How to Become a Poker Pro - Part 1

Translated with the help of AI. We apologize for any errors and would appreciate your help in correcting them.

In the first part of this article, coach Alexey Exan13 will tell you about the 3 most important factors that will help you become a professional in tournament poker in modern realities. Stop experiencing so much negativity and negative emotions! Start acting effectively, and the result will not be long in coming!

We also recommend you to read the second part of the article: How to become a professional in poker, part 2 - Qualities and skills.

1. Proper load management

Most low and middle limit players play one large room. It used to be PokerStars, now it is mainly the GGPoker network. However, few people think about the fact that most tournament poker professionals play several rooms at the same time. In order to compile the most profitable grid of tournaments. Profit in poker depends not only on the quality of your strategy, but also on the level of your opponents at the table. Additional factors also play an important role — the structure of tournaments, the size of the rake in cash games and other nuances.

It is well known that the profit in poker is influenced not only by the level of skill of the player himself, but also by many external factors. This is confirmed by the observations of the largest poker funds working with hundreds of professional players. Already around 2020 (and in some places before), funds began to record a curious phenomenon: the same players, collected in a single alias for the analysis of a big sample, showed different ROI depending on the room in which they played. It turned out that competent scheduling — the right choice of rooms, game time and tournament grids — made it possible to increase ROI up to two times, provided that all other variables (strategy, skill, bankroll management) remained unchanged.

Conclusion: the easiest and fastest way to increase your profit in poker is often not in the endless work on the strategy, but in the competent preparation of the tournament schedule. The right choice of rooms, formats and grids can give results at the nearest the long run. On our website, in the "Romania" section in the "Best" tab, the most profitable sites for the game at the moment are marked.

In a well-designed tournament grid, it is important to take into account not only buy-ins and structure, but also factors such as the day of the week, the presence of knockouts and other parameters that directly affect the expected value. The key role is played by the choice of poker rooms for the game. The most profitable days are Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In addition, practice shows that morning and night GMT0 tournaments are often more profitable than evening ones. This approach allows you to reduce dispersion, win more stable and develop faster as a player.

TOP-3 rooms for the profitability of playing tournament poker

1st place — Chico network, PokerDom 
The American Chico network (TigerGaming and other network rooms) leads by a wide margin. The field here is extremely weak, many players make gross mistakes and literally give their money away. Also, the Russian poker room — PokerDom is included in the best ROI list, and is also good for cash players.

2nd place — RedStar and 888Poker
These two rooms show a similar expected value and occupy the second line of the rating. The field here is not as weak as in Chico, but in terms of a combination of factors, they remain very profitable for tournament and cash players.

3rd place — PokerKing and BetKings 
PokerKing closes the top three. The level of play in this room is higher than that of competitors from the first two places, but it is still comfortable enough for regular earnings. And the BetKings room is the best representative of the largest GGPoker network. Also, the third place can be attributed to several small rooms, which are available depending on the region and may change over time. See the "best" tab in our "poker rooms" section. 

The fact is that in large rooms there are too many professional players at all limits, and most of the tournaments where recreational players are massively registered are kilopolyans (events with a huge number of participants). For beginners and low-limit players, this becomes more of a negative development factor. One of the most common misconceptions in the poker community is that the higher the prize money for the first places, the more profitable the tournament is in terms of ROI.

This is not so! The final profit at the the long run is determined primarily by the weakness of the field and the structure of the tournament — the growth rate of blinds, the distribution of prizes, the number of re-entry, the presence of satellites satellite and other factors. In these parameters, and especially in terms of field weakness, the rooms from the top 3 at limits up to $109 are significantly superior to the giants of the industry. Yes, they are inferior in design and convenience to software, but here everyone must decide for himself what is more important: a beautiful cover or stable growth and performance.

There is another key point — smooth return on investment (ROI). It's about how evenly or abruptly your schedule looks at the the long run. Here, the ratio of tournaments with a different number of participants is critical: up to 300, up to 1000 and over 1000 people. Many novice players focus on the latter, which becomes a mistake: the dependence of the result on the variance increases, and the period for reaching a stable plus lengthens. Yes, sometimes someone from 2% is lucky enough to quickly "shoot" in the kilopolyane and create the illusion of easy success. But the rest, inspired by this picture, are chasing the same thing and, in fact, tighten the noose around their necks.

A novice player especially needs victories. Even if they are small, they provide profit and, most importantly, motivation for development.

That is why in the starting period it is so important to be more often in the late stages of tournaments: to play the pre-final and final tables, to understand the 3-7-max dynamics. If a beginner registers only in large kilopolyans, then he practically does not get experience. And when it finally manages to reach the late stage, there is a banal lack of competence: the player clings, begins to cling to each blind, becomes constrained and, as a result, sharply reduces the quality of the game. As a rule, this leads to relegation even before the final or at the very beginning of it.

A series of such losses undermines faith in success, spoils the impression of the game and forms stable psychological tilts. As a result, many people get stuck on the same limits for years without becoming professionals. Everything works in a complex: lack of experience, lack of motivation, psychological barriers. This is like a swamp that gradually drags on and inhibits development.

Thus:

1. If you play 1–3 tables, choose one poker room, preferably from the top 2 list. Playing in the rooms from the top 3, you already automatically begin to follow most of the basic principles of the professional approach.
2. If you play 4–6 tables, connect several rooms at once and take all tournaments from the top 3 according to ROI and smoothness of the schedule. This will allow you to build up professional skills and lead you to large drifts in large rooms.
3. If you play 7–12 tables, use 3-4 or more rooms at the same time: from large venues like PokerStars and GGPokerOK, take only the majors, and download the bulk of the tournaments in more "fish" rooms. This approach will increase ROI and make the results more stable.

2. Competent education and cooperation with poker schools

In modern poker, you can't go far without a systemic education. You can hope for luck or believe in your own talent, but this is not enough, even if you really have the ability. The fact is that poker is a game with many strategic nuances that you just need to know: learn, work out and integrate into practice. Without this, no talent will help you to pass the way quickly and without serious mistakes.

Talent begins to play a key role only when the basic strategic skills have already been brought to a high level. Until then, it remains practically useless. That is why cooperation with poker schools, work with coaches and systematic training become a mandatory part of the professional's journey. Personal experience shows that properly structured training saves years of practice and tens of thousands of dollars that would otherwise be lost in the process of experiments. Therefore, if you intend to build a career in poker seriously, education is your main foundation.

And I can say with full confidence: there is a certain set of reasons — let's call it a “list of blocks” — that prevent players from overcoming this or that stage of their poker journey.

These blocks can manifest themselves in a variety of areas, and until the player finds them and works through them, the chances of serious success remain small. At the same time, it is important to understand that they are not always associated exclusively with the strategy of the game, although there are, of course, enough obstacles. Sometimes even one individual training session with an experienced coach is enough to get on the right track and continue to cope with the obstacles that arise. Especially if the coach, like me, provides not only a scheme for working out the necessary topics in the right sequence, but also gives a whole package of useful materials for independent work.

Unfortunately, not every novice player can afford regular classes with high-level professionals. That's why I developed a special loyalty program. It allows me to get a certain benefit, and players — in return for a quality and systematic education that will accompany their careers for a long the long run. Many streamers and bloggers offer bonuses for registering in the rooms through their links, but no one gives such large-scale and long-term benefits for the development of your poker career as this program.

1. The essence of the bonus program is extremely simple: you register in poker rooms through our website according to a special instruction and assign them to yourself.
2. Then you just play in these rooms and get access to training in parallel. Some of the materials open immediately, and something will be available gradually as you are active.
3. As a result, you will be able to get full access to all professional video courses of Poker University — free of charge.

And this, believe me, is more than enough to become a plus poker player. In combination with the materials that I distribute for free, this is enough to no longer look for answers on other sites, blogs or streams. Everything you need for your growth and development in MTT is already here, and if something is missing, it means that it will soon appear. There are many nuances in the program: how to link existing accounts in the rooms to the affiliate program of the site in order to also receive bonuses; in which rooms it is possible; how to make a deposit correctly. The site manager is always ready to help and will tell you how to get the most out of your current situation — just write to the specified contacts.

The conclusion is simple: if you have the opportunity to invest in training — do it. The money spent on knowledge will work for you in each tournament and will pay off many times over. But even if there are no funds for training now — take the time to fulfill the conditions of the loyalty program on my website, and you will get access to training for free.

3. preflop > postflop and is a fundamental part of the strategy

Many "old-timers" of microlimits mistakenly believe that with preflop they have everything "more or less", and an exceptionally weak postflop game prevents them from breaking through higher. This is one of the main misconceptions. In fact, it is the preflop that has the key, defining value in tournament poker. A competent and high-quality preflop strategy is the foundation of any exploit game against the field. I have repeatedly said on my streams and debriefings: one really strong preflop (I emphasize — really strong, not an illusory "more or less") is enough to consistently beat PKO tournaments up to $33 with a positive ROI and a tangible profit on the the long run. Even if you have a lot of post-floppers and flaws, it is a quality preflop that will become the basis for success.

Remember: a pre-flop poker game never stands still. It is constantly changing with changing trends in the behavior of the field.

The mistake of many players is that they consider preflop to be fully mastered. In fact, it needs to be studied and adjusted throughout the career. It is important to constantly look for areas where you can get an additional winrate and stay at least one step ahead of the field. The easiest and most effective way to do this at limits up to $55 is to use a fresh pre-flop game course specifically adapted to exploit the field strategies of 2025. This approach will allow you to consistently increase the expected value even in the face of the constantly changing dynamics of the game.

And most importantly, you can quickly earn U-points to get it for free from Poker University, and this will be the first serious contribution to the foundation on which you will start building your career as a plus player. You only need $369 U-points of the site.

Poker rooms:

The fastest way to get a course is to fast buy it. If you have the money, feel free to buy it: in a few months of the game, it will pay off more, and you will earn more than you invested. But if this is not possible, use the free route: the loyalty program will allow you to collect all Poker University courses for free at a distance the long run.

The conclusion is simple: if you have money for training, invest in it, and your knowledge will work for you in each hand played, paying back the investment many times. If there are no funds, join the loyalty program and receive courses without payment. The initial course in three closed sections is available immediately, and you will gradually accumulate the rest of the materials and also receive them. Become a professional and stop stomping around!