blonde poker

So you think that playing poker for a living is the life for you? Well like anything else in life, the reality of the situation is a long way removed from what many people perceive it to be. There are so many hidden drawbacks to playing professional poker that the only reason why so many people want to be a pro is because they have either fallen for the hype or they are not aware of the full facts.

Firstly if you already have a great job then what the hell are you doing trying to get into a crazy world like poker for? Do you seriously think that poker is all about jetting off to Vegas to play in the World Series or flying to Vienna to play in some high stakes cash game?

You need to prove to yourself that you are good enough first and foremost and this is no easy matter. I turned professional back in 2002 and played exclusively online but all players need a bankroll and this means either starting small and building one up or going into the game at a set level with money that you already have.

This is all well and good but it takes a long time and literally thousands upon thousands of hands to prove that you can make it at any one particular level. Even then, don’t expect to crush the online games these days because they are a whole lot tougher than what they used to be and are getting tougher by the day.

With your opponents using sophisticated tracking software in even greater numbers then online poker has easily overtaken live poker as the most difficult poker environment in which to make a living. But yet online is where the vast majority of new players are starting out simply because all you need in order to start playing is a decent computer with internet access (preferably Broadband).

But even if you are good enough to play at and beat a certain level then you will still need a bankroll in order to survive at those levels. The reason why you will need a bankroll is simply because of the natural variance that is involved within the game and by this I mean the swings and fortunes that befall all poker players and you will be no different. It is no good playing $10-$20 limit with only $1,000 behind you because with only 50 big bets then you will stand a very high probability of busting out just from the normal fluctuations within the game.

It is the same with no limit Hold’em, all cash game players will experience a losing swing of 20 maximum buy-ins at some stage of their career. To put this into context then this will mean a $1-$2 no limit Hold’Em player who buys in for the maximum $200 will experience at least a $4,000 downswing at some stage and many players experience downswings of 30 buy-ins or more. This is sobering information for many novice players who think that a few hundred dollars would suffice at these levels. How would you like to play poker for 40 hours a week and be losing after a month? If you think that this cannot possibly happen then you had better think again my friend.

This is before we even go into areas like personal indiscipline and this has been the downfall of many a player. Then we can add poor money management skills to that as well and over betting your bankroll is another major reason for why so many players dip in and out of poker. The trouble is that most players don’t even realise that they are over stretching their bankrolls.

Many players who have say $4,000 do not realise that they are not properly bankrolled to play $10-$20 limit or $2-$4 no limit Hold’Em of instance, in fact they are nowhere near being properly bankrolled with that amount of money and these figures are presuming that we are talking about good players here and not those that merely think that they are.

So the bottom line is that you had better have a good long hard think before jumping into the shark infested pool of online poker and look before you leap and the longer you look the better it will be. The simple fact of the matter is that the pool might just be empty before you take the plunge!



Carl “The Dean” Sampson is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at www.cakepoker.com/thedean