On becoming a professional poker player

[gamblor]

Have fun when stuff like this happens. This is still somewhat mild.

 

[Pennglock]

That's pretty sick, gamblor. Don't imagine you were feeling very good around hand 120k.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by Pennglock

That's pretty sick, gamblor. Don't imagine you were feeling very good around hand 120k.

Don't know if you noticed, but the x-axis is at the top of the graph, not the bottom, so he's never really won any money over 200k hands.

Based on that graph, I don't think he was ever feeling very good unless he's got millions of hands played and that was the bad beat of bad beats.

 

[PinkPantser]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

If you've got the skills, the discipline, and the mental toughness, you can make well over six figures playing 2-3 hours a day, even at small stakes.

At small stakes?! Making 6 figures playing 3 hours a day is over $90 an hour. Not likely, unless your idea of small stakes is $10/20 NL.

Being a professional poker player has got to be one of the most worthless and soul-sucking 'professions' around. I live in Las Vegas and play poker nearly every weekend and I see these guys at the tables grinding away - for every 1 making good money and living the lifestyle they dreamt of there are 20 playing 1/2 or 2/5 NL for 40 hours a week (just like any other job) sitting on their ass all day drinking ****** cocktails surrounded by garbage manchildren making the same exact plays over and over again and when they can't take it any more they become dealers. Basically, if you're good enough to be a pro you're also good enough to get a job doing something that benefits society / takes creativity / is truly interesting and exciting.

 

[EasyGoing]

It's a fun game but likely an empty life. And if your experience thus far is beating a home game you're not ready for the psychological pounding you'd take as a pro.

Also, live games are about an order of magnitude easier than online. A live 5/10 NL game will play like an online 100NL. Of course, things like multitabling and rakeback might make online worth it, but it's important to realize that right now you're beating up on the easiest of the easy and you still might be running 3 std devs above your expectation.

 

[MLIW]

I guess Poker was always meant to be about standing at the table and having a good time - as opposed to being sat in front of your computer and being sad

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by PinkPantser

At small stakes?! Making 6 figures playing 3 hours a day is over $90 an hour. Not likely, unless your idea of small stakes is $10/20 NL.

Being a professional poker player has got to be one of the most worthless and soul-sucking 'professions' around. I live in Las Vegas and play poker nearly every weekend and I see these guys at the tables grinding away - for every 1 making good money and living the lifestyle they dreamt of there are 20 playing 1/2 or 2/5 NL for 40 hours a week (just like any other job) sitting on their ass all day drinking ****** cocktails surrounded by garbage manchildren making the same exact plays over and over again and when they can't take it any more they become dealers. Basically, if you're good enough to be a pro you're also good enough to get a job doing something that benefits society / takes creativity / is truly interesting and exciting.

Here is the math for someone playing 3/6 NL with a 5BB/100 winrate. Good players can easily have a higher winrate when playing below their level:

50hands/hr/table*8tables=400hand/hr
winrate of 5BB/100*6$*400=120$/hr

That works out to $15/hr per table. Even at 2/4NL you'd still be making 80/hr if you could maintain a 5BB/100 winrate.

Like others have said, playing online is massively different from playing live. You could never make 120/hr playing small stakes in live games, but online you can.

 

[bawlin]

Originally Posted by MLIW

I guess Poker was always meant to be about standing at the table and having a good time - as opposed to being sat in front of your computer and being sad

I agree. I don't need to make a living playing poker, I do it for fun, which is why I avoid online play.