How to become really good in poker?

Hello! I'm a 18 years old and I want to become really good in poker and make it profitable. I go on high school in Norway and thanks to dusins of oil and socialism I get a schoolarship of approximately 200 bucks per month. I want to invest 50 or more of them in poker. I play on Pokerstars and I have lost and won maybe hands. I have played cash games for over 1 year now.

I'm also gonna buy a poker book: "Secrets of Professional Poker by Rolf Slotboom"

Can someone experienced tell me how I can become really good and make it as profitable as possible? I want to play poker instead of working.

I also have to ask, about online poker and head's up, I feel that it's is difficult to play after player's patherns and mathematic online, because you can't read their body language etc. like it's live.

- kensher

moved from LHE

was under the impression live poker is illegal in norway.

anyways to get really good at poker there are some basic guidelines and some criteria you should probably understand if you want to take this seriously

first off
you have to either have solid mental control or work really hard to develop mental control. there are some really really good players in this game. and then there are people who beat 5/10 who aren't the greatest but they never tilt and never make large mistakes. so mental control is a must

secondly
you have to have a lot of time to dedicate to this game, and with that comes knowing patience. results do not come overnight, over a week or even over a month. it's a very slow process for most and unless you are extremely gifted it's going to take a long time.

thirdly
you have to have pretty thick skin, people are going to insult you and berate you constantly and you need to brush it off quickly otherwise you will go abso no where in this game if you emo out constantly. there are exceptions to this rule but those who do and are successful are usually phenomenal players.

finally
you have to have good deductive reasoning skills or be able to learn them. everything in poker is about math and why is my opponent doing what he is doing. you have to be decently okay at solving puzzles or like solving puzzles because everything anyone does in this game is a just another puzzle that needs to be solved.

if you can master all this you have a pretty solid shot at being a solid poker player.

what bikes said. Be prepared to work hard. Also, there are better books to buy - start a thread "which book to buy?"

there is a thread here somewhere that links a whole bunch of FTR gold, go find it and then read the linked threads. I'm not sure who said it, but 'poker is a hard way to make an easy living'....

Originally Posted by kensher

I get a schoolarship of approximately 200 bucks per month. I want to invest 50 or more of them in poker. I

no, you want to invest a starting deposit ONCE ONLY, and never 'invest' into online poker again except to maybe buy some tools/coaching/vid site memberships/whatever - probably from your poker profits. You should grind your roll from 2nl and $50 or $100, then when your roll gets reasonable and you know you beat 25nl then you could (i guess) go and do some bonus whoring for a while.

edit: the above is all in theory, if you figure it out could you let me know?

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...ds-186705.html

This thread by RPM should be made a sticky, IMO

Originally Posted by bikes

secondly
you have to have a lot of time to dedicate to this game, and with that comes knowing patience. results do not come overnight, over a week or even over a month. it's a very slow process for most and unless you are extremely gifted it's going to take a long time.

Bikes, this got me to thinking.

Due to work, life, the wife not liking me playing so much poker etc, I only get to play about 3 days a week on average for maybe 3-4 hours at a time. So lets say 10-12 hours a week. I only play 2 tables right now as I find whenever I play more I just don't play as well and usually end up losing money. So since getting back into poker at about the start of April I've played about 33k hands. In between I do frequent FTR and read loads of threads and hand analysis.

Long questions short........is it realistic to think this amount of poker playing is going to be enough to really get good?

Seems like all the successful or "on the way to getting successful" players are putting in 30-50k hands a month and it got me to wondering what kind of time/number of hands one really needs to put in to have a chance of really getting good.

Step 1: Read/Study
Step 2: Play/Eliminate Mistakes
Step 3: Repeat until the end of time....

The more you repeat the better off you will be.

Originally Posted by Smith

Step 1: Read/Study
Step 2: Play/Eliminate Mistakes
Step 3: Repeat until the end of time....

All good, but I'd make Step 1: Read/Study/Post Hands/Discuss poker with other Players/Get a Coach

Book learnin' on it's own is a bit too theoretical

Originally Posted by PKKFW

Bikes, this got me to thinking.

Due to work, life, the wife not liking me playing so much poker etc, I only get to play about 3 days a week on average for maybe 3-4 hours at a time. So lets say 10-12 hours a week. I only play 2 tables right now as I find whenever I play more I just don't play as well and usually end up losing money. So since getting back into poker at about the start of April I've played about 33k hands. In between I do frequent FTR and read loads of threads and hand analysis.

Long questions short........is it realistic to think this amount of poker playing is going to be enough to really get good?

Seems like all the successful or "on the way to getting successful" players are putting in 30-50k hands a month and it got me to wondering what kind of time/number of hands one really needs to put in to have a chance of really getting good.

in truth? no i dont think you have nearly enough time but it depends on your definition of good.

one thing i completely forgot.

complete disregard for money while playing poker. not having a concept of a dollar is extremely helpful, in your case NOKs but I'm gonna say if you appreciate money you have a very long road ahead of you

Originally Posted by bikes

in truth? no i dont think you have nearly enough time but it depends on your definition of good.

Tbh, I had started to think that too. I know I'm getting better but I'm beginning to realise that my dream of moving up to at least 200nl is probably not going to happen. Will still be an enjoyable time striving for it though I reckon.

bikes nailed it.