Do any of you guys play for a living?

I was just woundering if any of you do, how long did it take before you could quit your previous job?

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like the question waiting for answers

Not me, if I was playing poker for a living, with my win rate, I would have a very hard time even if I was homeless

titiduru said:

Not me, if I was playing poker for a living, with my win rate, I would have a very hard time even if I was homeless

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Don't feel bad, this is how it would be for most of us lol. I'd assume less than 10% of poker players that play for money, can and do make a living from it. most require supplemental income in some form

its so swinging, it's hard. one day im up 1 grand the next im down 600. so its not stable

I work but sometimes play poker is good to make more money , generally I play poker for fun and as a sport

Yes. I just passed the 10 year mark as a pro. It took me about a year of steady grinding and saving before I quit my job. I wrote a huge post about it the other day: http://www.blackrain79.com/2017/05/10-years-poker-pro-lessons-learned.html

BlackRain79 said:

Yes. I just passed the 10 year mark as a pro. It took me about a year of steady grinding and saving before I quit my job. I wrote a huge post about it the other day: http://www.blackrain79.com/2017/05/10-years-poker-pro-lessons-learned.html

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What a surprise to see you here, BlackRain79! I have to tell you that your website has helped me a lot! I even have "Massive Profit at the Micros" printed in my table right now! And just to be clear here, this is not a paid advertisement

I would like to know (and anyone can answer), what are the lowest stakes people are grinding as professionals? I have a dream to do it for a living one day, but I know that I am still far away from it, playing only NL5 right now. Do people play, let's say, NL25 for a living?

I only work and poker is only for fun, but it is best who can have fun and money for living.

you must have a huge bankroll behind you! and again is big risk to quit your job! i think only if you win a big tour you can do that immidiately!

rodrigo1972 said:

I work but sometimes play poker is good to make more money , generally I play poker for fun and as a sport

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I wait for the day when the poker incomes will cover my bills.

It is certainly a good income supply, if you are good at least. I am studying and playing to perhaps one day (sooner than later) gain independence from it.

play poker only for fun

I do not play poker for living too but I would like to definitely become member of poker society and be winning not losing because for now I have lost a good amount of money because of lack of knowledge of the game so I definitely would like to get my money back and win some because of the time spent and i enjoy playing poker betsometimes you can get very frustrated as we all very well know wan you get losing strike and are very unlucky even if you play correctly

playing poker for living is disaster, when you are tilted it will be over for u !

Brother, not in the way you imply but I play so I can live with some fun; meaning I barely break even or loose some money but is far less than any other investment I use to do to keep me entertain and happy!

So in a way, I play Poker for a life with a little fun once in a while...

The variance dictates that unless you win a mega million tourney, you wouldn't be making a ton of money in cash games. This is true in live play unless your room gets tons of action with newbies everyday. IF its a small room with same players every day, forget about it. Online is different because, you meet lots of different players every hour at different tables.



Let's see the math:

You buy in 1/2 for at most 200 in many casinos. How much are you gonna cash out. Well once a couple of weeks you can cash out big but if it becomes routine, you have to win almost all sessions to make a comfortable living. You lose couple of sessions and that bites you off. You become tired and make mistakes. Making money at 1/2 is not profitable for the amount of time invested vs money eventually made.

Now this scenario: You come play for fun and win some money. You go out enjoy and relax. You do it again after a while.


Unless, you are a poker robot, who can control the mistakes and makes the same play or adapts to different players who had made a note of your plays, it will be very difficult to make money. Still, variance brings 1 outer that will bite your stack. After all there are no certain scenarios that you would win unless you have ultimate nuts.

You cannot definitely make the same pay or more playing poker at these nose bleed buy ins by taking it as a profession vs over the time invested and energy wasted thinking about that 1 outers. You can definitely make profits but the long-run scenario dictates variances will bite your profits unless you are an extremely poker bot.

Tournament is the way to make money but not by playing daily tournaments. Carefully selecting them and playing is the way to go.

StarGrinding said:

I was just woundering if any of you do, how long did it take before you could quit your previous job?

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Play poker only for fun, but if it will bring me profit I'll be glad!

Dani_California said:

What a surprise to see you here, BlackRain79! I have to tell you that your website has helped me a lot! I even have "Massive Profit at the Micros" printed in my table right now! And just to be clear here, this is not a paid advertisement

I would like to know (and anyone can answer), what are the lowest stakes people are grinding as professionals? I have a dream to do it for a living one day, but I know that I am still far away from it, playing only NL5 right now. Do people play, let's say, NL25 for a living?

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Thanks glad I could help!

To answer your question, it really depends on your lifestyle and where you live. I live in SouthEast Asia where in many countries you can live like a king for $1000 a month. So there are plenty of guys out here playing as low as NL25 or even NL10 professionally.

In most Western countries you need a lot more money than this just to get by, let alone live the good life. So I would never suggest playing stakes this low for a living in places like America, canada, UK etc.

Since I am retired I would love to say I play for a living but as long as I can play with my winnings and not dip into investments Im happy!

no juste fro fun but I dream poker could be my job....

also just dreaming about it....probably would be homeless within 5 months^^

Blackrain hit the nail on the head theres no way i can be play for a living at the moment, or have any ambition too.. if i was in a asian country or south american it would be different, and if i was single as well.. I use to play very successfully when i was younger and rake home 3g a month but i was great at playing razz on ftp/ps with a lot of games, and studied the game a lot harder.. times change

hopefully one day soon we all can play on pokerstars again, and have a freedom to play online poker without all these sketchy websites

Just a hobby for me. I have to get out of the micro's before playing full time can ever be considered.

I wish I live like this way, but the no guarantee for living comfortable, because of my poker skill.