Professional Poker: Five Skills Players Need

Learning the basics of poker takes time and dedication. Having a logical mind and an interest in probabilities helps, along with a strong intuition of people’s behaviours. However, these skills can be developed over time. And time is usually what separates an intermediate player from a professional.

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Poker buffs hoping to go pro will need to hit the tables—whether in real-life or in a virtual format. The hard truth about strategy-heavy games like poker is it takes time to learn how to apply which strategies, at which point in time these strategies work, and against which players. Patience and discipline are key while competing on the floor.

For those who prefer to play poker online, entering large tournaments is also essential for developing certain skills. Generally speaking, ring games provide tougher challenges for poker buffs—but tournaments are the stomping grounds where they can apply a wider range of strategies to see what works.

The larger the playing pool, the greater range of strategies they’ll encounter from other players. For example, Global Poker has a player pool of over 250,000 players across the US. As such, the company’s tournaments are a great opportunity to develop the skills necessary for advancing far in a global poker championship.

But for the intermediate player with dreams of competing at the elite level of poker, what are the final skills they need to develop? Keep reading from advice from poker’s most influential pros.

Reading the Table & Players

Doyle Brunson’s advice for poker hopefuls doesn’t cover the more advanced strategies at play. Instead, Brunson advocates for learning to read other players in order. This lets a player win with cards that they would traditionally fold—so long as they can read what’s happening at the table.

Brunson advises players to develop this skill by guessing what hole cards other players have. While it may seem like a gift of intuition, a poker player will start to notice patterns that make other players readable.

Adaptability

Arshad Siddiqui may not be as high profile as other poker pros on this list, but he’s adept at one of the industry’s most crucial skills: adapting his bets. Players will switch up their tactics each game based on how the cards are playing out and their opponents. But they should also keep value betting at the forefront.

This means knowing when to go all-in on a hand… and it’s one of the trickiest skills to perfect. It also goes hand-in-hand with another one of Siddiqui’s tips: starting with a tight baseline.

Composure

Beginner poker players tend to encounter tilt early on in their career. Tilt covers any type of emotional response that then affects how they play. For Phil Ivey, it’s one of the most dangerous aspects of the game.

In fact, he spoke about training himself to cut off emotion while at the table. For intermediates looking to go pro, learning to maintain composure is critical. And it’s not just about avoiding tilt or negative emotional responses. It’s also about keeping the mind clear so it can function at a high level.

Analytics

Daniel Negreanu is one of the most prestigious pros still active in poker. Though he’s known for his uncanny ability to read opponents, Negreanu advocates for players to start slow, be patient, and consider the potential of their hand. The idea is to use the analytical mind to ‘feel out’ how the game is moving.

By analysing how the game is moving, a player can adjust their expectations and strategy. This is especially true in larger tournaments, like the Global Poker events mentioned above. In a tournament, players should adjust their strategy as the competition advances as a whole, especially in the middle stage, which Negreanu calls the ‘danger zone’.

Multi-tasking

As the current record-holder for World Series of Poker bracelets, Phill Hellmuth has plenty of valuable advice for poker pro hopefuls. The most basic is to learn how to multitask at the table. That means handling all the above skills simultaneously, and being mindful of how each moving gear works as a game unfolds. And to do this, Hellmuth loops back to the oldest advice in the game—practice.