Live poker is a very complex game and I firmly believe successful players - or winners - or those that win more than others, have some innate abilities that we don't all possess. So saying that xxxxx, or any other keen young player CAN become great or a winner, is in my opinion, not the case.
We are all playing a game within a type of ponzi scheme where money at the bottom makes its way to the top, with many at the bottom and few at the top. Do the maths.
Many people 'suffer' from feeling they almost have a 'right' to make money at this game. It is absolutely not the case. There will always be players that spend hours learning and playing who never improve or win.
I firmly believe that innate personal traits such as the following create winners at poker.
Having a winning mentality
Being prepared to take risks
Having a gambling nature
Balls
Experience of having or losing money (relative to the sums you are trying to win)
Patience
Being relaxed/happy
Confidence.
Then mix in the learned skills:
Technical ability
Maths/Odds
Experience
More experience
Even more experience
And you can become a winner in this game. The less you have from the innate list, the more chance you have of not making it in this game. Anyone care to disagree?
Don't really agree with a lot of this.
- Anyone who spends hours learning will improve. How much they improve will depend how they try to learn, how effectively they use that time and their intellect
- You can teach people who have no "gambling nature" or particular risk taking tendencies or "balls" or whatever you wanna call it and have no "experience of having or losing money" to get used to winning and losing money. I like to think I'm a pretty good example of this. I have never had a job and the only money I've ever had / earned has come through poker. I never gambled before poker and was pretty risk averse and careful where money was concerned but I like to think I've become somewhat successful as a poker player (albeit in a very minor way compared to a lot of people posting on here)
Thing I do think lend themselves to being successful in poker:
- Being a very analytical thinker
- Good emotional control
- Being willing to learn and put in the effort to improve (not really specific to poker but still true)
As far as personality traits go; I have noticed that all the most successful people I've known in poker are incredibly laid back and easy going people (I dunno if other people notice this as well?) This must help people deal with variance and just being able to shrug off losses rather than more uptight, highly strung people who are maybe more sensitive to swings
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