Which Poker Magazine Is Your Favorite?

I subscribe to (almost) all the poker magazines: CardPlayer, All-In, PokerPro, PokerLife, and Bluff (I never figured out if you could subscribe to 'Deal' or not, or if they are even still around).

The most recent issue of Bluff reminded me again how good their magazine is, I think probably the best of the bunch. In particular in the most recent issue, I thought there were at least six excellent strategy articles-- I actually underlined some things in the 'playing the big stack' article (Busbee), 'recalculating the avg. stack' article (Gordon), and the 'handling loses' (Largay) article! In fact, I found Angel Largay's article so good, that his book just jumped to the front of my reading list.

As for regular columnists, I enjoy the Tilly/Laak/Esfandiari trio, especially when the all write about the same event/trip from their unique perspective; of course their articles are pure fluff, but there are plenty of serious strategy discussions elsewhere in the magazine. For example: Narvarro and Caro are always good for actual useful poker content.

Also, Adam Slutsky is probably one of the funniest writers I have ever read.

Of course there is sometimes some junk (I really didn't find the 'poker goddess' article amusing in the least), but overall, if I had to keep only one of the subscriptions I think if would be Bluff.

oh, and "why?" is it your favorite...

I prefer the free ones I pick up at the local casinos.

Why? Because they are free ! DOH!

Usually that means I am picking up Card Player, the Scene, Bluff, or Poker Player.

I pick each up hoping for one good tidbit that might help me somewhere along the line.

I subscribe to cardplayer, my wife brought an issue of bluff home and im sold on it.

I chose Bastard!, just because I can.

I like Poker Player magazine that I can pick up at the casino. I enjoy reading Mike Caro's articles in those.

I haven't read any of the others, but I subscribe to Card Player and Bluff. They're both very different and have good content, but Bluff is edgier, more entertaining, and written by/geared toward a younger crowd. I like it for the same reasons you do. It has far more typos than Card Player (something I'm cursed to forever notice) but slightly fewer skanky-looking ads. Both have their merits and I wouldn't want to give up either subscription.

Oh, I suppose I should choose Bluff since that's where I got my sig line....

I subscribe to both Card Player and Bluff and I enjoy both. Out of the two I like Card Player more by a small margin. I just find the articles and hand anaylsis are consisently better. Granted, there is just as much fluff in CP as in Bluff sometimes.

I read both front to back and wouldn't cancel either subscribtion.

Cardplayer is the only magazine I've read. I read it everytime I go to the casino while waiting for a seat. Its a really good magazine and they put good tips in them

Good luck at your tables

Bluff's the only one I see regularly in Australia - what we actually get is Bluff Australasia, which isn't bad, but the quality of the content can be a bit variable. Some months it seems there's just as much advertorial as there is proper articles. They do lots of local tournament coverage though, which I imagine will be good once I get the chance to play a few more or play interstate.

I've only seen one issue of it, but the WPT magazine seemed pretty good too

fyi, some of the magazines you pick up in the cardrooms are just excerpts of other mags-- I have seen a larger size newspaper type publication that just duplicated the most recent cardplayer articles.