Get black shaded sunglasses that are secretly X-ray glasses and tell the people your playing with they're perscription glasses...

worldseriesofpoker.com will help you. Also try getting to the main event through satelite tourneys on fulltiltpoker.com. Its hard but you can do it =)

Practice, practice and practice some more. Enter local and national tournaments, then get a manager.

You don't really just become a professional poker player. Getting a poker mentor would be a good start. I don't know how well you play, but you should read every poker book you can get your hands on. Get as much online and real time experience as possible. It can take years to become a great player. Playing for play money online isn't going to give you an idea of what a real game is like. If nothing else, at least play at the penny tables. It's funny how people guard their pennies in comparison to how they gamble away their play money. With play money there is always an "ALL IN, ALL IN, ALL IN" jerk at the table. Here's a link from PokerTips.org http://www.pokertips.org/strategy/going-pro.php

You need to gather a lot of experience playing the game in all sorts of ways... online, in casinos, in drunken home games with your friends... cash games, tournament games, any game that is going... read up on the game, and generally learn to play well and log a lot of hours until you can turn a steady profit playing at medium to high limits. Then when you have enough of a bankroll behind you to be able to sustain a run of bad luck without having to starve and live out of your car, you can quit your job and go for it. Most people who try to be pros fall down at the "learn to play well" stage, for what it's worth.

The best way is to read GOOD poker books - there is a bunch of terrible poker books on the market, here are a few good books: Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller and David Sklansky - this is THE book for small limit hold'em games. period. Harrington on Hold'em volumes 1-3 - No limit tournament strategies Professional No-limit Hold'em by Matt Flynn and Ed Miller - great book on No-limit cash games. Before you embark, you will also need to accumulate a bankroll, something on the order of 500-1000 big bets. So if you wanted to multi-table $2-4 online you would need about $5000. If you wanted to play one table of $3-6, you would need roughly the same. Also - if you are going to be playing online, it would be a great idea to set up a new account where you recieve rake-back. This can be done at http://www.raketracker.com/ Also - it would be a good idea to download a program that records your desktop. Record your online sessions and have a friend (a professional, or very good player) review your play. Finally - You NEED TO BE ABLE TO HANDLE BAD RUNS OF CARDS!!! This is HUGE! Downswings occur all the time, you need to be able to isolate yourself from the money, and realize that the games will still be there tomorrow. You don't always have to try and win your money back - some days you're just gonna lose. Typical down swings are in the 50-100 big bet range, but can go as deep as 500 big bets. That can be brutal. Best of luck I am on the same journey :)

practice practice practice

Play way too much poker and invest in really dark glasses.

Buy a funny hat and sunglasses... Now play poker for hours on end taking notes on what you thought and why then spend a lot of money buying into tournaments AND maybe you will get lucky and win something.

It is not for everyone. You need to have balls to make some very hard decisions and have money management skills so you dont blow your roll. To gain the skills you need read some books (Sklansky is a good author) and use the knowledge to add to your game (DO NOT adhere conditionally to what you read. Work it into your own personal style). The next step is to play thousands and thousands and thousands of hands, study what went wrong when you lose certain hands, and study your opponents to learn the betting patterns of different types of players. Then play about 100,000 more hands and see if you've made any money. Start at low limits and work your way up when you feel beyond comfortable at a set limit. Also play all forms of Hold Em (if thats what you want to specialize in)- play Limit (crucial for your fundamentals because hands go to show down more often than NL), NL cash, Sit N Gos, and Multi Table Tournaments.

It should start by never getting laid through high school. Then, when you drop out, you get a lazy job like being a bartender or something. When your sick of that, grab a case of beer and put $ 1000 on your maxed out credit card fo your bankroll. Viola, your a pro!!

I play in a local poker league. We play four nights a week. There is 60+ members, most are very good. By playing with good players it will elevate your game. Play as much as you can and with as many players as you fell are going to make you better. When I play with other people, I notice they are not as good as most of the members. My advice is surround yourself with the best players you can find in your area and play them as often as possible. Keep talking with other players about strageties and game play and read lots of books. You will improve your game but you must work hard. I would love to be a pro and have come across many obstacles that I wasn't expecting. Good luck to you and maybe someday we'll be sitting across each other at the final table in the WSOP.

No idea!!!Ask phirad!!!

Learn the basics and practice. Practice makes perfect. You can look 4 sources to learn the rules of the game. Personally, I think poker is difficult to understand O__O

Put together a group of money backers who will fund you the money to play.

Put together a group of people that can financially back you.