Poker as a job, side gig or semi-retirement hobby.

[Poker Orifice]

To be honest, I think making money in poker is like a fluke. Although our knowledge, patience and everything else matters. If you are lucky and you rise to a high level, then good money in your favorite game will be a reward. I listen to my heart, if I want to sing, I sing ,play I play.You are creativepersonality, maybe God has a better plan for you. But all the answers are only in your heart....

To be honest, I think making money in boxing is like a fluke. Although our physical condition/level of fitness, speed, power and everything else matters. If you are lucky and knock out the right guy or two with a lucky left hook or something then you could make good money in your favorite sport. I listen to my brain, if I want to sleep, I go to sleep. I want to say foolish things on a forum, I say foolish things on a forum. Maybe you can land that big Knockout punch to someone else's head... or maybe God decides it is your head that will be knocked about and knocked out. This is the answer to winning at poker.

 

[hobojim1247]

I never started playing until after I retired in 2006. So it has turned into a part time hobby.

 

[YLAN]

This is what this random stranger would do, Still young for total retirement. Would aggressively pursue the acting option on something that could bring some income like giving acting workshop or probably small parts in gigs since you're trained as an actor. This is primary since you love doing it & at could be source of some stable income.

Since I believe in enjoying the things we love in life, play poker on the side. That is while waiting for acting gigs or during downtime. Lucky to have found Cardschat where you could build a decent bankroll from freerolls then try to grow it with low buy-in tourneys. Keep an eye through this forum on big tourneys that you could buy-in. Lucrative rewards but ofc its a lottery with these tourneys. Extreme caution in bringing money to the bankroll. If you deplete the bankroll, go back to freerolls.

As you go along, you will determine which gives you more enjoyment & success to spend more time on. This is just my opinion & am sure you will find your way. Enjoy life & Good Luck!

 

[GARCIA PABLO DANIEL]

I would like to have it as a job but for now it's a hobby

 

[M13A13]

Poker is a job for those who win and accumulate winnings, this is the vision of professional players. Poker is a hobby, for those who lose the game, their only consolation is saying they were having fun.

 

[ToNy70929]

When I'm retired, I think this is a great option for playing poker. You can add additional income to your pension

 

[juan1579]

Poker for me in recent years has been my way of supplementing my income along with my teaching work,

 

[Mortis]

I've tried many many years ago at an attempt to push for a career in poker... I just don't have the consistency or put in the volume needed to play as a pro, or work up to that point.

However, I have been able to build a small [live] bankroll in savings, that I use for live poker and my plan is to use that for retirement (in 20-25 years, as I'm currently in my lower 40s) with what I've built up. I guess you can call that a semi-retirement fund. Maybe by then, I'll be able to play more consistently lol.

 

[Dobbler1]

To be honest, I think making money in boxing is like a fluke. Although our physical condition/level of fitness, speed, power and everything else matters. If you are lucky and knock out the right guy or two with a lucky left hook or something then you could make good money in your favorite sport. I listen to my brain, if I want to sleep, I go to sleep. I want to say foolish things on a forum, I say foolish things on a forum. Maybe you can land that big Knockout punch to someone else's head... or maybe God decides it is your head that will be knocked about and knocked out. This is the answer to winning at poker.

I wasn't going to say anything, but yeah.

 

[vnnby]

For me, poker is a hobby, I can't say that I play a bunch of matches every day and get a ton of experience, I play for fun as much as I can, and I consider poker as a passive form of income. and in your case, if you believe in your business and devote all your time to it, there is a plan and a development path, then why not.

 

[Stephen _b]

I'm thinking about big things like my career and future, so of course I thought I'd ask random strangers on the internet about it.😆

About me and my situation: I'm in my mid 50s, I've had a "proper" career in sales, and if push comes to shove I could return to it to pay the bills. The part of the market where I worked has changed to the point that I no longer like the line of work I used to love. I don't have the amount of savings a person usually wants to retire, but I have some savings. My wife is working, and while her wage isn't going to make us rich, it'll pay the bills. I trained as an actor. When I was in my 20s I thought I might be a professional actor, but for many reasons (most related to how difficult it is to make money in that industry) I stopped pursuing that goal fairly early. I did lots of unpaid acting work for the enjoyment in the ensuing years, and I'm at least pretty good at it. I also love poker. I'm confident that I at least have a good grasp of the fundamentals, and granted I need to keep working on lots of aspects of my game, my obvious weakness is my mental game, patience and consistency, to the degree that even at the lowest stakes I have a tough time doing better than break-even so far.

Here's the situation I find myself in. I can spend time and energy pursuing an acting career, which is a sort of a gamble in itself. There's a tiny chance that could end up being very lucrative, a small chance that it ends up paying decently, and a good chance that it ends up bringing in the same or less than a job flipping burgers. In contrast, I can spend my time and energy focusing on poker. I feel like if I can get my mental game sorted, which... not there yet, but I really think I can, I should be at least be a consistently winning micro-stakes player. If that's the best I can ever do, then we're still in the burger flipping range of income, but I think it's likely I could move up stakes at least a little, and maybe even become a legitimately good player. I really love doing both, though in really different ways.

I'm curious what people's thoughts are. Have you made a career out of poker? Is it a side-gig or just a hobby that might bring in or cost a few bucks? What do you think you'd do in my shoes, and why?

I know this forum rewards post quantity over quality, but I'd love it if you could leave a thoughtful response rather than a drive-by

The wife will soon get fed up if you're playing poker and not making money and she's going out to work so my advice would be a part time job and part time poker and see what happens with the poker also the job takes the pressure off trying to make it at poker. To get good at poker we need to study hard and apply what we learn and even that won't guarantee anything. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[spectralwave]

I haven't thought about retirement yet, but probably when I increase my enrollments again I'll soon think big, like a 5 million dollar prize to think about retirement.

 

[Dobbler1]

The wife will soon get fed up if you're playing poker and not making money and she's going out to work so my advice would be a part time job and part time poker and see what happens with the poker also the job takes the pressure off trying to make it at poker.

Why do you think you know how my wife would feel? People are freakin' weird.

 

[BrunoFabri01]

currently it's just a hobby, but in the future I'm studying to make it a job

 

[padman400]

Just fun. I could not imagine trying to make a living from poker unless you are single person with no family dependants.

 

[GNuTTz]

Poker is definitely not a job. Unless you are sponsored by a major site and are set up financially through incentives. Otherwise join the 99% of all other professional wannabes 😛

 

[whiskers77]

I am doing poker as a hobby and for me it means usually my 13th salary in the year.
I think, I even could do more, but because of circumstances about our tax office here in GER I am trying to keep winnings relative low.

But if I were retired and would have all this time to study and to play, I just would do this
But of course, proper BRM is needed for this!!!!

 

[SpanRmonka]

I'd def like to make it more of a retirement hobby when I do get to that age.

I think there could be a fairly decent 2nd income from it then. I think the key to this is that you have to play live.

In my, small, so far, experience of live poker, its actually easier than the micros, once you get over the fact that the money is way higher and play a decent solid game. Maybe I've just been lucky so far. Give it a couple more years and I'll have a better idea.

 

[nabmom]

I know this forum rewards post quantity over quality, but I'd love it if you could leave a thoughtful response rather than a drive-by comment.

I wanted to jump in to correct this misperception. We actually reward quality over quantity. While it is true that there are post counts needed to participate in certain forum activities, we care more about the quality than the quantity.

Personally, I think poker is "a very hard way to make an easy living." There's no guarantee and not a high probability that you ever would make enough money, consistently, to cover your recurring expenses. I think poker is, for most people, a possible way to make a little extra pocket money, and to have a chance to play a game they love. Grinding is not fun and can get very frustrating. And even with all the preparation and improvement of mental game, etc., it still takes a lot of stamina and then you still need to have some luck.

My vote is for a semi-retirement hobby.

 

[mclay]

I really hope that online poker will live to see my retirement. I want to become a retired poker pro.

 

[hilary antonik filho]

I'm thinking about big things like my career and future, so of course I thought I'd ask random strangers on the internet about it.😆

About me and my situation: I'm in my mid 50s, I've had a "proper" career in sales, and if push comes to shove I could return to it to pay the bills. The part of the market where I worked has changed to the point that I no longer like the line of work I used to love. I don't have the amount of savings a person usually wants to retire, but I have some savings. My wife is working, and while her wage isn't going to make us rich, it'll pay the bills. I trained as an actor. When I was in my 20s I thought I might be a professional actor, but for many reasons (most related to how difficult it is to make money in that industry) I stopped pursuing that goal fairly early. I did lots of unpaid acting work for the enjoyment in the ensuing years, and I'm at least pretty good at it. I also love poker. I'm confident that I at least have a good grasp of the fundamentals, and granted I need to keep working on lots of aspects of my game, my obvious weakness is my mental game, patience and consistency, to the degree that even at the lowest stakes I have a tough time doing better than break-even so far.

Here's the situation I find myself in. I can spend time and energy pursuing an acting career, which is a sort of a gamble in itself. There's a tiny chance that could end up being very lucrative, a small chance that it ends up paying decently, and a good chance that it ends up bringing in the same or less than a job flipping burgers. In contrast, I can spend my time and energy focusing on poker. I feel like if I can get my mental game sorted, which... not there yet, but I really think I can, I should be at least be a consistently winning micro-stakes player. If that's the best I can ever do, then we're still in the burger flipping range of income, but I think it's likely I could move up stakes at least a little, and maybe even become a legitimately good player. I really love doing both, though in really different ways.

I'm curious what people's thoughts are. Have you made a career out of poker? Is it a side-gig or just a hobby that might bring in or cost a few bucks? What do you think you'd do in my shoes, and why?

I know this forum rewards post quantity over quality, but I'd love it if you could leave a thoughtful response rather than a drive-by comment.

I'm retired, I play more for fun and hobby, I earn a few dollars online, and some in live poker, every time I go to a poker house, I even think about quitting online poker, but I continue, follow your dream, yeah the best I can advise, good luck with your decision

 

[Dobbler1]

I wanted to jump in to correct this misperception. We actually reward quality over quantity. While it is true that there are post counts needed to participate in certain forum activities, we care more about the quality than the quantity.

This is definitely off topic, but I want to honestly say that while I can absolutely believe that this sentiment is honestly expressed, in my experience, post quantity is rewarded far more than post quality. I believe that incentivizing post quality is exceptionally difficult. I believe that you do you best to disincentivize the worst examples of poor quality posts. I was the co-admin of a large internet forum, so I know this is hard stuff, and I don't want my critique to be taken personally, but to my eye, there are far more mediocre/low quality posts on this forum than there are good ones.

As it stands, I'd love to take part in a forum that is full of people who really are enthusiastic about poker and want to talk about it. I'd do that gladly and enthusiastically without the incentive of freerolls. As it stands, most of my questions seem to get a ratio of about 5-10 lazy, unengaged, careless drive-by answers for every one thoughtful response.

And I wish I could say I had a suggestion about how to improve it. I don't. Like I said, it's a tricky thing to do.

 

[dreamer13]

Poker is a great source of money without the need to go to the office or shop every day and communicate with different people. However, not everyone achieves success in it - for some, the game becomes a burden due to psychological characteristics, while others fail to consistently provide themselves with money.Meetings with friends -90%. Eliminate social networks, YouTube and other timekillers by half. It is very difficult to distribute time between poker and real life. The higher you climb in the limits, the more requirements you have as a player, the more time you need to devote to poker. We have to work more on the game, get better sleep, be in good concentration and form. It's getting harder and harder to fit in every day.

 

[Stephen _b]

Why do you think you know how my wife would feel? People are freakin' weird.

People are weird alright bud🤪🤣

 

[knutwuchtig]

only hobby, how many homeless poker pros are living in vegas? i saw a documentary on tv, too many under the bridges.