Do poker skills come naturally?

[airwalker]

Poker skills usually don't come naturally—they're developed over time through study, practice, and experience. While some people might have an innate sense of probability or good instincts, becoming a strong poker player requires understanding various strategies, hand ranges, and probabilities, as well as observing players' behaviors and patterns.

Some natural traits can help, like discipline, patience, and emotional control, but even those require refinement in poker’s high-pressure settings.

 

[laihuynh]

Maybe it's like innate chess skills, I think.

 

[neptunas888]

in my opinion, you can learn to play poker well, for this you need to study a lot of material and work with solvers. I don't think being a good poker player is about being a good musician.

 

[Mart1194]

In my opinion, not really. The poker player is able to study and perfect himself. Of course, if you have the gift of learning more easily, that will help.

 

[R.Melnyk77]

Talent may be necessary to become a professional, but in my opinion, perseverance and hard work are more important traits. A player's perseverance and work ethic can partially compensate for a lack of talent.

 

[armoko]

I don't think you have to be born to be a good poker player. It's not a soccer or something where I can imagine you have to be born to be like Ronaldo or Messi. Poker you can definitely learn from scratch and by practicing your skills I believe you can reach big goals in poker.

 

[valeski 28]

In order to reach your goals in this game you need to study and practice your game a lot..I would dare to say that it is a daily learning.

 

[billibooo]

Is it possible to learn to be a top poker player, or is it more like playing a musical instrument, playing snooker, etc.?
Do you have to be born with a latent talent to become a really good poker player?

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Thanks to @Colbefc for this topic idea

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Yes, it would help if you were gifted with things. BUT the most important thing to me, is practice.

I was a semi-professional pool player, I practiced 40 hrs a week.
I am a multi-instrumentalist and sure I am talented but that would have gotten me nowhere...without my 40+ years of practicing. I also teach music and I have never met a student that did not excel. That all comes down to practice (confidence too)

Great question Coblefc!

 

[Popescu97]

In my opinion poker skills doesn't come naturally,to be the best you may learn by your poker mistakes and evolve every day hand by hand

 

[Jean-Guy]

Talent, yes. Blood, sweat and tears. Essential. You won’t beat midstakes and Nosebleed levels by talent alone. You need to study hard for the yankee dollar when the competition gets tough. And it does in live poker from $2/5 and online from $1/2. Beyond these stakes it is Blood On The Tracks.

 

[tagece]

I think you need both to be a really good poker player. Some people have a natural talent to mathematics and statistics, what helps a lot.
The skill to understand the other players mind is another plus.
But it is not sufficient, in my opinion. Like anything else in life, anyone can only achieve their best performance with preparation and training.

 

[kanogott]

I think this question is very interesting. And for me there is a answer which is divided in two parts. At first you need some born talents or personal adjectives to be a long run winning player. You need a strong mental capacity. To overcome the bad phases of the poker life. The best players have a downswing and if you are not mental strong then, in the downswing you make worse decision like going to higher limits or getting not down in the limit if your bankroll is getting smaller. Or you getting tilt and play not your a level poker. On the otherside you could learn a little poker theorie. There are a plenty of tools. To build your knowledge and getting a better pokerplayer. Normally you must study 50% and the other 50% you play on the tables. I dont knew how big is the value of the parts you could control, but i think minimum 50% you could boost your pokerskills if you learn and train your game with tools.

 

[Dimidrol2]

It's not music, and there probably isn't much that depends on nature. Probably just a mathematical mindset.

 

[Jean-Guy]

It's not music, and there probably isn't much that depends on nature. Probably just a mathematical mindset.

If Blood On The Track ain’t music Steve Jobs would rotate in his grave since it’s the only album he always carried with him. I’d dismiss a mathematical mindset any day for a psychological mindset. Poker is about reading souls. Math is the easy part.

 

[VictorOd]

This question is basically about any activity, not just poker. Nothing comes naturally. Study and practice. However some people can have better mathematical abilities or better opponent reading due to upbringing in childhood and even at the genetic level.

 

[Risto234]

Like it was mentioned previously ^ for some these skills sure might come naturally (but even then they probably have to work aswell in order to not let that "talent" go to waste) while others only reach to the top of the game after (very) hard work, ultimate sacrifice and so on ...

 

[MishkaZL]

I think everything in our life depends on how disciplined we are in doing something. Even if a person has no talent but has discipline and a desire to achieve a goal, he or she has every chance of becoming a professional in almost any field.

 

[gabryyyel31]

Although some players seem more talented than others, I believe that nothing in poker comes for granted and one of the biggest skills that a player can improve in order to perform in poker is discipline. It is the most important aspect that someone can work on in order to improve as a poker player. Many fail because they have too good an impression of their own personality and think they don't need discipline to get results. In the short term it may be true, but in the long term without discipline and study you have no chance of surviving in the shark pool.

 

[ms_attack]

I think a certain kind of talent is necessary. It's not just skill that's crucial, but also patience and getting your greed under control. You have to strictly adhere to bankroll management and really have a lot of perseverance and patience, which is often very difficult.

 

[PHX]

No poker skills do not come naturally you have to learn them through study and practice. Maybe some skills you might be better at faster as you have previous skills and knowledge from like math or from playing other games like chess but no one is born with skills or good genes like athletes in sports are.

 

[hilary antonik filho]

Many people are born with a gift, other people need a lot of practice to reach 80% of their goals, some believe they can't and abandon it, it will all depend on how much knowledge, time and dedication you will want to apply to reach your goals

 

[jaymccrea]

It is a combination of both natural and developed skills that make someone a good/strong poker player. Honestly, even the "natural" skills are technically formed from childhood as part of one's development, such as focus, emotional control, and one's ability to take risks. However to master poker these skills are not enough, hard work is required to develop into a professional or take your game beyond recreational play. To "level up" as a player, it is important to study many hands, not just via televised poker tournaments, but through lived experiences. Taking notes is key early on so that you can keep tabs on player behaviours and tune your intuition. Recognizing that play changes at each level and also over time as strategies evolve is key and in my opinion, this is where reading books and listening to professionals helps in understanding variables you may have not alwas considered. Ultimately you can find success without training, but odds are low that this will be sustainable and likely will end in disappointment, like any other profession. My advice, if you want to develop into a strong poker player, read books, gain perspective, take notes (and actually review them), reflect on success and defeats, and ultimately work hard to continuously improve upon and develop yur skills.

 

[Luvepoker]

Running my own poker run would be a blast. I would definitely do things that I would want to do more and that would be more tournaments but overall I would make some serious changes to my local poker room if I had the opportunity.



First thing I would do is asked the players what they want now I know we'll get some stupid things like ohh no rake or give any more prizes out and these are all things that I would truly understand. I know we're here to make a profit and I would rather make a profit a little slower but wrong with the poke around and it's about currently the great poker run. So after I got all my information from other players I would look into and see if any of these would work.



Now one thing I would start with is getting the game back to its basics. When I play games I keep hearing about all the rule changes and stuff that are great for the casino and for good winning players but the problem is players who only go to have some fun or recreational are being left out. Bomb pots, and straddles and sometimes multiple struggles. Yes these are great for making bigger pots and of course making us a bigger rake, what is one player I was talking to recently he said I don't want to sit at a 12 table and have to put $20.00 in bomb pot just because somebody says I have to. When you watch some guy with a ton of chips blast all in take down the bomb pot that I didn't even get a chance to do anything with because I had junk. Straddles are great too increasing the pot and bringing in more rake but there were many players who don't want that. What I would do is have multiple tables going you know some of my pots some could have straddles if players wanted we need to go back to having players being happy to play just a simple 1-2 game or whatever they want to play.

The second thing I would do and it would be the biggest change around here is just get back tournaments. Yes we do have a tournament each week here which if you don't play for two hours beforehand you start with about half stack. I'm sorry I don't wanna play two hours of cash games to get a full stop they're $200 buy in. So what the players like me do we don't show up. What I would do is bring back the daily games especially the morning ones. Most players don't go to play poker early in the day yet these tournaments would bring in 25 to 40 people every single day and once they get knocked out of the tournament they were playing cash games most of them for a while. One of the complaints on local casino has there's nobody comes in in the mornings now ohh geez wow you take advantage of that and get players in who wanna play the tournaments.

The third thing that we do would be to get my poker room back to the glory it had been growing to me but I would want my poker room to be known. Tournament series are utterly amazing around here where hundreds of people would show up from all over the place multiple states. If I remember right turning stone casino had over 10,000 different poker players for the last wsop circuit event of course we don't have those there now. Why wouldn't I wanna bring him serious that brings him thousands of people into my casino. Players show up players eat players playing slots players playing table games and yeah they'll play poker too how is this ohh my name is strategy. Well you don't have to have a WSOP circuit event or a world poker tour event why wouldn't you want to try to get something in or something similar to that or set up your own series every so often?

The last thing I would do is take care of the players. Give them some things that they want. Bottled water or soda why don't we give that away to the players now? You could have a soda bar in there it's not like you need somebody to come running over it and deliver it to them so it wouldn't cost so much? A lot of players like bad beat jackpots. Why not invest $1.00 of the rake after a certain percentage gets put in of course into a bad B eat jackpot? Playground poker has one and a couple of times a year it's well over $1,000,000 for the bad beat jackpot. While my casino get that high as easily what do you think would happen if we did have one and it got up to 100 or 200 hundred or $300,000. Of course cashing people will be running into play as with some people who don't play as much cash which would bring in more revenue for us. I mean hey maybe we can even grow and expand the poker room eventually if we were to do things for the players giving them what they want.

Oddly enough in our area there is a decent amount of poker tournaments going on. Sadly most of them are at the casinos anymore. They'll wonder why players aren't coming in to play poker in a poker room this is a good reason why.

 

[Munchies11]

I believe there is some natural talent that is involved. I believe math skills is one of them. The better you can do math in your head, work out percentages in your head the better you will do in the long run !

 

[Grid3004]

I think Poker skills don’t come naturally to most people – they’re developed through practice, study, and experience. While some traits like logical thinking, emotional control, or risk management might feel more intuitive to certain individuals, mastering the game requires deliberate effort.

Here’s why:

1. Understanding Math: Concepts like pot odds, implied odds, and equity aren’t things most people inherently know. They have to be learned and applied over time.
2. Reading Opponents: Developing the ability to interpret betting patterns, body language (in live games), or timing online takes a lot of practice.
3. Adaptability: Every table and opponent is different, so even natural talent won’t help unless you can adjust your strategy on the fly.
4. Emotional Resilience: Handling bad beats and staying focused during long sessions isn’t easy, even for people with strong emotional control.

That said, some people might pick up the game faster due to existing skills, like quick decision-making or strong analytical abilities. But to truly excel at poker, even those individuals need to put in the work.

What’s your take? Do you think natural talent plays a big role, or is poker more about effort and dedication?