At what stakes do people play for a living?

Hey guys,
Just a random question;
I know there are a lot players making a living from cash games, and I was wondering, what stakes do they play?
Like do people make a living from 100NL, or ain't that possible 'till 5/10 or something? because I really have no clue=p
thx!

Depends where you live I guess.

I would say its all dependent on how many tables you play and if you have rakeback or not...If you're playing 12-16 tables of .50/1 nl hold em you're gonna be making like $30-35 an hour just in rakeback which is a comfortable living for some people

You can get by playing 100NL (with bonuses/rb obv), even in 2013. The volume is pretty sick though, and by get by I don't mean balla 6 figures/yr I mean paying bills and eating out every once in awhile. If poker is legitimately your sole income and you're paying taxes on it you'll almost certainly be playing higher than 100NL.

I made a living for a few years playing 400NL 6max games. It's not something I suggest anyone rely on as a life long plan and don't sacrifice your earning potential away from poker to make a go at it... but certainly if you're good enough and dedicated enough to abuse predictable regs, exploit fish, and not let stress wear on you much, by all means get your share of money while the getting's good.

Atm i'm averaging 200 a night at the casino 1/3 ... i'm still up and down and not steady with online but thats due to not putting enough money on there.
I recon when i hit 2/4 at the casino i could live on that if i keep up my live consistency... depends if ppl pay me off as much at the higher rakes which i highly doubt because ppl higher up can smell danger earlier than ur 1/3 regs

Yeah more or less what DunningKruger said. I've always thought that if you put in a lot of volume at 200, and you have a decent edge, then you could do it for a living.

Depends largely on where you live and your lifestyle/family situation. There are guys in some Eastern European countries for instance who could make a living at NL5 (yes 2c/5c) because $400 USD a month is the average salary there. If you live in Sydney, have a wife and 6 kids...

Holy crap, 6 kids in that case being glued to the screen is obviously +EV from economic standpoint

If you are talking about live, i would say 2/5. There are some big 1/2 or 1/3 games and it just depends how the casinos have them. Some have them capped, others allow up to 1k on 1/2.

Our casino's in London tend to be £1/£1 or £1/£2 but in some venues can go a lot higher,

BlackRain79 said:

Depends largely on where you live and your lifestyle/family situation. There are guys in some Eastern European countries for instance who could make a living at NL5 (yes 2c/5c) because $400 USD a month is the average salary there. If you live in Sydney, have a wife and 6 kids...

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Wow, if you have 6 kids your have been playing poke-her not poker.

Zin said:

Wow, if you have 6 kids your have been playing poke-her not poker.

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Lol

BlackRain79 said:

Depends largely on where you live and your lifestyle/family situation. There are guys in some Eastern European countries for instance who could make a living at NL5 (yes 2c/5c) because $400 USD a month is the average salary there. If you live in Sydney, have a wife and 6 kids...

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In Eastern Europe guys playing 10NL at a decent winrate are living quite nice playing 3-4 hours a day.
I myself i only play 2 hours during the week and 3-4 hours in the weekend and still do nice but i am not ready to give up my job as an engineer where i make over a thousand a mounth. I think i will have to get to 200 NL(witch may never happen) and be a winner for over a year to make such a huge step. My only regret is that i found poker after i was 30 and my mind it is not what it used to be. I am not old, only 33 now but it is not the same as a fresh mind.

swingro said:

In Eastern Europe guys playing 10NL at a decent winrate are living quite nice playing 3-4 hours a day.
I myself i only play 2 hours during the week and 3-4 hours in the weekend and still do nice but i am not ready to give up my job as an engineer where i make over a thousand a mounth. I think i will have to get to 200 NL(witch may never happen) and be a winner for over a year to make such a huge step. My only regret is that i found poker after i was 30 and my mind it is not what it used to be. I am not old, only 33 now but it is not the same as a fresh mind.

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omg man. 33 year old is as fresh and as mature as they get. id say ur brain is working at its peak right now. ur not too old to be slow but ur not too young to be imature. i dont think age has anything to do with poker results.

vinylspiros said:

omg man. 33 year old is as fresh and as mature as they get. id say ur brain is working at its peak right now. ur not too old to be slow but ur not too young to be imature. i dont think age has anything to do with poker results.

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Thx man. But i think i am not accumulating as i was at 22-25 years old.
Anyway i said to myself that i will do this untill i will be 40 . If poker will change my life and i will be able to live from it i think 7 years will be enough to decide. If no it will be a valuable surce of income at the lvl i will be abble to reach untill than.

I'm 32 soon and i have 2 kids... it's hard but i play live once a week and online during the week 1hr/2hr a day... I've come along way with the 3 yrs i've been playing and since my 3rd year i attempted the casino and have done extremely well.
Anyways biggest problem i have is everyone around me is paranoid that i have a gambling issue... if i was a batsmen in baseball and batted everyday for practice no one would say anything go figure!

Aces2w1n said:

I'm 32 soon and i have 2 kids... it's hard but i play live once a week and online during the week 1hr/2hr a day... I've come along way with the 3 yrs i've been playing and since my 3rd year i attempted the casino and have done extremely well.
Anyways biggest problem i have is everyone around me is paranoid that i have a gambling issue... if i was a batsmen in baseball and batted everyday for practice no one would say anything go figure!

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Unless they do not understand the game they will not understand what is the line between gambling and math. But if you show them that you are not spending your own money and you are making some i think hey will make an ideea.
Anyway. This is why pros make money and the players that are here for fun are not. Because most of them see it on TV and most of them have no ideea that there is math behind it. They only see random bets and raises and they think they can do the same. Actually newcomers are the "maniacs" we identify at the tables. This is the categorry your family is in. And because they only saw poker on films, and because the TV is full of shows where ppl loose money at slot machines at the casino, they feel that playing poker is like drinking alcohool. Of course poker is fun and we are addicted of playing it but we need to explain our families that this is our hobby and we are not risking our hardly worked money at our day time job. Some ae reading , some play chess,some checkers,some are rasing fish or take care of an ant farm. We play poker witch is a sport like any othe mind game if we are not risking our own money.

I mostly play live for a living 40 hours a week in the north of england mostly at 100nl thru the week and 200nl at weekends and occasionaly i play the 2/2 omaha game. However the 100nl plays much bigger than normal 100nl games with straddles by the end of the session most players are 500-1k deep i made £23 an hour in these games last year tax free so making a living playing small stakes is very doable.

Cash games I think 100nl+ at 5ptbb for most Western countries out to do it.

well it depends actually upon your living standards...but i seriously discourage any beginner even thinking about that, let alone doing it....it is allways better to work and earn your salary and then play a part of that eitherin the night or in the weekend.
That will not put extra pressure on you when you will ve the chance to play big pots...and please dont go by the tv videos of those pros, we dont know exactly how much they have lost also....

veltins said:

well it depends actually upon your living standards...but i seriously discourage any beginner even thinking about that, let alone doing it....it is allways better to work and earn your salary and then play a part of that eitherin the night or in the weekend.
That will not put extra pressure on you when you will ve the chance to play big pots...and please dont go by the tv videos of those pros, we dont know exactly how much they have lost also....

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thats great advice and very true.

OK you can first have an expectation of your living expenses. Generally a good player can earn a profit of 6BB per hour at a table. So you can just calculate at what stakes you should play based on how many tables you play at the same time and how long you play everyday.

Zin said:

Wow, if you have 6 kids your have been playing poke-her not poker.

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/quality

I played from 10nl to 30nl in January and February and I have made more than I made working 9 hours a day at my normal job. Actually doubled my income.

forsakenone said:

I played from 10nl to 30nl in January and February and I have made more than I made working 9 hours a day at my normal job. Actually doubled my income.

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That's just amazing!!! Even cooler if you will tell me you work at Google.