Play poker for living?

Question

hi everyone ! i've been trying to play poker for living but it seems like i can never make it, my goal is i wanna win 50 each day but when i reach 50 and still want more and more, i can't stop untill i lose it all, anyone know is there anyway to make you stop at the amount you expect ? i got my skills but i just can't stop, i feel like i can play it dayz to dayz as long as i still have money, the more the play, my patient get weaker and weaker, i call for everything and i lose it all. please let me know some advice, thank you

Answer 1

you sound like you play online....

You call everything and hope to get lucky...

STOP PLAYING ONLINE POKER!!!

Answer 2

First step, absolutely key: bankroll management skills.

An above poster said never put more than 1/10th of your bankroll (money you have set aside JUST for poker).  I think that's being way too liberal, especially for someone with your apparent lack of control.  I would recommend sitting down with NO MORE than 5% of your roll.  This means if you have $1000 saved up JUST FOR POKER, NEVER sit down with more than $50 of it.  In fact, in your case, I would recommend sitting down with half of THAT at one time ($25).  That way, if you make a bad call/play and lose it all, you can still reload one more time and be maintaining a disciplined bankroll management plan.

As you can see, if you wanna make any decent money, it's going to take quite a big roll.  For no limit games, you want 300xBB, or around $500, to sit at a standard $1/2 table.  If you're applying the 5% rule, that means you want about $10K.  So, either save that money up or start at very low limits and build it up, little by little.

Another little technique that worked for me and prevented me from playing too loose, was to cash out a certain amount if I managed to double up.

Say you sit down with $50 and an hour or two later you find yourself at $100+.  Cash out $50 of it.  That way if you donk off all your chips in one bad/unlucky hand, you're still even for the day.  I think a lot of people are against this, as there are many benefits to having a large stack, but I think first and foremost self-control and patience are your priorities.  The money will come naturally.

Being good enough to make poker your living isn't just about poker skills.  It's about having the human qualities it takes to deal with the emotional rollercoaster and the randomness that is inherent in poker.  For every Phil Ivey or Daniel Negreanu, there's probably a dozen or more players out there with just as much "skillz" who just didn't have the self-control or patience to really make it.  I honestly think that one thing many people miss about Ivey and Negreanu's ability is their emotional steadfastness.  Watch High Stakes poker.  I am still astounded how Greenstein put about $100K on aces and watched them get cracked and didn't say a word.  I hope to have that ability to detach myself someday (I still whine about losing a $50 pot).

Answer 3

Get a distraction from the boredom. I use my Ipod to keep me happy.

Never stop learning. There are poker books (super System is my favorite). Card Player or All in is available at most casinos. Pick up a copy and enjoy.

Here comes the hard part, actually evaluating your self on your actual skill level. Are you really as good as you think or are there areas you should improve on, like patience for example. Im guessing that you are loose agressive and tend to chase a bit, or get into race situations. Most pros that play cash games will do none of that. They will wait for hours for the big pot and then get paid.

Ok the next part, you said you want to get to $50, That seems to be a pretty low number to sustain a suitable living. Im also wondering what stakes you are playing at. For the sake of this response Im going to assume its 1-2 and more likely than not,no limit. If my above assumptions are correct try this, check out a pot limit or limit game. Its harder to go broke there and I find the tells are more noticible. Your opponent will (in some cases) make a series of reraises. This will give you the oppertunity so see more of his (or her) betting patterns and tells. By the time you get to the turn card you willl have a pretty good idea of where you are in the hand. And the bonus is that pot limit and limit tables have a bigger pot (using a per hand ratio) than the average ammount of hands played per hour than a no limit table.

If you are serious about this you should try to put your time in while you save a bankroll, As a rule the bankroll should be 3 months salary. So grind the tables at night until you can save the money, then once you hit that magic number,resign and live the dream.

But please remember, never EVER use more than 1/10th of your bankroll to play on. That will help buffer the cold deck weeks and bad beats.

Good luck, I hope you hit it big.