There happen to be plenty of well documented success stories in poker’s history, perhaps none more notable than that of Chris Moneymaker, an average Joe who turned a $39 investment in a PokerStars satellite tournament into a $2.5 million win at the World Series of Poker in 2003. It was his first major live tournament, and thus he was a virtual unknown within the poker world ahead of the tournament.

His win is often cited as one of the driving forces behind the mass universal appeal of poker and online poker within the years since, as it gave players from throughout the world hope to dream that they too could one day accomplish a similar feat. While such a victory is certainly improbable, it really is certainly not impossible, as we’ve seen, so what must one do to follow within the path of Mr. Moneymaker himself?

Generally, you’ll need to continue to practice and boost your game. Mainly, you’ll need to actively seek out the weaknesses within your game and attempt to improve them. Don’t be passive about your game and operate under the assumption that the better you play, the greater you are going to get by default. This might be true to some small extent, but if you truly need to get better, you will need to actively work and improve to make it happen.

As Chris proved, you don’t need a good deal of live poker experience to perform well in live events, your understanding of the game is much more important. Of-course the way you play online can even affect simply how much you improve. Naturally, playing in play money games is of virtually no benefit, as it does not accurately represent how real poker is played. The same can even be said of low limit real money games. The bigger up the cash ladder you can go, the higher experience you certainly will earn from playing online poker, even though the risks can even be greater of-course.

The way you decide to play and learn is ultimately up to you. You might wish to fill your head with as much knowledge while you can and read the playing advice of the many pros who have written books (and virtually all of them have by this point). Or you may choose instead to keep your head relatively clear and focus on playing a simple, effective game.

What ever the situation could possibly be, realize that with some dedication, serious effort, and just a little luck, you too may be the next great online casino poker success story in the poker world.