Every professional poker player has a unique personality and a set of skills that distinguish him or her from the rest. Yet, there are certain qualities that are essential if a player wants to compete in the professional scene.

I was wondering what you think are the best poker qualities to have.

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Edit/MH: = Iluvproker2IDY

I say Experience is key. Knowing how to get through a tough situation, how a hand will play out, and how to read your opponent is a crucial aspect of being successful. You must know how to dig deep and play on.

This Match Proves It.

September 6tht, 2012
The Final Partouche Poker Tour, Won by Ole Schemion:
Cheers were heard as the 2012 Partouche Poker Tour wrapped up. The event was won by young German Ole Schemion. He took home a massive prize of $1,473,769. Karen Sarkisyan placed second and won $871,424. In third place was Aaron Lim who won $524,617, fourth was won by Dan O’Brien for $429,736, fifth by Marcello Marigliano for 336,123.

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Edit/MH: = FabriceTouilrocks

Brilliant27 possesses all of the most important qualities.

If your last name is Tooly you have a huge handicap to overcome.

Agreed. Along with experience level , I think intelligence is another quality. And also emotional discipline - playing poker requires to have a logical and analytical reason. Losing should not easily affect your play.

Agreed, i also have to say having the least amount of leaks....
Drinking, Gambling, spending. Your basically living in a casino, so all these things are always on the radar, Its key to not have temptations to do these things, and staying focused!

Discipline
Patience
Fearlessness
Hard Work Ethic willing to put in massive amounts of time to study and practice both at and away from tables.
Logic, but also Emotion to be able to relate with and understand your opponent and how at least most of them play.
Being extremely attractive like me is also a Bonus!

I'll add one that hasn't been mentioned yet. You must have a long-term perspective.

You can't freak out if you go several tournaments without cashing, or lose a cash game buy-in every day for a week. Your results over anything less than a month are meaningless. Depending on how many hours you put in or how many tables you play, even a month might not mean a whole lot, especially if you are an MTT specialist.

You can't let yourself get too discouraged, or too excited, about short-term results. Here is an example of just how long the long-term can be:

His first year playing WPT tournaments, Johnathan Little lost about 50K. He kept at it, and the next year he was up over a million. He went on to become a 2-time WPT Player of the Year.

Being able to lose. I know plenty of people who are good to great poker players, but aren't consistent winners because they play badly / react emotionally when they lose. The difference between your A game and your C game and how often you can play your best game (i.e not tilting) is one of, if not the most, important qualities required of a professional player.

With the availability of material these days becoming a solid player to great player is very manageable, but it's the ability to stay focused and not give up or go off the rails when it's not going well that separate decent players from proper professionals.

The problem with this is that people run out of money and when people are close to broke or flat broke it's "freak out" time. Besides, if someone loses for several months in a row, are they really a pro or just a degenerate gambler?

It's often a fine line between "poker pro" and degenerate gambler and a lot of people are both. All Gus Hansen does is lose. Is he a poker pro, a degenerate gambler, or both?

If they had this, they'd have real jobs.

You're right, almost anyone plays differently when money is tight. That's why bankroll management is so important. If you go from 50 buy-ins to 10, that's pretty scary. But if you go from 50 buy-ins to 20, then drop down to a level you can afford, you have a chance to rebuild your bankroll and your confidence.

I don't know about Gus Hansen, but the pros we see on TV defintely can have those issues. It happend to Gavin Smith. He had to stop playing 10K tournaments, drop down, and get his act together. I'm not sure how that came out, I googled and couldn't find any information.

As per said its about long term perspective, money management and life balance. I lacked in all 3 at one stage and although I beat the game to a comfortable level these 3 things cost me.

What is the point in winning loads if you just waste it , likewise whats the point in winning loads, grinding 16 hours a day and having no life to enjoy your rewards.

I think you have to make these mistakes and bounce back from them to realise how important factors they are.

A football manager in the UK made a good quote this week and am going to use it going forward in my poker perspective.

'You cannot succeed in anything until you have failed first'

Really agree with this statement, its way to easy to loose a control on yourself just for one time and loose too many buy in's in just one night, that you can afford. Discipline helps to avoid situations like this.

Black jack is the death of degens bank roll

I don't really agree much. I mean, it's true, but the discipline needed to avoid that stuff is peanuts compared to the discipline needed to properly manage your poker bankroll. Seems kinda like saying you need to finish elementary school to be a doctor. Anyone who thinks that's hard shouldn't even be playing poker.

Giving up easily & letting my emotions run wild during a couple of failed deep runs was always one of my biggest mental leaks.

You've to be like relentless and not let the previous results affect the way you play.

As a poker player you should know better than to embrace a quote such as "'You cannot succeed in anything until you have failed first." That's just so obviously illogical and sounds like something one would hear on Oprah or Dr. Phil. You seem to have most of your stuff together, so why you think this quote is something inspirational is beyond me.

I'm glad I wasn't the first to have to say this.

To answer the original question, I think --to succeed in poker --experience is key. Keep playing hands, keep grinding, and keep studying.
Oh, and don't let your emotions dictate your actions.

99.9% of people fail in everything they do especially poker to start with. For those who think they fall under the 0.01% they are probably not succeeding as well as they could which is another sign of failure.

Pulling such wide ranging "stats" such as "99.9%" out of thin air and then throwing in the word "everything," when clearly none of this can ever be known or measured, surely does not help you make your point. As to your second sentence about the 0.01%, you clearly are mistaking 'imperfection' for 'total failure,' one of the great mental mind-killers of all time and a terrible way to go through life. This has been studied and proven.

well said, the poster you quoted probably doesn't mean to come off as 1) condescending 2) a know it all. But anytime someone speaks in absolutes you need to be careful especially in regards to anything poker related.

Yes I get your point but I don't think there is a poker player on the planet who has made a huge error of judgement whether that be bad bankroll management, bad game selection etc. That goes across to any top level sport for that matter. If you take Rory Mcilroy for example, burst onto the scene winning a major pretty quickly and everyone thought he was going to conquer the world, the last 18 months have been aweful for him golfing wise but he will come back twice as strong for the experience and win multiple majors, thats the point I was trying to make and apologise if this did not come out right.

Looks like experience is the answer of the majority. I have to agree. Especially in this game.

I do know what you're saying although not sure I agree with "experience" per se. Plenty of players rise to the top frighteningly fast (yeah I know they play a lot of hands). Or at least I think there is more to it....

I think there needs to be a large degree of "practical intelligence" for anybody to make it.

There are lots of people (myself firmly included) who can analyse a hand a lot better in a forum or even 10 seconds after making a bad call/fold but in the moment of the game it escapes them.

To some people that comes a lot more naturally than others...

This may be true, but the analysis in the strategy forums here isn't terribly good and includes a great deal of over analysis and self leveling.