The dynamics of a poker forum

I have a confession to make, I sometimes read 2+2 and the other poker forums out there -jam-packed with their so called professionals and experts-but there is a reason for my sleazy forum rendezvous, sometimes my job requires it! As was the case in the ongoing Girah scamming thread, where for the first time in probably around five years I have made a post on 2+2 -and I now remember why I swore off all forum contact.

Poker forums on the whole are the normal hangout of the poker version of “Townies”: failed players, fledgling players, and an odd breed of successful players who must be propped up at every turn, with players gushing over them to satisfy their self-aggrandizing view of themselves.

Basically if you are not one of successful players (the pompous asses) and their gaggle of fledgling players (the noobs) who blindly follow them because they made xyz final table or posted “A killer graph!”, or one of the legions of forum users whose sole goal is to tear everyone else down to their level (the trolls) your involvement in the community is not wanted -and remarkably you are ignored by the pompous asses on the forum, called a noob by the trolls, and christened a troll by the noobs!

The amazing thing is the importance that these groups place on their small piece of online real estate! The largest of these mega-churches is of course 2+2, which boasts just south of 300,000 members - and I’ll bet over 50% of these accounts are duplicate accounts and spammers-and as of this second has about 1,500 members perusing the forum (and another 1,500 “visitors”).

Let me preface this with the fact that 2+2 does some excellent work when a scandal breaks. They often flush out further details, and there are a number of users there who are prominent members of the poker community and contribute in a number of positive ways. There are also people that stick to the strategy topics and are there to improve their game.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let me describe what the typical makeup of the other 299,500 people who have registered at 2+2 over the years is, and what they have contributed over the years. Pretty much nothing. Even some of the well-known players who frequent the forum are guilty of being in one of the following groups:

Emulators - These are the people that are simply want to belong to a group, and have one or two of their posts “+1′ed” by some member of the community they look up to.

Self-Promoters - A good deal of the people on the forum have some vested interest in posting there. Whether it’s for slyly promoting their training site, a book, or simply trying to get some name recognition they are there solely to promote themselves.

Schadenfreude Practitioners - This is by far the worst group of the bunch. The only thing that gets people up in the morning is the possibility that someone’s reputation may have been ruined or overnight or that they might somehow be able to nitpick the grammar, spelling, or other minor mistake in every post they read.