I believe patience is a top 3 quality in a good player but I feel that the ability to learn to identify what your opponents strengths, weaknesses and tendencies is the MOST crucial skill to poker success. And learning what the other players are doing, or what they may do takes patience and observation. I see a lot of players talking about position, stack size, ect. but no one seems to mention reading ability and that's common because it's a rare thing to find someone who concentrates hard enough on the game to understand when and why a player is making a certain move. Just about everyone can identify the rock, when he/she makes a big preflop raise you know it's because they have a monster; similarly, the same is true with the maniac who wants to push with any suited junk and roll the dice. But being able to identify the other players, like the big blind defender, the button raiser, someone who always CB's the flop no matter what hits when you already know that he has a medium pair; these are the things that will make a good player into a great one. I value hand strength and position, but if I know that I can push my stack all in middle position because all of the players behind me are super tight and will fold anything but premium hands, that's info that I can use to my advantage regardless of anything else. And online poker makes it easier to do than live tourneys and cash games because in most places you can take notes so that not only can you know how a player plays at this moment, but you can track their game over time. Some people play the same way over and over, but that isn't the majority. Most people hone their skills and modify their game over time, others play according to their moods, still others play differently depending on their bankrolls, and there are those who seem to play great for awhile but then have a blowup. You will be amazed by what you can learn about a player by tracking them throughout a few tournaments. By the middle stages of most tournaments I enter I have at least a few notes on every player that I've sat with (and of course I keep updating, even when I am fortunate enough to make it to heads up), this info always pays off! By that time you are pretty accurately putting your opponents on a range of hands depending on those documented tendencies and you should know how to play back at them successfully. The added bonus is that when you stick to a few different sites, you will come to realize that you are seeing the same people over and over and you will already have reads on them.
So, yes, patience is really a big key to poker. But not in the traditional way people think about what having patience is. Use your patience to learn what the other people are doing (and why) and your profits will soar.