Getting serious with poker?

If you are in phase where you know how to play poker very darn well and you are more than experienced player, you might start to think about being a professional poker player. Making your living from poker.

So you know how to play? Great. That is the first step. It is the most important step, but only the first one.

When getting serious with poker there are dozens of other things that you must get right, not only your cards on table. Here is the list of some very important things, you have to keep (always) in mind and take care of.

• NEVER PLAY DRUNK! Never. You won't be the first or the last pro to lose all or most of his/her bankroll, simply because of playing when drunk.
• If you had to take 2-3 portions of alcohol, don't drink beer. It makes you run in to toilet too often. Instead of beer drink wine, it doesn't make you pee so often... and in poker you want to stay in the table where the game (and your money) is. Don't drink anything stronger than wine either, for an obvious reason: you'll get drunk.
• AVOID PLAYING WHEN TIRED! According to research, playing tired is almost equally as bad as playing drunk. Your brains start to take much more higher risks (desperate risks), when your brain's control-system goes down and risk-taking system boosts up, and that's what happen when you are tired. (You want faster winnings and don't have patience.)
• Take care of your social-life. Playing poker for living is very antisocial. Be sure you'll find yourself time to go out, meet your friends and family. On regular basis.
• Take care of your physical condition. Especially your back and shoulders will need attention. Sitting long hours in front of the computer will sooner or later take it's toll. That is the fact. And you can't play your best poker if pain disturbs your concentration.
• Poker can and will take a lot's of space from your thoughts. You might find yourself thinking about poker (the last game... the next game...) even when your mind should be at somewhere else. Have a vacations off from poker! You'll get fresh ideas and thoughts.
• Have yourself a hobby. Poker was your hobby, right? Everyone needs some sort of hobby to relax and refresh himself... to be able to be at his best on his job. So, when your "number one" hobby became now as your job, you had to get yourself replacement.
• Take very good care of your love-life & relationship, if you have one! Poker takes 100% concentration when playing. If you have problems with your wife, fiancee, girlfriend, husband, boyfriend... no matter what the problem is, your concentration won't be 100% when playing. And if she/he someday walks out from the door and leaves you, because only thing you anymore do is playing poker, your concentration will be less than zero! You might as well burn all the money you put in to game in that situation. So take good care of your love-life and relationship. You must do things together with your better-half. Poker tables won't go away, they will wait for you forever, but she/he won't.

Playing in right level for you, you are able to play your best poker

You are able to play your best poker only when you play in the level that is right for you. So, it is very important to think and to know, which level is right for you?

The money you put in the game must matter to you little bit, but it can't matter too much.

If you play at too low stakes, the money you had put in to game doesn't matter to you. That means, neither does the game either. You start to think with many hands: "Oh well, this doesn't matter. Let's see what happens." And that is terrible mistake!

That attitude grows in to your backbone. It starts to affect in to your player attitude and all your games and in to all your hands you play. "It doesn't matter." Then you are very far away from your best game. You won't become to be winning player.

As an opposite, if you play at too high stakes, you start to think too much about the money and not about the game itself. You can't play your best game, if you think in your mind: "I got to win this game. I got to win this hand." If you think even at once like that during the game, you won't win.

Playing at too high stakes makes you scary and shy. Those words doesn't include in to vocabulary when talking about playing your best poker.

Playing at the right level the stakes are not too high, so that you can be bold and aggressive and in the top of your game. The stakes are not too low either, so that the money you have put in to game matters to you just a right amount, so that you want to win that game.

And there is the difference: "Must win", "Want to win" and "It doesn't matter". Play only on the level you always want to win! Not on the level in where you must win or winning doesn't matter.

As a conclusion, your bankroll is more important for you when choosing the level than your skills.

Let's say you have in your bank-account 500'000 dollars. You are just starting a poker and decide to deposit 10'000 dollars in to poker-site. Now when you have 10'000 dollars in your poker account it doesn't make any sense for you to play (for example) 10 dollars sit&go-games! The money is too low. You start to play with attitude "This doesn't matter" and it becomes to grow in your general attitude. You might as well burn your money.

The other way around: iif you are very experienced poker-player, and your bankroll is 500 dollars. Then you shouldn't go and play (for example) $1,00 cash-tables. The risks are too high for you and you think more about the money than game itself.

The world's best bank-roll manager, Chris Ferguson, says player should never put more than 5% of his bank-roll in to game. That is good advise.

And... from the experience I can say, there are very good and very bad players in all the levels. The game itself doesn't change very much, no matter if you play at $0,10 cash-tables or high-stakes. So play at the level in where you can play your best poker, according to your current bank-roll.

Lesson learned. Finally.

Everyone playing poker for living has had big loosing periods. Every each one player. There just comes those days, that even so you do everything right... still everything goes wrong. Sometimes that period can last days, weeks or even months.

Over one week ago I had one of my worst days. (I'll say it was in top 3, not the worst, but very close there.)

I was focused and played my best game. I was really on top of it.

Yet still, disaster started to happen. In half an hour I lost seven "sure" all ins in a row! Usually we went all in on turn or flop, when I had hit top set or straight. Even so that on turn the percentage was on my favor 95% against 5%, or in two cases 98% against 2%, all my opponents got their miracle card.

In two more hours I also lost some other big hands, which were not all in ones from my part, but hurted still.

I was really confused and thought what is going on? I asked myself more important question: "What should I do?" And then I did all the right things:

1. I took 30 minutes break from the tables.
2. I analyzed my game carefully. I had done everything right, but opponents were extremely lucky.
3. I understood that my game was in condition, there was nothing to change in that area.
4. All the continuous and aggressive loosing had harmed my bankroll rather badly, so I had to move one limit lower.

And this was very important move! If I had stayed on the same level, I would have felt too much pressure, which would have sooner or later affected my game. I would have started to think: "I got to win now", and started to fear loosing... started to fear to take calculated risks... started to hesitate on big pots... started to lower down my bets on wrong places... started to fold on wrong places... to put it simply: IF I HAD STAYED ON THE SAME LEVEL, I WOULD HAVE CHANGED MY GAME. AND THAT WAS THE THING WHICH I ABSOLUTELY SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE!

I haven't many times been so rational and wise than what I was in there.

After moving to lower limit, everything worked fantastic. My game was exactly the same as an hour before, but there wasn't any more bad beats.

After 3-5 hours playing, I had won more than I lost in that loosing strike. In fact I have hardly ever won so much money so quickly. At least never on that level.

So... my bankroll was good again. I moved back to one level higher.

And again happened the same loosing strike! In two of my tables were, sorry to put it this way, but in both tables there were two different players, who were one of the worst players I have ever seen. To my misfortune, they hit all the impossible draws... well they hit EVERYTHING against me! And they (naturally) never folded. Really bad players play every hand all the way... and never fold. That's the sign of the worst player, everyone knows that. That is also the sign of 100% sure loosing, sooner or later. But... not against me, then and there.

In about 30 minutes, reload after reload, (my other misfortune was to get all the AA's, KK's, QQ's and JJ's that deck could have ever offer...) and all in after all in. I had sank so fast into so deep that it was unbelievable.

It tells something about these players that after they had hit their miracle and magic cards one after another... and won huge amount of money from me in 30 minutes, it took them only 10 minutes to loose it all to other players.

I was the only player against who they could suck out every time! Seriously. So they took off, since their stack was in zero. So did everyone else, because their stacks were too big to keep in the game table.

In less than 20 hours I had have two unbelievable amazing loosing strikes! Those days doesn't come often. Thank God!

After second loosing strike, I was again at the same point than after the first one. And I did all the same things. All the 1., 2., 3. and 4.

It was over week ago, and I am very happy. I have been only winning ever since every day. No loosing strikes.

I haven't been able to pull as great and fast winnings, only in few hours, that I did on the middle of that "The Worst Day Top 3". Yet still, my bankroll has gained, already four days ago, bigger than it was before that loosing strike.

And yes... I have decided to stay on the lower limit little longer. To gain my bankroll even greater and greater, so that I can take hours of impossible and aggressive loosing strikes - without it affecting my game a bit.