To have the life of a professional poker player is a dream most people have when they learn poker. They fantasize about their desired career constantly: getting to decide when they work, having their favorite game as their own job, traveling and exploring new places everytime there is a tournament. The best part of it all is that with poker, one can earn millions — that certainly is a high income that one can garner just from playing a card game. However, most don’t realize that in order to achieve that sort of goal, they cannot just learn poker like anyone else. They have to master it, and learn the strategies that professionals use, aside from developing their own.
Anyone can become a professional poker player, for there are no real requirements to become one. People who learn poker and play it often can already call themselves professional poker players, despite having lost ten times in a row. Only the poker player can give himself that title if they truly wish to do so. One may choose to become a professional poker player if they feel that they are truly gifted at it and can earn money from it than from any other job. Also, he or she must be extremely dedicated to the game, and therefore should be prepared to play it for hours on end each day, without getting tired or bored of it.
Some also learn poker and eventually come to love the poker lifestyle, choosing that as the main reason for wanting to play the game professionally. They realize that poker will not earn them much, but do it anyway because of their love for it. Very few people actually rely on poker to get them through life, and do have several other jobs while participating in competitions.
As a professional poker player, one is essentially a businessman with the goal of maximizing his or her profits through various poker games. He or she must dedicate many hours to playing, and has to have a monetary goal that should be reached every hour. The best way to earn money is to play with people who aren’t as serious about the game. This way, one will have the edge over others. Professional tournament poker players learn poker and present their own skills in competitions. However, it is much harder to compete in tournaments because every other competitor is also as determined to win and has a lot more strategies than the average poker player. This makes it much more difficult to one.
There are, of course, certain disadvantages for one who decides to become a pro at poker. First of all, it’s not a social activity, especially for those who compete over the internet. Secondly, poker can quickly become boring, because it is essentially all about studying one’s own cards and trying to get a good hand. Thirdly, poker is not considered a real job by many, and a professional poker player is sometimes only seen as an entertainer and is looked down on by the rest of society. This shows that people who learn poker should be completely aware of how much they are willing to give up in order to play.
By Sean Moronse
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