Best Poker Magazine: Top 5 List

Some are stand-alone, others incorporate digital content; some focus on the top pros and tournaments, while others will fill your need for poker strategy and guides to the best casinos, games and deals.

Here I will look at the best poker magazines out there, and hopefully re-kindle (no pun intended!) your love of the old-school approach to journalism.

As a working ‘print-magazine’ editor myself, hopefully you’ll enjoy my take on the world of ‘paper-poker’!

CardPlayer

They say: ‘Card Player magazine’s 26 issues per year covers poker strategy, poker news, online and casino poker, and poker legislation’.

We say: Very good, and the website is an excellent one, but who are the magazine aiming their articles and news stories at?

Well, the strategy articles are a bit deeper than those covered in many mags – although they won’t really tax anyone with huge experience in the game – but they are also available in online format.

One good example (which I like personally as the practical aspect of games interests me) is Steve Zolotow’s series of columns on ‘Discipline’, which is “essential for anyone who wants to be a professional poker player”. This series covers:

• Avoiding tilt
• Finding games or situations where you have an edge
• Physical conditioning
• Mental conditioning
• Maintaining a bankroll

Excellent advice for any would-be poker pro – and not above the understanding level of those fairly new to the game either - although many will prefer the ‘pure’ strategy focus of other writers, of which there are many.

For example, Jonathan Little this week looked at ‘How to Play Bottom Set when Deep-Stacked’, highlighting a hand from the recent EPT Barcelona.

CardPlayer has been around for a long time - since 1988 - making it the elder statesman of the poker magazine industry, and features less of the big-name interviews than some other magazines, although they don’t ignore the movers-and-shakers of the poker world - Adam Friedman and Tuan Lee being recent examples.

Overall it’s a very-well produced mag and when you subscribe to the print version you also get access to the digital content, which is great if you like to read mags in the loo while your laptop is waiting for you back in the study. Or perhaps that’s just me?

Cost: A yearly subscription to the magazine – 26 issues - will set you back $39.95 if you live in the US and about double that for international readers, although the online-only content is a cheaper proposition.

Check CardPlayer’s subscription offers out here with samples of the recent magazine free to view.

Bluff (Europe)

They say: ‘Bluff Europe is the UK and Irelands’ most widely-read poker publication. With contributions from Poker's hottest Players, Bluff Europe not only brings you strategy that will improve your game, but brings you the life-style insights that make Poker the most popular card game on Earth!’

We say: With the US version having gone to the wall in February of this year, a fate which also befell the WPT magazine a couple of months earlier, it’s left to the European version to carry the flag, and carry it they do – albeit unconventionally.

I have to say, I was a bit surprised by the articles on offer here – and pleasantly so in a strange kind of way. It’s as if the editor has just given the writers’ free reign to cover poker, and gambling in general, however they see fit!

This results in many quirky stories being told – for example Adam Slutsky’s ‘Five Aces beat a Royal Flush’ – and it seems to work. I found myself learning at the same time as I enjoyed a good story, which is rarely the case with your average ‘technical strategy articles’ which seem to predominate nowadays.

With Dara O’Kearney covering strategy, and columns by the likes of Neil Channing, Nick Wealthall and Tony 'Tikay' Kendall, the focus is really very UK and Europe based as you’d expect, but the interviews cover a whole spectrum of guests form near and far – the Jean Robert Bellande one being among the best I’ve read.

Cost: With a current price of £19.99 for the year (that’s a 40% discount at the moment, and it’s available through Amazon) you can also get the magazine downloadable on the App Store and GooglePlay.

Well worth the money and an interesting change from the poker magazine I was expecting having read the US version previously.

All-In

They say: ‘Each ALL IN Magazine issue in your subscription presents the latest news, poker insights, an exclusive look into the poker lifestyle, behind the scenes of the most recent events, winning strategies, tips from top pros and so much more.’

We say: This is a big glossy mag full of news and features and adverts, with the focus mainly on poker, but also covering DFS and various other gambling activities – including games such as HearthStone and Madden2015 for the Xbox 360 in the most recent issue.

The format is pretty much what you’d find in any sports or lifestyle magazine – and I don’t mean that in a negative way – it’s a tried and tested format which delivers exactly what the majority of players want. Big name interviews, full-colour spreads and tournament round-ups.

The ‘poker strategy’ part of the magazine is limited – it’s not really the purpose of this publication, so if you’re after the lowdown on how to extract maximum value from your gutshot on the river, you’re unlikely to find it here.

Cost: Still, it’s a decent read if you enjoy the ‘big glossy’ style, and at the current offer price of $29.95 for 11 issues, or $39.95 for 2 year’s (22 issues) you wouldn’t be making a mistake in subscribing. Note, though, that it’s very US-centric and only available there for the time being.

PokerPlayer365 (online magazine)

They say: ‘Every month PokerPlayer and American PokerPlayer magazines are published for free in our app. That means you can get all of this without spending any money…Up to 68 pages of fantastic poker content written by the world’s best players and poker journalists.’

We say: This is one of the online magazines which looks exactly like a print-version, and I’ve included it to show you how ‘old-school’ I am! It took me all of 3 minutes to download the PC apps for viewing it, which must be an all-time record for this technophobe.

With a regular cover and contents page, this is as close to print poker journalism as you’ll get. Want to read ‘7 Deadly Cash Game Sins’? Just click on it in the contents page and you’re straight there.

This mag is where you’ll find the best strategy articles, and lots of them. Both CardRunners and GrinderSchool provide regular content, and Sofia Lövgren’s ‘In the Tank’ pages are a neat ‘Agony Aunt’ poker-advice column sponsored by her 888.com site.

Cost: As you’ll doubtless have realised by now, the vast majority of the articles in PokerPlayer are sponsored – that’s why you’re now getting it for FREE. And you can’t say fairer than that! Plus there are lots of bonus goodies such as videos available – almost enough to tempt this old-timer away from his stacks of paper magazines.

Check it out here and choose between the US and the International versions.

Ante-Up

They say: “Our Mission - Ante Up, YOUR Poker Magazine, is dedicated to everyday poker players and their poker rooms.”

We say: This is a very grassroots US poker publication, as evidenced on the contents page editorial which states: “What really makes Ante-Up tick are the contributions from all portions of the industry” and goes on to explain the role of the ‘ambassadors they use to reach out across the country.

Splitting the country into large regions works well for this mag, allowing readers to focus on their own areas results and upcoming tournaments before looking at the wider picture, but this really is aimed at the nitty-gritty casino player who wants all the details of everything below the ‘pro’ level.

The magazine does cover strategy and other poker features, but they are minimal compared to the news and soon-to-be-news. However, the guys do a good job of covering some interesting stuff; Mark Brement looks at a coaching session where his student – thinking of turning pro - is playing “out-of-position poker. A quick analogy is a drunk taking a job in a bar. Not a good idea. Position is to poker as water is to life.”

Joe Apostolico’s most recent strategy column looks at FOMO – a phrase I vaguely knew of – and which stands for ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ – “much like the investor who ignores the fundamentals, these players are chasing the dream. They’re afraid of missing out. They would feel much worse folding their hand prematurely if that flush draw came in.” We can all relate top that type of player!

Overall this is an excellent magazine which achieves what it sets out to do – inform the everyday poker player about all that is happening in their geographical sphere.

Cost: With print, view online and pdf version all available, and subscriptions at £30 per year for 12 issues, this is a must have for the local US live poker enthusiast. Outside of that group, just read the free online version.

Check it out here.