Hi, I'm back trying to take poker seriously I'm just trying to draw up a list of sort of categories so I can feel like I'm on top of everything. Be interested to hear how other people organise and arrange this in their life with regards to poker and whether I'm missing anything out.

Technical Side of Game - This would cover everything to do with strategy and studying. Reading books, watching videos online, working with solvers etc.

Mental Side of Game - This one is purely on mindset, working on being in the best possible space mentally to play the game. Includes meditation, mindfulness, journaling your thoughts, recognising tilt , etc.

Routine - Having a routine planned out for when you play, what hours, what sites, etc. plus any logistical stuff for live players.

External Life Stuff - This is just having a grasp on external stuff outside poker which will have an affect on your play, stuff like environment, computer/internet set-up, nutrition, sleep, future life events and so forth.

IÂ’m not sure how to rank them in order of importance, and probably thatÂ’s not really useful since you need pretty much ALL of these to some degree, but anyone thinking of playing professionally will obviously focus on the technical aspects. That is the obvious thing people think about, and they arenÂ’t wrong. If you donÂ’t know proper strategy you wonÂ’t win.

Where many fail is in placing too much emphasis purely on strategy. Often ignored are several other keys to success. One of these is table selection. People see big time pros on TV playing against other big time pros. They think that is the way to make tons of money — play big games against tough opponents. Those are TV shows though, and even top pros win by beating fish, not by playing other big time pros. Table/game selection is a very important overlooked skill. Finding the juicy live games or bum hunting online fish is a huge source of profit.

You did mention mental game, but that too is often overlooked. You can play an optimal strategy that maximally exploits your opponents and still be down multiple buy ins in a short time. How will you handle this? Will you be able to continue playing that optimal strategy or will you get frustrated and deviate? I see so many threads on here where people complain that they can’t beat games because “everyone is chasing cards” or “there are too many fish who play badly and I can’t range them”. That just tells me that they don’t understand or have the mentality needed for success.

One more overlooked ability - financial discipline. I’m not really talking about bankroll management here, but rather recognizing that poker is financially different from a 9-5 job. I see people on here post that you can live off poker because “A good player can make $20 per hour” at a certain game. The thing they forget is that while you might well be able to live easily off a steady job paying $20 per hour, a poker player making that same hourly win rate is a much different thing. At a steady job, if I work 2 hours I make $40. If I work 40 hours a week I make $800. I have an income I can count on and use to budget expenses. Poker doesn’t work this way. If I play 40 hours in a week, I might make $2000; I might lose $200. Are you prepared to go weeks at a time with no or reduced income? Are you going to go out and buy a bunch of electronic gadgets, new clothes, or fancy meals when you have a good week? A key to success is the financial discipline to save a good chunk of that money won during good weeks to tide yourself over through the inevitable downswings.

Finally, and related to the previous two -understanding variance is crucial. Many people really do not understand randomness and seriously underestimate how much variance they can expect. Weeks-long downswings costing dozens of buy ins or more are not really that uncommon. It depends on your inherent win rate, but even the best of players go through losing stretches, some of which will be long and costly. How will you react to these? Will you be able to continue to play your A game or will you get frustrated and tilt, making things worse?

Aa successful pro will have ALL these skills and more. IÂ’m not sure any of these are more important than any others. I would start by solidifying my strategy (canÂ’t win if you donÂ’t play well) as a starting point, but recognizing the need to work on all of these skills. The need for all off these is why most people on here will advise you to play recreationally and keep another income source to start. You can ignore some of these skills, like the financial discipline and bankroll management as a rec player and focus on the technical and mental game.