When you go to work, you have an entire group of co-workers that you see every day. Some of them work for you; some of them are your bosses. What each of the people you work with has in common is that they provide a web of support for you. Think about it. When you don’t understand what cover letter should be on your reports, what do you do? You ask your boss. When a customer calls in with a question that you don’t know the answer to, what do you do? You might ask the person in the next cubicle. For poker professionals who often work from home on sites like PokerRoom, this camaraderie exists, but takes on a different form. I’d like to introduce you to the “three f’s” that are critical to the survival of any poker player: friends, family, and forums.

Friends

If you’re a poker player, you need a core group of close friends. Oftentimes, the swings of professional players are enormous. You might be up $10,000 one week and then down $20,000 the next. It’s all part of the business and known as “variance.” When players experience adversity, their friends are one of the first groups of people they turn to. Your friends provide a very important security blanket.

Moreover, your friends give you an excuse to get away from the game. There’s nothing worse for your health or social skills than sitting in front of a computer raising and calling bets for 16 hours every day. You need to get out of the house and hang out with your friends. If you’re lucky, you’ll have friends that are poker enthusiasts as well as friends who have no interest whatsoever in the game. The group of poker enthusiasts will prove to be an excellent source for strategy discussion in a relaxing environment away from the computer. The group that is apathetic towards poker allows you to immerse yourself in life away from your job. In essence, they provide an important mental break from the game.

Family

Your family is critical in poker because it’s a fallback. If things go awry in your poker career, you’ll always have your family to turn to. Your mother, father, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even first cousins once removed are extremely important to have. Your parents, in general, want to see you succeed in life. Regardless of whether they approve of your poker career, keep them updated on how you’re doing. Even if it means admitting to having a bad week, keep them in the loop. There’s no need to lie or keep the truth from your family. They have the right to know whether you’re able to succeed in the real world as a poker player. Keeping the truth from them may only exacerbate any ill-tempered feelings they may have towards poker.

Forums

There are a ton of poker forums out there. Find one and become actively involved. Even more so than your friends are, forums are critical to improving your poker skills. If you look at the posts in major online poker forums, you’ll see people just like yourself asking an array of strategy questions. These often include, “Did I make the right call here?” and “How would you have played this?” Hand histories from the major sites (PokerStars, Full Tilt, etc) will dominate both the original posts and the responses, allowing you unparalleled access to a wealth of poker knowledge, all at your fingertips.

Reading the forums is also a very important way to stay up to date on the current strategies and news in both live and online poker. While books are incredibly helpful too, the information contained in them is often out of date within a few weeks of its publishing date. Forums provide you with the pulse of the industry. Become involved in one or two and network on the sites that you’ve chosen. Don’t be afraid to post hand histories, ask questions, and even offer up your two cents’ worth of advice. How else do you plan to learn?