A breakthrough in professional poker? A task for millions!
Professional sports have many similarities to professional poker. In both, you have to work extremely hard to become successful and reach the top of the best tournaments. You will never lift the trophy from the prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament if you don't train hard. So are organizations like the World Series of Poker. There's no way you'll earn a bracelet from them if you're not playing poker a huge percentage of your time. And here we are not talking about the free kind, but in principle. Contrary to the beliefs of many people who are not close to the game, breaking into it is an extremely difficult task and is far from just a matter of luck. And lately, fewer and fewer people are coping with it.
The reasons for this are many and cannot be listed at once. But poker has certainly changed a lot in the last decade. The competition is huge in quantity, but she has many more sources from which to learn the secrets of the game. However, the online version is extremely common, and according to many, it blocks many of the important functions that a poker player needs to master. You yourself understand how big the difference is between playing in front of the computer or in front of your opponent's eyes.
The educational materials help the weaker players to get closer in quality to the stronger ones. But you can't read the secret of the millionaire poker player on the Internet. If that were the case, we'd all be making enough money at poker that we wouldn't have to think about our financial problems. Players read the same books and it's hard to separate them into groups, but successful pros always stand out. And that makes breaking through difficult.
Another important element of modern poker is GTO, or better known Theory of Optimal Play. It is based on a mathematical principle and tries to turn no-limit Texas Hold'em poker into a calculable task. It sounds impossible, but the goal is to achieve a strategy that can beat absolutely every single opponent at the table.
Of course, in amateur poker this is out of the question, because opponents make a lot of mistakes. In the most serious tournaments, TOI can really work and it is a real option to enter the poker elite. But even a perfect mathematical model does not guarantee success. Here we are talking more about a correct strategy that will significantly increase your chances. The better you understand the theory, the better chance you have of getting the most out of it against professionals or very high level amateurs. The point is to understand it correctly, to study it in detail and to use it appropriately. This is where the thread of balance is lost. Because of this, the top players are difficult to reach, even though they are victims of huge competition.