As a professional poker player and teacher, I am often asked by aspiring players, "How much potential do I have? What does it take to be a top player?" I think a good way to answer this question is to talk about the many world-class poker players who are my friends and acquaintances, and identify what they have in common.

I learned how to play poker at age nine. Nearly all of my friends learned poker at a young age, most as teenagers. Of the fine poker players I have encountered, only a handful learned the game as an adult. "Iron Man" Skinner learned at the age of 29. There are some Oriental players who are now among the best in the world, but simply had no opportunity to learn the game before coming to America as an adult. It seems to me that it is possible to not learn poker at a young age and still excel at the game, but a valid question is, "How come poker did not attract your attention while you were a teenager?"

Do you need to be real smart to make it to the top? Well, brains do not hurt if you want to become a good cardplayer. Some of the brightest people I know are poker players, like David Sklansky, Daniel Harrington, and Bob Walker. There is not a single top player who strikes me as being less intelligent than the average person. Even those players who lack a formal education have plenty of savvy. For example, Puggy Pearson is surely one of the smarter people around. But many top players do not have any exceptional mathematical skills. It is clear you do not need to be in the intelligence elite to become an outstanding poker player. In fact, extremely bright people suffer when they first learn poker, because they soon learn what the opponent is supposed to have, but need experience to realize what they actually show up with in combat.

One talent that I think every top poker player has is the ability to focus on the game, rather than having their mind meander onto "trivialities" like how the world can be made a better place or what they are going to eat for supper. If you are the kind of driver who often hears a honk from behind to wake you up when the light turns from red to green, it is doubtful whether you will have an outstanding poker career.

What about discipline? How can one become an outstanding poker player without discipline. Well, you can't. But many top players learned discipline the hard way, and are intemperate in other areas such as eating or smoking (but not drinking). The kind of discipline one needs for poker is an acquirable trait.

It is one thing to aspire for world-class status; it is another to simply become a winning player. It is hard for me to imagine someone who cannot become a winner at poker. Even if you do not have what it takes to reach the very peak, all of you can enter the top half if you work at it. Be all you can be.

Author: Bob Ciaffone

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