Starting to take poker seriously... some questions

I want to start playing poker serious to see if I have it in me to do it full time. Im currently only playing online but am soon moving to a city with a card room. I want to split my time between live and online.

Overall im a losing online player, my most major losses coming from tilting, real hard, so that relates to my first question. What advice do the educated out there have for me with regards to controlling my tilt? Anything to read or watch? I have been more calm in my recent play, but I know it isnt certain that ive dropped that part of my game, seeing as its only been 2000 hands so far.

I would also like to start playing more MTTs, but should I just initially focus my time on cash games?

And last question. There are alot of info and learning sources out there, but where can I find the better of the lot? Should I pay to join an online poker school? Get a face to face coach? Good software to download?

Ok this is turning into a novel so ill leave it at that, any help and tips would be appreciated

Hey, first of all welcome to CardsChat!
It is important to know what makes you tilt. Is it a bad beat? Lack of concentration? Did you make a bad move which made you tilt? If you want to improve your concentration, focus and less tilting i advice you to look in to the mental game of poker. There are a lot of video's and things online. For example this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyuXKei6gIU

MTT or cashgames?
I think you should try out both if you don't know yet which is the best for you. Those are 2 totally different games. I advice to play both and find out which is works the best for you, and more important, which is the most profitable for you.

Theres a lot of free stuff online to learn poker from. Books, forums, blogs, video's. I suggest to start of with the freestuff and see you how improve.

Goodluck in improving and don't forget to enjoy the game!

Mat

Hi GDB,
Hope this helps

From my experience and practices regarding Tilt it's not just a poker issue it's deeper than that
emotions and energy pass through us and it passes through life.

It flows like waves your surroundings your human nature and your game temperament all influence your reactions.
It's important you can start to operate your thinking on higher levels you need to find inner calmness within yourself to make good decisions in life and good decisions in poker.

It's very rare you will find someone who has a bad life temperament or has problems dealing with money in the real world that can become a good let alone a great poker player.

For you really step up to the next level in poker you need to step upto the next level in life, there are so many lessons we can learn from ourselves
and in our own lives that relate to poker and granted studying will help your knowledge and development will further progression what people fail to understand you can't just go and be a great poker player.

Just like you can't just go and be a great athlete there are certain elements and factors that over long courses of action at the highest level of poker become exploited.

The game is getting harder thousands become serious and fail every year and only a few serious honest focused players truely make a strong profit and tell
a true story of what poker really is and of what it takes to gain success as a sole income.

It's extremely Hard just like running a business if you want to make a small earning you still need a large controlled bankroll to be able to take out 1000 a month.

If your talking taking out lets say 2000+ a month you need a consistent and steady hourly rate as well as building a profit and taking into account the higher swings you can encounter.

You also have to take into consideration you wont always play your best poker even when your not tilting you will have to discipline and grind out any sessions you can across tough games you will get beat and have to cut your losses to a minimum and accept the loss.
And when you win you will need to maximise it and keep the discipline with your profit.

It's all part of discipline likewise so is Tilt it comes from discipline but you also
need to understand yourself and have an open mind to all areas of progression and development and think on high levels at all teams.

Great advise right off the bat. Problem I had starting off was no knowledge of Bank Roll Management. Once embraced that went as far to allocate my bankroll and time for education through books, videos and online subscription.

Good luck with this endeavour, how you deal with bad beats and tilt is a skill in itself. Just as important as the knowledge of playing poker.

Thanks everyone. All great advice, I appreciate it.

I am more inclined (and keen) to give it a go at both cash and MTT's. I think with the tournaments ill stick to the $5.50-$11 buy-ins and see how that level goes.

I know my tilt and my whole approach has as much to do with my stage of life as it does my poker skill and knowledge. In the past year I have leveled up in life and ambition, I see poker as the ultimate test and gauge of how far I have come.

I am prepared to fail, and determined to turn failures around and become a more complete person and player.

Thanks again for the advice, any more would be great

Great questions, amazing advice, awesome response to the advice. I just googled advice on Poker as I have never played before but always thought I might like it. Then I met a couple of guys on my hols that play regularly and it has inspired me to go for it. This trail here has inspired me even more, thank you GBD Pokerverse cotta and funkid I'll be seeing you soon, or not so soon depending on my progress rate lol....but I am in for the longhaul

The best type of education is experience, but also learning from your experiences. There is a lot of great poker schools out there, but I find a lot of them are leaning to playing math, instead of playing poker. Don't get me wrong, I believe you have to learn the math, but I am a firm believer in trusting your gut instinct. Poker is about making good decisions. On tilt, check out gripsed on youtube, Evan has a great video on how to never go on tilt again.

Well you started playing poker seriously or have you tried ? I think many people want to see your report GDBPoker or poker still not for everyone or say a few words why it is impossible to play seriously. I think the main reasons this bankroll, bankroll management, patience and learning.

Would love to know your progress on this GDB