{"id":20038,"date":"2024-08-09T06:14:31","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T11:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/?p=20038"},"modified":"2024-08-15T03:28:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T08:28:08","slug":"how-to-become-a-professional-poker-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/how-to-become-a-professional-poker-player\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Professional Poker Player: Tips From a Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Becoming a professional poker player is a dream for many. Poker is a popular game that can be both fun and challenging. But how do you take it to the next level?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do not fool yourself: becoming a professional poker player in today\u2019s competitive environment is not easy, but if you take it seriously, it can be well worth the efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had many ups and downs over the years, but playing online poker<\/a> professionally was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life, and I never regretted choosing this path. However, if I had to start all over again, I would do many things differently to save years of wasted time and a ton of lost money on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am sure that you can easily avoid many of the poker mistakes<\/a> that I made and speed up your progress. So, if you have a couple of minutes to read it through, I will be happy to share how I became a professional player and what I learned on the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started playing poker around 2008 when I was introduced to the game by my friends. At that time, it was hard to imagine how big the poker world really was, and that it offered much more than my home games<\/a> with buddies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But even that was enough for me. I fell in love with this game and never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, there is no need to say that the beginning of my career was far from optimal. I played random sessions of Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs), Progressive Knockout<\/a>, and Sit-and-Go Tournaments (SNGs) online, plenty of cash games with my friends, and was not studying the game at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the beginning, I loved competing with others and enjoyed the feeling of winning. With all honesty, it was not about the money. However, very soon, I realized that I could easily make much more playing poker than in a part-time job during my study years, and this idea fascinated me a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, I was struggling both financially and mentally because my father has just passed away. Poker helped take my thoughts off my situation, so I started grinding through days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more I played, the more I liked the game. Unlike the \u201creal\u201d life, poker gave me control of everything. I could play when I wanted, what I wanted, for as long as I wanted – and I loved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I look back, I think that I was incredibly lucky to discover this game. I am a very competitive person, and the ability to play with different pro poker players, adjust my strategy, and overcome them was very pleasing, probably even more so than money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, I have to confess that the beginning of my career was basically a gamble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had a very narrow understanding of the game and was not spending much time learning the strategy. Luckily for me, players weren\u2019t that good back in those days, and I was making a very decent living even playing poorly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then I got lucky! One day changed my whole career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one of the live poker tournaments<\/a>, I got to meet a professional poker player, and it changed my whole view of the game. He was talking in terms of ranges, breaking down poker math, poker ICM<\/a>, and other concepts I barely knew existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was the moment when I realized that there is so much more to the game. After that, I started studying like never before and rapidly improved my game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I joined a group of pro poker players, and we started traveling the world playing live cash games and occasional tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We visited WSOP<\/a> in Las Vegas, many European Poker Tour stops, and other destinations in poker circuit. Now, I can easily say: meeting that PRO at the tournament was the best thing that ever happened to me in regards to poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started getting coaching from one of the best pro poker players in my country, and my development boosted even more. We touched not only the strategy part, but also topics such as concentration, controlling emotions when bluffing<\/a>, and other areas of the mental game, which once again made me realize how much I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a year of traveling around and playing through the night in various local casinos<\/a>, I decided that I didn\u2019t want to do it anymore. Thus, I left the live games circuit and concentrated on playing at online casinos<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is my<\/em> path, but you can make much better decisions with a wide range of information available today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to play poker professionally, you can avoid a lot of my mistakes and speed this process by years. So what should you do? Let me try to answer this question by listing five steps that can drastically help you on your journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a>How to Become a Pro Poker Player<\/strong>: Getting My Start<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Starting Become a Pro Poker Player<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Travelling the Poker Tournament Circuit<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n