What type of player are you? What are your goals in poker? Do you play for fun, for profit or for both?
There are many good reasons to play poker. You can play it to make new friends in your local casinos, to take on a new challenge, to solve mathematical puzzles (because yes, poker can also be seen as a puzzle game), for fun, for the competitive aspect, to make money, for the adrenalin it provides and, of course, for pleasure.
Do you know why you play poker? It may seem a trivial question, but it's an important one. You might want to stop and think about it for a moment and come up with an answer. The reasons why you play poker will have an impact on your future approach.
The different types of players
Some players will want to perfect their poker very quickly to make enough money to live on. That's a noble goal. Earning a good monthly salary playing poker is possible, but it obviously requires a lot of time, energy and study. To maximize your chances of success, you'll have to put your heart and soul into it. If you don't study, the competition will. As the famous poker adage goes, when you're playing, if you can't recognize the pigeon at the table, it's probably because the pigeon is you.
Poker is a game of variance, and even the best players in the world have losing months. So you'll need to be psychologically prepared to deal with these difficulties. Will you have the mental strength to endure 3 or 4 losing months despite having played your best poker? In these situations, it's important to know yourself well and always take an objective look at your situation and your skills.
To succeed, you have to work!
Take a prestigious tournament like the main event of the World Series of Poker for example, the $10,000 buy-in event that promises millions of dollars to the winner every year. It's a dream tournament with life-changing prizepools. But the majority of people who win it have gone through a whole lot of frustration before getting there. Perhaps they played in dozens of similar tournaments before winning. A professional player can have several months in the red before winning a big tournament. It's a reality that can discourage many. It's like winning a medal at the Olympics. It's true that winning a medal makes you dream, but you can't forget all the hard work that goes into it.
Other, less competitive players won't want to put as much effort into it and will want to play poker for pure enjoyment, a bit like playing a free slot machine, video game or any other ludic activity. It's also quite noble. You just have to know why you're playing.
In conclusion
In short, it's all about knowing why you play poker. It's also important to set your limits. There's a reason why there are so many different limits on online poker rooms. On the Internet, it's possible to play in free poker tournaments, just as it's possible to play in €1, €10 or even €10,000 tournaments. Play according to your means, your ambitions and your skills.