Becoming a Poker Pro

Imagine a job where you could establish your own working hours, answered to no one and could take as many holidays as you wanted. These job specs may seem unachievable, but they are when you become a professional poker player. This may explain why so many part-time players are trying to adopt this lifestyle. So what does it take to go pro?

Some people would like to classify poker as a sport. However, if you’re not careful, poker can take a charge on your body and your mind. And if you’re not completely fit mentally or physically, there’s no way you can survive very long as a successful poker player. The first thing you need to play any game for a living is patience. Playing every day, all day, can get extremely tiring. Staring at a computer screen for hours on end can drive you insane. Do yourself a favour. Don’t wake up and run immediately to your PC. Start to brush your teeth, shave (if you have to), take a shower, and eat breakfast. Start your day by taking care of yourself, and you’ll find yourself better able to make it through a poker day. As I just mentioned, you will probably spend at least eight hours a day, five days a week in front of a computer screen with little or no company.
Forget the image of being a poker star and appearing at Poker TV shows. Few professional players will ever get to do this on a regular basis. The life of the anonymous internet pro is quite monotonous. That’s why a passion for the game is imperative.

Table Selection:

Unless you live in Vegas or have access to regular, lucrative games, the most realistic path for becoming a poker pro is through internet play. Good table selection is far harder when playing live because you would need to go to different casinos to see which has the best game that night and this is time consuming. You have to join the waiting list and hope the bad players are still there if and when you get a seat. Compare that with all the advantages of the online game and the internet is the clear choice. You can use software with pattern recognition, session stats and hand analysis (like Protracker) and you can always multi-table which is a huge edge because it allows players to increase their hourly rate.

Bankroll Management:

Without bankroll you can’t have a professional attitude and without that attitude there is no professional poker player.

Some months you'll actually experience a loss in total earnings. You must be able to cope with this and still have the confidence you need to win. You'll encounter some horrible runs along the way so be prepared.

Read my posts (or the ones made by Capital7) about this vital factor in a Poker Carer.

Downswings:

1. Stop playing ! Take a few days off to regain serenity, analyse your game and look for leaks.

2. Drop way down the levels and get back to playing aggressive, confident poker without the worry of losing 3 our 4 buy-ins.

While you are on tilt, you are not a professional poker player. You are a professional gambler and a donator to the game. If you’re going to take a break, make it a real break. Distance yourself completely from poker. The more well-balanced your life is, the better your poker experience and results will be.

Results:

Don’t take premature conclusions on your results. If you are in profit after 25,000 hands you are probably doing okay. If you are in profit after around 250,000 hands you are beating the game.

Conclusion:

You can’t endure in online poker over the long run if you don’t put your physical and mental health at risk. Take care of yourself first, be disciplined and well-organized, tracking all your activity, and you will give your poker a chance to pursue!

I hope this post hasn't discouraged you if you have ideas of playing professionally. If you think you can do it, you will have to buy every book and read everything you can to become a winning player.

Regards

Humberto's moment

Hi Guys,

What about Humberto Brenes Song at the table ?



Do you consider rude to make this kind of celebration after hitting your straight ?

Waiting your comments...

A Winning Hand Poker Room Review

A-Winning-Hand.com is a Maltese registered (C 40479) company, with a Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority online gaming Class 4 (Poker) Licence using Merge Networkand state of the art technology. Cutting-edge software, a high level of personal customer care, and strong regulation by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority, means you can feel safe and secure whilst playing on our Poker Site.

Their management team has been running a Malta based online casino for the last 18 months, so they know their way around the industry, and as part of the Boss network you are part of one of the largest and best Poker networks, with lots of tables, and from the moment you step into A-Winning-Hand.com you are treated like a VIP. They have a fantastic bonus and they offer 100% Security and Privacy.

Press here to visit their Poker Room.

Backdoor

After the flop, you have a backdoor when needing to use both of the two remaining cards to come to make a Straight or a Flush. Backdoor Straight or a Backdoor Flush.


Play Online Poker

World Biggest Online Poker Room

PokerStars is the largest poker site in the world, offering massive volume in cash games and tournaments and action at almost any game and limit 24 hours a day. It sets the standard in the industry as far as tournaments go, with an unmatched selection and sit-and-gos at all stakes starting up virtually every second.

Their customer service and security is exceptional and their game selection can't be beat.

If you're looking for a downside, though, it's probably the inconsistent competition. Because of the huge player base, the opposition can range from super soft at one table to unbelievably aggressive just the next table over. Lower limits and tournaments are still flush with bad players but there are literally thousands of strong players trolling PokerStars daily looking to make a living, so expect some tough competition scattered throughout your games.

In addition to explaining how their random number generator functions on their website, PokerStars security measures have also been independently verified by the outside consulting firms of Cigital and BMM International. Their software is frequently updated with new security updates to keep the site as safe as possible. The site also has a very strict collusion policy and promises to investigate any and all customer complaints regarding suspicious play.

It's worth noting that PokerStars has one of the best loyalty programs in the world and players who achieve the coveted Supernova status get free entry into $1 million tournaments, insane frequent player point multipliers and various cash bonuses. Everything about the PokerStars loyalty program is world-class including the frequent player point store, which is the biggest in the poker industry.

Poker Stars stability and speed has been the standard in the industry. Many other rooms have improved greatly, but Star's software was good when everyone else's wasn't. You'll enjoy the reliability and ease of use.

Free Money to Play online

How can someone give away free money?


People often ask themselves how can someone give away $150 to every user and still be a profitable company?


The answer is simple; every online poker player pays a "rake" whenever he places a wager in poker games, this rake is set and is similar amongst the different poker rooms across the internet. As the site connecting between the players and the poker room, we receive a percentage of our players' paid rake.


Poker rooms do not charge poker professor players any additional charges - on the contrary - our players are eligible to all the other poker room promotions on top of our free bankroll gift! Because of the strength of our educational material we believe that the average person applying our strategy material will become a winning player with our bankroll only. And while our winning players earn money themselves, we make up for our initial investment.


Our incentive is to make our players as strong and as profitable as possible. And we share this with you, our player: lets work together and make a strong poker player out of you!



Register at this link and see you at the tables!!

Playing Shorthanded Tables

Hi Guys,

It is better to play Full ring or shorthanded? There advantages and disadvantages in both options. Let’s see the advantages of shorthanded tables:

First of all, there are more bad players (fishes). The higher the limit you play, the fewer full ring tables are available. Shorthanded tables catch the attention of bad players and I think is it probably due to the faster and looser game that is normally played at these tables.

Also your win rate can increase as you are more often involved in a hand against these bad players and also since you are loosen up your own game.

Finally you are playing more hands per hour with the same amount of tables for the simple reason that six players finish a hand faster than ten players. As a result, your hourly win rate will increase.

Variance is higher in shorthanded games. So I recommend a more conservative bankroll management.

But be careful, this doesn't mean that you have reached a goldmine. You must play your best poker and don't believe in easy money...

Regards

Poker After Dark E45 4/4

Poker After Dark E45 3/4

Poker After Dark E45 2/4

Poker After Dark E45 1/4

WSOP 2009

The World Series of Poker recently released their Staff Resource Guide for 2009.

63,513 players are expected to participate in the 2009 World Series of Poker (up from 58,809 last year). These numbers seem pretty optimistic, given the current state of the global economy. As a matter of fact, the entire guide is littered with some pretty optimistic projections.

The projection for the main event is 7,323 entrants, which would considerably higher than the 6,844 entrants seen in last year's main event.

Most of the events that were around last year are expected to have more players - only a couple are expected to have less than last year.

Interesting is the rule about "Logos". No more than 3 players at a televised final or feature table can don the same sponsor logo. Very strange rule...

Good luck to all players...