Poker

Want to become a poker pro?

Before we start, let’s set one thing straight: being a poker pro has nothing to do with being a celebrity and appearing regularly on TV in high-stakes games. Being a pro is about earning a living playing poker.

As you probably suspect it, playing as a poker professional is not something that just any player can accomplish. There are certain advantages to it, and a few disadvantages as well. Which of them outweighs the other, you decide.
As a poker pro, you won’t be able to make any future plans involving your income. You won’t be able to say “well, I’ll save up for that for 3 months and then I’ll buy it”. You’ll never know what your income will be, if there will be any, and when exactly you’ll be able to cash out. If living in uncertainty is not a problem for you, then sure, playing professional poker might be the right choice. Top all that with the fact that you’ll never really be eligible for any kind of social security, and you’ll get an idea why so few people decide to go down this road.

Having second thoughts already? If not, you may also want to know that being a professional player will require that you spend hours on end staring at a computer screen. Even though these new generation display panels are fairly kind with one’s eyes, the whole setup still has the potential to drive someone nuts. Remember, you won’t just be doing this for a day or two, you’ll be doing it pretty much every day, as long as your goal is to make enough money.
You’ll be at home all the time all right, but just how much quality time you’ll be able to spend with your family is an entirely different matter.
Anyway, if you do decide that the advantages of not having to respond to anyone regarding anything, of being able to come and go as you please, and – in a word – be free, are worth the above named downsides, then you have to really know the technicalities of being a professional player.
A poker professional is a lot like and exhausting full-time job. Some people are just not cut out for it, others can handle it fine for a while, still others possess the grit and determination to follow through and succeed. Most people have this completely erroneous understanding of how a poker pro makes his money. In reality there’s nothing glamorous about a poker playing riding the positive mathematical expectation to optimized hourly rates, which is exactly what a poker player does.
There is little room for emotion either. As a professional, you simply cannot afford to gamble on negative EV situations at all, and going on a tilt should be something you only see others do.

If you learn to treat poker as a job, one that needs the hours to yield the expected revenue, if you view it as work instead of play, it may lose some of its appeal, but you will surely get much closer to being successful and staying a pro.
Online poker is going to become a part of your life, and details like rakeback, table selection, Pot odds, implied odds, expected value calculus and so on will become your close friends.
If you adopt this professional attitude towards the game, you’ll find it much easier to avoid emotional ups and downs caused by the variance specific to the game. Remember nonetheless though, that some people will simply never be able to cope with the above named issues. If you know you are one of those people, it doesn’t make much sense to attempt becoming a pro, if you are not though, then buy some poker books, dig in and prepare yourself the best way you can.

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