"What's it like to earn a living through poker?"

Between casinos, tournaments, and online games, poker is a common and widely enjoyed past time. But a small percentage of players actually use poker to earn a living.

A Quora thread asks the question, "What's it like to earn a living through poker?" It turns out playing professionally has its own unique set of pros, cons, and necessary skills. We've broken them down for you below, based on answers from past and current professionals Michael Shinzaki, Jeff Meyerson, and William Ting.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-it-takes-to-play-poker-for-a-living-2014-7#ixzz37WeRhh8E

I really wish i knew how it is to earn a living through poker. Let's hope i'll find out one day

Unless you're someone who's already earned millions in poker winnings, is living comfortably, and playing poker is just a way to have a steady flow of income....i'd think it would be pretty boring and stressful. Especially if you're living off of poker month to month and how you do on a certain month determins if your rent and expenses paid, you get to eat, etc...

I'd hate to live that life. No offense to others who do, though. If it works for you, more power to you.

I would like to be able to do this for a living, and when I play online I have days on the felt where I win 300 in one day and think if I can do this twice a week now, I can start, but then I get stupid and play BJ.. I need to disable that and then I think I can do it... once I get a good roll, then cash it out and go to live tournaments...

makaay1 said:

I really wish i knew how it is to earn a living through poker. Let's hope i'll find out one day

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+1

There are some great documentary's from pro's who play for their living. Intresting to watch

philthy said:

Unless you're someone who's already earned millions in poker winnings, is living comfortably, and playing poker is just a way to have a steady flow of income....i'd think it would be pretty boring and stressful. Especially if you're living off of poker month to month and how you do on a certain month determins if your rent and expenses paid, you get to eat, etc...

I'd hate to live that life. No offense to others who do, though. If it works for you, more power to you.

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agree. but when in positions of doing whatever other option you have for money, tables are turned.

I think to earn a living on poker is possible only when you find and perfect your formula to playing poker. It feels like poker is a learning process, and you just gotta stick around long enough to find the right approach. Its always going to be hard and you just gotta accept with what comes with. ITs a lifestyle and you gotta be committed to see yourself get through tough times, broke times, and successful times.

One day I would like to play for a living but at my rate it would take a life time. Everyone says you need to have a goal - well mine is to qualify and perhaps win the "Seniors" at the wsop..................Perhaps..............gl to all you budding professionals...............

It's stressful at times, its unpredictable.....because paying off your expenses is not guaranteed because of the swings. When its good, it great when its bad its horrid....The key is managing your bankroll well= knowing when to quit when its not your night and knowing when to quit when you are ahead.

If you aren't playing high enough to be making enough to sock away a good amount, then i would say it would be pretty horrible- especially these days.


Not to burst anyone's bubble, but the reality of the situation is online poker is shrinking absolutely, and the games are getting harder and harder for everyone even top players. At the same time Amayastars has now shown they are ready, willing and able to SQUEEZE players for more and more rake/fees.

In such an environment I would hesitate for anyone to plan on poker being a viable income in the long term and maybe even for some to plan on it being viable in the medium term.

Right now is NOT a good time to be a budding professional player online. Live really depends on where you live and your specific situation as far as cost of living/game availability.

Unless you've got a gold mine of a local underground game (they exist), I would suggest any people serious about making a big run at live poker play to PLAN on moving to LA or South Florida to play.

much time and money to be a professional is needed. besides learning to play and have intuition

Well I cant really answer the actual question.

However, over the past few years I have been grinding the micros and made several thousand pounds (over a couple of networks) in the process. Yes there are good times and stressful times, funny times too, I guess the losing players experience the same emotions, just their money is moving in the other direction.

It feels nice to be able to go and use this money to pay for a holiday or buy something nice, using other peoples money that you have outsmarted in order to win.

I get the impression a couple of my colleagues have had raised eyebrows over the frequency of my holidays abroad. As its largely inhabited by old dears that cannot comprehend people may partake in extra activities to boost their income. I'm sure some of them think that I am on the fiddle at work.

But as we all know, its just not worth the hassle telling people that you play online poker, plus of course its none of their business.

philthy said:

Unless you're someone who's already earned millions in poker winnings, is living comfortably, and playing poker is just a way to have a steady flow of income....i'd think it would be pretty boring and stressful. Especially if you're living off of poker month to month and how you do on a certain month determins if your rent and expenses paid, you get to eat, etc...

I'd hate to live that life. No offense to others who do, though. If it works for you, more power to you.

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There are people who live poker with the poker month pay their expenses such as school feeding and rental department.
I too would like to but I think everything has to mepezar with good mental work, and now that and only that I lack.

:JD4: :JD4:

Oh.....and I almost forgot.............unless you are already good financially if you are just starting out you'll need a good backer or a few good backers. As some says, which is perfectly correct it all depends on where you live too and if you can find good action which can be found at some good underground games at times. The thing is if the poker economy goes bad for awhile meaning you can find enough games to meet you're demands, you'll just be living on the edge.
It can be achieved though, I know alot of guys that does it plus if you hit that one big score for a solid start and manage your money responsibly then it makes it so much easier.

I play live poker 2 -3 days a week mostly $1 -$3 NL, like to play $2 -$5 NL & $1 -$3 PLO when games are available around here that is not to often. I'ts telling that most of the "regulars" that are playing several days a week are guys who are retired from real jobs, and have made lots of money and have there medical, dental, vision ins. covered and are gambling with money set aside and winning or loosing it will not change the way they live on a daily basis. I think you would have to be proficent in at least $10 - $25 limit or high stakes to earn a living, for wich you need a massive bankroll to even get into the games.

One poster stated he thinks he could win $300 a day twice a week. assuming their is no looses thats only $600 a week x 52 weeks a year is a whooping $31k a year.

Get a job play poker for fun!

EA2USN said:

I play live poker 2 -3 days a week mostly $1 -$3 NL, like to play $2 -$5 NL & $1 -$3 PLO when games are available around here that is not to often. I'ts telling that most of the "regulars" that are playing several days a week are guys who are retired from real jobs, and have made lots of money and have there medical, dental, vision ins. covered and are gambling with money set aside and winning or loosing it will not change the way they live on a daily basis. I think you would have to be proficent in at least $10 - $25 limit or high stakes to earn a living, for wich you need a massive bankroll to even get into the games.

One poster stated he thinks he could win $300 a day twice a week. assuming their is no looses thats only $600 a week x 52 weeks a year is a whooping $31k a year.

Get a job play poker for fun!

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ya, I think this post/poster has a lot of good insights.

I remember like 6 yrs ago talking to a pro about which stakes made sense to grind in order to be a live pro. We came to the conclusion anything lower than 5/10 NL or 20/40 LHE/Limit mixed made virtually no sense. Furthermore, you shouldn't be looking to stay at 5/10 unless the game was JUICY as heck.

Ofc the games were A LOT softer back then and 5/10 NLH was at times VERY juicy at my home casino at peak times (Fri/Sat. nights....Sat. afternoons), but with online closing down 5/10 pretty much everywhere with consistent action must have a lot of ex online players which means the quality of the games have gone down vis a vis profitability.

Using the 30 BI standard for live NLH and 6 months living expenses rule, that means someone better have ~45-50k in liquid assets they are willing to lose to really make a go of turning pro.

A lot of the "pros" you see at 1/2 and 1/3 are folks between jobs trying to scrape by or people on SS/pensions who sort of fancy themselves pros without really solely relying on poker as their sole means of support. 2/5 can have both types as many pros will play juicy 2/5s these days, but won't make it their main or sole game.

Apologies to Major Lance

"Workin' in a set mine,
Showin' down, down, down,
Workin' in a set mine,
Oops! Felted by a clown!"

I think there must always be an alternative of life not to hang :smokin:

I think it would be very difficult, unless you have an unlimited supply of money.

my friend will and lou earn a living thru poker they do very well they mostly play tourname\nts in atlantic city, sands casino pa, and foxwood casino ct

The movie "Bet, raise, fold" will also give you an idea of how it is like to make a living out of poker. Also there is the 2 months 2 millions series that can show you professional poker living.

Man this is number one long term goal on my list of many, but I think i will be dead and buried before this happens lol

After doing some reading I have information on win rates. Most agree that a win rate of 2.5 to 3.0 big blinds per 100 hands is about average for winning players. So let's look at this on average live game you get 25 hands per hour so in four hours you should see 100 hands and win 3 big blinds on average over a long period of time at 1/3 ml that equates to 3x $3=$9 four 4 hours. 2/5 $15 per 4 hours. 5/10 $$30 per 4 hours at 5/10 then for a year at 40 hour weeks if your skilled enough to achieve a 3bb/100 win rate you could expect to win $60 per day, $3000 per week, $15,600 per year!!!

Can't edit post from my tablet should $300 per week not $3000

I would love to make poker my career but i find it difficult due to the amount of house players and collusion that goes on at casinos. I rarely play for money online just free rolls..