Top 5 Must-Have Poker Traits – Opinion of Super Pro Patrick Leonard

Patrick Leonard is a professional poker player from UK, who amassed 2.5 million from live tournament winnings.

Surely more will follow, as he is one of the top european poker pros.  Not long ago, he shared  his thoughts on Twitter, about the top 5 poker traits poker players SHOULD have, in order to be successful.

Whether these are indeed the most important qualities, no one can tell for certain, but without a doubt, they are crucial.

Today we are going to break down each of these poker traits and give short analysis, which aims to help you implement them in your game.

First of the poker traits –  Strong Intuition / Instinct

This is the first of the poker traits, Patrick Leonard considers noteworthy.

Poker is a mind game, which stimulates different parts of your brain. You can not be only good at math and succeed. Nor you can just excel at spotting tells and patterns of opponents.

Players who crush the games, have a combination of  many poker qualities at their disposal. They are well rounded in all aspects of the game, because playing in  countless sessions and studying strategy for long hours, is giving you just that.

  This is why ,the more you play poker, the more you will develop your poker sixth sense. Having strong intuition is usually a by- product of you being in similar positions before. Your decision making becomes automatic, as you were already in almost identical spots.

Sure some players are gifted with super strong intuition right from the beginning. They are gifted with razor sharp instincts. Correctly guessing what their opponents are trying to do, is their second nature.

But usually such players are very rare exclusions from the rule. Most of us develop their poker instincts, by playing and studying for long hours.

Second of the poker traits –  Committed to big volume

This comes as a continuation to the above point. If you want to have poker intuition and become good at the game,  just devote yourself to the game and put long hours into it.

• Bigger volume – more experience
• More experience – bigger advantage.

Poker is a game of small advantages so, the more you play and study, the more benefits you will reap. Like in any other profession or business – if you want to be the best when the lights are on, you have to be hardest worker, when the lights are out .

The Poker Agent pro tip : One of the poker traits , which INEVITABLY will turn you into a winner is falling in love with the grind. If you love poker and devote yourself to it, you will succeed. Period.

Like in any other sphere whether it is ports, finances or science – if you fall in the love with the process, reaching the end goal will be easy. It will even result in having bigger and bigger goals, which you will be achieving one by one.

Third of the poker traits – Don’t care what other people think

Many poker players, are afraid to make risky moves. Especially when playing live. They are afraid what others might think of them.

Poker community is not the most welcoming one and trying out of the ordinary, goofy plays, can lead to endless lecture by some poker “professor”. Usually those are individuals who think they know everything. A few deviations of GTO strategy , for them is enough, to brand you a fish.

Not paying attention to what other things and trying brave moves,  has won many big pots, on the poker table. Goofy moves might not be the main way to win, but they are a key part of the arsenal.

Fourth Poker Trait – Understand theory well enough, so you know what regs are doing and how to exploit it

Lately in big online poker sites, such as GGPoker and Betkings, there are many “regs”. As you know regular players, are solid players who might be even pros and often are pain in the ass to play against.

Unlike poker apps and most live games, famous online poker rooms are reg infested. So , how you counter such good players ?

First you identify that they are indeed solid , regular players , who know thing ot two about poker theory.

Then you develop a strategy which to counter theirs. If you know how they think and react in certain spots, you can exploit them. As mentioned in the famous book – ” The Art of War ” by Sun Tzu – know your enemy.

Patrick Leonard is a pro player who not just gave few important tips. He wrote these 5 poker traits, which interject with one another and work great  in tandem.

Here, the number 3 poker trait from the list, is a perfect countering strategy to solid regular players. Being able to do goofy moves and deviate from preflop charts , will help you immensely in keeping the opponents guessing.

Have you watched two regs, who play heads up ? Most of the time it looks like two robots, who chose the exact same strategies and just pay rake. There is no winner, only two losers.

In Poker there is no correct play. It is game between two people, who make mistakes. Even the best of us. If you exploit these mistakes, winning will be a matter of time.

Fifth Poker Trait –  Play Big Pots, Don’t Small Ball

This is one of the poker traits, which is not mentioned enough. Good players win small pots. These are the words of Daniel Cates – one of the best poker players in the world.

However if you want to reach that level of professionalism, in which small pots decide the games – first you have to go through many big pots.

Building bigger pots, making brave moves and executing stine cold bluffs, when huge amount of money are on the line – this is when you can consider yourself a poker pro.

It is easy to play small stakes games and execute perfect strategies or try goofy bluffs. But actually risking big amounts and still not folding into pressure, is how you develop as a player, both emotionally and psychologically.

After all, the point is to take all the chips on the table. You can not do this by playing risk free game and stealing few blinds. You have to go to the deep water and be ready to drown.

Conclusion

These poker traits are very important, indeed, if you want to reach the upper echalon of poker. If you want to absord more wisdom from poker legends, check out the best quotes of other successful poker players.