5 Tips on Becoming a Professional Poker Player in Under a Year

I’ve been playing poker for a majority of my living coming on two years now. The game is really fun and infinitely rewarding. It is the type of game where you master something, a whole new world of possibility opens up. In December of 2008, I decided to learn the game. Not only did I decide to learn the game, but I decided to learn it from scratch. I left my ego at the door and started playing play money and worked my way up from there. By December of 2009, I was 12 tabling $400NL. This sort of progression is definitely not the norm and some just aren’t capable of doing this, but I promise you if you follow these 5 tips, your chances of succeeding will go through the roof!

1. You are not as good as you think you are. It is important to stay humble. Whenever I or anyone I know does bad at poker, it is usually because they are not honest with themselves. They will chalk up major losses to running bad. I can guarantee if you are losing money at the micro limits over a decent sample, it is because of something you are doing (or not doing). Sure there is luck involved, but this luck should basically effect how much money you earn. I like to think if I were the best poker player in the world, what would I do and is it possible to have this same outcome over a fairly large sample size? More often than not, the answer is no.

2. Learn from those who are better. There are so many helpful poker sites online. It is important to find people who are better than you and learn. Ask questions. When you see something that they do that you wouldn’t normally do, ask “why did he do that this way”. If a pot is $50 and a good player cbets $45 where you usually cbet $25, you should ask why. Chances are you are missing out on tons of value! My favorite site for poker is Deuces Cracked. In terms of cost, instructors knowledge, and daily content, you just cant beat the guys at DC.

3. Do Session Reviews. If you don’t have a tracking software already, be sure to get your copy of Holdem Manager (I believe that you can get a free month trial). It is important that after every session, you look at the most important hands. A good rule that I go by is to look at the top 5 most losing hands and the top 5 most winning hands. The losing hands are obvious but most people do not look at their winning hands. It is important to note how often you get your money in ahead and it is important to note where you can extract more value out of your opponents. If you are steamed about a bad beat, be sure to take a break before having your session review. Make it a point to do it before you start playing your next session. It shouldn’t take any more than 10-15 minutes.

4. Post hand histories and comment on others hand histories. This is probably the most important tip you can do. If you ignore everything else and just do this tip, you will still progress fast. From your session review, you should be able to find hands that you weren’t sure about. This not only includes what action you took (raise/call/fold) but also includes other stuff like how much to bet and what your thought process was through the hand. You would be surprised how many times people could make the right move for the wrong reasons. For that hand, it might work out the way they wanted it but in the long run, that person still doesn’t have the right thought process. A good rule of thumb for me is to post 1-2 hands of my own per day and comment on 2-3 hands per day. It takes very little time and gets the mind turning on interesting hands. They are like mini puzzles. On top of that, you get to see how others (many of which are your regular opponents) think. My favorite sites for discussing hand histories is Deuces Cracked and TwoPlusTwo.

5. Have a poker buddy that you discuss poker with. Poker is a very lonely, selfish world. You sit there all day trying to take others money while hiding your emotions. That’s enough to make most normal people go nuts. Having a friend who is into poker is so important for many reasons. You will get an outlet to discuss theory, hands, and stories. Try and find someone who plays the same games as you and pick each others brains about everything in poker. Every time you discuss something and figure out the best answer, you are capable of making the most money the next time the situation comes up. The only rule I should mention is this: DO NOT COMPLAIN TO YOUR FRIEND ABOUT BAD BEATS ALL DAY (for their own good). It is OK to mention something here and there but it gets really old and annoying to hear bad beats all day. It is not productive and it turns off people to becoming your poker buddy. Just don’t do it!