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