poker winnings for beginners (low stake)

just started online poker (been playing poker for a while), and I was wondering how much should i be aiming for everyday to just live an average life. Not trying to make millions, but just trying to live an average enjoyable life. Please don't say 'it depends on how much you want to make' since I realize it does... I'm more interested in what other people in a similar situation/mindset aims to make everyday.

Thanks for your answers in advance!

Get ready. These posts have a habit of some pretty hard answers.

The way you word your question is quite telling.
Answer no 1. Dont give up the day job.

It makes no difference at all how much you "want to make". The reality is if you are asking a question like this, using phrases like "I was wondering how much should i be aiming for everyday to just live an average life" you are almost certainly not "equipped" to make a living at poker. Dont take this wrong. But were you mentally and skillfully ready - meaning enough knowledge of the game and all that goes with it, as well as the experience needed - you would not be asking this.

Still, here are some articles you may find interesting.

http://www.cardschat.com/playing-pok...essionally.php
the other links on the left are worth a look.


The guy who wrote this next one knows a lot, and this may sober you a bit:
http://fredrikpaulsson.blogspot.com/...ssionally.html

How much you 'want' to make is up to you and how much you 'need' to make totally depends on your lifestyle and financial obligations, so no-one can answer that for you.

But I agree with fletchdad: Don't give up the day job.

Along with what fletch said, you have given way too little information for us to even come close to giving you a rational answer. You haven't said how much experience you have(since you said that you've just started playing online poker, I am assuming that you've played a little bit live over the years, but you're probably not a winning player). You haven't mentioned what stakes you're planning on playing or what your bankroll is(both for playing and what you expect to keep held back for the months when you're hitting the bad side of variance).

You say you don't want an "it depends" answer, but you need to give a lot more information to get something other than that, except for the fact that you probably shouldn't be thinking about playing professionally until you get some more experience playing online under your belt.

$17,000

Any day when I'm in profit (including rakeback) is a good day for me

per day. Anything less and my servants don't get caviar! And they hate it when they only get lobster.

+1. . .........

Grind enough for your next move up.

A lot of factors,so im giving my 2 cents

a) Define your average lifestyle
b) It's good to earn loads of money,but u gotta take losing into consideration.
See your loss-limitations.If u reached a stake,where the amount you lose puts a big depression/headache? Obviously,your mentality is not ready for this.

We need to know more about your play. U know like what stakes do u play at, ur BR, your win/lose rate, hand histories, whether you play SnG or MTT or Cash games, etc. What's ur overall knowledge of the game?

Well Have you had a job before, and If so how much did you make doing that...If you had a job and were comfortable devide the hours you workd and aim to make the same amount you did working> If you are comfortable with say 20 bucks an hour...aim for 20 bucks an hour...It doesnt hurt to aim for anything the tuff part is pulling it off..good luck with that.

Realistically, this is wrong. Because it does not take into account for the downswings. So with your thinking, you're running just fine when you're making the $20/hour, but how about a downswing for a week when you run -$20/hour or even breakeven? at -$20/hour, that $40 less than you're used to making and you don't have anything to back that up because you were just shooting for what you WERE comfortable with prior to making poker your day job. Even at breakeven, sure you're not losing money, but you're having to eat off of that $20/hour that you made last week/month, whereas with a regular/normal job, you would be making that $20 consistently.

We all start with such dreams dude and are quickly brought down to earth, like all gambling reality is few win, and those that do will take your cash.

I'd say around $2,000/day is a good amount to aim for. I like to take alot of days off though.

Reality:
If you're just starting out online & let's assume you have a $250-$500 bankroll to work with. If you study your ass off & Really work on your game & then chose to start off with SNG's or SNG-MTT (27's, 45's, 180's, etc.) you might be able to beat the $7 & under buyins. (keyword 'might'.. & 'if').
Now if you play & play & play & study, study, study (all kinds of ways to do this but bottomline is it will take Time & willingness), and are able to begin 8-tabling them, you 'might' be able to make around $4/hr. Do this for 12hrs./day & you're almost making $50/day!!! (but doubt you'd be able to do this for 12hrs... at least not for awhile & then once you were able to, you probably wouldn't want to anymore).
Do this for a month or two & get up to 10+tables, then if you're still actually even running okay you can consider moving up a buyin level to the $10's (or $15's depending upon what site you're playing on). Now if you can sustain the same winrate you're making $100/day (for 10+ hr. days) and only 'if' you've done your homework.. and 'if' you have the aptitude to become a decent, winning player.

Is that an 'average enjoyable life'? I doubt it. Maybe if you're currently living in your Mom's basement playing X-box for 10hrs./day, have few expenses & switch over to the pokerzz.

What your win rate playing live? As a starting point, you may want to see if you can match it online before concerning yourself with making more.

HAHAHAHA so duuuumb !!!! :P :P

Maybe OP quit playing?

Valid Point...hince the key word "aim" and the last part "making it happen is the tuff part" obviously if he was aiming for 20 bucks and hour , the 20 is merely a median and the variables should be taken into account.

I think he read some of the links....

That can sober you up fast...lol

He probably thought "I will play poker and make my money there" then saw the answers here and thought "wow, how silly I was"

uhhhhhhh or maybe not

I look at it like this.

In order for you to start poker as a profession full time you need:
1) 6-12 months living expenses in the bank (separate from your bankroll).
2) ideally would be debt free / low living expenses
3) about 1-2 years of living expenses for your Bankroll.

With your bankroll being about 1-2 years living expenses you hopefully should have enough to get through the variance swings. Your goal should then be to about double your bankroll every year. This would be to just stay even with living expenses the next year, pay taxes, health care costs, save money in separate account ("retirement"/rainy day fund/non-liquid investments), and have some piece of mind.

For me personally this would mean I would need a $&*% load of money. 150k-200k in cash upfront to get started.

I would figure I would need to win at least 50K a year at the tables just to stay afloat. At 50 weeks a year (figure at least 2 weeks for vacation), and play for an average of 30 hours a week you need to average about $33/hr.

At $10/$20 game for an average of 1-2BB/hr and we would could be about sustainable and over bankrolled (Buy-in $2,000 per game and need 20-30 buy-ins at least for variance, $40-60K). You could play up to $25/50 with your bankroll and need to average at least 1.5BB/hr.

This plan would get you in the ball park of realistic expectations (it too may be a little too optimistic). What this says to me about what it takes to become a full time/professional poker player is:
1) you need to already be well off
or
2) you need to have very low expenses and work your game and bankroll up over time

It can sober you up if you think you make a quick buck. If you look at it as a 10 year plan and you are good at poker you may be able to do it... or you could just win the lottery

Good luck

Good bye professional poker dreams....

..... Keep the dream alive

Were they ever really there? lol

Heck yea my dream is still there.... I could have made it happen. I got a lucky break a while ago when FTP was still around. I got 2nd in a 2$ rush toruney for 2.5k But sadly life happens and needed all that money within a few days. So then I left a very small roll on FT ( way bfore Black friday ) and thus now I am trying to grind a roll so that Ican try and get a big win again It can happen. Seen it before, it can happen again. So yes the dream is there, within my grasps but sadly sliped away...