Poker is a game that can be easily learned, but it takes years to master. The players on the world-class level are constantly thinking, breathing and living poker every waking hour of every day. That's a key to why they are successful. Below, I look at some other factors necessary to be a top player and also at how anyone can be a winner at the game, if they go about playing it in the right way.

A sixth sense
Poker is like any other sport in that to be one of the top players, you have to have natural ability when it comes to playing cards.

Among what sets the world-class players apart is that this natural ability or "sixth sense" as I like to call it, enables them to "put their opponents on a hand."

What's meant by "putting an opponent on a hand" is having the keen insight to read your opponents and be able to actually make an educated guess as to what cards they have in their hands.

Top players must also be able to automatically compute and know pot odds because that's very important in deciding when one should play a hand and when one shouldn't.

Betting a skill

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Poker is all about betting and the skill of it -- knowing how much to bet and knowing when to fold.

Getting your opponent to fold a better hand than you may have is based on your betting actions -- having an instinct that you make a big bet at this player, he or she will throw their hand away.

A bettor can win a pot two different ways.

He can win the pot by getting his opponents to fold or he can win a pot if an opponent calls and he has the best hand.

A caller can only win the pot if he has the better hand.

So to be a world-class player, you have to be an aggressive player when it comes to betting.

The aggressiveness a player shows in betting is a large factor in winning a hand, especially if this aggressiveness gets opponents to throw away better hands.

A bad beat
What makes the difference between many top players is that some can't handle losing a hand on a "bad beat" -- which means their opponent simply got lucky and beat big odds to draw a card he or she needed to take the pot.

Some top players can't deal with that type of defeat without going on what's called a "tilt" -- which means they start steaming inside and they start playing hands they probably shouldn't be playing because they are trying desperately to get the money back that was swept away in that one pot they lost on a "bad beat."

Every top player will occasionally lose a hand on a "bad beat."

It's how they deal with that blow that separates the great players from the not-so-great players.

The best players take it in stride and keep an even-keel, maintaining their composure.

They do not allow themselves to go on a "tilt."

‘Tells’ are revealing
Reading an opponent is based on a combination of factors that are termed "tells," which are essentially reactions opponents make when they are playing hands.

For instance, when an opponent picks up his or her cards, a world-class player may be able to decipher from slight facial expressions the strength or weakness of that hand.

Most "tells" are very subtle, but the top players often pick up on them.

That's why world-class players are always studying their opponents at the table.

They are studying how they bet, both when they are on a drawing hand and when they are on a real hand.

In poker, one is playing the opponents as much as one is playing the strength of her of his  own hand.

When players put together all the information they've gathered from these "tells," they arrive at a decision -- which essentially is an instinct as to what kinds of hands their opponents hold.
That instinct drives their decision on whether they want to raise, call or fold.

Top players must have heart
To be successful at poker the standard answer is you have to have patience and discipline, you have to wait on cards, you have to learn how to be aggressive betting and you have to be able to keep your composure at the table.

But to be successful as a world-class player, you have to have what I call heart -- that's simply courage and fearlessness at the table.

To win, you can't be afraid to lose.

You can definitely shoot down the myth that winning at poker is strictly luck.

Over time the best players are the winners in poker, but the beauty of the game is that anyone can win since luck is a factor.

Certainly, one can't sit at a table with the top players day after day and expect to beat them.

However, on a given day in a given tournament, lady luck can shine on someone.

One can catch the cards and beat the best players in the world.

That's a great thing about the game.

So luck is a factor in poker, but over the long term, it's skill that prevails.

Winning more than luck
I truly believe that anyone who wants to be a winning poker player can truly become one.

Today, between books, seminars and computer software there are many ways to learn and get better at the game before you even get to the table.

If you are serious about the game and want to improve your play, you need to study and analyze the game.

It's a game that no matter how long you've played it or how good you are, you can always get better, you can always learn more.

Most players don't want to take time to analyze hands, read books and do research on the game and make an effort to get better.

They just want to come to a table, take a seat and play, hoping they will get lucky and win.

Decisions matter
Poker is all about making decisions and if you make enough correct decisions, you are going to be a winning player.

If you make poor decisions, you are going to be a losing player.

It's really that simple.

Frankly, the difference between winners and losers, is that winners know when to get away from a hand -- they know when to fold and throw their cards away.

They don't continue to put money in a pot where they -- with a worse hand -- are chasing an opponent while trying to turn their hand into the best hand.

Many poker players do just that -- and that's why they end up losing.

The top thing anyone who is at a table should do to become a better player is just to pay attention.

After about 15 minutes at a table, one should have the opponents pretty well pegged on their style of play -- like which players tend to gamble on hands and which players rarely play a hand.

That's simply paying attention to who is playing a lot of pots and who is not.

It's a simple thing that every poker player should be aware of.

The great thing about poker is you don't have to be anywhere near the best player in the world to make money.

All you have to do is be a little bit better than a couple of the players sitting at the table with you.

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