I was just wondering how much time it would take for a person to get the skill needed to be considered "good"

I would think when I first started playing poker, I reckon after 6 months I was getting to understand hand strengths and position on the table.

These are some variables that affect how long it takes to become an average winning player:
Time you spend playing poker;
Time you spend reading strategies;
Where you get your strategy from;
Your brain capacity and so and so.

It's a wide range I would say from months to years.

As the old master said: "Poker takes five minutes to learn but a lifetime to master." - Mike Sexton

you have to play several hundred hands a day for several months to improve your level of poker play. when you start you have to take the time to analyze the spots in which you have lost and especially to correct the errors you make so as not to repeat them. after several thousand hands. you will learn how to play each hand depending on the situation you find yourself in. after a certain playing time. you will acquire automatisms which will allow you to play for several hours without tiring your brain too much.

A long long long long long time!

Define Good? To many factors to give an exact increment of time. Coaches, time devoted, and intellectual ability will ultimately determine this answer. If you use all the resources available on this site and spend many hours a week playing starting now I think in a couple months you will see improvement and you can continue to build on that progress. Sky is the limit

Originally Posted by JedKim

I was just wondering how much time it would take for a person to get the skill needed to be considered "good"

That would all depend on the dedication of the person trying to become 'good".
It would also largely depend on your definition of good.

I think that professionalism in any field requires considerable effort and time. In my opinion, it takes at least 5-7 years to become a professional player. 5-7 years of daily hard work.

Originally Posted by JedKim

I was just wondering how much time it would take for a person to get the skill needed to be considered "good"

for me, it's been taking over 3 years, for other minutes, I think this is related to something that cannot be explained, in my case there are some psychological aspects that are difficult to explain, I know that it's not just the knowledge of poker, ......

the time you spend learning and applying what you have learned well at the tables

Originally Posted by JedKim

I was just wondering how much time it would take for a person to get the skill needed to be considered "good"

It depends on the person... its different for everybody. Just start and you will reach your goals.

I think that you can learn and improve all your life. There is no limit to improve skills.

The length of time to "get good" is inversely proportional to the amount of effort put in. If you play one hour per week and don't study, you will never "get good".
You will need to *find your edge* and *identify your leaks*.
You will need to study as much away from the table as you spend at the table.
You will need to accumulate intel on your opponents (and this takes quite a long time to get a diverse and reliable data set.)
You'll need to identify the game which you have the greatest edge and perfect it.
This can be months to years to never.
You will require significant volume to get past the variance in order to be sure that your strats are working and that they will be effective in the long run.
Being the best in your monthly home game means very little in the context of *real* poker. (I am an example of that. I crush my friends because I have all the data and they just have a picture of who I am and how I play over the past 5 years. But in the past 6 months, I've started working, reading, playing more, taking notes and accumulating intel. So I win about 50% of our now weekly tourney's outright. But this means very little in the random games for me at present.
I'm still spending a bit more than I win. So basically, I'm still funding the global poker market. But there is a LOT of intel on this site. Both about the game, and about individuals. Every post made by a CC member is essentially giving away intel... This is a treasure trove. (But CC players are often growing and improving and so you cannot assume that the picture you build is entirely up to date.)

Best of luck.

Cheers,
ObbleeXY

Originally Posted by Rob Hobson

Here are some variables that affect the time it takes to become an average winning player:
time spent playing poker;
Time spent reading strategies;
Where you get your strategy from;
Your brain power and this and that.

It's a wide range, I would say, from months to years.

As the old master said: " Poker takes five minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master ." - Mike Sexton

I agree with the partner, he expresses it neat and easy to understand.
I add, it is better quality than quantity
Whatever you do, do it with passion

Queen of Nature

Originally Posted by JedKim

I was just wondering how much time it would take for a person to get the skill needed to be considered "good"

Depends on starting skills and health. Many people believe that health is not necessary for playing poker. In fact, this is an intellectual game. And the brain requires a lot of energy. You must eat well. But not too much otherwise you will have health problems.

Originally Posted by Freepokerfree

I agree with the partner, he expresses it neat and easy to understand.
I add, it is better quality than quantity
Whatever you do, do it with passion

Queen of Nature

That's right, partner!
Passion, at its best concept, is a tremendous leading force!

Aces and better.

Originally Posted by JedKim

I was just wondering how much time it would take for a person to get the skill needed to be considered "good"

I think it takes at least 10,000 hours to become a professional. But in any case, your patience, discipline and your desire to become a successful professional play a big role in this. But our community offers our members a free course that will greatly speed up this process.
https://www.cardschat.com/become-a-w...-poker-player/

Based on Cardschat's free online course, it takes 30 days to become a winning poker player, so that's it, only 30 days buddy, any more than that it's a lie.
Joking aside, it depends on each person, some people learn faster, some takes more time, but the most important thing is to keep improving. If you reach a certain "good" level, it's a matter of time other people will catch up and you'll no longer be considered "good". Also poker meta changes with time, so you have to keep studying to keep up with it and the rest of the competition.

When It plays for more than 5 hours a day by all means, and it can continue for one year every day, I think It's familiar even in 1 year.

But it's quite difficult to carry that out.

When u can distinguish risk and reward.

Poker in not a hand or a tournament, but a bankroll.

I mean "good " is enough bankroll for every day of poker.

to learn the basics of poker, just a couple of months.
To have a high level in poker, it takes a lot of hands played.
and remember, don't all IN with JJ preflop hahaha

Yeah I wonder of it a lot of times. When is the time a poker player considered good. Is it the way he plays? Or how much he wins?

well ... there is no definite time ... since it will depend on many factors such as the time you spend playing poker, the time you study, how seriously you take poker ... and then there is your ability from playing poker ... some get good at poker quickly while others are still trying ...!

Originally Posted by Dailon Arroyo Blandon

well ... there is no definite time ... since it will depend on many factors such as the time you spend playing poker, the time you study, how seriously you take poker ... and then there is your ability from playing poker ... some get good at poker quickly while others are still trying ...!

Well said.

There are many factors that determine a good player. Developing those skills will depend on the individual. Some people will work extremely hard to improve. Others will be more casual and slower paced. Countless hours of game play, and studying. Watching better players, streams, reading books, going over hand histories, learning from mistakes as well as hands that were executed with great skill. Success and the desire to gain it differs from one to another. One can become a good player if they work hard. How hard you work, and how often dictates the time frame one becomes a quality player. Poker is an easy game to learn but very difficult to master. Also, the game is always evolving so one can never stop learning / improving.

The faster you understand poker, the less time it will take...

I've been playing for 7 years! and i'm still a bad player

Originally Posted by JedKim

I was just wondering how much time it would take for a person to get the skill needed to be considered "good"

This is a question that gets asked quite a lot and people often expect to see answers in terms of weeks, or months, or years.

Actually, you should be thinking about it in terms of hands played. The reason being, Player A could sit down once a week to a live game and play 15-20 hands an hour for 4 hours for a year. At the end of the year Player A will have player approximately 3,640 hands, or 208 hours. Player B could play 4 tables online around 75 hands per table, per hour 8 hours a day, every day for a year. Player B will have played approximately 876,000 hands, or 2,920 hours, 240 times the number of hands played by Player A.

They've both played for a year, but player B is vastly more experienced, having played so much more poker.

This also doesn't take into account natural ability for the game, or time given to studying away from the table.

I would say that a player starting from scratch can become a good player within about 400,000 to 500,000 hands, or if you prefer - Player A will take about 123 years to become good, while Player B will take around 6 months.

some people have hte nack , and perfect it very quickly others take years, and others take years and still cant get it. Discussing with your player friends is a great help and study of the game is the most important.

Could that also depend on who you play poker with? You could be considered a good player to those who lose to you regularly, and a bad player to those who you lose to.

It will take a completely different amount of time to achieve the result. It all depends on how willing you are to work hard on your game.

Originally Posted by JedKim

I was just wondering how much time it would take for a person to get the skill needed to be considered "good"

It's not a question of time, it's a question of the quality of effort and learning you are putting in.

If you are going thru good courses (like the fr one here on cardschat) you will learn much faster than someone who is just playing and doing no review

You can become quite 'good' in less than a year certainly, but that would mean putting in many hours per week. If you are only putting in an hour or two each week it would likely take much longer.

I took about 3 months to start winning at poker in the beginning, but I was reading a ton of articles, strategy books, and watching lots of videos. I was probably putting in 4-6 hours pr day during that 3 month preiod.

So it totally depends on you and your approach

Originally Posted by ObbleeXY

The length of time to "get good" is inversely proportional to the amount of effort put in. If you play one hour per week and don't study, you will never "get good".
You will need to *find your edge* and *identify your leaks*.
You will need to study as much away from the table as you spend at the table.
You will need to accumulate intel on your opponents (and this takes quite a long time to get a diverse and reliable data set.)
You'll need to identify the game which you have the greatest edge and perfect it.
This can be months to years to never.
You will require significant volume to get past the variance in order to be sure that your strats are working and that they will be effective in the long run.
Being the best in your monthly home game means very little in the context of *real* poker. (I am an example of that. I crush my friends because I have all the data and they just have a picture of who I am and how I play over the past 5 years. But in the past 6 months, I've started working, reading, playing more, taking notes and accumulating intel. So I win about 50% of our now weekly tourney's outright. But this means very little in the random games for me at present.
I'm still spending a bit more than I win. So basically, I'm still funding the global poker market. But there is a LOT of intel on this site. Both about the game, and about individuals. Every post made by a CC member is essentially giving away intel... This is a treasure trove. (But CC players are often growing and improving and so you cannot assume that the picture you build is entirely up to date.)

Best of luck.

Cheers,
ObbleeXY

Great post Obblee!

Thank you for sharing this

Glad to see you are crushing it. I remember that time when I started studying and getting ahead of my friends who weren't doing the same, it's a great feeling eh!?

Keep up the good work my friend!

Originally Posted by Rob Hobson

These are some variables that affect how long it takes to become an average winning player:
Time you spend playing poker;
Time you spend reading strategies;
Where you get your strategy from;
Your brain capacity and so and so.

It's a wide range I would say from months to years.

As the old master said: "Poker takes five minutes to learn but a lifetime to master." - Mike Sexton

Great list, Love it Rob!

Originally Posted by niphon56

When u can distinguish risk and reward.

Poker in not a hand or a tournament, but a bankroll.

I mean "good " is enough bankroll for every day of poker.

I find it ironic that you're even attempting to answer OP's question.

My son has been playing 2 years with me coaching him. He doesnt have any desire to study out side of the hours he puts in playing and watching videos with me, but I am impressed with the solid foundation he has built. He has a good grasp of multiple concepts and can hold his own. He is positionally and range advantage aware.

He is putting in about 6-8 hours per week on average playing micro to low stakes Texas Hold Em Tournaments. We focus on exploitative and add in some GTO principles.

I can anticipate the future spots he will have trouble with, the problem is that they dont arise during play often enough to really tell if he can make the big folds when they do finally happen.

I do my best to make him aware of these tricky situations that he will surely encounter sooner or later.

We have not really reached a point where he can triple barrel bluff with full confidence but I consider this an advanced technique which makes one a beast but is not exactly needed to win.

At this pace in another 2 years he will be a force to contend with.

I would probably guess if you play a lot of poker and focus your studying, you might be able to improve significantly in about 6 months, but obviously this depends how good you already are. If you have never heard of pot odds in your life, you might improve a ton overnight, for example.

each player has their own time, some have more, some have less, the main thing is never to stop learning, because there is no limit.

I think it depends on your genetic ability. Someone who is very intelligent could learn very fast.