hi I have played poker for several years now probably around a decade or over by this point. in all honesty i never put a lot of work into the game which has probably cost me a few hundred k in oppertunity cost by now.
My results clearly show that I am capable of doing this for a living, and with some actual hard work i could almost certainly do much better.
That been said there are a number of drawbacks to taking this on for a living.
1. This is not a long term career.
there is nothing anyone can do to stop bots in the long term, because of this
online poker has a limited shelf life. I honestly cant tell you if this will be a few years or a few decades but I would be very surprised if it was still possible to make a living from online poker in 2028.
2. Despite common misconceptions it is a full time real job
that is to say its not stress free and its not easy losing to a bad beat several times in a row when they are playing bad and you are doing everything right may not be so stressful when you have a four figure bank roll and a regular income from another source coming in.
however when you know you need to with draw 500 this week your sitting on 1300 and you run bad losing 300 of it your suddenly getting very stressed and it eats up at you.
playing poker for 2 hours a day or 10 hours a week is a hobby and not much of a demand. playing poker 40-60 hours a week can be exhausting and hard to motivate yourself or bring your best game to. for almost any job out there doing it for two hours a day is not stressful doing it for 40-60 hours a week is.
people think because poker is fun and not to stressful when you do it recreationally and make a little bit of money that it will be the same when your doing it for 40-60 hours a week and relying on it for your income this is very far from the truth.
3. poker is not a respected profession
okay you can say so what to that and that works for the random joe blogs in the street who cares what he thinks etc if your making good money and your happy you dont need to impress random strangers right? wrong.
what about when you want to get a loan for a car or a morgtage or for some reason they need to a general credit check on you?
or what about when you meet girls trying to find someone to settle down with? she may well not be impressed and wont listen to statistically significant results or etc, as far as she is concerned your a gambling addict mug who delusionally thinks he has a system and 99% of the population cant think for themselves and dont want to they just listen to what the media
tells them so good luck trying to persuade them. even if you do what will her family say another likely obstacle?
and what about if you want to or have to move on from poker the fact that you were a professional poker player for 7 years or etc will not be considered a positive thing from most employers.
I think poker is great for making money and will when I am back at uni likely make me 10k+ over the uni year to have as spare money to invest in other things. also it will be great for flexibility with my studies eg if I have an assighment due i can just stop entirely where as if I work 16 hours a week in a kitchen as a student not getting time off for studies.
But I do not believe poker is likely to be a life long career option.