3 Responses

1. Corey L

   December 27th, 2009 at 6:35 pm

   1

   Luck has nothing to do with it, whoever said that previously.
   1. Don’t look at all the glitz and glamor you see from tournaments and poker TV shows. Some of that is just facades of what really is going on. Mike Matusow is a prime example. He may look like someone to emulate, but he is a degenerate who is constantly broke. Moreover, don’t look at the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker telecasts for prime examples of how to play every hand. They show the more exciting/interesting hands. That is not the way tournaments play. They don’t show the hands where someone raises preflop, and everyone folds, or 5 hands after that that are exactly the same, or the hand after that where someone calls, then folds the flop to a bet, and so on. Granted, there’s quite a bit to be learned about the game in these telecasts, but don’t rely on that as your only source of hand knowledge. High Stakes Poker is actually a more decent place to get fundamentals of playing hands from pre-flop to the river.
   2. Yes, the vast majority of tournaments (save the tournament of champions you might see on TV, which are invite only) are paid tournaments.
   3. You’re 16. Stay in school. Graduate. Do well at that. Begin thinking about poker later. In fact, go to college, do well in that, get a degree, then decide whether you still want to take your shot.
   4. Read books. Considering the vast amount of knowledge that’s out there now about poker, you should have no excuse of not having poker knowledge from books. Take everything as a grain of salt, practice it, see if you can apply it, if so, use it to your advantage as long as you can, if not, scrap it, read more.
   5. Learn to adapt. The same strategies that worked well in the past will not always do so. People keep notes, especially online. Moreover, as people read certain books, the general consensus of play will change depending on what book is popular. When Harrington on Hold’em came out, people played incredibly tighter, and more aggressive. When that became the norm, games became tighter, and tougher to beat if you play tight, which made playing small ball and playing a little more loose, and taking more hands to the flop, a better strategy. Naturally, a lot of people couldn’t adapt, because Harrington advocated a lot more aggression preflop, which made most decisions pre-flop decisions; no one knew how to play after the flop. Now, with Daniel Negreanu’s new book out, I’m expecting more people to play like that, which should advocate tighter play again. Either way, you have to know how to adapt in every situation.
   6. Learn all the games. You see a lot of Hold’em masters, but when everyone’s specializing in one specific game, you have a mediocre chance at doing well enough to survive in that specific game. Even the worst competition is slightly better than it was 3 years ago. So therefore, start learning Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, Triple Draw, 2-7 Single Draw. Crap, even throw Badugi in for safe measure. Learn how to play Limit, No Limit, Pot Limit. Just prepare to get decently good in all the games. That increases your chances of winning. If you have a bunch of Hold’em games with mediocre to good players in it, you stand to lose more than you want. If say, there’s a Razz game also running with horrible players, you stand to win a lot more at that than you would in the Hold’em games mentioned above. That is, of course, if you know enough about Razz to play it competently.
   7. Enjoy it. No matter how good you are, if you can’t have fun playing, even while taking a beating, you will not do good at it, because you will steam off more than you have previously won in the times where you are frustrated over a bad run. If you can keep an even keel no matter what, you’re steps ahead of the rest.
   8. Learn bankroll management. Memorize it. Make the entire thing your middle name. Here it is, bankroll management 101: 300BB (Big Bets, the amount you can make it in one single bet in the last two rounds of limit games) for limit, 20 full buy-ins for No Limit/Pot Limit (Full buy-ins are typically 100 times the Big Blind, can be different live), 50 tournament buy-ins. So, for example, you have a $2000 bankroll. You can play up to 3-6 Limit, $100 NL/PL ($100 = the max buy-in), and $40 tournaments. You can change these to fit your comfort zone, but never go lower than these, or it will spell ruin.
   9. Prepare to go broke. Often. Especially when you start off. Even for top players, it’s not uncommon to go broke. They just don’t advertise it. Well, some don’t. Regardless, if you can’t handle being broke, or having to work crappy jobs to scrape up a bankroll, or borrowing money, or asking established players for stakes, poker isn’t for you.
   10. If you take shots, ask for stakes, or for people to buy pieces of you. This is a decent way to get up to a level you might be able to play at if your skill level is high enough. But most people will not give any to unproven players. It took me a couple years to establish a rapport with established players to justify stakes.
   11. Keep a bankroll for your play, then keep one for living expenses. Put back enough each month from your play to cover living expenses for another month, then begin building up your bankroll more. Never use your playing roll to cover living expenses. Financial ruin is imminent if you do so.
   12. Do not go full time until you can afford to pay a full year of living expenses in your living expense roll.
   13. Be prepared to pull a lot of long hours doing this, and have to sacrifice other activities you enjoy if there’s a soft game going.
   14. Remember, your chances of making it not great. 20% find success at this. <10% are able to find success at this even later in life. Doyle Brunson is an exception, not the rule.
   If you think you can handle these guidelines, then take your shot. If not, then perhaps poker is not the kind of profession you want to take up. Remember, there is nothing wrong with making this a hobby, nor does that mean you don’t have to take it seriously when you do play if it is just a hobby. There are a lot of good players who are merely hobbyists, who rely on other jobs as source of income.

2. ZCT

   December 27th, 2009 at 11:35 pm

   2

   Well the good news is if you are American it is going to be five years before you are old enough to play live tournaments in places like Vegas.
   Read every book, practice online for play money (and the ‘high stakes’ play money is useful practice on good sites like Poker Stars), study, read more books, and practice some more.
   If you take this seriously by the time you turn 18 you will be able to win a free tournament that pays a cash prize, and then you can use that cash to build a bank roll.
   You are the perfect age to learn, but don’t underestimate how hard it is to become a professional player.
   It may be best to aim for a real job, and play poker as a part time money maker. Relying on poker for a living can be a brutal and difficult way to live.

3. R K

   December 28th, 2009 at 4:21 am

   3

   practice alot, develop some skill, be real lucky, and have a way to bankroll yourself. the guys you see on tv are wealthy and have won major tounaments. sometimes they aren’t using their own money. these guys are so good people bankroll them.