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Rob Sheffield: Professional Poker Player

With the emergence and boom of online poker, a new dream also arose for players: they could practice their hobby from home and, in the best case, even make it their profession. But the step from hobby player to poker professional is much bigger than many people think. Those who want to earn a living with poker have to invest a lot. We explain what it means to be a poker pro and what a pro has to be able to do. We also introduce some of the best poker professionals who have made it and turned their hobby into a profession.

What does it mean to be a poker pro?

Anyone who decides to become a poker pro must be clear about what this step means. A career as a poker player requires a lot of investment, first and foremost a lot of time. In addition, you need the right attitude coupled with iron discipline. The basic rules of poker are quickly learned. But if you want to become a so-called “winning player”, i.e. a player who can make a living from poker, you have to work hard on your game.

The poker player must also have a lot of patience. Because especially at the beginning of his career, he will probably earn little at first. And even when he has become a better player, he has to learn to live with the typical downswings in poker. Losses are part of everyday life in a game like a poker, which has a relatively high gambling component. And in order to be able to play tournaments at all, he first has to invest real money. In online poker, these are mainly buy-ins. But if you want to increase your chances of success, you should not only play online poker but also live poker. Here, however, travel, accommodation, and food costs are added.

Thus, poker quickly develops into a full-time job for which you have to invest 40 hours per week with “training” as well as online and live games as in a regular job or even more. In addition, the professional player has no regular fixed working hours. Many tournaments, whether live or online, only start in the evening and can go on all night. On top of that, there is the time spent playing sit or cash games or acquiring poker knowledge.

What makes it more difficult for professionals: The poker scene has changed in recent years. There are a lot more players and a lot less fish overall. The games and levels are much harder to beat than they used to be. A budding pro has to take that into account as well.

What does a poker pro need to know?

A poker pro must be familiar with numerous subjects that are needed for the game. Besides the basic rules and concepts, there are countless strategies and ways of playing that a pro must know. A player must acquire this knowledge by reading poker books, watching videos and reading strategy articles, and preferably by exchanging ideas with other players. The principle is: to gain experience and play as much as possible. Experience also makes the master in poker!

Poker involves complex topics such as statistics, probabilities, and mathematics. Only those who know terms like outs, odds, pot odds, implied odds, reverse implied odds, equity, and expected value and how to calculate them have a chance of becoming a successful player. Responsible bankroll management is also part of being a poker pro.

Every player has a certain amount of capital at his disposal, which he can invest in the games at the poker tables. The foresighted handling of this money is the meaning of the term bankroll management. In addition, a professional always needs a game plan for every possible situation. A game plan is a decision-making tool for playing in certain situations against different opponents. The professional plans his decisions for his entire range and not for an isolated individual hand.

In online poker, it is usually not enough for professional players to play at one table at a time. Otherwise, the win rate would be too low. The win rate is the expected profit a player makes per hour. Thus, he must play multi-tabling, i.e. gamble at several tables at the same time. Furthermore, it is difficult to become a successful poker professional without the use of auxiliary software. With auxiliary software such as heads-up display and tracking programs, professionals can learn more about the play of their opponents and also improve their own game.

The best poker pros

What percentage of poker players can actually make a living from the game is debatable. Some claim it is only 5 percent. Others are of the opinion that it is 10 percent. In any case, the number is quite small. But there are some who have made it, even to the very top. We present some of the world’s best poker professionals.

The world’s best poker pros

  1. Daniel Negreanu: The Canadian poker pro-Daniel Negreanu is undisputedly one of the most successful players in poker history. He leads the poker “All-Time Money List” with 30.6 million dollars. Negreanu has also won six WSOP bracelets so far. In 2014, the PokerStars Team Pro was also inducted as the youngest ever “Hall of Fame” player of poker’s best. Negreanu is also the first player to win the WSOP “Player of the Year” title twice
  2. Phil Ivey: The American Phil Ivey is one of the top stars of the poker scene. He has already won ten WSOP bracelets and, with $23.1 million in live winnings, is in fifth place on the “All-Time Money List”. Experts consider Ivey the best “all-around” player in the world.
  3. Phil Hellmuth: The absolute and sole record holder in terms of WSOP bracelets is the US American Phil Hellmuth. In the course of his career, he has won a total of 14 bracelets at the WSOP, including the Main Event of the WSOP in 1989 and the Main Event of the WSOPE in 2012. With 19.3 million dollars, he is currently in 8th place on the “All-Time Money List”.
  4. Antonio Esfandiari: The US poker pro-Antonio Esfandiari is currently one of the world’s best poker players because of one single tournament. Esfandiari won the WSOP “Big One for One Drop” event in 2014. This tournament for the benefit of the WSOP charity organization “One Drop” had a buy-in of 1 million dollars. Esfandiari won the tournament and took home $18.3 million, the largest prize money ever won for a 1st place finish in poker history. With a total of 26.4 million dollars, Esfandiari currently occupies second place on the “All-Time Money List”.
  5. Dan Colman: If you talk about the world’s best pros of the last few years, the name Dan Colman has to be mentioned. On 23 April 2014, the US American had just $767,000 in live winnings to his name. Then a unique run began. Only six months later, Colman was in third place on the “All-Time Money List” with 22.8 million dollars after numerous victories and top placings. He is considered one of the best tournament poker and heads-up players of our day.