Why only less than 2% of pokerplayers make a living playing poker???
- Thread starter Pekelo
- Start date
Poker cash games are 100% skill. Anyone who says otherwise just knows the basics of poker and nothing else. When you play online and get to see 100's of hands per hour, it doesn't matter if you lose one hand to a lucky river. Just reload and keep going after that fish. Isolate him. In tournaments though, you cannot reload, blinds increase, many times you're in an all-in or fold situation, which is why tournaments have more of a luck factor.
Knowing the math is one skill. Other skills include:
1. Adjusting to your opponents based on their style of play. If you know they're loose and calling stations then value bet more, etc.
2. Creating an image. Make small bluffs here and there. Pick up small pots. Become an annoying player. Eventually someone will get tired of you and tilt and pay you off when you have a big hand.
3. Bet sizing. This is probably the most overlooked aspect in poker. Most recreational players do not know how to correctly size their bets, whether it's preflop or postflop. Betting itself is an art.
There are so many other things you can learn that will make you a better player. I suggest playing online if you want to get serious. It'll make your live game that much better. Online players are generally much better than live players.
Knowing the math is one skill. Other skills include:
1. Adjusting to your opponents based on their style of play. If you know they're loose and calling stations then value bet more, etc.
2. Creating an image. Make small bluffs here and there. Pick up small pots. Become an annoying player. Eventually someone will get tired of you and tilt and pay you off when you have a big hand.
3. Bet sizing. This is probably the most overlooked aspect in poker. Most recreational players do not know how to correctly size their bets, whether it's preflop or postflop. Betting itself is an art.
There are so many other things you can learn that will make you a better player. I suggest playing online if you want to get serious. It'll make your live game that much better. Online players are generally much better than live players.
+1
Exactly.. my closest friend plays online poker for a living. He plays about 3 hours a day and sees around 800 - 1k hands an hour playing 12 tables at once. Software with online poker allows him to keeps stats on all of his opponents ever played. Helping him
distinguish who the regulars are and who the fish are. It also reveals their style of playing given he has enough hands on them, so he can adjust accordingly. But just like trading, its just an indicator.
Skill, discipline, understanding variance and money management is why he makes 200k a year playing 2/4 NL. Also rakeback is a great feature offered to online poker, where you make a % back on all the rake you pay, more hands you play the more rake you get back. Break even poker can still produce an income for you just by your rake checks coming in, which can be a great living on its own for only 3hrs a day.
Trading is just like this, proper bank roll to support small losses (lots of them) and collecting on small to big winners. If emg understood this, he wouldn't post trades 20 points away from price, with 1 point targets. But to each their own I guess..
I agree poker and trading are similar but I wish everyone would stop saying that the same people always make the final table. That's simply not the case, it's usually a group of kids that no one has ever heard of (most of which only have a couple of cashes, if any). I think most would agree Phil Ivey is the best all around player in the world and he hasn't made a final table in a long time(Texas Holdem) Maybe everyone is watching "high stakes poker " on tv and think the same people male the table over and over again.
