Imagup General Magazine 2024
Looking around the major poker sites, the numbers that play online poker are astounding to me. There are millions of gambling enthusiasts that try their hand at poker, but few are experts. What does it take to become one of the few players who generate big profits every year? Having done some research I can confirm there are seven attributes that all the big winners seem to have. In this post, I’m going to let you know what qualities are needed so you can have an idea of what areas you need to work on to become an expert too.
1. Hard Work
There’s no disputing that the biggest winners in poker put in hours of work. They are dedicated to mastering the technical and strategical aspects of poker. This shows in the time they put away from the table. They will often put in 5-10 hours a week of hard-core study. This might mean downloading hand histories from poker clients, discussing strategy with colleagues, investing in poker training, or creating a poker cheat sheet. Texas Hold’em Questions offer one for free.
This level of commitment to improving is common among the big winners. They’re not overwhelmed by putting in hours to improve their knowledge. If you want to become an expert too, you’ll need to set time aside to put in the hard work. After a few months, you should already see the
2. Patience
It comes in various forms in poker; waiting for the right bluff, choosing the right hands, or taking your time before moving up stakes. Either way, patience is a quality that professionals have in their locker both online and in casinos.
An expert knows they can’t win all the money in one go. They need to be patient and wait for opportune moments to stack off inferior opponents. If you want to generate a decent win rate at poker, patience is key.
3. Self Belief
At the poker, table self-belief is about having conviction in your decisions. There’s no room for being afraid or nervous. On the contrary, you need to be confident in your reads. Being able to follow your gut instinct and stick with it will serve you well if you are a strong player. It’s not enough to have an idea of what you’re going to do, you need to follow through too. This is something all the best poker players do and others find challenging.
Having self-belief can take time and experience to develop. You won’t get it just watching gambling movies, you need to actually play and experience poker first.
4. Analytical Mind
The players that crush have a knack for analyzing scenarios. They are able to understand what has happened in a hand, piece it together, and use this to make good, informed decisions.
If you excel at critical thinking and have a logical way of thinking you may be suited to poker. By using these qualities, you can get a good idea of what your opponents are likely to be holding. Once you know what they have, most of the poker solved. You’ll be able to bluff perfectly and extract value with your strong hands too.
5. Adaptable
An expert poker player doesn’t play one style of poker and that’s it. They are like chameleons, reacting to what is going on. Being able to adapt to different opponents is a huge advantage to have. An expert knows to maximize their winnings takes flexibility. This might even mean switching to a different poker variant.
If you want to earn the most you can from poker, you need to find ways to exploit the weaker players. This isn’t always about playing a tight and aggressive strategy. It might mean defending the blinds wider or 3 bettings more liberally. Adaptability is a massive quality for a poker player and one that needs to be mastered too.
6. Emotional Control
One of the most common problems among weaker poker players is their mental fragility. They lose to bad luck or play a hand poorly and they proceed to “steam” or “tilt”. Guess what that does? It results in them loses more money unnecessarily. This is taboo to a professional or expert who regularly wins. They maintain emotional control, otherwise, they risk losing money.
A professional knows that bad luck will happen and you can’t do much about it. They know that you can’t win every day and the fishes will outdraw you. This level head and being emotionally strong is a quality that helps experts maintain great win rates.
They focus on the long term and don’t fixate on isolated hands or sessions. This allows them to stay in control of their emotion and not fall victim to tilt.
7. Bankroll Management Skills
Cash is the currency or unit that poker players need to play. If you’re reckless with it you won’t survive for long. The better poker players know this and employ solid bankroll management rules.
It’s about being cautious and ensuring you have plenty of money to play regularly. An expert doesn’t sit in games that require a high percentage of their overall bankroll. Instead, they are cautious and ensure they have enough to sustain the swings that variance can inflict on any poker player.
Summary
There you have it, seven qualities the experts have that separate them from players who struggle. You might have some of these attributes already. If you’re interested in becoming a consistent winner, I recommend going through the seven and ticking off the ones you already have. With the others, you can write them down somewhere and set some goals on how you intend to gain them as skills.
The more of these qualities you develop, the greater your chances of earning money from online poker. If you are new to poker or inexperienced start off at small stakes, don’t play too many tables, and make sure you gamble responsibly. The tips in this article cannot be achieved in 5 minutes, they take time and perseverance.
