How To Become A Professional Poker Player
It has to be assumed that anyone seriously considering turning pro is not just a winning player, but a winning player over time and a serious number of hands. For any game like poker with a large element of luck, there are going to be upswings and downturns which will directly affect your bankroll. To establish whether or not you are a winning player, you need to have played through these over time to establish profitable you are. There are a number of poker tracking sites and programmes which can help monitor this and you really need to be keeping a close eye on your Return On Investment (ROI) statistic. This essentially shows how profitable you are – a ROI of 20% would indicate that for every £100 you play with, you return £120. By monitoring this, you can establish how much you need to play in order to earn a living from poker. It’s much easier to track if you play online, but no less important if you are playing in a live card room.
Having established that you are indeed a winning player, it’s time to turn your thoughts to the other realities of playing poker professionally. Firstly, you need to consider the working hours, realising that most of your work is going to be conducted in the evening and the early hours of the morning. This may be appealing, it may not, but poker certainly isn’t a 9-5 job and you need to consider how this will affect your relationships and social life. If the hours are not a problem for you, then you need to think about how you will manage having a less stable flow of money. Your income will fluctuate so you need to ensure that you have the bankroll to cover this and still meet your essential expenditures. Your bankroll management is absolutely vital – it will be a prime consideration when deciding what limits you should be playing. Too high a limit and a bad run can wipe you out; too low a limit and you’ll not meet your earnings targets no matter how well you play.
Many people make a good living from playing poker, a game they love. If you think that it’s right for you, and you go into it with your eyes open and the right attitude, then it’s possible that you could too.
