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

[serj537]

For me personally, this is a hobby.

 

[Poker Orifice]

I work, and of course I would also like to sit at home and earn money instead of 10 hours at work, but the reality is that making poker a career and starting to earn money from poker is not easy at all, for me, I have a different character set, and thinking, if it were so easy-to sit on the couch and earn money with poker, no one would go to work at the factory, you are an adult, it's up to you, of course, and no one here is an adviser to you, but it seems you are a little disconnected from reality, if everything is fine with your physical health, it's not clear to me why you don't work, especially in Canada where is a decent wage, and you want to earn as much money on micro-limits in an evening as you can earn in an hour of work, I would understand if you lived in some poor country, but living in a developed country....
In any case, it's up to you to decide, good luck in your poker career

I'm not sure where you're seeing OP write about poker being a soft cushy job (one that can be played while we 'sit on the couch'). Perhaps Dobbler1 is actually contemplating putting in months/years of study while playing?

Dobbler1, my suggestion to you would be to inquire with some players who are DOING it (not ones who don't even know what it entails).

Also, why not consider going after it for awhile and if things aren't working out, then pick up some part-time work to supplement your income.
Personally I'm looking to work 2days/week and then play poker 3days/week. I don't think I can do more than 3days/week of poker. It's a TOUGH grind!

Another thing to consider, earning anything above min. wage these days is pretty tough. It's nothing like it was online 15yrs. ago (even 10yrs. ago). Really amazing midstakes MTT players are typically earning ~75k/yr. and those are the ones who are at the top of the food chain (50+ mtt's/day, $5,000 of buyins per day, 5days/week). There's TONS of competition out there, a lot of it coming from countries where they can get by on a few hundred per month to live off of. The LowStakes MTT's have hundreds of those guys, playing 10's of thousands of tournaments to earn $20 to $25k/yr.
Myself, I'd be happy with poker earning me min. wage. I have a small pension to to go with it. Wouldn't it be great if it were to materialize into something bigger & better? (I've met a few guys here on CC who went on to become pros... yah.. they're no longer here ).

tldr
It's a huge time commitment
One needs to STUDY like crazy!
It's long hours!
It's very tough on the mind/mental aspects

 

[roberto51]

All the time a hobby that can perfectly improve the home budget.

 

[takinitSLEAZEE]

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.

Hey Dobbler1. I, myself, get a heavy finger while tapping away on the laptop so you're in good company for exercising your right to make w.o.w. (wall of words). I've been thrust into "big-decision" mode as well. I've recently been having some problems w/scripts which interferes w/my work performance, so I've had to compensate for the lack of funds. And since I live in a throwback country that will not allow online throughout the land, it's the brick & mortar clubs where I'll dangle my hook.
After about a month of playing, on average, 2 trnys a week I'm back in the black. I've made 4 FT's in the last 4 trnys and cashed 3 times; all were just over $500 US, (thank you CC, btw, for the ever-present advice and support ). I have to admit I was a bit timid to go and get back out there and play live again. It took a little bit to see how everyone was playing but eventually I got into their groove and then, ultimately, my own. Now, after almost condemning the thought of playing poker professionally that's exactly what I'm doing. Funny how things work out. I guess it took me a bit to wrap my head around the thought of my bills, car payment, and essentially my next meal hanging on the flip of a card. But now, it seems, I've stepped out of one poker lane and into another.
I think I struggled really bad for a couple of days, the mental part of it that is, and then it was like the clouds parted and poof... I'm surrounded by fish or something. I went and started reading some books that had gotten a bit dusty. Just some fundamentals from the live side from back in the day; Doyle, Dan, Gus. Watched some videos/streams of some regional play to get familiar w/the scene. And now I'm looking at poker in a new light... Again. LOL!
My point is go for it. Give it a bit. Don't jump into the deep end or anything. Since you live in canada and online is thriving you should be able to make burger flipping wages at least. Coupled w/some theater or maybe even some stand-up you could become self-employed in no time.
I wish you the best of luck and look forward to reading more posts of your progress.

 

[BOXING71]

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.

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.

No friend, everything looks completely different. If you like something, you do it, if not, you change your hobby. I don’t know how strong you are in boxing, it’s clear that you understand poker well ... poker will change everyone, you only need time which will be the basis for changing your character and behavior.! Good luck! Not everyone on the forum will be here for a long time .

 

[Mauricio Perrotta]

Poker is whatever you want it to be at the time, you can play it as a hobby, you can live on it if you want and you can. You can do whatever you want

 

[German629]

Poker as is a job, side-gig or semi-retirement hobby?!. Hm, how this is not strange, at the present time this all for Me is at once!

 

[pokerD]

Poker for me is also a good hobby and recreation where you can collect some money.

 

[Niykk]

I see it as a hobby I really enjoy that could turn profitable at some point .

 

[martinoni]

I play like a future job.

 

[pankoffff]

poker is a hobby and can give u some extra money.

 

[hardongear]

As a 50 year 15+ year micro/low stakes winning player I'm with the group that says go for it even at 50 years old why the hell not? Now don't get me wrong and don't listen to anyone that tells you or thinks it's easy. It certainly is not and if you're gonna play poker for a living/even part-time you need to treat it exactly like a job/business and you gotta make time for studying. I prefer weekly/bi-weekly with the little volume I get.

FWIW I cam back to cash in Oct 2022....use to play 50nl back during the Moneymaker poker boom and while I can afford to step back into 50nl if I wanted I decided to challenge myself to start at the very bottom at 2nl and work my way up(having only played MTT's for the last number of years). Now like you right now I'm kinda considering and it's rolling around in the back of my mind that maybe instead of just going to 50nl I should just keep going to the point where I can cut my day job back to 2-3 days a week and make the rest off playing poker. Idk maybe I can do that playing 50nl I have no clue how tough 50nl is today.

Good luck with your journey hope you keep us posted and hoping you make a go of it.


Cheers!!!

 

[balo]

It's a hobby that pays for my holiday expenses and some food. That's it. I make a profit every year, but I would never choose poker as a profession.