Anyone here play poker as their primary source of income?

Which, I guess, is the definition of a pro poker player.

So, anybody here consider yourself a "pro"?

When/how did you decide that you were good enough to make it playing poker?

Did you quit your day job? (assuming you had a day job).

Do you play mostly online or at casinos?

Going pro is my ultimate goal, but I know my game isn't good enough yet. While I have a positive return on my online play and have placed in a few small casino SNG's, my earnings are in the hundreds per month, not thousands.

The goal I set for myself is that if I can average +$100 a day, then I might give the whole "poker as a job" thing a try. I just lack the consistency that I'd like to develop.

well poker is my main source of income but i live in a cardboard box
i think u should rethink going pro most pro players are broke and in serious debt
it really isnt a smart move but u can play for fun {that is best choice in my oppinion}

100 per day is not enough to go pro. Seriously, living off 500$ per week while grinding out without any benefits is the epitome of sucky life (unless you plan on playing every day, then good luck shaking off the depression/boredom). What if you need money for the rent and you're on a downswong ? You'll be living day to day with 100 and never making any profit to put towards savings.

With a steady job, you can go by with 100$/day, because the money will always be there if you put in the hours. Your boss will never hold your paycheck because you are on the bad side of variance and you'll have a social life/real job to be proud of. I'd need around 250-300 per day on average to go pro playing poker (and this will neve rhappen and I'll never go pro). Too much disadvantages.

PS: I know what I'm talking about. I have two friends who were living off NL400 for a while and now one of them only plays part time (working odd jobs the rest of the week) while the other has gone back to school. They were making more than 100$ a day and they are good.

It's good to have a dream though. I don't think I'll ever be a pro. But it is a nice dream to have and unlike movie star or rock star poker pro doesn't have an expiration date.

I know I need a few things though. Things like; toilet paper made entirely out of four leaf clovers(that's the kind Jamie Gold uses he's not really a pro but I'd settle for incredibly lucky any day of the week), a diet consisting of Lucky Charms and barbecued leprechaun(replaced with unicorn on high holy days such as Doyle Brunson's B-Day), and a favorite starting hand(man I gotta get me one of those).

Hey if I'm gonna dream, I might as well dream big and outlandishly.

Well I am not a pro, but can answer some of your questions. Untill you can hit the high limit ring games on a regular basis, keep working your regular job.
Always good to have a back up plan.
Must be flexable-like sizing down when things are going bad.
Ring games for the best EV. Mtts (200+)for something to do. Just because you might MTT on a daily basis doesnt mean you are experienced. Ring games is where it is at. Plus get into a "rake" program. This will help out your bank roll at the end of the month.

I imagine it would be extraordinarily difficult to become a professional poker player, because one bad session of tilt can leave you completely broke. Poker would be such an unstable job, you should be sure you can win at high limits on a regular basis, and you should also have your emotions under control!

All good points and advice.

It's more of a dream right now... but some of those days when I have a really good run make me start thinking about it.

I'm not planning on quitting my day job any time soon. I do a good deal of freelance work... so if I'm doing poker well, I could start taking less contracts... if poker is going sour, take more contracts...

Playing poker is a lot more fun than writing code, though... So the lure of doing something fun for a living is rather strong.

I can relate, Eugenius. I want to play poker professionally one day, since I love the game, and find it extremely appealing to do something i love for a living. The only problem, of course, would be whether or not I could support myself on poker alone. I'll just stick to poker for fun, for now, though.

Well, I do consider making $100 a day good enough to be a pro, but only if you can live comfortably on that. When I was single, I could no problem.

The closet I ever got was consistently winning enough to pay for my rent every month, with a little extra. It still wasn't enough to pay for all the food and entertainment expenses, so I can't say I was "pro"-level.

Actually I just wrote a blog post this week about my definition of "poker pro." You can check it out here if you want.

Hehe, well, by that definition (from your blog), I guess I could fancy myself "semi-pro" since I bought myself new tires for my truck with poker last month

The thing is not that 100$ a day is not enough: a lot of people are living off 500$ a week, some of them with children and they are not dumpster diving for food/clothes. But poker is a biatch when it comes to steady income: if you make 1bb/100 hands playing limit, it doesn't mean that every time you play 100 hands, you win 1bb, it means that on average, you make that much.

With that in mind, 100$ a day is not enough for reserves: a lot of pros have at least 6 months to a year of living expenses, so that they can fall on that if they hit a real rough patch. With 500$ a week, good luck on grinding that out.

I live at home with my mom and brother, lol this is my only source of income atm

i want to keep getting better and perhaps do it as a job, im not winning enough yet though

it seems to me being a "professional" poker player would be extremely hard because only few can win and many many lose.

Poker Player Net Worths Are Rarely What you Think They Are


A pretty popular message board topic is to speculate as to the net worth of the most famous poker players in the world, both online and "live."

While it can be fun to try and guess as to what each player is worth, there are several key details that most people overlook.

First off, some people will look at a player's total tournament cashes and automatically assume that someone is a multi-millionaire just because they have $3 million dollars in lifetime cashes.

Though they may very well be millionaires, oftentimes they are not. First off, staking is much more prevalent than you think in live tournament poker. At any major tournament, you can have as many as 50% of the "name pros" being staked for the tournament. So right off the bat you need to question how much of their $3 million in total cashes they actually got to keep. I mean, you probably didn't know that Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad was staked by the Bax/Sheets empire for the WSOPE Main event, and had to fork over 50% of her winnings. As I said, staking is everywhere in live tournament poker.

After that, you have Uncle Sam, who is going to take his cut. Also, if the player travels around playing live tournaments, this will take a serious dent out of their bankroll. They will have to fork over money for tournament buy-ins, hotels and airline tickets. It's not much of a stretch to think that someone with $3 million in cashes could have nothing left after staking, expenses and taxes.

Also, debt is everywhere in poker. It seems like everyone owes money or is owed money. There are players out there that are technically worth millions and millions of dollars, but are owed millions of dollars by other poker players. Money that they may or may not get back.

Also, many well-known poker players are gamblers in the truest sense of the word. Many millions of dollars are won and lost on the golf courses of Las Vegas, and many millions are lost playing craps, roulette and other table games in Vegas. Some players will win millions of dollars in tournaments and then dump this money off at the high limit table games in Vegas.

Also, just because you see a poker player playing with a $500k stack in front of them on High Stakes Poker, doesn't necessarily mean that they are worth tens of millions of dollars. They are either playing way over their bankroll, or they are being staked or at least partially staked to sit at the table. Some of the players at the tables on High Stakes Poker are certainly worth tens of millions of dollars, but some aren't worth nearly as much as you would think.

The last consideration to take into account when trying to figure out the net worth of well-known players is their outside business interests. Some of the most well-known poker players are also extremely savvy businessmen. Phil Hellmuth, love him or hate him, has to have a very large net worth due to his business interests. Players like Eli Elezra and Sammy Farha are wealthy outside of poker due to their numerous business interests.

Players such as Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer are worth millions of dollars on paper due to their equity stakes in Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt Poker has to be worth at least a couple billion dollars, and these players (and others) all have substantial equity stakes in the company.

Many players also have a respectable poker bankroll that is dwarfed by the value of their real estate holdings.

In the end, there are many, many factors that would determine the net worth of a player. I suspect that many players have either a much smaller or much larger net worth than most people would think.


Article from Poker-King

If you're even remotely a winning player, then $100 a day is absolutely nothing at NL400.

Take a measly winrate of 2 BB/100, play 300 hands per hour, 5 hours a day:
4 x $4 x 15 = $240 / 5-hour day. That's just about the minimum you can expect in the long run.

Eugenius:
I'm not sure if a one-time tire purchase=equals "an aspect of your life" as mentioned in my blog post. But I am glad you didn't break the bank for the treads.

jeffred1111:
I agree for going-pro to work you need a reserve to fall back on in the event of a long streak of bad luck, just like people with normal career should have savings in case they loose their job.

Sure the nature of the game makes it more financially hazardous then some other professions, but if you have good money management, you should be okay.

Where did I say they were winning 100$ a day ? I said they were winning more than that and they still quit. It's just too hard for most of the population to keep motivation up when you play 30 hours a week, at least online, since there's no social interaction and no fixed salary or hours.

Also, Grundy, poker is probably the worse way to make a middle level income, at least in the United States, since the insurances/advantages of a real job on comparable salary more than makes up for the fact that you're winning at an "easy job". In Canada, we still have social programs and healthcare, so that makes up for it somewhat. Moving to a place where a lower level of income is suitable for your standards of living (some parts of Asia notably), is the way many pros go.

i will prolly never go pro

In 2005, I quit working due to an OTJ injury. Six months later, I was cleared to return, but never did. I had been playing poker since 2001, and had accumulated a very small bankroll of about $5k. This all came from playing single table SNGs and $1/$2 NL. None of it was online. My wife finished her degree and started working about 3 months before I got hurt. She made more than twice what I was making at the time, so I decided to go back to school and just give poker a shot. Since I lived so close to a couple rooms where I had been making a profit, it was easy for me to find the time to do it, while still keeping my professional certification and going to school. The point is, I had surplus money and a backup plan when I started. Had I failed, I go back to work and move on.
In the six months of '05 I played full time, I made just over 18K. This is about 3K more than I would have made working. I play 4 days a week, between 6 and 12 hours a day. In '06, I made just under 33K. In '07, I made 44K, but this was the first year that I played in large tournies. Of the 3 I played in, I only cashed in one, breaking just over even(+$1100) for the 3 I played in.
Basically, Im playing poker as a job, going to school, and making only a little more than I would working full time. A good week for me is between $800-$1200. My worst week so far, I still made $200. I had to play more than 50 hours of poker for $200. Let me tell you, that sucks. The key for me is managing my money in a way that I dont lose so much that it hurts or hinders my ability to keep going. Even today, I could lose a $2500 buy in, and still be comfortable sitting in a 5/10 table tomorrow.
The benefit to what Im doing is that I play almost entirely with recreational amatuers. And since I have a realistic view of my bankroll and am in no hurry to jump up and move to Vegas(which I will never do), the risk of losing all my resource is very small. My bracelet will just have to wait.

Another key thing to realize is that Im not single, Im married. And since my wife has an excellent career, things like health insurance are taken care of on her end.

Young players who are single or dont have the support I have will have a harder tme of it. Im just spoiled and lucky to be married to a great girl.

SlowcalaPro: Where do you mostly play? By your username I am guessing you are in CA somewhere?

I may be relocating to CA soon - just wondering what good casinos are in the area (excluding vegas).

Im actually in Florida and play mostly on at the Hard Rock in Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, and in our numorous race track rooms.

Part of playing poker correctly at any level is making sure this doesn't happen.

You never ever play with your entire bankroll at one time (or even a significant chunk of it) so that this doesn't happen.

I'm far from a pro but I'm going to see what I can do with poker this year... I can see it becoming my primary (but not only) income source at some point in the future.

Thing I find about hard rock is most fish end up going there so you find a lot of sharks in these games

the racetrack rooms are the best in Florida because people go there to wind down and just throw their money away

I dont have a problem with anybody thats willing to put their money in front of me and give me the chance to take it. Whether youre a fish, shark, donkey, dead money, whatever. It doesnt matter to me. Turning a profit on poker is simple once you learn how to deal with people and their different playing styles. I read too many blogs and forum posts from players worried about starting hands and what cards they are willing to play and not play. They should be more worried about deciphering what cards their opponents are willing to play.

Guess it's just a matter of time before there will no more losers to take money from. Once we all learn this simple prophecy.

Not true Quads. There are a great many people playing poker that either are incapable of reaching, or dont have the desire to reach, the level of play required to constantly profit from poker. Theyre easy to find. Theyre the ones screaming about how poker is all luck and/ or how online poker is rigged.
The simple fact is that some people are smarter than others. There will always be someone better than the next guy. The poker Brat said it best. If it wasnt for luck, the smartest players would always win. Its possible to never make a mistake and still lose, but its the players that make the fewest mistakes that profit in the long run. Like I said, not everyone is capable of playing at that level, so there will always be people to take money from.

i consider myself a pro...your only a pro if you lose on a consistent basis

I play for fun, but I take very seriously this job ^^

Where can I find one of these girls????????? I ain't even gonna try for Kathy Liebert, too much competition around here for her!

LMAO
I worked 60 hrs a week to put my wife through college for 6 years. She has a job she loves and is basically her own boss. Ive found the best place to find great girls like this are at church (seriously). If you can stay awake, churches, especially baptist churches are chock full of hot, young women. I have no idea why. Maybe God likes hotties. You have to put a little more effort into them, as opposed to catholic girls , but Ive found its worth it in the long run. Like I said, now Im just a spoiled kept man.

I was married to a Catholic girl once.....ONCE! Unfortunately for me she's the reason I've became a transplant from Arizona to the midwest. Hard to find a hottie locally because around this area the beef ain't the only thing corn fed! Used to go to a Lutheren church, probably the biggest church in the area but there sure wasn't any supply of hotties there, just a couple (extremely well) cornfed ones. My Jeep can only handle a 500 pound payload........

Do yourself a favor in advance partner...Never take your's for granted, treat her well, Seriously!....Sounds like you have a geat one!

Does she has any sisters named Kathy?

See what I mean about those Catholic girls?! Scary. LOL

Yeah, I have a great wife. Weve been together 7 years now, so I think I have her "pot committed".

^^^this is the way to go, ! I did just got a real j.o.b. however , part time dealing blackjack.

Anyway, like most things you need money to make money, and spending portions of your bankroll for life expenses can keep you from moving up to stakes that would support full time play.