If you’ve been playing online idn ceme poker for any amount of time, then no doubt you’ve been inspired by your professional counterparts. You may have seen them raking in the hundreds of thousands or millions at tourneys.

It’s only a matter of time before you wonder how you can follow in their footsteps. You believe you have the skill; you have the foundations and theory worked out, but you’re not sure where to start.

Before thinking about playing professionally, or dedicating any amount of money to it, there’s something you need to recognize first.

Practical Poker

Practical poker is a way of playing poker that revolves around you giving up expectations to play a more prudent game. You want to be raking in as many wins as possible. After all, this is a business. You need the funds to sustain it. This kind of poker has three key elements to it:

Recognizing the importance of your mental state;

The ability to let go of your ego and recognize when you should walk away from a loss and;

Being able to “book a win”.

Your Mental State

Mental health is important to a poker player. 50% of a poker game revolves on your mental state. This includes your ability to distinguish the on-screen cues given by your opponent or being able to decide when to call, bluff, or raise.

Whether you’re playing poker as a hobby or want to play professionally, you’ll need the support of the people surrounding you. Since a positive mental state starts at home, a mental boost helps to give you confidence. With confidence, you’ll avoid second-guessing yourself when making important decisions in-game.

More than anything, you want to avoid negativity.

Know When to Stop Playing

If you want to play professionally, you need to plan for failure. You should have a bankroll large enough to withstand the downswings that will happen during your career.

Too often, players get roped into the trap that once you start a game, you need to finish it. Even if there are warning signs that the hand will not go well for you, you ignore them to keep playing.

To make this hobby a viable profession, you need the support of those around you. Constantly losing makes them lose confidence in you and makes you lose your confidence in yourself.

Secure Your Wins

Booking your wins (another term for securing them) ties into what we’ve mentioned about surrounding yourself with positivity. Your game performance is influenced by your mental state.

What does it mean to book a win? You need to come out of your play sessions a winner. In order to garner support from those around you, you need to book enough wins to support your bankroll and play more sessions in the future.  

Let’s say you sit down for a 4 to 6-hour play session. After the first two hands, you realize that you’re up by 2 buy-ins. Stop playing.

You’re ensuring that you end the session on a positive note, which will give you the confidence needed during your next session. Playing conservatively will reduce the possibility of negative outcomes.