There have been a lot of well documented success stories in poker’s history, perhaps none more significant 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 as a result he was a virtual unknown within the poker world before the tournament.
His win is usually cited as one of the driving forces behind the mass universal appeal of poker and online poker in the years since, as it gave players from all over the world hope to dream that they too could one day accomplish a similar feat. While such a victory is certainly improbable, it is by no means impossible, as we’ve seen, so what must one do to follow in the path of Mr. Moneymaker himself?
In other words, you will need to continue to practice and improve your game. Most importantly, you’ll need to actively seek out the weaknesses in your game and endeavor to improve them. Do not be passive about your game and operate under the assumption that the greater you play, the greater you are going to get by default. This may be true to some small extent, but if you truly want to get better, you will need to actively work and improve to make it happen.
As Chris proved, you do not need a good deal of live poker experience to perform well in live events, your understanding of the game is far more important. Of course how you play online may also affect simply how much you improve. Naturally, playing in play money games is of virtually no benefit, as it will 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 may go, the greater experience you certainly will earn from playing online poker gambling site online poker, even though the risks may also be greater of course.
How you choose to play and learn is ultimately up to you. You might wish to fill your head with as much knowledge when you can and read the playing advice of the many pros that have written books (and virtually all of them have by this point). Or you might choose instead to keep your head relatively clear and focus on playing a simple, effective game.
What ever the case could possibly be, know that with some dedication, hard work, and a little bit luck, you too might be the next great success story within the poker world.
