Over a year ago Hank at Cards Speak, the expert programmer and brilliant writer, wrote an article for All-In magazine entitled The Viral Phenomenon of Poker Blogs, when this article was written there existed precisely one page called a blog covering the World Series of Poker, us (we have the first WSOP press pass issued to a blogger). This article is somewhat of a follow up to this premise and it also details my top ten list of poker blogs. A look at how the blogosphere has changed and some future predictions of things to come.
The rise of the commercial blog…
Not long after Daniel Negreanu began blogging and readers discovered Paul Phillip’s blog, players in the online community took notice of the sudden rash of corporate blogs, first with Poker Pages, which begin with Mike Paulle’s blog and then expanded to seven different ‘blogs.’ I placed ‘blogs’ within quotes because these pages scarcely qualify as a personal log, with the writers working under dictated severe corporate policies that allow the blogger no voice with regards to content, linking, or control of the page (e.g. personal blogrolls aren’t allowed… Abhorrent!!) About the same time Card Player added the Barry Shulman’s Advertorial section which they dare call a blog! Pfffft! These are the pseudo-blogs of the corporate emergence, a somewhat unsuccessful approach with few of the blogs getting significant traffic numbers and none of the blogs receiving incoming links. Both Card Player and Poker Pages have wisely picked up Daniel Negreanu’s blog, the blog that offers the most worthwhile offerings. Of note, I read Daniel’s blog on Blog-Lines. For some of these writers I’d suggest setting up a true blog, a personal site on Blogger takes about 5 minutes to set-up (e.g. Lou Krieger), and then work hard to insure people are linking to your personal blog using your name. Perhaps the site hosting your blog/page will allow you to make the credit line for an article/post a link to your ‘real’ blog. If they won’t allow this, that’s a big ol’ red flag.
The first really innovative approach came from Poker Stars, when they offered a position to Otis at Up for Poker to cover the EPT and WPT events on the Poker Stars’ Blog. They did some really goofy stuff early on (Poker Stars, not Otis), such as moving the domain for every single event so keeping track of the ‘current’ url was a pain; however, the excellent writing of Otis and the outpouring of support from the ‘traditional’ blogging community for one of their own has given the site a fair share of traffic. Soon after, another online poker room scooped up several excellent bloggers (whom I’ll leave anonymous) into various positions in the company, a brilliant move.
Poker Stars and Wil Wheaton are now teamed up for tournament sponsorship. In the mean time Pauly writes about poker online for too many publications too count and many other bloggers are picking up writing gigs with various papers and sites. The influence of a well read blog on a writer’s career is incredible. The latest entry into the Commercial Blogger realm, OddJack is a topic for another post with the controversy surrounding the direction and potential influence of this site considering it’s a ‘Nick Denton’ blog. So… moving on, a look at the evolution of the traditional poker blogger community.
Where are they now…
Many of the old guard poker blogs in Hank’s Article have changed since the article was written and I know my top ten list, which closely matched Hank’s at the time of the writing, has changed significantly. However, I believe an examination of each of the blogs on that original top ten can provide useful insight into the future.
PokerWorks, Linda’s main domain pokerworks.com, is operated by an external company that has put up a pleasing (if unremarkable) site. Table-tango.pokerworks.com is where to find Linda’s blog, she still deals at the Bellagio and is still one of the best reads on the net. The true original.
Guinness and Poker, very much what is has always been and as one of the original blogs it reaps the benefits of a long term commitment to blogging.
Lion Tales, very much what is has always been. (as a Professional Poker Player Richard is now sponsored by Full Tilt)
Poker Grub, The grub moved to Vegas but the writings and musings of the Grubby are as always an excellent read,
Mean Gene, Very much the same as always, another excellent read.
Tao of Poker, A lot has changed at Tao of Poker, Pauly’s success truly reached record levels during the WSOP and the fact that he’ll be able to do it bigger and better next year makes him a hot property, well deserved as he is one of the best writers in poker.
Felicia Lee, My heart goes out to Felicia as she battles cancer; however, her candid posts and unsightly poker advice continue on and is a regular must-read for me.
The Poker Penguin, The Penguin quit posting for several months but is now posting with some frequency again.
Chris Halverson, The target of the professional poker player jopke in the community, Chris is ever the same and a cool guy.
Wil Wheaton, As mentioned above Wil is doing some work with Poker Stars and as well as playing tournaments, an excellent writer and fun to follow poker player places Wil in my top ten list. The ‘everything else’ Wil does from books to performances to stopping by to say ‘hi’ during the WSOP make him a great example to follow. The fact that I agree about his stated political and copyright viewpoints is just icing.
The Cards Speak, Hank is now in the industry professionally and the Cards Speak still has infrequent but always excellent, thought provoking posts.
The new(er) blogs
Too many to count or name, from Dan’s Texas Hold’em blog called Pokerati to This is not a Poker Blog to Poker in the Weeds style and content are diverse with some being good, some mediocre and a few are truly bad. The ever growing community of poker blogs will decide which of these new offerings will become well linked and well read.
The shill/feed scraping sites.
This has been tried time and time again, and so far, not one of these ‘cut & paste’ sites has been able to get out of the starting gate. After more than a year of observing these unrepeatable sites come and go, the clearest solution is also the simplest one. Ignore them unless they actually manage to accomplish something (occasional original content would be nice). These sites seek to build a profit center around the hard work of others.
The future of the community
The entry of corporate organizations and high profile bloggers into the niche of poker blogs combined with the continuing evolution of the relationships between bloggers, print publications and professional players will fuel the growth of the poker blogging community allowing it to become far more prominent in the coming year. We poker bloggers now have the ability to use collective community power to influence the search engines and draw attention to the quality content in the community. I see the future of poker blogging as an indispenable component for the continued success and growth of the sport.