The Poker Mentality
If you only play poker for FUN, then making the jump to poker for a living may not be for you. Because to be successful, you must be able to play at DULL tables… against BORING players… and sit patiently for hours waiting for the right times to “make moves”.
The best players treat poker like a BUSINESS… not a hobby. It’s a way to make money. Period. Sure… poker pros love the game and respect it, but they aren’t playing for pride. They’re playing to pay the mortgage, car payments, and win more MONEY. Do you ever get TIRED of waiting for good cards? Do you get annoyed by quiet… slowmoving
tables?
If you’re going to win money consistently, you’ve got to be able to play ten hours at a time… at a BREAK EVEN rate… as you patiently wait for the BIG OPPORTUNITITES to rake in large pots. Of course, besides being patient and ignoring that “itch” for excitement, you must also be able to handle LONG HOURS and LATE NIGHTS every day. When you hear “poker professional”, what do you think of? Lots of people think of the guys who win the World Series of Poker or World Poker Tour and take in multi-million dollar purses.
But only a SMALL FRACTION of pros win those tournaments. Hell… not all pros even ENTER most tournaments, depending on their preferred game. And most importantly, the WIN RATE of even the best pros is very small. Just because you see someone on TV a lot one season doesn’t mean he always makes the final table for every tournament he’s in. What you DON’T see is all the frustrating losses he’s had to GET to this point. For every final table, there’s five… ten… twenty… maybe FIFTY… “bad” tournaments.
Most of the money that you’ll MAKE as a pro doesn’t come from that BIG tournament win. Instead, it comes from “grinding it out” at the casinos and card rooms. Try playing poker for a 12-hour session… FIVE DAYS IN A ROW. If you find yourself getting too tired, you’re not ready for the pro life. There are lots of players who have a DEEP PASSION and LOVE for poker… but they don’t have the PERSONALITY needed to play full-time. That’s why many of the greatest players just play SEMI-professionally… which may be a viable option for you too.
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