How good can you get if you start at age 40?

[renfurdson]

I'm 42 years old and I've only been seriously trying to get good at poker for about a year.

I know for sure that if the game in question were chess or basketball, I would have little chance of becoming a very good player, starting at this advanced age. And of course I would have no chance at all to become a professional player.

It seems that many of the successful online players started at a young age.

I would love to hear from people who started playing poker in mid-life and have become winning players.

[Simplistic]

you'll be fine.

[edfurlong]

I think Microbob is seventy or eighty, he should be along shortly.

[renfurdson]

Did you start young?

[Simplistic]

[ QUOTE ]
Did you start young?

[/ QUOTE ]yes, i'm still young. but people have to start somewhere and being young has not that many benefits, if you play live and play for hours a day then you might be at a slight disadvantage, but if you're a recreational player you have no problem.

another thing, young players might be able to multi-table online better than older people but i think that's a crock of [censored]. it just takes adapting.

honestly you'll be fine. just start slow

[JeffO]

I didn't start playing serious until I was close to 40. I'm now almost 44 and play poker for a living. I got more out of two plus two than any book I ever read.

One warning. It's a tough way to make an easy living.

[renfurdson]

Thanks JeffO. I hope to make part of my living with poker. What game/limit do you play?

[JeffO]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks JeffO. I hope to make part of my living with poker. What game/limit do you play?

[/ QUOTE ]

30/60 50/100 100/200 but I started with $200 playing 1/2. There is no shortcut.

[renfurdson]

That is quite impressive. It's hard to imagine playing those limits at this point.

[suited aces]

This might be a little off-topic, but as far as multi-tabling goes, if you're really trying to improve your game, it's way overrated. I suggest playing one or two tables for a while. It's hard to really learn the game and think at the table when you've got 4, 6, 8, or however many other tables to worry about. I think one advantage to starting a little older is that you don't need to play a ton of tables to prove how "good" you are. Also, given that you probably don't need to make any money off of poker right now, you can sacrifice some of the short-term gains of multi-tabling (i.e., more hands so more money) for the long term gain of actually improving your game at a quicker pace.