Well I’d love to say that my ultimate aim is to win the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event, back to back to back, quit my day job and never work another day in my life. It’s a nice dream, one that’s shared by many aspiring poker players… I’m a realist though so let’s start small.

In the short term (over the next 6 months to a year) my aim is to become a profitable poker player, sounds simple right? Well, thousands have tried before me and failed. Why should I be any different?

I’ll tell you how! By mastering some basic concepts that I believe (from research, word of mouth and just common sense) that all new poker players serious about their game should learn to master.

I plan to …

… play within my bankroll
… play with patience
… play with discipline
… push when my cards are good
… fold when my cards are beat
… learn from my mistakes and the mistakes of others
… learn to be aggressive
… learn when not to be aggressive
… have fun!

Now all this is easily said, but much more difficult to do. Over the next few weeks I’ll be going into more detail about the above points. Until then I’d love to hear how other new players are looking to strengthen their game and if there are are any seasoned veterans reading perhaps you’d like to share some of the important lessons you learnt while you were getting your game up to speed?