my dream is to become pro

I play poker for years now. In the beginning I watched poker at television and my thoughts were I can do it too. So I began to play cash games and it was going very well in the beginning. But than it happened. I made a big mistake for a beginning. The dollar marks came in my eyes and I played in no time at bigger buy ins. As an unexperienced player now I know after years that I never had to do it that way. I lost about 1500 dollars. I quit poker for a while and when I started again I only played tournaments. Freerolls and don tours for 1 dollar and mtt for 1 to 5 dollars. Now the last 3 years my profit is about 3000 dollars playing at many sites. So my total profit is now 1500 dollars and I have a lot more experience. My advise to beginning players is start with freerolls and when you win something use it to build a bankroll and use bankrollmanagement!! Like to make new pokerfriends here so would like to get reactions. Greetings dutch77

Hi dutch,

It's good to see you on the boards and I'm glad you've been able to recover the initial losses over the past couple of years.

Are you looking to eventually become a full-time professional poker player or play professionally part-time while holding down a "regular" job? I think the second route is the option of least resistance unless you're willing to work extremely hard on your game, post hand histories for discussion almost obsessively and spend a great deal of time in order to justify moving up in stakes eventually.

Freerolls and micro buy-ins are a luxury some of the players here on the FTR boards didn't have a decade ago. I remember distinctly that it took me a total of 14 $50 deposits on partypoker (lowest games available then were $0.50/$1 cash and $5+1 tournaments) before I turned a corner and started grinding a ton of tables on Stars. That was 10 years ago.

Anyway, best of luck to you. I'm interested to see how you progress if you decide to eventually move up in stakes and share in discussion of hand histories here on the boards.

-David

Hi David thank your for your reply.

i think you are right that option 2 is the best for me. i need indeed a regular job te be sure that i have
enough money to pay my bills. so semi pro will be my first goal in the next few years and who knows
about ten years....

but i looked this week at sharkscope to watch my ability, now i had a score of 70 and i have heard
that when you have that score you have the skills that fits to a pro. so i am really satisfied with that.

ok your story is also nice. are you playing live poker also? so far i only played online poker.
ok i will do my best to post some hands in the future and tell you about my progress!

have a nice evening!

dutch77

Becoming pro is not easy, there are many sharks in the water nowadays.
But having a dream or two is always important.
I wish you luck & success!

Originally Posted by dutch77

I play poker for years now. In the beginning I watched poker at television and my thoughts were I can do it too. So I began to play cash games and it was going very well in the beginning. But than it happened. I made a big mistake for a beginning. The dollar marks came in my eyes and I played in no time at bigger buy ins. As an unexperienced player now I know after years that I never had to do it that way. I lost about 1500 dollars. I quit poker for a while and when I started again I only played tournaments. Freerolls and don tours for 1 dollar and mtt for 1 to 5 dollars. Now the last 3 years my profit is about 3000 dollars playing at many sites. So my total profit is now 1500 dollars and I have a lot more experience. My advise to beginning players is start with freerolls and when you win something use it to build a bankroll and use bankrollmanagement!! Like to make new pokerfriends here so would like to get reactions. Greetings dutch77

Well in the beggining we all make mistakes. I was like you: when I beggin to win I tought I was the best player and I easily lose my profits. So I review my strategy or better, I create a strategy because I really don't have it and I start to play low MTTs. With the profits that I earned I start to play "bigger" tournaments. It's step by step one day after. And the goal it's the same: one day be a professional poker player.

Originally Posted by dutch77

but i looked this week at sharkscope to watch my ability, now i had a score of 70 and i have heard
that when you have that score you have the skills that fits to a pro. so i am really satisfied with that.

It's always nice to get some recognition from third-party sites, but I'd be wary of it.

I'm listed at a "78" on SharkScope over a decent sample size (PokerStars) and was ranked as a GrandMaster (lol, wtf were they thinking?) in MTTs in 2007 by OPR, and I know I am not capable of beating the game at any meaningful stakes currently without a significant amount of heavy lifting.

That being said, believing in yourself and having a dream is half the game because it can be such a great motivational factor. Do some soul-searching, give it a serious go and evaluate after a little while and I'm confident you'll make a decision that is correct for you.

There's a great veteran support group here on the FTR poker forums if you ever want to bounce some hand history ideas off of individuals who have been there.

-David