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Thursday, May 28, 2009

My Poker System is Hard Work

I’m often how I make money playing poker and if there is a "poker system" that I use to profit every time I play at the tables. My answer which inevitably disappoints is that "my system is hard work and decication." This is because they are looking for an easy way to make money not the hard work takes work to win at online poker.

If you find a poker system that promises you to win money at online poker without trying, they are either over-promising or flat out lying to you. It’s been said that “Poker is a hard way to make easy money.” No matter what you do in life, getting people to part with their money requires effort. You either have to trade your time in at work for money, sell something valuable or work hard to become better than your opponents at the poker tables. There are no shortcuts.

The effort required to learn poker is a different type of effort than what it takes to dig ditches or sit in a cubicle all day. You are learning to make a living playing a game after all. The freedom and sense of self determination that is shared by professional poker players and entrepreneurs alike more than makes up for the long hours and frustration that it takes to either build a business or a professional poker career. There will be times of drudgery when you will feel like giving up; but the satisfaction of building something out of nothing can’t be measured against anything in the nine to five straight world.

Think about how hard professional athletes work. They work as hard as anyone else in the world but do you think they hate that work? No way! It's freedom! Putting in that hard work is rewarding when you are the direct beneficiary of that hard work. That's what makes playing poker for money so rewarding. Yes, it can be hard work and yes, there will be ups and downs along the way but it's all done in the name of making your own way in the world.


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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

The reality of playing poker for a living

Most people who enjoy the game of poker have probably dreamed of quitting their day job and making their living as a professional poker player. As with most fantasies the reality often doesn't mesh with what you imagined. Most people if they have a bad day at work don't end up with less money than they started their workday with. You could spend 100 hours a week at the poker table and not have a single thing to show for it and possibly going completely broke. You can make all the right decisions and do all the right things and still lose money in the short term. In the long term those decisions will eventually out last a bad run of cards and pay off. Will your bankroll last through the bad runs?

A game of poker is filled with emotional ups and downs from the elation of making your hand and winning a big pot or the tension of making a risky bluff. There is nothing quite like the anger and frustration of playing your hand well only to suffer a bad beat on the river. Probably the toughest emotion to deal with at the poker table is boredom. I've literally spent hour after hour folding due to a bad run of cards. The temptation is to play some of those marginal hands and bluff more than you should. This is were discipline and patience pays off after what seem like forever but more like 4-5 hours the cards started to change in my favor. I being dealt things like AA, KK, JJ and I was catching my flops! I bought into this game with $200 and was down to about $75 but left 3 hours later with $800 not bad for a days work. The tight reputation plus the fact that when I had to show down to win a pot I had the cards to back up my bets paid of allowing me to steal pots later in the game.

If its so tough then why do I play poker for a living? Freedom. Nobody is going to yell at me or fire me if I decide to sleep in. If something comes up or I just don't feel like playing I can take time off whenever I want. I can play poker on-line from virtually anywhere in the world. And I can grind out my own pay raises by increasing my stake and moving up in limits. And a good week at work could turn you into a millionaire. Although there are periods of extreme boredom poker can really get your heart pumping when you have a tough decision to make.

Poker has a lot to offer those with the right aptitude and discipline and can be a great way to make a living just be sure you know what you are getting into.

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