by Craig Tapscott, Special to FOXSports.com

Forums

Forums are one of the best places to learn about how to play every hand imaginable with endless discussions from all levels of players. Post a hand and find out.

2 + 2: One of the Internets original poker forums for discussion of all types of poker. Many young players learned the fine points of the game here.

Pocket Fives: Ranks the top online tournament players. Many of the winners share their tournament savvy and offer feedback.

Card Player: The Poker Authority is a great resource of information as well as a great forum for hand discussion.

Neverwin Poker: An irreverent and fun forum named after Internet high stakes player Dustin Woolf aka Neverwin.

Full Contact Poker: Home to Daniel Negreanu's almost daily poker blog. Daniel shares personal fun as well as insights into tournament poker and his play in the "big game" at Bellagio.

Internet Texas Holdem: Home to Card Player scribe and author of Internet Texas Holdem - Matthew Hilger. They have also initiated in 2006 an objective Internet Player Rankings based on the premiere tournaments across the largest Poker sites.

Poker Training Sites

CardRunners: Focus at this video training site is on cash games with successful online winners Green Plastic and muddywater. Each play the Pro makes is discussed in detail so you can understand why he is making each decision. Learning with video and audio is much more realistic and easier to understand than simply reading a book.

PokerXfactor: PokerXFactor training videos take you step-by-step through huge online poker tournaments and Sit-N-Go's along with our top-ranked resident pros, JohnnyBax and Sheets. Learn how they negotiate the online poker tournament minefield to win consistently. Also includes successful MTT players Rizen and brsavage.

PokerMentors: Pokermentors offers both private coaching and live online seminars featuring some of the top ranked online players in the game today including apestyles, iMsoLucky0, and gbmantis.

Pro Poker School: Features online seminars with top players Brett "gank" Jungblut and Aaron "GambleAB" Bartley.

Real Poker Training: Features real pros, in real situations, explaining their every move; online video capture of the top tournament pros led by founder Todd "NSXT2" Arnold. FULL AUDIO-VIDEO instruction on mtts, sngs, cash games, heads up, Omaha, specialty videos including amateur player critiques, using stat trackers and more!

Blogs from Poker's Best

Rizen: One of the top MTT players in the world shares his daily insights into hands, poker and life. He recently won the PokerStars Sunday event for over $150K.

Gooboboy: One of the Internets top rebuy experts shares his madness and a few insightful hand histories.

Matt Matros: Home of math whiz, professional player and author Matt Matros - The Making of a Poker Player.

Tao of Poker: Welcome to the gambling ramblings of Pauly ... a writer, traveler, and degenerate online poker player from New York City.

N 82 50 24's Blog: The brilliant mind behind the pokerdb - Nat Arem.

Bodog Ari: The No. 2 ranked online player keeps you informed on his thoughts and tournament savvy.

ActionJeff: A player with a big mouth and a big game. Scary good at his age - which translates to hated and loved by many.

Guinness and Poker: Iggy compiles the best of the best poker info on the web.

Double As: Scott Gallant, author of Pressure Poker, gives clear and concise poker strategy advice.

Pokerati: Well written poker news, strategy, and more from a group of rounders.

Tiltboys: For a few good belly laughs, read these true poker tales. Amidst their PG-13-rated stories of ribaldry in Las Vegas, there is a surprising amount of intelligent discussion of poker.

Poker Prof's Las Vegas and Poker Blog: The source for Las Vegas poker news and lists all the Las Vegas tournaments.

Live Tournament Updates

PokerWire: Up to the minute hand by hand progress reports for the biggest buy in tournaments from the WPT & WSOP.

Card Player: Video updates and results from major live tournaments around the world.

Poker News: Hot poker news from around the world.

Geek Stuff

The PokerDB: The poker database tracks and displays multi-table tournament results for PokerStars and PartyPoker. Users can search for results by player name or by tournaments characteristics such as game type and buy-in amount. As of right now, the service is free, but thepokerdb plans to add some extended data services in exchange for a subscription fee.

Tournament Reporter: Track your progress and tournament ranking for online poker.

ICM: Independent Chip Model information and calculator.

Chillin411: Simple and easy to understand ICM Calculator.

PokerNemo: The coolest poker toolbar on the net that downloads onto your browser for FREE. It contains quick links to the top poker sites, search engines, music, forums, poker odds calculations, poker training sites, Net tellers, etc.

Poker Tracker: Poker Tracker is a Windows based computer program that allows you to analyze your on-line Texas Hold'Em, Omaha/8 and 7 Card Stud (and Razz) play. Poker Tracker stores and summarizes hand history data that can be downloaded from your poker site.

Poker Office: PokerOffice allows you to track all of your opponents' actions as well as your own game while you are playing, without any need for hand histories or user input.

Poker Charts: Poker Charts is a web-based service that allows you to easily and anonymously log, chart and analyze the results of your poker games.

PokerHand: Allows you to paste an online hand history and provide a link for your poker buddies to discuss your strategy and play.

FTR Hand History Converter: This tool was developed to input the hand histories from various poker rooms and output the results in a standardized, easily readable form. The results can then be easily copied and pasted into poker forums (like ours), web pages, emails, etc.

Sit-n-Go Analyzer: The Sit-n-Go Power Tools will teach you the most important aspects of correct all-in strategy by combining probability and tournament strategy concepts in an easy to use way.

Poker Stove: One of the best and most diverse poker calculators on the net. Every online MTT pro lives here.

Expected Values: Expected Values (EV) of hands vs. positioning.

N-call & N-fold: Are the number of hands that will call/fold given that you move in with the maximum stack that you will do so with. P|call is the probability of winning given that you are called (plus 1/2 the probability of tieing). Brought to you from the geeks at UC Berkeley.

PokerListings: Claims to be the world's largest poker guide.

Poker Edge: High-tech Software to track your results and calculate pot odds and statistical information on your opponents.

Poker Da Vinci: PokerDaVinci.com is a provider of software tools to help you become better at poker.

Poker Inspector: Online Hold'em Inspector is an add-on software for online Texas Hold'em poker game - it will capture all the upcards from the game table and display detailed hold'em stats for all betting rounds instantly.

Pokermom.com: Poker Mom automatically retrieves your cards, calculates odds and ranks your hand.

Poker Academy: Texas Hold'em version offers Enhanced AI, a Hand Evaluator, and the ability to stack the deck for testing and learning purposes.

Wilson Software: Wilson Software's world class Poker software programs have helped good players become excellent poker players.

Deep Stuff

Luck: Train your mind. Learn how to be lucky with The Awesome Science of Luck by Peter Ragnar.

Gigabet's Dilemma: Theory of stack sizes by Internet phenom Gigabet.

Success and Failure by Gigabet: Best and worst from one of the best.

MTT Anthology of Wisdom: The very best players offer MTT advice and strategy.

Podcasts with the Pros

The Circuit: Card Player's entertaining and irreverent interview show. Check out the archives of great guests.

P5's Podcast: Interviews with the top online MTT players.

Thepokerpod: Various poker podcasts listed.

Poker1: Mike Caro and Doyle Brunson podcasts.

Rules and More

Poker Rules: Robert Ciaffone is a leading authority on poker room rules. Find out the bottom line.

IRS & Taxes: If you are a citizen of the U.S. your online poker winnings are taxable. Even though there are unresolved questions about whether playing online poker is legal that is irrelevant when it comes to figuring your taxes. This site answers your questions.

SNG Facts: Great collection of SNG strategy.

SNG Spreadsheet: Track your SNG results.

Texas Hold'em: Great beginners articles, odds calculations, strategy, bluffing, etc.

The Poker Players Alliance: Every poker player should join this organization that stands for and protects poker players rights.

Gamblingandthelaw.com: Professor I. Nelson Rose is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on gambling law.

Craig Tapscott is a frequent contributor to FOXSports.com Poker, Card Player & Card Player College magazine. He may be contacted at: ctapscott@verizon.net.