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Professional Poker Player – Qualities Needed To Succeed

The dream or fantasy of many poker players is to take home the first prize from the World Series of Poker. But it's a massive leap from a regular hobby poker player up into the heady echelons of professional poker. You'll need heaps of tenacity and discipline, as well as the time to practice. But probably the biggest stumbling block is you'll have to accrue a bankroll large enough to stand the swings of the game. And all this money will need to be saved before you start your gambling journey.

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How To Become A Professional Poker Player

Every year during the summer, thousands of players flock to Las Vegas to try their luck at the World Series of Poker. After all, every poker player would love the ability to call themselves the World Champion. And if you’re one of these players who aspire to be a professional poker player, then you may well ask yourself; what does it take to play poker professionally?

Always Be Honest With Your Self

The veteran players may say there’s a lot of lying at the poker table. And in some ways, lying is a large part of the game. There’s a saying that you should never lie to yourself. As Polonius in Hamlet says “to thine own self be true.” You may well be winning or losing sitting up at the paper table. Yet how many players we put that down to either being lucky or unlucky. But if you want positive long-term results, then you need to be self-critical in evaluating your standard of play.

If you want to make a professional grade, you must be honest about your own abilities. It’s not enough to praise yourself for winning but put your losses down to bad luck. Anybody understanding their own gameplay abilities will be able to make adjustments on the fly. And this is one of the essential jackpot winning strategies that all professional poker players possess.

A Professional Poker Player Will Build A Bankroll Before Playing

You can’t really compare a regular job with playing poker for a living. In the former, you work and then get a paycheck. But as a professional poker player, you already need a sizeable chunk of cash before you even start the work. If you feel that your destiny lies in professional poker, then it’s important that you build up a bankroll well before you quit your normal job. This needs to be big enough to sustain both paying for your lifestyles as well as the severe swings you’ll find at the gaming table. Take care while still building your bankroll. Because in many ways, this will be a trial run as to what it’s like to be using your own money in professional games, Especially when the games themselves are your only source of income.

Have Realistic Bankroll Saving Expectations

Now, if you find yourself constantly borrowing from your playing bankroll, it means that you aren’t winning at a high enough rate to be able to go pro. It’s the same story if you’re tapping your bankroll to pay the bills every month. Here at Jackpotfinder.com, we think it’s essential that you separate your lifestyle money and spending from your poker bankroll. If you can’t do this then you’ll rapidly run out of money to play with. And if you’re out of the action, then there’s no way you can start climbing the ladder of professional poker.

Keep in mind that your bankroll can be of considerably different sizes. This is because much is dependent on how good you are as well as the games you choose to play. We think it’s best that you don’t set a fixed number for the size of your bankroll. But if there’s one thing we’re sure of, it’s if you’re sweating to find enough money to get into the game. Sorry to say, but this means your bankroll is too small. You can learn more about looking after your bankroll by playing online. Probably the best site to play poker is 22Bet Casino. To help you get started they give all new players a welcome bonus of 100% up to 300 Euros. This is instantly added to your bankroll, thus helping it stretch even further.

Keep Detailed Records As A Habit

Previously we mentioned how important is, to be honest with yourself. And by keeping detailed records that keep track of all your playing, you can always look back to see what you did right or wrong, without the interference of your emotions. Take heed that it’ll need some time to build up a proper sample size of data in order to analyze it. When you do look through the numbers, don’t delude yourself. Leave your emotions out of it. And recognize that the numbers don’t lie. As a budding professional poker player, it’s essential that you keep detailed records. And by detailed, we mean such things as where you played when you played, what type of game, the table limits, what were you buying, whether any rebuys and how much were you betting per hand?

A Professional Poker Player Will Keep Track Of Everything

On the whole, we suggest that you don’t start analyzing your numbers unless you have played at least 100 sessions of play. That’s because it takes time to start to see trends that match. Another point is that you may well play better at different times of the day. Maybe you just win more often when playing pot-limit Omaha as opposed to playing limit Texas hold ’em. One of the questions here is whether you are winning at a high rate with lower-limit games? Or are you winning the bigger games?

If you want to be able to manage your decision-making later on it’s super-important that you’re able to evaluate your own results now. This will help you develop a winning game plan as a professional poker player. You’ll learn how to use your time in order to maximize the expected value at the gaming table. One point you should pay attention to is not to fix a sample size that’s too small. This can be to a false set of results.

Don’t Bet Above Your Bankroll

Many novice poker players imagine that being a professional poker player is all about the fame, fortune and the bright lights that go with it. But a real professional gambler will tell you these things really don’t matter at all. When you’re sat at the games table, the most important aspect is finding value and being able to exploit it. Of course, no one’s going to turn away from fame and fortune. And everybody loves to be on the cover of a glossy magazine. But nothing positive is going to come out of playing games above your bankroll.

Always Play Within Your Bankroll

Keep in mind that if you find yourself playing in a 5 – 10 no-limit game when you’re usual fair is 1 to 2 no limit, then the gaming session could have a huge impact on your long-term results. That’s because, generally speaking, you’re going to find severe swings as you play. Of course, there are many terrible things a poker swing can do. But one of the worst is to go from being a winning player at one limit to a losing player at a higher limit. We’re not saying you should never take a shot at the top games. But that there will always be time for that later. It’s best to explore these options in your own time. What we want to point out is that if you consistently play above your bankroll, then this is a clear recipe for disaster.

A Professional Poker Player Needs To Have Discipline

Because professional poker is all about the long game, you don’t want just a single session to break you. So it’s important to track your results closely. And it’s best not to overreact to the smaller size of data you’re getting from the game at hand. Be wary if you happen to have a couple of successful weeks in a row. After this streak, you may be feeling very pumped. And in so doing lead you to falsely believe you can start to move up the ladder. If you really think that you’re ready for the highest state poker games, then ensure that you have enough of a bankroll to sustain the inevitable roughed times that will always be coming at some point.

Take Care To Plug Your Leaks

In some ways, the road to being a professional poker player needs a laser-like focus. If you’re spending a lot of time in the casino then it’s easy to fall into a trap which is known in the industry as “leaks.” If you think about what makes a professional poker player, the main attribute is their ability to find an edge. But it’s often hard to avoid leaks as the mentality of a poker player is to be always looking for an edge. This kinda leads to them exposing more spots than is necessary. But it’s not so only jackpot poker players. You’ll find that sports bettors, craps players and video poker players are on the constant lookout for means to stack more cash. There’s especially true once you start going on negative expected value. Then it’s only a matter of time before you help bankroll is completely depleted.

It’s Not All Glitz And Glamour At The Top

Though it looks very glamorous, many professional players fall into the lifestyle of the casino high roller. They always have a large entourage and spread lots of cash about. But it’s easy to forget that without the bankroll with which to bet, they would have nothing. Rather like recently signed football or basketball players, they instantly start spending huge amounts of cash on all sorts of useless luxury items. If you follow this program then your bankroll will be unable to support your gaming.

So if you want to be a professional poker player then you need to go to avoid all the temptations that are beckoning you. That’s because you need to hang on to your bankroll. You need to keep it as intact as possible. Without a doubt, the fastest way to go broke playing poker is to have your bankroll drained away. We’re sure that a huge failing is that many players only have a small bankroll at the games table, yet also try to live life of luxury.

Conclusion: How To Become A Professional Poker Player

Every poker player will tell you the main point of poker is fun and exciting. But if you want to make a living from it then you need to be disciplined. In fact, it’s this discipline that will lead you to the path to success. If you’re new to poker then we suggest a good strategy is to try your hand at online poker first. Here you’re able to play many different varieties of poker with many of them offering minimum table betting limits of just mere pennies. If you want to experience the real casino atmosphere, then simply head over to live dealer games. This is a great way to gain more experience and knowledge. You even have the chance to win the jackpot online. Especially if you choose a casino like 22Bet Casino.

They have every variant of poker and all with very low betting table limits. All the knowledge you gain from playing online, you can then bring to the real casino. Wherever you practice, always understand that to be a successful professional poker player takes time.