Am I smart enough?

Here's the question with some background:

I've been playing mostly online for two years, no success really. I'm not going nuts, I barely play these days at all. But I was for quite sometime. The game intrigues me, of course. Read one book, forget which one, about a year ago. It helped a little.

OK, my question is, am I smart enough to become a great poker player?

Sounds odd, but I don't consider myself an overly-intelligent person, not a good math person for sure. I'm not dumb, but I'm more of a linear thinker, I believe.

I am sure if I get a few of these very good poker books I may need to read them 10 times to get the jist. I may need to read them ALOUD. Especially poker theory.

So, in simple terms, is there too stupid to play poker and be succesful?

And if so, how can you determine this?

great , im not sure ....good/better than the fish ...definitely.... if you dedicate yourself to learning , studying , talking about the game with other players you should be able to become a winning a player ...

what games/limits are you playing?

i failed the 3rd grade 4 times and am up $9000 playing online poker in my first year if that helps at all

Thanks for replying.

I'm addicted to PartyPoker NL tournament play. I just go for the $6 play. I eventually go for the bigger tourneys. I eventually go tilt half the time, but I would probably come out in the top three 1 out of 3 games if I just played it cool.

I guess you're right, if you work at it and study and talk, you can become a decent to good player... or a winning player.

are you referring to the sngs or mtts, i assume sng since if u thought you could usually make the top three in mtts than you wouldnt have ever made this post

also there are many articles here about how to prevent tilting that u can read

peace

{solicitation edited by courtiebee}

How much effort do you want to put forth to be a good player? If you have to read a book 10 times are you willing to do it? Are you willing to look through your old tournaments and determine where you made mistakes, or are you just going to write off the early exit as being on tilt?

Honestly, your OP sounds like you want someone to tell you you won't ever be good so you can blissfully donk away at low-buyin tournaments.

It takes more than just reading one book and reading it one time. As swiggidy said you have to really commit yourself and get very involved. It's like anything else in life that you want to be good at. You have to apply yourself and that means reading a library of books, reviewing your play, and playing a lot of poker. And there are countless other things that you need to do to be successful. Those are just some starting suggestions.

I find it hard to imagine how someone could ever become a good player without studying, by which I mean book learning and active, educational discussions like we get on FTR. I guess someone could simply learn the rules, start playing and over a long period of time pick up the necessary strategies which make a winning player, but it'd take a LOT of practice, not least to lose the bad habits that they wouldn't have anyone to talk them out of (I remember my own logic for playing K9o - it could make a straight! - and I might still be playing it today if it hadn't been for FTR and Small Stakes Hold'em).

Your IQ is a flimsy basis for poker potential. It has as much to do with instinct, discipline, patience, emotion. You have to play a while to know what your potential is.

If some stranger walked up and called you an asswipe to your face, what would you do? Would you freak out? Punch him? Yell back uncontrollably? IMO this is a person incompatible with poker.

For the record, if a stranger walked and called me an asswipe I would laugh at him. This is because he is incredible, given that he doesn't know me. If he tried to get physical, I would calmly punch him in the head.

Originally Posted by biondino

I find it hard to imagine how someone could ever become a good player without studying, by which I mean book learning and active, educational discussions like we get on FTR. I guess someone could simply learn the rules, start playing and over a long period of time pick up the necessary strategies which make a winning player, but it'd take a LOT of practice, not least to lose the bad habits that they wouldn't have anyone to talk them out of (I remember my own logic for playing K9o - it could make a straight! - and I might still be playing it today if it hadn't been for FTR and Small Stakes Hold'em).

I'm going to have to blatantly disagree with you here. There are far too many cases of people who are naturally inclined to the game, and master it in short order with minimal outside influence (ie books, discussion forums).

My intention isn't braggard, but I, myself was a winning poker player long before picking up my first poker book, or having extended discussion. In fact, I read my very first poker book about 5 months ago.

Originally Posted by Rondavu

My intention isn't braggard, but I, myself was a winning poker player long before picking up my first poker book, or having extended discussion. In fact, I read my very first poker book about 5 months ago.

That's awesome. I would have gone busto once and said "fuck this game".

I'm the complete opposite, research first apply second.

I think it's clear that, while rare, there are people who are just "naturals" at it.... People who intuitively understand the details and subtlties inside and out without needing anyone to explain it. They pick it up after just a few sessions and quickly adapt to higher levels as they move up.

However, I'd be willing to bet that 99% of winning poker players are not naturals, but have learned how to play through practice and study and practice and study, ad infinitum. In fact, I'd also bet that even the huge majority of pros are not "naturals" at it.

I've been playing for year now, and was asking myself basically the same questions, until obvious answer showed up: It's not about intelligence level nor some natural talent. No, if you want to improve, you need to really think during every hand you play. When the session is over, evaluate your play, think about different lines you might have taken, read what others do and think in similar situation, post here and seek advice. In other words, I get the impression that you're little lazy and are expecting to get some lucky insight and eventually figure everything out (I used to).

Bottom line: IT TAKES HARD WORK

My weakest link is memory, but I'm doing ok with pokertracker to keep me on track. Just find your weakest links and build on them, let the other talents win you the money while you learn.