Q&A: Is 4 years of poker experience enough for WSOP?
Question by Bob Smith: Is 4 years of poker experience enough for WSOP?
If I play online poker now until im 21 (4 years), with some real life tournaments too, will I be good enough to have a fair chance of a cash finish in WSOP?
By the way, I will be very dedicated in my practice of the 4 years, with many hours every day of practice. Appreciate any help/answers!
Best answer:
Answer by pdq
You left out one little, tiny detail. I think it might be an important one.
Are you a WINNING poker player?!?!? I’m not talking about fake money games – they mean absolutely, positively NOTHING. I mean – have you been playing CASH tournaments and winning money from them? Are you UP more money than you’re down?
Even if you are winning, I would still have to predict, “no” – you do not have a “fair chance” of a cash finish. Especially if you’re talking about the Main Event. Thousands of people enter this tournament, and most of them are highly skilled players. Last year, 6,494 people entered. 648 of them were paid. So you have to do better than 90% of the field!
I imagine if you entered every possible event that there was, your chances would start going up. Somehow I believe you’re only talking about the main event.
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6 Responses to “Q&A: Is 4 years of poker experience enough for WSOP?”
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I have to agree with the first answer. However, don’t let him discourage you.
Your biggest issue with playing in the WSOP will likely be the size of your bankroll. Ideally, you never want to buy into a tournament with more than 5% of your entire bankroll. So it’s not a matter of simply building up to $10,000, it’s a matter of getting to $200,000!
People your age have done it though. Annette Oberstad, Tom Dwan, so youth is definitely not a handicap.
I’m 26 and I’ve been playing for about 10 years. The best advice I could give you, is to study up. Books, forums, and poker shows, are all great assets.
Do you play online for real money under someone’s account? If so, you really should brush up on the bankroll management issue. That way, learning the hard way isn’t so painful, because in the beginning, you’re destined to go broke a few times. Proper bankroll management will make the learning process much easier on you.
May your cards be live and your pots be monsters =)
How do you define “fair chance”.
If a tournament with 1000 people pays cash to the top 100, that’s 10% of the field. So if you have a 10% chance of cashing, is that a “fair chance?”
You might not even need that much. But you can play all you want, I don’t know how good you are.
Length of your experience isn’t that important…your skill is. I’ve known people who’ve played poker for decades and are still lousy at it. As a previous responder said, what’s important is whether you’re a fairly consistent winner…if you can finish in the top 10% or so in large-scale tournaments the vast majority of the time, then you are probably ready to give it a shot and have a reasonable expectation of cashing out.
There is way more to poker than just playing.You have to learn the psychology, bankroll management etc etc.
ABSOLUTELY!!! Just look at 2004 World Series of Poker Champion Chris Moneymaker. He was playing in his FIRST live tournament after winning his way through a satellite.
The Main Event field will be gigantic. However, you have just as good of a chance as anyone. Besides, a pro hasn’t won it in a very LONG time. Phil Ivey, who many consider as the best poker player in the world, made the final table last year. Many poker sites like Poker Stars, Doyle’s Room, and Full Tilt Poker have tournaments all the time for a seat into the WSOP.
I wish you all the success in the world on your quest to be a great poker player. You seem to have the desire and will to get there. And as they say on television,
May all your cards be live and your pots be MONSTERS!!!
Good luck!!!!
No only experience is not enough! There are lot of players with years of experience that doesn’t mean they can go to WSOP. You need to qualify for WSOP or you need to be a professional player of poker in order to play in the tournament. You become professional player when you win games not just because you have experience. WSOP is one of the biggest tournaments of poker so you got to earn your spot in it.