Fun Stuff – Timeline of a Developing Poker Player

This is a guest post from Greg Walker.  This one is on the lighter side of poker, but Greg also writes excellent Texas Hold’em strategy at his site ThePokerBank.com.

The development of a successful poker player is an interesting one. If you are a veteran player, it seems crazy to think back to the time when you had no idea about how much you should be betting, or when you thought that min-raises did you the world of good.

On the other hand, if you are a new player, it may feel like you are a million miles away from becoming a winning poker player on a regular basis.

This is a quick (and exceptionally general) look at the development of a poker player on an amazingly rough time-scale. It may not be accurate, but at the end of the day, if you put the effort in there is no reason why you cannot become a successful poker player like the one in this example over time.

Day 1.

The bet slider is causing a few problems and you click the wrong buttons quite frequently, which has led to a few accidental all-in calls.

You’ve been forced to sit out of the cash games a few times and you’re not sure why, but you end up getting back into the game eventually. It all seems pretty interesting at the moment.

The first month.

It’s been a week, and you’ve already lost more money than you expected somehow. Luck must not be on your side.

You’re not sure whether a straight beats a flush, but you’re still annoyed at the fact that you do not get these sort of hands as often as you would like. But aside from the losing money part, it’s still lots of fun.

Months 2 – 3.

You’ve started to read up on a few strategy articles that you stumbled across. The starting hand strategy seems to be taking the fun out of the game a little, but you want to win money so you stick with it.

Apparently pot odds help you when it comes to playing flush and straight draws, but you haven’t been able to get your head around the mathematics of it just yet.

You’re not making money at the moment, but you’re still hopeful.

Months 4 – 6.

Things are starting to look up. You’re getting the hang of pot odds and your overall strategy is pretty good.

You find yourself in a sticky situation every now and then and you wish that you knew more about the game so that you could make the best decisions possible at all times. However, you’ve just ordered a few books and you’re hoping to plug the leaks in your game. Apparently the “Theory Of Poker” by David Sklansky is going to be a good read.

It’s taken 6 months for you to become a break-even player, but it has been worth it.

Months 6 – 12.

At last, you’re starting to win money. You’ve got 500+ posts under your belt at a few poker forums combined and your game is improving from one session to the next.

It can be a bit of a grind at times, but you don’t mind multi-tabling 4 tables for about 3 or more hours a day. Your girlfriend thinks its unhealthy, but she’s obviously never played winning poker before.

After the first Year.

Okay, you’ve cemented your addiction to poker for life, but that’s cool. You could have worse hobbies.

You’re quite a popular character around the forums and you dish out a lot of good advice from time to time. You’re moving up the levels and winning more money as you do. You take the odd hit and drop down a level to compensate, but it’s all good. Variance gets the better of us all once in a while.

But yep, you’re a regular winner, and it’s all great fun.

5 Years down the line.

You’re at the nosebleed limits and raking it in, with prop bets everywhere. You supplement your high stakes poker game with some high limit online Blackjack action at your favourite online Casino too every now and then.

You finished at your job a few months ago and you’re the full time poker player that you always wanted to be. It’s more of a grind than you expected, but you get to be your own boss so it’s all good.

Congratulations, your whole life now revolves around poker. Nice hand sir.