Minimum Limit You Can Play To Make A Living

[dmorris68]

If you have a decent win rate + a rakeback you'll be bringing more cash each month just by the rakeback. Some site offer as much as 30% rakeback....something to look into if your serious about doing it for a living.

Problem with that is rakeback promotions are typically only offered for first-time promotional signups, so if you (like most of us here) already have an account at the sites you want to play at, you're out of luck on getting rakeback. If you've already signed up under some affiliate promotion deal, such as where you get a prize, bonus, books, software, discount, etc. in exchange for your signup, then you can't go back later and get the rakeback.

I've been told that sometimes if you signed up blind (unreferred by an affiliate) you can get a rakeback affiliate to negotiate your existing account into a rakeback arrangement, but I've not had any luck doing so with the affiliate I tried -- all of my signups were apparently referrals even though I remember only one for certain, where I signed up to Sportsbook to get a free copy of Hold'em Indicator. I think I may have signed up to FT under CC's affiliate link. Not sure where I signed up for Stars, but as I understand it they don't offer rakeback anyway.

If anybody knows any way to convert old accounts into rakeback accounts, I'd love to hear them...

 

[tsabbat]

You can live off 1/2 easily. if you put in 100 and you win 1 big pot hour and you play for let say 4 hours a day. you could profit between $250 to $400 a day and times 6 thats like working a good part time job lol , consistency would have to be key and also discipline otherwise you would win and lose it the next day or before sundown lol

 

[Mortis]

I'd be more than happy earning $18,000 a year playing poker.
A lot of people earn less.

You have to make room for loss and error in there. What happens if you go on a bad run? Do you have enough money to fall back on in case that happens? At $18,000 a year, I don't see any emergency back up money.

Again, the 18K a year, playing at minimum is assuming you're flawless in every single table you play at.

I would love to play poker full time as a job! When I was 21, my mom and stepdad took me to the casino and taught me a very important lesson, "Never bring more money than you can afford to lose.".... I'd like to think I'd play well and when every hand if I were to play professionally. But it doesn't always happen that way. Even the best pros lose sometime.

 

[flint]

I am sure you could make a living in the live games in Macau (China) at the lowest limits (Which are approx. $1.5/3). The living cost in Macau can be from $100 up and the food is $3 per meal. And the best thing is that the players are awful and the very passive play means variance is not that high although sometimes they do call you with crappy hands.

Living off poker : (Stakes x Win-rate x Time) - Costs of living - (Cost of Alcohol * Amount consumed) - Shirnk costs

 

[xtrigemino]

I think if you want play in $1-2 , for do this succesfull . 2 tables or more at the same time, and shorthanded table preferently.
Anyways Im still thinking $1-2 is a low level, try to advance to $3-6 or more

 

[tsabbat]

I am sure you could make a living in the live games in Macau (China) at the lowest limits (Which are approx. $1.5/3). The living cost in Macau can be from $100 up and the food is $3 per meal. And the best thing is that the players are awful and the very passive play means variance is not that high although sometimes they do call you with crappy hands.

Living off poker : (Stakes x Win-rate x Time) - Costs of living - (Cost of Alcohol * Amount consumed) - Shirnk costs

LOL flint thats a good one, alcohol and online poker is a match made from heaven

 

[JooJooJ]

Hey you mention trying to make enough to live on playing poker and that you need $4,000 a month? Dang thats high! Ha! But seriously one of my friends does what he calls living the "vanabode" lifestyle and moved to Vegas. I think you can google it but he says he only spends $25 a day for EVERYTHING. So yes if that is true you could easily make double that in a day at 2/4

 

[dan]

cant be done unless $6 an hr is a living great players make 3 bbs an hr thats whay they play 20 tables so its not really possible at 1 table Leatherass made 5 bbs and hes considered one of the best furthermore just asking the ? means you are not there yet Daniel N wrote a great article for FT about going pro and how unlikely it really is good luck
PS most would be better off with real jobs and playing semi pro till they have a large sample of play to see how good they are.

 

[IcyBlueAce]

If you play one table live (100/200NL), they play exactly like 1/2 NL online.

You can easily make $100-300/day. My friend's bro use to and stopped for "religious reasons".. ????

 

[TIGERSTUMP]

i think to make a livin at 1 2 poker limit u need to be 12 tabling and have money to burn an a good bot workin for ye

 

[Xavier]

If you play one table live (100/200NL), they play exactly like 1/2 NL online.

You can easily make $100-300/day. My friend's bro use to and stopped for "religious reasons".. ????

I've just read Dan Harrington's cash games books the last couple of days and he says $1/$2 is full of donks live and equivalent to about
$0.1/$0.25 online.
He says online games have toughened up massively since the 2003-2005 period when $1/$2 and $2/$4 was actually weak but now the level of play is relatively strong at that level.
Kind of made me sad when I read that as I wasn't playing the game then.

 

[evilpoochie]

i don't know only a few people can actually make a living off poker their is 2 many suck outs and bad turns i would never want to put my livelihood on poker to be honest because i loose quiet a few 80%ers and if i know i go broke i get kicked out of my house can't eat or do anything that would suck and i am sure it would not look good on a resume even if u pull it off for like 2 years in a row unless u r durrr i don't think i would try to live off my poker winnings but then again if u do pull off a 300k win and have enough to back u 2 start off with u can try it but always have a escape route

 

[Tom1559]

I doubt you could make a reasonable living playing at $1/$2 NLH on line. I am sure some guys will prove me wrong but they will be the exception rather than the rule.

 

[peacebrother]

My job pays me a very good living, and I like it, so I'm not interesting in giving it up to strictly play poker for a living. But I'd love to be able to supplement my income for "discretionary spending" purposes by playing say 50-60 hours a month at a decent winrate.

so a full time job + 50hours a week when wold you have time for "discretionary spending" ??

Seriously live cash is the only way to go if you want a life off the computer screen you can easily grind out a living and have fun playing 2/5 and higher.

I have not worked for almost 1 yr, live is the way to go......

 

[Xavier]

I doubt you could make a reasonable living playing at $1/$2 NLH on line. I am sure some guys will prove me wrong but they will be the exception rather than the rule.

Suppose you play only $1/$2 and have 3BB/100
profit. You play 500 hands per hour. Say You Play 100 Hours Per Month.

You make $2 x 3 x 5= $30 per hour
Per Month You Make 100 x $30 = $3000

So It Is Doable but on that salary you'll find it hard to cope with potential downswings.

 

[PopeNegro]

I know a guy who makes a living playing nl25. 24 tables 8-10 hours every day. He's up almost 100k this year.

 

[IcyBlueAce]

Suppose you play only $1/$2 and have 3BB/100
profit. You play 500 hands per hour. Say You Play 100 Hours Per Month.

You make $2 x 3 x 5= $30 per hour
Per Month You Make 100 x $30 = $3000

So It Is Doable but on that salary you'll find it hard to cope with potential downswings.

So that is around 6-7 tables..

 

[Sean Pilgrim]

People are so interested in living off poker.

These are the reasons why:

1) You enjoy playing
2) It looks easy
3) There IS money to be made.

There are also people who are interested in living off of selling real estate.

These are the reasons why:

1) You enjoy selling
2) It looks easy
3) There IS money to be made.

OK, so now...

Just to let you know Real Estate agents in Santa Fe, NM are supposed to have at LEAST 2 years of income before they start trying to sell houses full time. Why? Because the market sucks. You'll go months without selling a single house. That million dollar mansion you promised yourself you would sell will take a lot longer than expected.

This is a lot like any freelance work (poker included). If you want to make a living playing poker at the ghetto stakes $1/$2NL Live... You have huge ambition but not much thought involved.

If you're going to play live, you need to at least have the BR for 150 BI's @ $3/$6NL (my suggestion 600x150=$90,000 to start) If you drop 50 BI's you should really re-think your options and go back to your 9 - 5. Because you've blown through thirty grand by this point. And still have $60K to live off of.

You DON'T want to try to play $1/$2NL for a living. That is the minimum stake at all casinos (that I am aware of) so anyone who's watched a shitty poker movie or a couple heads-up hands from the wsop, has the WRONG idea. I kid you not, you cannot price out a rookie no nothing from playing his A4o, because he doesn't know any better. These idiots don't play the $3/$6 NL.

Sure the skill level at $600NL is better online but, I don't see a change much live, somewhat a little bit better skilled players are playing this game (in my area anyway) but they still have a fetish for dominated hands. Easy money here IMO.

What you could also do. Is play $10/$20 Limit. If you win one big bet an hour you are making $20/hr and you don't have to risk your entire stack with top 2 pair when some sucker on $3/$6NL called a 4 bet PF with pocket 3's and hit his miracle 3 on the flop. But still you need to bank at least 100 Big Bets to play Limit and you have to be extremely disciplined.

This is not a road for the weak. This is not a road for the hobbyist who plays against rec players on the weekends and comes out with profit. This is a road for a true Card Player, not a poker player. All the other variations of poker that are available, YOU NEED TO KNOW. They all help your game. If you kill Omaha on a regular basis. If you can make a profit with 2-7 lowball. If you make profit on 5/7 Card Stud. If you make money playing Razz. Then you're a card player.

I don't think you could stomach playing for a living unless you have all the equations in your head, you know your percentages, you're good at picking out hands, you're good on picking up reads, semi-bluffs, and acting tells. We all have good runs, we all have bad runs... You're asking for disaster though if you honestly think you can make a comfortable living playing $1/$2 NL.

Regardless, as many people have said and no one listens. You need BR management. Whatever job you work is probably killing you. If you want to attempt to play $1/$2NL for a living my only suggestion is 150 Buy-Ins $30,000 to start. Which is going to take most of us who work 9 - 5 with bills, car payments, mortgage payments/rent, groceries, gas, cigarettes, etc. Too damn long to save up to even think about it and, I honestly think you should just stick to playing on weekends and taking the recreational players money at the table.

The players you see on weekdays, are going to be there for the exact same reason as you. You want to play on a table with other sharks? Or do you want to easily take some money off of that rich old retired lady or rich old retired man, or that kid who's trying to look like a pro and pulled off a preflop bluff with 27o?

The choice is yours, I thought about it for a long time, had 40BI's @ $1/$3NL which was $12,000, started testing the waters out while still working full time, I'd get off work and go to the casino and made a couple hundred here a couple hundred there, lost a couple hundred here a couple hundred there, then my transmission blew in my car. $5K to replace it with a rebuilt one. Pretty shitty right? I could not handle shit like that so I stopped and pretty much just play on weekends now.

Hopefully, you rethink it. And Hopefully other people will stop asking this same question over and over again. It seems like fun, it won't be when you most need it to be profitable.

Murphy's Law sir, Murphy's Law

-Sean

 

[Xavier]

If you're going to play live, you need to at least have the BR for 150 BI's @ $3/$6NL (my suggestion 600x150=$90,000 to start) If you drop 50 BI's you should really re-think your options and go back to your 9 - 5. Because you've blown through thirty grand by this point. And still have $60K to live off of.

What if you don't have a 9 to 5 to job and can't get one?
Where do you suppose I get that kind of money?

 

[Exit141RTe1]

if u play 600,000 hands a month, u can make a living at 10nl

I find it hard to believe that you could average 600K hands every month.

 

[IcyBlueAce]

You don't need BRM if your playing the lowest possible stakes. Nothing to "move down to" -- so its no different if you save up the money then play with it or play with the money as you make it from your job.

If you disagree, then kindly explain why my logic is wrong.

 

[Weregoat]

That's assuming you can do that every day - 5 days a week - for the rest of your life.

At $375 a week (avg. it out for winning $75 a day) That's $1500 a month.. $18,000 a year... Yeah, technically you can live off that.. but, if I'm quitting my "real job" to play poker professionally.. I better be making a lot more than that.

The 1-2 Live game in my area (there are a lot of them), and they are all a bunch of casual players who don't know what a fold is, what you mean when you say pot-odds, and will call you down with 2nd pair. And once you get a stack (a lot of these tables where I'm from have a capped $40 buy-in) will let you run all over them. I've had very many $500+ sessions at my local 1/2 NL. Unfortunately real life has taken precedence and now I'm in quite a distance from my beloved $1/$2 fishie fest.

 

[IcyBlueAce]

The 1-2 Live game in my area (there are a lot of them), and they are all a bunch of casual players who don't know what a fold is, what you mean when you say pot-odds, and will call you down with 2nd pair. And once you get a stack (a lot of these tables where I'm from have a capped $40 buy-in) will let you run all over them. I've had very many $500+ sessions at my local 1/2 NL. Unfortunately real life has taken precedence and now I'm in quite a distance from my beloved $1/$2 fishie fest.

Where is this? That sounds a lot like the casino I go to lol.

 

[Toasted_Luck]

if you played nice and tight you could easily make a living of the $1/2 limits. Play smart. Play position

 

[nutshooter]

I would say it varies. If a player continually gets deep into tourniments the minimum would be lower. If sit n goes is the game, i'd say around 10 dollar games (assuming you can win continually). Definitely depends on to many variable to drop a set number