How the Greats are Formed
There is a lot of debate among people over what makes a poker great. Some people will argue that some players just got lucky and started playing poker before strategy was a common thing. Seeing as how strategy wasn’t heavily utilized, good players could dominate back in these days…..and so the greats were supposedly formed.
Other people will argue that the so-called great players are simply people who hit it big once, get a sponsorship deal and live off of their fame. This would certainly explain how people like Chris Moneymaker and Jerry Yang got famous, but there are too many other people who’ve hit it big once and have staying power afterwards. So there definitely has to be something else to how a great poker player is made.
And here it is…..practice, dedication, and effort. That’s it! As corny as it sounds, those who put in the most practice time and effort are going to be the better players in the end. Sure this might sound cliche, but poker is just like anything else in life; those who put in the hard work and are dedicated will be the most successful players in the end.
So those who think that, if they read a book or two and spend a few hours on the felt, they will magically be awesome players are only dreaming. Becoming a Phil Ivey or Daniel Negreanu takes years of practice and dedication as well as a relentless desire to be as good as possible. There are no shortcuts aside from the aforementioned “hitting it big”. But even if you do happen to get lucky like this, it’s just a one-time thing and you’ll eventually be exposed sooner or later.