a variable to a user’s own connection speed. Nonetheless, they’re considerations to make in the end.
Presence
There are mainstay names in the online poker world. Whether it’s a card room or a training website, both can become “name stays” or household names in the online poker world. When a platform has a particularly good presence, then this is a clear indication that it’s been accepted by the poker community and is offering valuable and worthwhile information.
Poker training sites have come a long way over the past couple years. In the old days there were only one or two sites, and they were mostly viewed as expensive gimmicks that wouldn't really help anyone except complete beginners. Nowadays, however, there are dozens of major training programs that are designed to help all levels of players, from beginners to high stakes pros. We have reviewed several of the top-rated online poker training sites:
BlueFirePoker.com Review - Cash Game Focus, Specializes in Mid-Stakes Training
BlueFirePoker.com is a training site that focuses on mid-high stakes cash games. Phil Galfond founded BlueFire Poker in 2009 and has assembled a talented team of players to serve as instructors in the art of online poker.
CardRunners.com Review - the 'Original' Poker Training Site, 2,000+ Videos
CardRunners.com was the first major online poker training site, and to this day they have maintained their edge on the competition with over 32,000 blog posts, over 2,000 strategy videos, and the top instructors in the game.
DeucesCracked.com Review - Best for NL Cash Game Players, 1,500+ Videos
DeucesCracked.com is a poker training and coaching site that was opened by a group of highly successful online poker players. The site offers over 1,500 top-notch poker training videos and tutorials.
DragtheBar.com Review - New Training Site but Already an Impressive Coaching Lineup
DragTheBar.com is a relatively new poker training site that has quickly made a name in the poker training market. It was started in 2009 by several successful high stakes professionals, including Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt.
Holdem Manager Review - In Depth Statistics to Help You Find Leaks in Your Game
The purpose of Holdem Manager is to save and record your online poker hand histories and then provide you with in-depth statistics about your own play and that of your opponents.
HUSNG.com Review - Only Training Site Dedicated to Heads Up SNGs
HUSNG.com is the only poker training site I've found that offers videos specifically for heads up sit and go players. This site is by far the best resource online for learning HU SNGs, but it certainly isn't cheap.
OutstandingPoker.com Review - Best at Developing Consistent, Mid-Stakes Winners
OutstandingPoker.com takes a different approach to poker training - they attempt to turn their students into consistent winners at the low-mid stakes, instead of spending all their time teaching ultra-high stakes strategies.
PokerOffice 5 Review - Improve Your Game and Find Flaws in Your Opponents' Games
PokerOffice 5 is a stat-tracking program that will help you locate and repair leaks in your game, as well as locate and capitalize off of leaks in each of your opponents' games.
PokerPwnage.com Review - Specifically for MTT Players - 350+ MTT Training Videos
PokerPwnage.com is a poker training site almost completely devoted to improving members' multi-table tournament strategy. If you want to get better at MTTs, this is the site for you.
PokerStove Review - Determines Win Percentages for Your Hand vs. Opponent's Range
PokerStove allows players to calculate win percentages for their hand versus an opponent's specific hand, as well as their hand versus an opponent's range of poker hands.
PokerTracker 3 Review - Best Stat-Tracking Product Online, Also Offers Heads-Up Display
PokerTracker 3 is the most advanced stat-tracking software available for online poker players. This is our most highly recommended product, as virtually every player can benefit from using PokerTracker 3.
Best Poker Training Sites
PokerVT.com Review - Negreanu's Training Site - Offers Unique Learning Exercises
PokerVT.com is Daniel Negreanu's personal poker training site where he provides tips and strategies for using his smallball style of poker. The site focuses mostly on tournaments, but doesn't allow players to download videos.
PokerXFactor.com Review - Established Training Site, Best MTT Strategy Videos Online
Top 10 Poker Sites For Us Players
PokerXFactor is the best training site out there if you are a hardcore MTT player. There isn't much cash game strategy here, but the NLH MTT strategy section is huge and extremely advanced/useful.
RealPokerTraining.com Review - Decent Content, but Small and Inactive
RealPokerTraining.com has a few things going for it - namely, some big name instructors and unique Five Card Draw content. However, the site doesn't live up to the expectations of most online poker players.
More Poker Training Site Reviews:
- If you would like to read reviews of even more training sites, as well as read additional reviews of the above training sites, check out my friend's poker websites resource which offers more poker training information.