Going Pro Considerations
The dream for most poker enthusiasts is to eventually accumulate enough skill and success to go pro, turning their hobby into a profitable vocation. Success at the table is addicting and the natural desire is to want to build it into a profession of playing for higher stakes and the rewards that come with continued success.
Turning your dream of becoming a poker pro into a reality is not a decision to be taken lightly. Many a poker player can dedicate themselves to the game, accumulate enough knowledge and strategy to become a good poker player. One can study lots of poker books, actively learn from poker training sites and play many thousands of hands learning what to do. Becoming a profitable hobby poker player is within the reach of most players, but when attempting to become a poker professional the dynamics shift considerably.
If you are considering wanting to become a poker pro, here are ten areas that a poker pro should be proficient in if they are to have a good chance to succeed.
1. Make a living from the game – Shifting from enjoying the extra profit from playing poker as a hobby to depending on your poker winnings to pay all your bills is a big psychological and financial leap. Having to remove significant chunks of your bankroll each month to pay your living expenses and new playing/traveling expenses can rapidly drain your bankroll putting pressure on you to produce regular strong results. When you work a traditional job, you are guaranteed a certain compensation for your time. In poker there is no certainty that you will win money and in fact can lose money if you don’t play well or get unlucky.
To accomplish this self-sufficient goal, the pro poker player will need to generate poker-related income from multiple sources; playing live (cash games and tournaments), playing online (cash games and tournaments), rakeback/rewards/loyalty programs and finally sponsorships and endorsements that can come from their poker notoriety, marketability and results. About rewards, signing up to a casino loyalty program is often a smart move in terms of return on investment (visit CasinoLoyaltyProgams.org for more details). It has been argued that many poker pros aren’t profitable if you simply factor out their live tournament results. It is often necessary to supplement their income in a variety poker and non-poker opportunities.
2. It’s a job – When your play is no longer a flexible luxury. Putting in 40-80 hours a week playing can quickly change the game from a pleasure to being a drudgery. Not everyone has the self-discipline to put in the regular hours to play regardless of how you feel, like you would for a traditional job. Poker players must put in enough hours and volume to smooth out their winning ROI or the variance can reek havoc on their results and bankroll. Without a boss to tell you when to play, it’s easy for poker players to slack in their efforts and undermine their future.
3. It’s mental – What separates a great poker player from a good one is not knowing what to do, but why and when to do it. It is one thing to know all the moves, but it is another thing entirely to understand why you want to make certain moves, how it will affect the game and when are the optimum times to implement your strategy. Can you still act optimally at the table when you are feeling psychological and financial pressure from being a pro who may be on a losing streak.
When every other player is trying to beat you, it is challenging to remove your ego. The goal as a professional is to support yourself and improve as a player, not to beat every single player you face. You will encounter better players who seem to have your number. It is important to focus on your goal to make money at the game by playing when you have an edge, not get caught up in beating everyone.
4. Disassociation – One skill that most top poker pros share is a disassociation with the money they are playing with and their own ego. Until you reach a stage where you are not affected by the monetary value of the chips you play with, you will never play freely. Keeping in your head that your last bet or buy-in could have made a house or car payment isn’t good for your mentality. Keeping a strong and strict bankroll management system can help separate the two worlds.
5. Never Sit Still – The game of poker is constantly evolving. Tactics and strategy that were standard a year ago can become outdated or ineffective quickly. A pro must constantly be studying and improving their game or see a new generation pass them bye. Professional poker is a highly competitive environment. In the drive to be the best and most successful, players can’t rest on their previous successful laurels. A pro realizes that learning they do off the felt is often equally important to the learning they do on the felt.
6. Confidence and Emotional fortitude – The confident poker player always plays better than the player lacking confidence. Which begs the question can you be confident without positive results? Is it innate, something learned, or something that only comes from positive poker outcomes?
No poker player can avoid significant swings in their results. The nature of the game and its probabilities dictate you will see wild financial swings and most likely the emotional swings that accompany them. Can you keep focused, driven and playing with confidence when you aren’t doing well?
Managing your emotions (i.e. tilt control) is one of the key skills of the poker pro. Instituting a firm stop loss and a rigid discipline at the table is necessary to avoid undermining your bankroll and confidence.
7. Focus and Memory – Another skill that many pros have is the ability to focus and recall. They are able to shut out the distractions of life when they are at the poker table and then able to recall poker situations that happened in the past. By accessing prior history, they are able to have an edge in determining what their opponent is more likely to do in crucial present situations.
Their confidence is not completely self-centered, rather they are empathic to their opponents in attempting to understand their thinking and motivations. This allows them to get in the mind of their opponent to anticipate their actions or reactions. They use this understanding to manipulate the scenario using various techniques in order to mislead and confuse their opponents.
8. Patience and Creativity – Poker for money is a game that requires tremendous discipline. One must have the patience to wait for a good hand or for the time to make a move that will be believed. In reading their opponents and sensing good timing, a professional poker player must keep their opponents guessing by making creative and unexpected moves.
Poker is a game of deception and guile, aggression and tact. Great poker players use all the above mentioned tools to figure out the why and when of how to make their moves and defeat their opponent.
9. Avoiding Temptations – Within poker, there is a culture of excess and hedonism. It is very easy to be sucked into it and its deleterious effects. Can you have a rigid focus and determination to keep on plan without getting caught up in the showier and ephemeral aspects of the “balla” poker lifestyle? It can also be tempting to use various forms of cheating schemes to unethically improve one’s edge. Understand that you are putting your entire career at risk if you choose this path.
10. Always Leave Yourself An Out – As the Rounders character Knish states, even if you devote yourself to becoming a poker professional you want to have a back up plan. Ask Daniel Negreanu and he’ll say only one in a thousand players who attempt to play poker for a living become truly successful. Look to diversify your interests and income so that if things don’t work out you can transition to another worthy endeavor.
Even for the most talented players, playing long term profitable poker when deriving the majority of their income from playing many hours of poker isn’t an easy task. Players who have difficulty with the above ten areas might consider keeping poker a hobby, where it can remain a fun part-time challenge.
