Do You Possess These Great Professional Poker Player Qualities

Let me go ahead and say that I am not a professional poker player. Its very unlikely that I will every become one. Despite that let my ego slide in and say, I posses all of these qualities and many of you also have these qualities. The difference is how often you call on them to help your game day in an day out. Lets jump right in here and lay out the qualities all of the greats have.


Emotional Composure

Without the ability to consistently control your emotions will quickly turn you in my favorite kind of tilting fish. With out this quality your ability to reason and make strong analytical decisions will diminish and in the long run will create -EV(expected value). The human brain has the ability to function well and with reason with discipline. Learn to control your emotions and you will soon learn that you can control the table.

Study Habits

Poker is a game of study. Much like your college macroeconomics class, poker requires constant study through coaching, peer review, reading material, and the ability to apply the knowledge learned everyday. I have once heard that the path to poker success requires one hour of study for every two hours of play. I personally know people that follow this rule because they play online poker full time. The time they spend reviewing hands is what makes them such strong players.

Social Ability

Having a social personality and the ability to seek out stronger players is a great tool. I used to play a lot of paintball and the one thing I learned that I can apply outside of the sport, is to always seek better opponents. You will reach a peak if you keep playing the same people all the time. To get better you must play better players. Seek them out and make sure you also manage that bank roll at the same time.

Time In and Seniority

What I mean to say here is that must posses the patients to keep playing poker. There are people out there right now that play millions of hands every month. Nothing beats experience. However you have to draw on another quality in order to make that experience valuable. Study habits! You must be able to learn from your experience in order to apply it to your game. Have the patience to keep playing lowers limits while you learn, but make sure that experience is reflected upon.

Conclusion

There are many qualities that great poker players have like intelligence and cunning. However, lets just get started with these qualities. Work on them and they will take your game to the next level. Constantly challenge your game and your own person qualities. Look deep down inside of yourself to find these characteristics in yourself.