Question: How do I become very good at poker ( specifically Texas Hold em)?

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Answer #1:

Read a couple of books, play hands online for practice....for free of course, and maybe try to get some of your friends interested so you can have live games where you can play for micro...micro stakes.

Answer #2:

Read Books, join training sites, go over hand histories. read books on psychology and math.post on forums like 2p2 and pocket fives.

Answer #3:

A serious question, and I will give you a serious answer I promise. I won't tell you that you "can't" do this or "shouldn't" do this. I will, however, tell you some truths that you should know. Some of them you won't want to hear, but I also promise I won't talk down to you just because you're young.

First, let me jump to a summary statement - not of what you "shouldn't" do, but something that you SHOULD do. If you are as smart as you say, you should focus as best you can on doing a fantastic job on your schoolwork. You should aim to get into college if you can. Once you hit 18 years old, you can try some "real" on-line poker and FIND OUT if you can make any money with it. If you CAN, great! Use that money to help put you through college. PLAN on setting a goal of getting a "real job" from which you can support yourself.

The truth: Like I said, I won't tell you that you "can't" make this happen. The truth is that it is SO VERY UNLIKELY that it cannot be stressed enough. You watch these super famous poker players on TV. Be honest - how many can you name? Maybe 10. Maybe 20. Even if you could name 30 or 40, how many people out there are trying to make it as a big poker pro? Probably millions!

Your wanting to become a poker pro is like the best guy on your high school baseball team wanting to be a pro baseball player. Is it possible? Sure. It is going to happen? Almost certainly not.

Here me out. I promise before I'm done I will give you some "real" advice to get better playing poker.

If you focus your efforts on doing a great job at your schoolwork, it will ALWAYS pay off in your life. Even some of the poker stars have big problems in their lives because they aren't educated. Plan on that "real job", and in the meantime ENJOY playing poker and hone your skills.

So finally your question - How do you become very good at poker? At your age I would just continue to play on-line for play money. Just be very careful that you understand that playing for play money has NOTHING to do with playing for real money. It would still give you experience at how to be complete novice players. With a small amount of skill you should rack up millions and millions of chips.

As Tyler suggested, try to read some books on the topics. You would be a fool to think you can't learn something from the top poker books out there.

One of the most important skills in poker is PATIENCE! I'm not saying this because I want you to be patient in the actual hands you play in poker. I'm saying it because if you aren't patient enough to wait until you're at least 18 years old, then you probably don't have the discipline and patience necessary to play winning poker.

In summary - Be as smart as you say you are! Don't be a fool that thinks there is "easy" money out there for you. Even the people that DO succeed in poker don't succeed because it's "easy". They succeed with hard work. Focus most of this hard work on your schoolwork and on getting yourself into college. Plan on making your goal be getting a "real" job out there! If you work hard at your love of poker, you WILL become good enough at it to make a profit! If you do ever get to the point where you are a profitable poker player, you will be better than most poker player on the planet. That doesn't mean you'll be rich, but by then you'll at least have the experience necessary to make a more realistic decision as to whether or not you can make it solely as a poker professional and support yourself this way.





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