Becoming a winning player, how long will it take?

[jon166]

Hi, I'm currently waiting for some cash because I busted my roll of $130 which I built up from $15. It was really discouraging, because I tilted so much away like that, and I've learned a lot from that busting. I don't plan on it again...

I was wondering how long did it take for some winning players to get to winning players. I consider my self reasonabley intelligent, yet I have a lacking of confidence. Does it take some personal traits to become a winning player? I'm probobly gonna have more patience and disclipline from my last go, and will gain more as I move along. But what does it REALLY take? Is it some natural ability that some people were born with?

I see this guy on the $5000 no-limit and he consistantly does good. His name is hallingol, but he just doesn't do good, he always has a ton of cash. I see him on one table he maybe has 11k, and the other one he has 20 k or something. Then I see this guy named fischer and he has 20 k on both tables. I'm looking at duythemaster and i see him a lot as well, but it seems like he isn't crushing the limit as much as those guys.

All though, but i've seen hallingol do so good so much, and then i just see duythemaster winning marginally, can there really be that much difference in skill?

although, i know there could be a HUGE amount of variables that could factor in to the play, like cold decks, and other stuff like that could factor, but I really don't know what to make of it...

Sorry this post was jumbled, but any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

[Daniel Magix]

[ QUOTE ]
It was really discouraging, because I tilted so much away like that, and I've learned a lot from that busting. I don't plan on it again...


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First of all, nobody PLANS on busting or tilting. The best players have just been playing long enough so that they have grown some resistance to the tilt-monkey. It can still happen to pros, but just not nearly as much as us (I am a low-limit guy, trying to build a roll for higher stakes)

The best advice I got when starting off, is to play within your bankroll. You admitted you tilted and busted. I am assuming you played above your means. I started with $100 and played .25/50 Limit. Even then, I was not properly rolled for that game. Play with a roll of 300X the big BET. Move up only when you have 300X the big bet for the next game.

You said you started with $15 and turned it into $130, right? That's good. If you achieved that success and started with $100, you would have $860 or so by now. If you started with $1000, you'd have $8600. Obviously, you would not be guaranteed those results when playing higher limits. You won't encounter quite as many horrible players when you reach the higher levels, and therefore, you won't necessarily run all over them as easily. My point is, you don't know what these hig-limit guys that you admire invested as their initial deposit. You started with $15. They could have dropped 10k in as their first deposit. Who knows?

But keep doing what your doing, only minus the tilting part. Start small, build from that, learn patience, learn plays, learn to read the board and read hands, etc.

I believe poker is easy (to a degree) - managing your bankroll and not tilting is the hard part.

[Grunch]

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I believe poker is easy

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not.

To the OP: How long will it take to become a good poker player? Much longer than you may think.

[Redshift]

First of all, you must learn discipline. What does this mean? Do not play outside your bankroll, never play when outside variables effect your state of mind, etc. In order to get the most value out of your session you must be playing at the top of your game or atleast very close to it. One thing that I often tell people that are wanting to becoming winning players is to simply play more! Nothing can ever surpass experience and the only way to gain experience is to play. One thing I did when I first started out was to play way BELOW my bankroll and try out different styles and try to pick up on players betting patterns and work at putting them on certain hands and such. It has done wonders for my game and it will teach you that poker is about everything except the cards you have. Another piece of advice to end this post is to branch out and play other forms of poker other than NLHE. I had a friend who I was mentoring and we naturally started out with NLHE because that is what he wanted to play. Well after mixed results in the beginning, I started bringing in other forms like Limit HE and Omaha Hi/Lo and BOOM, he took off like a rocket. So what I'm trying to say is don't be limited in your approach to poker, if NLHE isn't working for you, reach out and try something else.

[Psycho Boy Jack]

[Very bad English warning]

this is not exactly a question i would have asked, but in fact, there is a thing i would also want to know about this subject. Could some players give us some examples about some play paths. Just in terms of time. How long did YOU take to become a average winning player? just as a reference. I mean, i don't play since a long time, so i don't have any references about player paths. Dist take one month, 6 months, one year, two years ?
I know time is a versatile concept and that it may vary very much from one to another player. So give us some players learning curves you know, or your own learning curve.

[Biggle10]

Becoming a winning player means different things depending on which level you start at. For example, winning at 1c/2c will probably happen faster than becoming a winning player at 3/6 or at 200/400.

[Psycho Boy Jack]

give me Numbers ! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[SheridanCat]

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give me Numbers ! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

There are no numbers. The vast majority of poker players will never, ever, be winning players.

[Sigurd]

Since you guys seem to suffer from the delusion that it is possible to predict how long time it will take to become a winning player, I will give you something to think about...

I have just gone to my bookshelf and taken down "Small Stakes Hold'em: Winning Bit With Expert Play", it contains some 350 pages of solid knowledge.
Try to predict how long time it would take you to fully understand those 350 pages and applying it to your game. Then add the time it would take you to play 10.000-20.000 hands of poker, and you should have an unreliable estimate of how long time it would take to become a winning player at small stakes limit.

*UPDATE* I'v just noticed that my initial post may sound a bit harsh, which wasn't the intent.

[SheridanCat]

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Since you guys seem to suffer from the delusion that it is possible to predict how long time it will take to become a winning player,

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm certainly not. However, you don't have to fully understand the contents of SSHE to be a winner by any means.