Are You A Competitive Poker Player

A Competitive Poker Player is someone who knows the basic principles and strategies of poker and is able to put these strategies into practice at the poker tables. Far from being a winning poker player, the competitive poker player is still not to be trifled with, and can hold their own in most games.

When you decide to take that first step toward poker greatness a whole world is opened up to you, most people have a EUREKA moment! So, whether you’ve read a book, articles, or visited a few poker forums the advice you gain will surely help you at the tables, but exactly how much it helps you depends. You see, that advice you’ve received is only half of the equation that will bring you from poker Fish to poker Shark; the other half of the equation is to comprehend and implement your newfound poker knowledge.

This is what I refer to as the “Competitive” stage of poker; the stage that makes or breaks 99% of poker players. As a competitive poker player you have to get one thing straight right out of the gate: YOU ARE STILL GOING TO LOSE! Fortunately, you’re going to lose far less, and for a far shorter period of time, than players who choose to just keep on doing their own thing.

This first step is a very simple one to take, but a lot of players end up playing a game of hopscotch from this point forward; continually miss-stepping, and having to start back at square one. So, while getting to this point is fairly easy, staying here is a lot harder. In order to avoid these miss-steps you need to follow the natural progression of the game, learning from the ground up.

There are three things you should be trying to accomplish at this stage of your poker career:

1.      Gaining Experience

2.      Avoid Acquiring Bad Habits

3.      Learning to Think Like a Poker Player

You’ll notice that winning money is nowhere on that list -that comes further along in your poker career. While it is possible to win money at this stage of your poker career, doing so will lead to the acquisition of numerous bad habits, which is precisely what we want to avoid -If you want to be a low-limit winning player capable of making $5/hour than by all means, be happy with a basic knowledge of the game!

For those of you that want a little more out of your poker career than $5/hour you need to accomplish these three goals. Once you do, you’ll find yourself at the next stage in your poker life, when you become a solid, winning, player -where your primary goal will be to win money.

In a future article I’ll give you more insight on what it takes to be a winning poker player.