About the author: Paul Redfern is a full time professional online poker player and owner of RakebackReward.com where you can find the best rakebackdeals and lots of informative online poker tips.

1 Adequate Bankroll

A poker players bankroll is their working capital. You will need a sufficient bankroll to withstand a huge downswing at the poker tables. It is not rare to suffer 100,000 hands break even or losing stretches so the minimum requirement is 100 buy ins for your current stakes. Under no circumstances should you use this money for day to day living expenses.

2 Living Expenses

Before you decide to turn professional, you should have at least 1 years living expenses saved. The benefit of this is to offer peace of mind when you first start out. It is great knowing that after a bad month you don’t have to eat into your poker bankroll to pay your rent or mortgage. It is also wise to not withdraw any of your winnings as a wage until at least 3 months into turning professional. The reason is after 3 months you can really gauge how well you are doing and how much you can actually afford to withdraw as a salary.

3 Proven Win Rate

Many budding poker players think that they will perform a lot better results wise when they are playing full time. This is a myth. If you can’t beat the level you are playing for at least 6 big blinds per 100 hands over a 100,000 hands sample size when playing part time, then you should refrain from turning professional and instead do some more work away from the tables to increase your poker knowledge which will in turn increase your win rate.

4 The Right Mindset

It is only when you turn professional that you realise how mentally straining playing poker full time is. To succeed you need a determined and focused mindset. Your mind must be prepared for the downswings and break even stretches that will inevitably happen. Being able to play your A game while on a downswing will make or break a professional poker player. Increase your mental strength by staying physically fit and reading books which deal with the mental side of poker.

5 Having a Rakeback Account

Rakeback is the term given to a refund that the online poker rooms give to their players as a reward for showing loyalty to their poker room. Rakeback deals offer a refund of between 27% and 40% of all rake you contribute to a Poker Room. In lay mans terms an average rakeback deal of 30% is worth 3 big blinds per 100 hands. The more hands you play on a site that offers rakeback, the more rakeback you will receive on payment day. Rakeback is paid weekly or sometimes monthly direct into your poker account. There is great comfort in knowing that even after a bad month at the poker tables, you will still receive a nice lump sum payment from the poker rooms through this rakeback payment. The rakeback payment alone will cover most peoples monthly living expenses.

About the author: Paul Redfern is a full time professional online poker player and owner of RakebackReward.com where you can find the best rakebackdeals and lots of informative online poker tips.