Have you seen The Rounders and imagined yourself in Mike McDermott’s shoes for years? Have you been an avid High Stakes Poker fan or just a low stakes online poker player? Are you dreaming of making it big and turning your life around as a professional poker player? If any of these are true than you are in the right place, as we have set our minds to find out what it takes to become a winning pro poker player.

We have studied the paths and careers of numerous poker pros, both live and online ones. We have looked into the way the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and Isaac Haxton became who they are and we have compiled our own list of the top 10 requirements to become a poker pro.

As you will discover, being a professional takes not only a good poker face and a bit of cold blood, but lots of effort, discipline, professionalism and tilt control. All of this combined makes up a true professional and is what you will need to do to become a pro.

In this short guide to poker glory, we explore the game’s most crucial elements such as:

• Studying the game and learning from others
• Finding great poker learning materials, books and coaching
• Maintaining realistic expectations at all times
• Keeping control of your emotions through the rough patches
• Building and maintaining a working poker bankroll

If you are ready to work on every aspect mentioned here, you are on the right path to making it in poker. However, always remember that poker is a hard way to make an easy living and it takes more than a few lessons to become a champion. Let’s get into the ins and outs of what makes a true poker professional right away.

1. Familiarize Yourself with All Aspects of the Game

When it comes to devising your how to become a professional poker player strategy, one of the most important things you have to do is to study the game’s basics and finally familiarize yourself with them so that you know every single aspect.

This step is definitely the most crucial if you want to turn your hobby or playing poker in your leisure time into your full-time career and profession. Even when you think that you have learned everything about the game, even when you believe that there is not much left to be learned, you have to research more, you have to study more and you have to enhance your game.

In reality, you should never stop researching and learning simply because standing still in your game, means being left behind, behind your competition.

What you can do to study the game’s aspects and familiarize yourself with the game the right way is checking some popular poker books, maybe joining some training site or even hiring your personal coach. No matter which way you choose, keep in mind that any edge and advantage you create by enriching your knowledge of the game will eventually help you scoop more profits.

• The most crucial step is studying the game’s aspects
• Never stop researching and studying no matter your current knowledge
• Consider hiring a personal coach, joining a poker training site or reading poker books

2. Check Poker Strategy Books and Learn

This section tip at how to become a professional poker player is closely related to the first tip mentioned as it also regards boosting your knowledge on the game and familiarizing yourself with the game’s basics especially with the most popular poker strategies.

While you can always devise your own poker strategy, you can also take what has been devised already, modify it if necessary, and take what you believe will boost your winning odds from poker strategy books.

The truth is that poker books with different strategies, winning tips and tricks are becoming increasingly popular and this comes as no surprise considering the fact that more and more poker players are deciding to turn their hobby into a profession.

When devising your strategy on how to become a professional poker player, one way to go is to take poker strategy books and use them to improve your game.

Before you purchase a poker book, make sure you check several important criteria. This is extremely important as there are hundreds of books written on the topic available at all times. Keep in mind that you have to check many different books in order to find one that suits your current knowledge, your experience level, and your personal needs and demands.

Keep in mind that any books out there which improves your understanding of poker and inspires you to think deeply about your poker strategy is worth the price.

• Find a poker book which will improve your understanding of the game
• Any book which makes you think deeply of your poker strategy is worth the price
• Check Gus Hansen’s Every Hand Revealed and Mike Caro’s The Body Language of Poker

3. Turn Yourself into a Winning Poker Player

In order to become a successful professional poker player, you have to turn yourself into one. In other words, you have to practice and practice and practice. Like everything else in life, practice is the most crucial step towards becoming a successful professional. When it comes to devising your how to become a professional players strategy, one way is to engage in tens of thousands of poker tournaments either offline and online.

You need tens of thousands of poker cash games behind you or even more. Only with this kind of experience, you can prove yourself and others that you are a winning poker player. If you are not a winning poker player, in the long run, you will probably head back to your old career or to your old boss begging him to fire you again.

On this journey, it is extremely important that you keep in mind that jumping head straight into a professional player is never a good idea. There is a number of reasons behind this statement. One of the most important reasons is that you have to prove yourself in the first place that you know how to become a successful, profitable poker player.

Many individuals scoop generous prizes in one big tournament and immediately assume that the game is super easy. Do not make a mistake and believe this, because it is completely wrong. The game has been and will continue being very challenging, sometimes even nerve-wracking and most importantly skill-based.

Hence, boost your game by engaging in online or offline poker tournaments, play the game for free when offered. Once here, you have already set yourself on the journey towards becoming a professional.

• Engage in all sorts of poker cash games and tournaments
• Try the game for free without risking your bankroll any time you are offered the chance
• Keep in mind that practice is the best way to improve your poker skills

4. Become Realistically Optimistic

Once you have become a winning player, it is the right time to set your feet to the ground and figure out what your main goal is here and even more importantly how many poker tournaments or hands you have to place in order to earn some money which will provide for a living.

The best idea here is to aim to scoop money which will match your previous salary at least. This is one step in which many individuals fail. There are many reasons for this. You have probably been paid on the same date every single month on your previous job regardless of your productivity and such.

Moreover, with the previous job you had, you have probably been paid even when you were sick or on vacation. You have probably felt that you have enough reasons in the morning to get out of your bed and go to work because you will be eventually paid for being there and getting your job done.

While it is a great thing to be fully optimistic here, the best idea is to become realistically optimistic as this is the only way to keep your feet on the ground. While you may have great aspirations of making $150K per year or more, and while this is definitely possible, you should be more realistic than this.

When figuring how much you want to earn, you have to take into consideration how many tournaments you can play and hours you can invest. You should also plan for being unable to play, for being sick or for going on vacation.

Ask yourself how many hours daily you can sit grinding. How many hours per week you can invest. These are all very important questions which will help you determine your realistic goal which will push your forward and still, this is something that you can actually achieve.

• Figure out how many poker tournaments you need to play to earn your goal salary
• Ask yourself how many hours daily or weekly you can invest in playing the game
• Make sure that your future aspirations match your experience level and your skills

5. Give the Game a Trial Run

This is another important tip you need to keep in mind when devising your how to become a professional poker player plan. Once you have done all mentioned above including proving yourself that you are a winner player, doing your research and other tips, the next logical step is to give the game a trial run.

In other words, one idea is to give playing poker professionally for a living a try. This will give you that much-needed experience you need as well as give you the opportunity to taste how playing poker professionally feels and what it can bring you.

If you have a full-time job at the moment, you can probably take a week or two off from your work for a holiday and spend those usually working days on only playing poker. Many individuals believe that this is the easiest thing to do as you get to do what you love and earn some bucks.

However, you may be surprised at how hard and challenging this is actually. It is extremely challenging to motivate yourself to spend eight or ten hours daily on playing poker. Very often, individuals completely lose concentration after several hours of grinding especially if they are on a losing streak.

Imagine playing poker for several hours and ending up losing fifteen or more buy-ins during your first days. You will probably feel as this may not be such a great idea. As everything else in life, playing poker for a living comes with challenges, obstacles, winnings, and losses.

And you cannot get a taste of how it feels to play it for a living unless you leave everything else and give it a try. It is extremely important that you give the game a trial run before you leave your current job and before you take the plunge and try it for a living.

• Try playing poker for a living as a trial before taking the plunge
• Get a taste of how it feels to play the game for eight or ten hours daily
• Consider taking a week or two off your work and done nothing, but play poker

6. Carefully Build Your Bankroll

Another extremely important thing you have to keep in mind when working on your how to become a professional poker player strategy is your bankroll. Once you have gone through those previous steps mentioned here, it is the right time to work on building your bankroll and checking your finances.

Keep in mind that the majority of professional poker players prefer to have around six months’ worth of expenses for living tucked in some separate bank account to have just in case if things do not go as planned.

Furthermore, keep in mind that dipping into your bankroll for playing poker to cover your living expenses such as bills and food is a huge no. If you want to become a professional poker player, your poker bankroll should be larger than bankrolls of recreational poker players.

There is a very logical reason behind this, you do not want to drop down on your stakes as dropping down on your stakes means more challenges and obstacles on your way towards reaching your poker monetary goals.

It is always better to be in some kind of a bankroll nit than going completely broke and struggling financially on many other fronts besides your poker game. Additionally, your bankrolls should include your money that you are actually willing to lose and never go above this amount no matter your losing or winning streak.

Before you give the game a professional run, have your budget devised and always, but always stick to it.

• Besides devising your gaming bankroll, carefully device your liferoll as well
• Your poker budget should only include the funds that you are willing to lose
• Once you have your budget all set up, make sure that you never spend more

7. Always Act Professional

Many professional poker players act rather unprofessional due to citing the freedom they believe they have for playing the game for a living. This is extremely wrong no matter your job or career. In other words, you should always act professional and your attitude towards this potential future job should always be a professional regardless of your losing or winning.

Recall that some of the most successful professional poker players are very disciplined with what they do and say and their approach towards the job, towards playing poker for a living is always professional no matter what happens during their game at the table, and no matter how other poker players act.

Just as you would not go to your work and shout out to your colleagues, you should not act in this way towards your opponent at the poker table. Just as you would not go to your work and lounge on the office sofa or with your feet on your work desk, you should not make any similar, extremely disrespectful moves when playing poker.

Always bear in mind that becoming a professional poker player actually means that you have to start behaving like one. This way, you do not only boost your game, but also give an impression of a serious opponent that you will definitely become one day.

• Becoming a professional poker player starts with you behaving like one
• Your goal besides enhancing your playing skills should be becoming a disciplined player
• Always have a professional attitude towards your job and in this case, your job is poker

8. You Have to Learn How to Persevere and Be Courageous

Becoming a professional poker player and making a living of it is definitely a dream come true for many poker fans and enthusiasts who play the game as a hobby, but dream of turning it into a profession. However, like with every other profession out there, playing poker professionally is not for everybody.

Regardless of your love for the game, regardless of your current experience level and your gaming skills, you have to learn, research, give and take and much more. Contrary to popular belief, being talented is not enough to succeed on this journey.

Before you tell your boss that you are quitting to become a professional poker player, you have to know for sure what this journey gives and takes. One of the most important things you have to do is to learn how to preserve.

Professional poker players including successful players have many different personality types. Some of them are very shy, while others while very outgoing. In a sea of different personality traits, there is one trait which all successful poker players have, they are all able to preserve.

Despite their personality traits, every single one of them experiences extremely frustrating days or even weeks. All of them experience losing streaks, all of them win and lose. When this happens to you, when these frustrating days approach, you have to be able to stand on your feet, get up and finally get back to the game the right way.

This is the only way you can succeed and make a living off the game in the long-run. Besides being able to preserve, all successful poker players also have courage, the courage to take risks, the courage to take new chances and opportunities and courage to wait for the right moment, for the right game and ultimately for the right hand.

Keep in mind that you cannot succeed by simply waiting for the right game, but instead, you have to take every single chance you have. In other words, you have to invest the big pot occasionally.

• All successful poker players have learned have to preserve
• The main difference between winning big and losing is having the courage to take the chance
• Keep in mind that sometimes you have to fire the big pot to with junk hands

9. Do Not Let Your Fear Throw You Off the Right Track

When working on your how to become a professional poker player strategy, it is extremely important that you do not let your fear of losing thrown you off the right track and mess with your future goals. This is closely related to the previously mentioned tip to always stay courageous and to not be afraid of taking chances and exploring the opportunities.

While it is completely normal to be afraid of losing, especially when you decide to give the game a try and turn it into your full-time job, excess amounts of fear are a big no. If you are afraid of losing so much that you do not take the chances and opportunities, you will never succeed.

Then, if the thought of investing and risking your money makes you completely uneasy, playing poker for a living is not the right career for you. In order to avoid these challenges, stay on the right track and finally succeed, you have to work on your self-discipline.

Like everything else in life, self-discipline is one of the most crucial elements of becoming a successful player. Remember that there will always be some bad and some good days, and what makes a huge difference is how you react to those bad days. Instead of letting them throw you off the right track, learn from the experience, take notes and keep going.

• Make sure that you work on your self-discipline
• Being scared of winning lacking self-discipline will only prevent you from winning
• How you react to bad days makes a difference between winning and losing in the long-run

10. Keep Your Ego in Check

As previously mentioned, all successful poker players have in common several traits including being courageous, being self-disciplined I not being afraid to explore new opportunities and take the chances. There is also another extremely important treat successful poker players have, they always keep their ego in check.

Put differently, they never allow their ego to get in the way and get the best of them. In reality, egoistical individuals often times struggle with playing professional poker and living of it. Despite your current experience level and despite your skills, you are not as great at the game as you think. You like everybody else can lose.

You like everybody else can play bad hands and join bad games. You like everybody else can have bad days or even bad weeks and this is something you cannot avoid no matter how great you are.

On the other hand, there is one thing you can do, as long as you do not let your ego control your actions and your brain, you will stay on the right track. Keep in mind that you will have many losing gaming sessions, many bad hands and many bad days.

This is the game, this is poker. Contrary to popular belief, the most important skills you need on this journey are not only poker-related skills but also your personality traits, your self-discipline, your courage, your behavior at the table and much more we tend to throw easily.

Think of this how to become a professional poker player as your preparation guide and once you are ready, take the plunge. Just like with any other occupation, you cannot know what awaits you on this journey until you get started.

• Always keep your ego in check so that it does get in your way
• Make sure you always stay level-headed so that your ego does not control your actions

Preparation is among the most important