Being a professional poker player doesn’t mean having your name in lights: it means playing poker as your job. You don’t need to travel circuits around the world to be a professional poker player – you just need to make it your main source of income. If you find a place or two you jive with, stick with those places. It’s your bread and butter.
How long will it take to become a winning player?
So, you’ve been playing poker for a little while but you’re not winning money just yet. So you started to wonder... how long will it take before I start winning money from poker?
Quick answer: 3 to 24 months for most players I’d say. However, not all players have it in them to become consistent winners in online poker.
If you asked this question on a poker forum, you would struggle to get even one reply with an ounce of seriousness in it. The problem is that there are so many variables involved that it’s impossible to give an exact answer.
The variables that will affect how long it takes to become a winning player.
- The time you spend playing poker.
- The time you spend reading strategy.
- Where you get your strategy from.
- How intelligent you are.
- How quickly you learn.
- The stakes you play at.
...and that’s just a handful. One player may be able to progress in to a consistent winner within a few months, whereas another may never be able to win money from Texas Hold’em (or whatever variant they play).
However, this wouldn’t a very interesting article if I just left the answer to the question as “it depends” (even though it really does). So, here are a few rough guesstimates to satisfy your quench for tangible answers.
By the way, a winning player is defined as someone with a positive winrate, regardless of how small that winrate may be.
1) The super quick learner - 3 to 6 months.
- Plays at least 3 hours a day every day.
- Reads quality strategy articles daily.
- Has subscribed to a training site and watches strategy videos daily.
- Participates in strategy forums and posts hand histories for review.
- Purchased tracking software and actively analyses their play on a regular basis.
- Is generally a very intelligent person - capable of getting a degree in some form of science if they put their mind to it.
Three months, in my opinion, is an attainable time frame in which a very clever individual with the right tools can turn from a complete beginner in to a winning player.
This would involve some serious dedication, passion and through a strong desire to win money from online poker. If you’re a bright guy or girl and you absorb information from quality sources, I don’t see why you couldn’t achieve a positive winrate within 90 days.
This timeframe is certainly not for everyone though.
If you are a super-quick learner.
If you keep going at this rate you should see a lot of success. You have the potential to rise up the stakes very quickly as long as you make sure you keep your bankroll management in check.
However, be sure to not burn yourself out. Poker can be draining, and a week break here and there can actually be beneficial to your game. Be careful not to demand too much from yourself if you have early successes. Variance can hit you for six if you’re not accustomed to the swings.
2) The hard worker - 8 to 12 months.
- Plays around 10 hours of poker a week.
- A bright individual and tries their best to think logically about their decisions.
- Browses poker forums for advice but doesn’t participate in discussions too often.
- Genuinely interested in reading about poker strategy, but only reads for about an hour or so every now and then.
- They have tracking software, but only know the basics of it for when it comes to helping to find leaks in their game.
- Subscribes to a training site and enjoys to casually watch training video series’.
The hard worker has a similar passion to learn about poker as the “super quick learner” above, but they likely have other commitments outside of poker that reduces the amount of time they have to play and learn about the game. If they could spend some more time playing though, they would.
They have a strong drive to improve and it means a lot to become a winning player, but it’s not everything to them. They are happy to do ask best as they can with the time they have available without letting poker take too much precedence.
If you are a hard working player.
If this describes you and you’re not quite a winning player after the first few months, you should be confident that you’ll get their eventually. Keep the desire there and give it time, you’ll be a winner eventually if you stay on track.
Keep at it basically and don't give up.
3) The casual player, but still wants to win - 18 months to 24 months.
- Plays about 2 or 3 hours of poker on a good week. Home games account for a fair amount of play time.
- Can think logically, but probably doesn’t put as much brain power in to poker as they could.
- Only started to browse over different poker forums after about a year, but still hasn’t created an account.
- Googled a few strategy related topics but is not a frequent strategy reader.
- Has heard of training sites but suspects that they might not worth the money. Considering checking them out though.
- Bought tracking software but only really uses it to keep track of wins and losses.
These players are very slow learners and could definitely put a lot more effort in to their game. On the other hand, they probably don’t mind taking their time when it comes to learning good strategy, although deep down I’m sure they wish that they could have become a winning player sooner.
Casual players gradually draft in all the important tools for improvement over a longer period of time as they are skeptical about their value. They’ll eventually participate in forums, read articles, subscribe to training sites and purchase tracking software, but it happens over a longer period of time due to their lower drive to become a winning player.
If you are a casual player.
If you’re one of these players, there is so much room for improvement that you can drastically slash the time it takes to turn that negative winrate in to a positive one. Stop being so tentative and invest in training sites, software and time spent participating in forums. They are incredibly valuable, honestly.
Disclaimer.
All of these time frames for the different player types have no scientific or mathematical basis. They are just my best efforts to provide numbers in response to a vague question that is incredibly difficult to answer. All these estimates are from my personal experience with a bunch of guesswork thrown in for good measure.
There’s a good chance that you will fall way out of these estimated time frames, so don’t follow them too closely and get disheartened if it’s taking you longer to progress than you would like.
Just remember that every video you watch, article you read and hand you analyze is another step forward toward a positive winrate. Keep it up and you’ll get there one day.
Go back to the interesting Texas Hold'em articles.
How Much More Money Could
You Be Winning?
“I played break-even online poker for 4 years before finding
DeucesCracked, for the last 5 months I've made more money playing
poker than at my full-time job.”
- liquid_quik, DC Member
Why can’t I win money at online poker? Where am I going wrong? What do I need to do to improve my poker game?
I don’t know. Those are some pretty vague questions right there. Maybe if you sent me some stats, graphs and a few hand histories then I might be able to do something. Then again, this isn’t really much of a dialogue, so that’s not going to work either.
However, what I can do is give you a bunch of reasons as to why you can’t win money from online poker and ideas for what you could do to improve. How does, say, a nice, round 26 reasons sound?
Reasons why you lose money playing online poker.
- You’ve played 1,000 hands. Ever heard of variance? Don’t draw any conclusions until you hit at least 10,000 hands, and even then you can’t really rely on the results from that sample size. Just play lots of hands before you resign yourself to the losers’ corner.
- You don’t use bankroll management. If you don’t use BR management, you’re never going to be able to consistently win money from poker. And no, I’m not just saying that to scare you.
- You play too many hands. Sure, all hands in poker have a chance of winning, but then I also have a chance of having a threesome. Just because an event can happen it doesn’t mean that you should put your money behind it. The odds aren’t always going to be in your favour.
- You undervalue position. How many articles and tips is it going to take before you start to understand that position is actually way more important than you think it is? Have you not noticed how much easier it is to play from the button than it is UTG?
- You make minraises before and after the flop. Why? Raise 3BB + 1BB for each limper preflop and bet at least 2/3rds of the pot postflop and you’ll do much better for yourself. See bet sizing for more details.
- You multi-table too many tables. Yeah sure, all the cool kids are multi-tabling but that doesn’t mean you have to too. Take you time and play within your comfort zone. I’m sure that if I had a Ferrari as my first car I would have crashed it. Thank God that I was broke and had to settle for a washing machine with wheels.
- You chase draws too much. Blindly chasing after any and every flush and straight draw isn’t going to pay off. Pot odds will sort you out.
- You make crying calls. It’s nice to be able to see your opponent’s hand at the end, but if it’s costing you money then it’s not really all that nice at all. Learn to be content with your decision and fold if you think you’re behind.
- You blame the poker room and not yourself. PokerStars is rigged!!11!! - of course. It couldn’t possibly that you have leaks in your game could it. Winning players look inward not outward when they are losing.
- You haven’t read any poker books. Even in this high-tech world of training videos, interactive seminars and snowboarding, there is still room for the good old-fashioned poker books. The better ones are still incredibly helpful, so don't overlook them.
- You chase after stats. You are 28/16/2 and apparently you need to play 22/18/3 to be a winning poker player at 6max NLHE, so you force yourself to play less hands and raise more. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Focus on playing good poker and the stats will take care of themselves.
- You play whilst on tilt. Yes, that’s right. Shoving all-in with 63 offsuit UTG is by far the most effective way to get your money back after that bad beat.
- You make fancy plays against micro stakes players.Floating the flop and check raising the turn isn’t going to go down too well if the guy on the other side of the screen is dribbling, scratching his balls and randomly clicking buttons. Keep it simple. Bet your good hands and check/fold your bad hands.
- You don’t value bet big enough. Seriously, crank your value bets up and your winrate will skyrocket. Why bet $20 in to a $100 pot when you can get called by a $100 bet? Bigger value bets = bigger wins.
- You don’t value bet at all. Even worse! If you have a good hand, get some money for it. Don’t be afraid to lose 1 time out of 10 or whatever. Not value betting is like never crossing the road because you’re always afraid of getting run over.
- You call raises with weak hands and then fold to further action. If you don’t have a plan for later on in the hand you’re no better than a monkey clicking buttons. You should always have a plan of action for later streets. Fold on that turn if you don’t know what you’re going to do on the river.
- You don’t continuation bet.Continuation bets can pick up loads o’ little pots. Adding the cbet to your game is an instant winrate booster.
- You continuation bet too much. Easy now tiger, cbets are good and all but not necessarily 100% of the time. On some flops you’re much better off checking. See this video on continuation betting for a quick quite on when and when not to cbet.
- You don’t double barrel. This is often because you just cbet too much. If you’re not prepared to double barrel then hold back on those cbets.
- You double barrel too much. Just because your continuation bet got called it doesn’t mean you need to go ahead and throw the kitchen sink at your opponent to get them off the hand. Pick your spots.
- You triple barrel too much. I think this is going to be the biggest bankroll rapist. Poor triple barrels are going to ravage your bankroll until it’s a quivering mess.
- You don’t 3bet enough. If you’re not 3betting your AKs and AQs against loose raises you are missing out on easy money. Put money in the middle with strong hands.
- You call too many 3bets. If you raise and get 3bet by a tight player, what sort of hands do you think your AJo is beating?
- You don’t get rakeback. This isn’t going to fix the root of the problem, but if you’re a break even or marginal losing player then rakeback can turn you in to a winning player overnight.
- You play when you’re tired or drunk. As a rule of thumb, if it's not legal for you to drive, then you shouldn’t play poker either. As sad as it is to say this, think of poker as a sport. You need to be in good condition, otherwise your results will suffer.
- You have a “lucky” hand. No, J3o isn’t lucky and it’s not going to win you any money.
Any of those help you out?
How To Become A Better Online Poker Player
Oh, and for what it's worth, you definitely can win money from poker. Have a look at how much money you can win playing online poker.
Go back to the interesting Texas Hold'em articles.
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Deuces Cracked?
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after a month of losing over 50BI at micro stakes, I joined DC. I've
been living off poker ever since; if anything in this world could help
you become a winning player, this is it.”
- Malefiicus, DC Member