Originally Posted by GambleAB
I posted this in someone else's thread a few days ago, but I think the advice is pretty universal w/r/t people who aspire to play poker (especially online) as their sole source of income:
First off, rethink your goals. Playing poker professionally isn't something you really aspire to do, it's something that you kind of fall into. It's such a sick lifestyle/mindset that very few "normal" people can handle it. Most of the pros I know are people who just....can't not do it. Not in a compulsive way, but in a way that playing poker is the only thing that makes sense to them, and they give it a passion and drive that they just can't muster for any other job.
Yes, that was super corny and hackney and I kinda hate myself for writing it, but it's true.
If it is something you want to pursue, then you should probably ditch the long term (and most of the short term) goals. It's a good idea, but when putting it into practice it's going to **** you up more often then not. Just the basics of poker lend themselves to such unimaginable variance that even month long 100k+ hand goals can easily be skewed off of what your true win rate is. Often what happens is, you set a goal for yourself ($x in y days), and you work hard at it and you don't get there. Then you get frustrated because you put in the time and you feel you should be there. So you either start getting a negative mindset, which makes you play worse, or you try to push yourself and end up playing more tables, more hours, higher limits, which also makes you play worse.
Your goal should be that you want to play as much as you can while still playing optimally. At the end of whatever period you allot yourself to try it out, look at your stats. See if your bankroll is where you want it to be. Analyze your allin EV to see how that is affecting your bottom line. Look at your win rates in different games and see if you feel you can make a reasonable rate to live off of for the future.
16-20 tables seems like a lot. When you try moving up to a new limit, maybe start off with less to try to judge how the new level plays differently from the level you were used to.
If you have the time in this experimental period, consider trying out grinding different game types. Some people just acclimate themselves better to different games, and you prob won't know unless you try it. If you've always played cash, maybe try out MTTs for a few days, and then SNGs for a few days. See if it makes you feel better/worse/the same. See if your results are better/worse/the same. Obviously you won't be able to get an accurate big picture/long term view from a few days of playing, but you'll be able to get a good feel for if a new game is something you'd like to pursue. At the very least, it'll allow you to add some variation to your day-to-day schedule, which is always good.
Don't play every waking hour. You'll want to, especially once you start making good money. Fight that feeling. You'll burn out super fast and poker will be the last thing you'll want to do. Is it better to play 14 hours a day for 3 months or 6 hours a day for 3 years? Set reasonable time constraints for yourself and plan those around the other things in your life. The longer you have poker as "the fun thing you look forward to doing", the better. Also, when scheduling out how long you want to play every day, set aside some time in there to study. It doesn't have to be indepth, but it should be planned out so you have structure. It could be looking over your PT/HEM stats and looking for leaks in your game or making notes on how regs play, it could be watching someone else's game to see what they are doing, it could be finding a poker buddy at your level to talk over hands with, or participating in hand/strat discussion on here. Even if it's just going over hands/situations in your head, thinking about poker while you aren't playing poker is going to help you.