We get a lot of questions sent in, and we try to answer them all. However, there’s a few that we really love answering, because they can cover a large part of our audience very quickly. A lot of our fans are so obsessed with poker that they start thinking: what if I didn’t have to work? I could just log onto all of my favorite poker haunts and make the money I need to live.
Whoa, stop right there. You’re talking about becoming a professional poker paler. This is a lot more challenging than it sounds, for a lot of different reasons. Let’s cover that here. You see, when you make the decision to go and become a pro, you’re basically taking a huge risk with your income. Gambling is very fickle. You might be up a lot today, but what about the next day? You could lose everything with the turn of a card. That’s not something that you should really count on for the long term without a monster savings account. If you have a great savings account, then you can certainly do just about anything and everything that you really want. It’s completely up to you. However, for the sake of this argument, let’s assume that you don’t have much savings at all. If you don’t have a partner who is working, you really need to make sure that you don’t give up on your day job. The truth is that you will have days where you lose money. If you can’t wrap your head around that, then you really aren’t ready to play poker. You have to step back and realize that there’s a world of difference between poker as a hobby and poker as a profession.
A lot of professional poker players have to grind it out and make sure that they play a certain amount of hands in order to keep their profit level up. They might have to travel to get into tournaments. Does your schedule and attitude allow for that type of travel? While it might sound glamorous now, life in airports is anything but glamorous. So you have to do what’s going to be right for you. You have to be committed to all of the travel and all of the games needed to become popular in the field. Sponsorships don’t just fall from the sky. You have to be a favorite player that people actually want to watch. That’s when the big poker names will actually back you. Otherwise, you’re going to be frustrated for a very long time. You just have to make sure that you’re staying focused as much as possible.
Remember that part about focus? Pay close attention: you’re going to be playing a lot of poker. This is something that a lot of newbies aren’t used to hearing. They like poker as well as anyone else, but things change when it’s no longer your hobby. You might get burned out. If you don’t have enough money to quit for a little while, you might have to grind it out just to pay your bills. Definitely not a good time.
It goes without saying here, but you obviously need to be good. You need to have a solid strategy that’s already netting you money. You need to already be a player that’s ranked on some high stakes poker databases. You should be in the money more often than you are out of the money. If you’re facing heavy losses consistently, you might need to realize that you’re really not ready to play at the level you’re thinking about. Know your best hands. Know the ins and outs of bluffing. Know the psychological game of poker. That’s going to be the best way to actually survive the poker game. Why not check it out for yourself?
You will have to build your own path — everyone is different. We’re being extra conservative, but you might have what it takes to be the next Scotty Nguyen or Doyle Brunson. You just have to make sure that you’re keeping focused even when it’s more tempting and desirable to quit.