There are winning players on every stakes online. Winning exists in poker, however, certainly to a lower degree than losing. Some say 10% of online poker players are winners - I don't think that figure was ever really tested, it's rather just an estimation. Where it is even nearly right or wrong, I don't know. But the fact is, there are a lot of more losers than winners.
Most of winning poker players aren't professional poker, but enjoy the game of poker and make some nice pocket money while playing it. This is ok, too, since they are winning players but nearly not the best players in the world.
And maybe they couldn't be among the best ones - like most. In poker, you have to be as good as you can, and play in as profitable games as possible. It's stupid for you to play $10/$20 games if you win 5 buy-ins/month while you could make 15 buy-ins a month at $5/$10. Optimizing your game to the most profitable stakes is an important part of winning poker.
But like I said, most players couldn't become one of the best players - ever. No matter how hard you work, some players are just better through natural instincts and better (natural) understanding of mathematics. It's important when it comes to poker, but I think just about anyone can win at poker with the right kind of help, although winning at the highest stakes is just for some!
Qualities of a Winning Player
So, here I got some qualities listed that I think are definite qualities of a winning poker player. Some winning players don't possess all these qualities to a great level but the ones that do are big winners.
Work Ethic - I'll go with this first because while it sounds kind of "overused", this is so important. The more you work, the better you get until you finally can't get any better. Playing is one thing, keeping your mind in the game all the time is one thing, but studying your plays after poker sessions is a very important thing, too. We can all just play poker all the time and tell ourselves "I'm getting better by doing this". While you might actually get better by doing that, if your mind isn't in the game, or if you don't study afterwards, you'll certainly not develop your game as much as you could. Who knows what kind of phenomenal players there are who possess natural card-playing skills but are too lazy to work for significant development. It really is a shame. And it's also important to know what to work for, since working just for the sake of working becomes quite pointless. This website is about knowing what to work for and how, see more of my poker theory.
Logical Reasoning Ability - Mostly natural, the ability to come up with logical reasoning. This is very important in the beginning stages of your poker career and gives you a huge edge over your opponents. However, logical reasoning will get a lot more "challenging" on higher stakes so you'll have to be very, very good at it. This, however, is a somewhat natural gift and one of the reasons to why some players "just play better" than others even if the others work a bit harder.
Mathematical Knowledge - Understanding basic mathematics is very important, but you definitely don't have to be a "mathematical genius" to win at poker. One player who seems to really overrate the importance of mathematical advantage is David Sklansky (judging by his interviews/columns/statements). Poker is a people game and the better you understand cards, *people* and mathematics, the better you do. Overrating mathematical skills is a definite leak in your game, although underrating is, too. But just because your friend is better than you at math doesn't mean he plays better poker. It's your advantage if he thinks 'mathematics is what poker is about' because then he simply knows less about winning poker.
Discipline - A natural quality to a large degree, but you can get better at this, too. And this might be the most important one. You need discipline *in order to make money* - otherwise, first of all, you can't control yourself and you'll just lose all your money at higher stakes. When you really think about it, *everything* you do at a poker game revolves around discipline & self-control. Can you control yourself enough to fold ace-rags from out of position, have you got the discipline to fold in a big pot when it seems to be the best decision. And can you control yourself enough to not to jump in games that are simply too big for you. At the end of the day your all your losses come down to 'lack of discipline', I'd say.
There's something to think about. I'm definitely going to write more about this subject in future because it's very important to know as much as possible about what it takes to become a winning poker player in order to win some day.
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