Following poker forums shouldn’t hamper your poker game. If anything they should teach you something by getting opinions and information from players who have had similar experiences. Advice received on a poker forum shouldn’t be taken as gospel. You don’t really know the person that is offering it. As long as you don’t believe everything you read in the forums, they will be a great help to your game.

Try and use them to get good info on tournament schedules or games that fit into your level of poker. If you’re playing against the people in the forums you frequent, you may want to make sure that you’re not giving away too much info about your game.

I’ve always found them to be informative, but the more experience I gain the less useful they’ve become. A lot of it is redundant bad beat stories and irate players complaining about suck outs