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What Is a Poker Pro?

By: Marius K. Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Some poker players will never become pros despite of their playing skills or mathematical abilities to count odds. The PhD in Psychology and Psychiatry would also be useless, even though reading other people is so important for a professional poker player.

What is a poker pro? Professional poker player is a showbiz businessman with perfect money management skills and strong emotional treats such as patience, self-confidence and regulation. Psychology and mathematics are the main interest and study of the pro.

Why showbiz? Why maths? What’s so special about the emotions?

Let’s see some examples. If during the WSOP a TV crew would be selecting the tables to shoot, which table would be chosen?

1. 10 unknown amateur players
2. 1 pro and 9 amateur players
3. 3-5 pros and 7-5 amateurs

The correct answer is C, because it is very interesting to see how pros play against amateurs, how pros play against pros and how an amateur busts a pro with their lucky hand, just because they are too messy to read for a pro. Acting in front of the lights and cameras make people interesting to watch on TV. Greg Raymer, the WSOP champion, in one of his interviews had pointed out a very important truth. He was a pro before the WSOP main Event, even though he qualified online which makes everyone think that an amateur became the WSOP champ. He played professionally before, but with no cameras, just at some local casinos. The same was with Peter Eastgate who was also a pro in Denmark before winning the WSOP and becoming a world poker celebrity.

A poker pro should be a great businessman, because they must manage their money. In a long term a poker pro does not loose. How can you pay a $50K buy-in for a WSOP HORSE, get busted and not lose? One of the options is winning some other event or tournament or just go to the other casino, sit at the tables and win $250K overnight. This is money management in a long run. A poker pro is also a person who’s primary job and source of income is playing poker rather than any other occupation. “Anyone who derives a significant portion of their income from poker is a pro.” – these are the words of a poker pro Eric “Rizen” Lynch in a debate on one of his article's. Unfortunately, money management is a talent. It's the same as having an ability to sing or paint, like a sense of humor. It's either you have it or not, it cannot be learned from 0. Money management must be in one's blood, otherwise a person would only be losing in poker. It would be like a bad investment in a stock exchange.

A poker pro should be an emotionally strong person with great abilities of patience, self-confidence and humbleness. Of course, the opponent reading skills are a huge advantage. The stupid joy of winning 5 pots in a row with random cards can be noticed only in an amateur poker player's face, while a poker pro remains calm and emotionless. That's what makes them pros. People talk at the tables a lot. A pro listens and examines opponents' personalities. This helps in reading their bluffs. Here is where psychology comes in.

A poker pro should not be a mathematician, but the basic math and statistics knowledge is a huge advantage. The pros learn from their hands and from the opponent's actions. The pros count the odds and decide on how to act in one or another situation.

Despite all the advantages: money management skills, math and odds counting, emotion control and tells reading, the acting in front of the TV cameras and many others which were not mentioned, the poker pros lose to amateurs quite often. Why? The play of an amateur is unpredictable. A poker pro Phil Gordon speaks about celebrity (celebrities are also amateur poker players) play in one of his interviews: "The only thing I can say is that if they don't know what they have, you can't know what they have." Poker pros do not play bad hands if they cannot win, while amateurs do not care about it and sometimes get lucky. Poker is the game of skill if it is played professionally, but when amateurs come at the table, poker becomes the game of luck. If one’s winnings are based on luck some day such a player will lose everything. Pros do not lose in long term, remember? All amateur poker players should strive to become non-losers called the POKER PROS.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Marius is an internet marketing manager in PokerNews.com - leading poker information website. Now he works with nice PokerNews give away promo in cooperation with PartyPoker. His personal interest is Poker 2.0 - various tools and features in social media only for poker players. He writes Poker 2.0 Blog about his social media and poker findings.