Are you a confident poker player? Chances are good that if you’re reading this, you consider yourself a very confident poker player but there are still things that you will need to think about in order to become an even better poker player. When you first start out in the world of poker, you can feel a little overwhelmed because you will be facing people that are a lot more confident than you are. Is there really a difference between you and more seasoned poker players?

Well, yes and no. There is no difference in terms of potential — you can become just as good if not better than the people you’re playing against. No one is perfect, and this means that everyone has a chance at securing a little piece of the poker world for themselves. If you’ve ever watched poker on TV, you already know that it’s definitely ripe with mistakes that big players make — from bad calls to just plain old bad beats. Does that mean that the experts of poker give up? Definitely not.

We’re going to go out on a limb and say that confidence is truly the poker player’s best weapon yet. When you have confidence, you tend to make better decisions. You tend to really want to do something amazing and powerful with your time at the tables, and that’s usually to bring back as many pots as you can. Poker is enticing because it allows us to compete against each other and against ourselves at the same time. In addition, it also allows us to take other people’s money without being unfair about it — you’re picking on people’s inner weaknesses in order to win money. That’s a gamble to end all gambles, and part of the reason why we like poker so much in the first place.

You can’t wake up and think that you’re going to naturally be confident when you’re starting out. However, there are a few things that you can do to make sure that you aren’t playing poker from a place of fear.

First and foremost, you should make sure that you look at your bankroll, from its strengths as well as its weaknesses. Far too often new players think that they’re going to play these high stakes games, because that’s where the money is. However, if they don’t really have the money to sustain that type of play, they won’t last in the great world of poker for very long at all.

It’s better to start small and build your way up. Not only will you resist big swings in your cash flow, but you will also have a nice practice field to get better. When you start out, you usually will want to make sure that you have a support group that can help you replay different scenarios and learn from your mistakes.

From here, you will also want to review games on your own and think about your emotions while you’re playing. You might not realize it, but the mood you’re in when you’re playing poker definitely matters. You can take on the best game and if you’re in a bad mood you’ll end up making mistakes that you’ll regret. Over time, this can definitely take away from your confidence in a big way — why would you want to deal with that? It’s just better to forgive yourself for the little mistakes, train hard and keep playing poker — you’ll get better over time as long as you believe in yourself!

By Maya