Playing Poker For A Living

Making a living from playing poker is one of the most exciting jobs in the world - but it’s not easy. It’s important to assess whether or not you have the necessary skill set to actually turn a. I also asked Dalla how many people he thinks make a 'decent living' from poker, which I define as $50,000-to-$100,000 per year, after deducting poker-playing expenses like the cost of traveling to. If you want to start playing poker professionally, you should have some money saved for living expenses. To be on the safer side, you should have the funds for at least six months of living. Playing poker, especially MTTs, can be very stressful, so you should try to eliminate all other stressors. Playing Poker For A Living With the explosion of popularity in the poker world over the last few years, many players are considering taking up poker as a full time job. This has become even easier and less costly thanks to the availability of games twenty-four hours a day on the Internet.


Have you ever thought about quitting your day job and playing poker for a living? Have you spent hours dreaming about how much fun it’d be to play poker every day and the glory of winning a big poker tournament?

Decide How Much You Need to Make. The first step is to determine how much you need to make.

Most poker players wish they could play for a living at least once or twice in their life. You see other people doing it, so why can’t you do it? After all, the pros you see on television seem to have it made. They have the money to enter big poker tournaments, sometimes with buy in amounts of $10,000 and more.

If they have this kind of money to enter tournaments, they must be doing pretty good in the money department. You probably also see some lower level professional players if you play in a regular poker room. These players might not be good enough to make millions on television, but they’re able to grind out a profit hour after hour while staying under the radar.

Employment data for professional poker players isn’t available, but you know that many people are able to do it. This means that you might have a realistic opportunity to play poker for a living.

Here are seven steps you need to use if you want to play poker for a living. You need to learn how to play poker well enough to be profitable, but almost anyone can do this if they do enough research and use the tools available to them.

It’s not easy to be a professional poker player, but it can be done if you’re willing to do the work. Sadly, if you’re able to play well enough to quit your regular job, you might find that poker isn’t fun anymore. It’s still better than working for a living, but most people who play for a living are grinding out small profits every day.

Poker is just like most professions in a couple ways. The first way is that a few people are able to reach the top and make huge amounts of money. But most people are somewhere between just barely scrapping by and making a comfortable living.

The other similarity is you have to put in the time and work to have the chance to reach the top. Some winning players are never able to break out of barely surviving on what they make at the poker tables, no matter how long they play and how hard they work.

Playing poker for a living isn’t for everyone, but if you want to give it a try, just follow the seven steps below. Even if you’re not a winning player yet, if you work the steps, you have a good chance of succeeding.

1 – Decide How Much You Need to Make

The first step is to determine how much you need to make. It’s easy to assume that you just need to make the same amount of money that you make in your current job, but this doesn’t always give you an accurate picture of what you need.

Does your current job offer paid time off, health insurance, and retirement benefits? Fewer and fewer jobs offer these benefits, but many still do. If you have to buy your own health insurance it can be a large monthly expense.

The only retirement benefits a poker player has are the ones that they develop themselves. You need to make enough money playing poker to cover your current bills, support your current lifestyle, and have some left over to invest for your retirement.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re just going to play poker until you die. Some players do this, but you can’t predict the future. You might not be able to physically and mentally play at a winning level in your later years. The game also changes over the years, and sometimes players can’t keep up with new strategies and younger players.

Once you figure out how much you need to make playing poker you can get a good idea of how big your bankroll needs to be, how much you have to play, and what levels you need to be able to win at.

Here’s an example:

You currently work a normal job and make $40,000 a year. You’re able to keep the bills paid, but you aren’t getting ahead. You hate your job and decide you want to play poker for a living. Your current job doesn’t have any retirement benefits, but it does offer a basic health insurance plan.

You want to replace your current income, start investing some money for retirement, and you need to find replacement health insurance. After doing some research, you find that you can buy insurance for $500 a month, so you now have to make at least $46,000 a year.

In addition, you want to invest at least $500 a month your first year playing. Your plan is to invest more every year, as your poker results improve, but you know you need to get started now. This is another $6,000 a year for investing, so you need to make $52,000 your first year playing.

They decide that they’re going to play 60 or 80 hours a week. While this is possible, it can be hard to do. You need to keep your mental focus sharp to be a winning player, so you need to make sure you have time to rest both your body and mind.

I recommend using no more than 50 hours a week in your estimates. If you find a couple good games that you don’t want to leave you might play more hours some weeks, but playing poker more than 50 hours a week on a regular basis can take its toll on you.

At this point you start running the numbers. $52,000 a year is $1,000 a week, if you play every week. I recommend taking at least a couple weeks off every year to recharge your batteries, so you need to adjust your numbers a little. $52,000 a year divided by 50 weeks is $1,040 a week.

If you play 50 hours a week, this means that you have to average $20.80 an hour in profit to reach your yearly income goal.

This isn’t outside of the realm of possibilities if you’re a good player. A good player at the 10/20 limit table can do this, and you shouldn’t have a terrible time finding games if you’re close to a big poker room.

A good no limit poker player can do this in no limit cash games at the $500 buy in limit, and some can even do it at the $200 buy in tables.

The math is a little different for tournament players, but the concept is the same. Winning tournament poker players tend to finish in the cash enough to keep them playing until they can break through and finish at the final table or win at a big tournament.

If you’re a tournament poker player, most of your yearly profit may come from just a small handful of tournaments. In this case, you need to stay in the game long enough to make a big score.

You can use the amount you need to win per hour to give you an idea of how big your bankroll needs to be to reach your goals. Even if you’re a winning player, you need enough money behind you to ride out the down swings that you’re going to face.

If you’re a no limit player in this example, you should have at least 20 buy in amounts for your regular game. To be safe, you should have more than 20. I recommend 30 times your normal buy in.

This means that if you play $500 buy in no limit cash games, you need between $10,000 and $15,000. If you’re going to try to play at the $200 buy in tables, you should defiantly go with 30 times your buy in, so you need at least $6,000.

If you’re going to play at the limit tables you should have 200 to 300 times the big bet. This means that if you play 10/20 you should have between $4,000 and $6,000, and if you play 20/40 you need between $8,000 and $12,000.

If you have the bankroll and are a winning player, it’s usually easier to reach your hourly goal at a higher limit table. It’s easier to make $20 an hour on average playing $500 buy in no limit or 20/40 limit in many cases.

But a great deal of the profitability of a game comes from your ability to beat the other players. This means that you might make more profit at a smaller buy in table, so keep an open mind.

What do you do if you don’t have a big enough bankroll to get started at the level you need to play to reach your goals?

If you’re making $40,000 a year, you probably don’t have an extra $10,000 to dedicate to your bankroll yet. The answer is to start playing part time and grow your bankroll as fast as you can. Don’t quit your job and start playing poker full time until you save enough for a proper bankroll.

2 – Pick a Specialization

If you want to give yourself the best chance to succeed in your quest for a professional poker playing career, you need to start by specializing in one thing. Texas holdem games are the easiest to find, so many players start playing it.

This doesn’t mean that you have to specialize in Texas holdem. If you’re better at stud or Omaha and can find enough games, you should specialize in the game that you play best.

You also should stick to one format. Decide if you want to play cash games, small tournaments like single table ones, or big tournaments. Once you make a decision, stick with it until you surpass your hourly goals on a consistent basis.

While Texas holdem is mostly the same in cash games and tournaments, there are a few differences. A great player can be profitable in both formats, but if you specialize you can maximize your returns.

If you’re a beginning player who’s still learning how to be a consistent winner, I suggest focusing on limit play. If you’re more experienced, no limit games offer higher hourly win rates for most players.

I know that the televised poker you see is usually tournament poker, but I recommend starting at the cash tables. This isn’t because cash games are necessarily more profitable than tournaments. The main reason is because your profit will probably be more consistent in cash games. You might go several tournaments before making a profit, and this can be hard on your bankroll and hard on your mental game.

3 – Segregate a Bankroll

When you work a regular job and play poker on the side, you probably mix your poker bankroll with your regular money. When you start playing poker for a living you need to set aside your poker bankroll and keep it separate at all times.

By keeping your poker bankroll separate, it’s easier to track your progress. It also helps you see if you have a leak in your game that you need to identify and fix.

You can handle your profits in a couple different ways, but here’s a simple system that you can use.

Going back to the example in the first section, you need to make $1,040 a week. Pick a day and take out this amount every week on that day, just like a salary. Leave everything else in your bankroll, and evaluate where you’re at on a regular basis.

If you’re able to reach your goal every week, your bankroll will stay fairly consistent throughout the year. But if you’re able to win more than your goal, this system builds your bankroll with the extra money.

As your bankroll grows, you might be able to play at a higher level. But don’t move up too fast. It’s better to have an extra cushion than to start running short.

If you’re going to use this system, it helps if you start with a cushion. If you determine that you need a $10,000 bankroll, if you can start with $12,000 or $15,000 it takes some of the pressure off. When you take regular payments out of your bankroll it can create a great deal of pressure when you’re on a downswing.

Another system is to only take the bare minimum needed for survival out of your bankroll every week, and then evaluate where you’re at when you get to the end of the month. You might only need to take $500 a week out to survive, and then you can take the rest of the profit, or some of it out, once a month.

4 – Start below Your Bankroll

I mentioned a little bit about this in the last section, but you should start playing below your bankroll. This protects your bankroll and helps you learn if you can make what you need to. If you determine that you need $10,000 to $15,000 to play at the $500 buy in no limit tables, start playing at the $200 buy in tables.

Now you have 50 to 75 buy in amounts, so a downswing takes a smaller percentage of your bankroll. You can still reach your hourly goals at this level, but you reduce the pressure a great deal.

If you’re starting out playing part time trying to build your bankroll up so you can quit your job and start playing full time, don’t be ashamed of playing at the smallest tables. Buying in at the $100 level gives you a chance to build your bankroll just as well at higher levels, it just takes more time.

Though it’s dangerous because a downswing can wipe you out, if you’re taking money from your current income to try to build a bankroll, you can play at lower buy in levels with a smaller multiple for your bankroll.

You can play $100 buy in no limit with a $500 bankroll. If you’re good and have just a little bit of luck, you can build your bankroll from this point without busting out. This is even truer as you play at smaller stakes. You can start playing online at the micro limit tables with a buy in of $10 or less.

5 – Identify Profitable Opportunities

Winning poker players know that their profit is tied to how well they play and how poorly their opponents play. Not only do you need to learn how to be the best player you can be, you also need to learn how to find the games that are the most profitable.

When you walk into the poker room, look at the players at the tables below and above you normal game. See if you can find a table that’s more profitable than your normal game. To do this, you need to learn about the other players and what kind of things to look for.

Even when you’re profitable at one level, you might be able to actually make more per hour at a lower level.

Here’s an example:

You usually play $500 buy in no limit and know many of the normal players. You walk into the poker room and see your normal game running and you see a couple $200 games running. One of the $200 tables seems to be a wild game, with lots of betting and raising before the flop, and your normal game looks tighter than usual.

The wild $200 game is probably going to be more profitable than your normal game, so you take a seat. You can always move to your normal table later, but you want to take advantage of the situation while you can.

You need to always look for opportunities for more profitable games. Sometimes you can find a private game that’s more profitable than your normal game. If you can figure out how to find and get invited to a private game filled with lawyers, doctors, business owners, and maybe judges, you might find that it’ more profitable.

6 – Put in the Time

It’s easy to learn how to play poker, but if you want to be the best player possible there’s no substitution for putting in time playing. You need to study, read, and learn as much as possible, but some things can only improve so much without practice and play.

If you want to play poker for a living, it’s best to play on a part time basis for as long as you can. Track all of your play and results, and continuously work on improving your game.

The more you play, the better you play. This might sound simple, but there’s a great deal of truth in it. Realize that you have to put in the time if you want to play poker for a living.

7 – Work Hard

Playing poker for a living sounds like a dream job. But once you start actually doing it, you quickly learn that it’s much more like a job than a dream. It can still be fun, and it’s better than being stuck in a cubicle, but winning poker players have to work hard.

If you want to play poker for a living because you think it’s easy, you should just keep your day job. You have to work hard to be a winning poker player. It’s hard work to reach your goals.

You also need to set higher goals each year. If your goal the first year is to make $52,000, do everything in your power to reach the goal. But set your second year goal higher. Set your second year goal at $60,000 or $75,000. Make a five year goal of $100,000 a year by the end of five years.

Then make a plan of how you’re going to do it and get to work. With the right goal, the right plan, and the right amount of work you can reach your goals playing poker.

Conclusion

If you want to play poker for a living you can get started today by following the seven steps listed above. The most important step is making sure you have a big enough bankroll to safely start. But even if you don’t have enough to quit your job yet, you can still get started today. Start where you are, and use these seven steps to reach your goal.

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You’ve probably heard interviews or read articles before with professional poker players talking about the glitz, glamor, and occasionally the hard work that goes into making poker your living. The problem with a lot of these articles and interviews, though entertaining, is that they often neglect to give you precise details and raw insight into the who, what, when, where, and how of being a professional poker player.

If you’re serious about pursuing poker as a profession, you need to have an accurate depiction of what it’s like and actionable steps that you can take to get yourself closer to that goal. Today, I’m going to do my best to walk you through as much of this as I can and hopefully give you some insight into the lifestyle and what it takes/how to get there.

Why You Should Listen to Me

I am not the best poker player in the world. I am not even close. However, I have been playing professionally for over 12 years with poker being my sole source of income. I have made a lot of money from poker and lived a pretty great life because of it. None of this is being said to toot my own horn, but merely to let you know where all this information is coming from.

While it’s great to aspire to be the next Phil Ivey, it’s not realistic. Aspiring to be the next me is much more feasible. If I were forced to classify myself throughout my career, I would say I’m an upper middle of the road player. On average, I make six-figures a year from playing poker. I have had some years under that and some years creeping up the ladder, but that’s a good average for my career without getting into exact specifics.

It should also be noted that I was mainly a tournament poker professional and played minimal cash games. I did have a lot of close friends that played cash for a living, though, so I do have a lot of insight there I can offer. It will be from an observer’s point of view. This article is directed at any form of poker for a living but may seem slightly skewed towards tournament pros.

The purpose of this blog is to give you a REALISTIC look into what it’s like to be a professional player and give you REALISTIC information that you can use to hopefully propel your game to the next level and play for a living. I’m not here to glamorize the lifestyle or to try and make myself look cool. I’m merely posting this to try and help out aspiring professionals know what the game might have in store for them.

Things You NEED to Know

Most people have an overly-glamorized view of what it’s like to be a professional poker player. It’s a lot like looking at what someone’s life is like by looking only at their social media feeds. You’re getting a highlight reel of the best moments and never seeing any of the downsides. Now, I’m not saying the career of being a professional poker player is bad in any way. I’m just saying that there are a few things we need to clarify before we go any further.

Again, remember that all of this is in regards to most poker pros. If you happen to end up being one of the best in the world, your experiences are going to be different.

Professional Poker is Not as Glamorous as You Might Think

Booo, here comes the buzzkill. Being a professional poker player is not as great as everyone makes it out to be or the movies might lead you to believe. Also, professional poker players probably don’t make as much money as you think they do or that they may lead you to believe.

Why? Poker winnings are often reported as winnings, not as profit. You may see that someone has $5 million in winnings. Does this mean they made $5 million? Nope. This means that they cashed for $5 million in tournaments, but you have to subtract out all of the buy-ins including all the tournaments that they lost and didn’t make any money.

Tournament poker pros usually cash somewhere around 20% of the tournaments they play and win somewhere under 1-2% if they’re really good. This means that 4 out of 5 tournaments they’re playing in they are getting zero dollars and that is not reported in their “winnings.” For example, let’s say that I play 5 $1,000 buy-in tournaments and I cash in one of them for $10,000. My winnings would be reported everywhere as $10,000, but my actual profit is $10,000 – ($1,000 * 5 tournaments), or $5,000. My reported winnings would show up as DOUBLE what my actual profit is.

I don’t point this out to bash the reporting system or even to bash players for reporting things this way. It’s the industry standard on how things are reported, so I don’t fault anyone for doing it. The point is that you need to realize that the profit numbers are usually nowhere near the winnings figure. Make sure you realize this, so you don’t have aspirations that are impossible to achieve.

You Don’t Always Make Money

Continuing on the above point, you’re not always going to be making money. You can be the best in the world and go on cold streaks where you do nothing but lose. If you’re used to a guaranteed paycheck, this can be a huge nightmarish wake-up call. Not only will you not be making any money during those losing streaks, but you’re going to be losing money. It’s not just like you’re working for free during those time frames. You’re actually going to have less money every time you go to play.

Now, if you’re a good enough player and budget your bankroll and life properly, you’ll be able to weather these storms and eventually come out on top in the long run. The problem is that a lot of players struggle in that department or can’t handle the emotional swings that come along with the financial ones.

It Takes More Work Than You Might Think

A lot of people think that all there is to being good at poker and playing for a living is putting in a lot of hours at the table. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Successful professional poker players spend countless hours away from the table studying, watching training videos, reading articles, and talking hands over with other players. This is on top of the countless hours that need to be spent at the tables to make sure you’re bringing in some money.

Being a professional poker player takes a lot more work than most people would have ever imagined. This is especially true as other players are continuously working to improve their games and new hard workers are always coming onto the scene.

It Takes More Discipline Than You Might Think

Not only does it take more hard work, but it also takes more discipline than a lot of people are ready for. There is no one telling you that you have to go play or that you need to go study. There is no one telling you how to budget your money or when you should or should not play. No one will be advising you when you’re playing badly or doing something you shouldn’t be. All of this falls on you.

In a “normal” profession, your coworkers will help you to be better at your job. In the poker world, some will help you, but most of your “coworkers” are going to be trying to take your money at the tables, so they’re going to want you to slip up.

People Are Going to be Better Than Your Home Game

If you’ve got dreams of coming to Vegas and making it on the big stage, you need to know what you’re in store for. I have seen WAY too many people that crush their home games in the middle of nowhere USA come to Vegas and get destroyed at the tables. I’m not saying the lower to mid limits are that difficult to beat, but they’re going to have a lot more good players playing than you probably do at your home game.

The best advice here (which I will talk about more in a few) is to make sure that you dip your toe into the hot tub before diving in.

The Positives You Need to Know

After bashing professional poker and what I’ve done for the past 12 years so aggressively, I thought it was only fair to talk about some of the perks that come along with the job if you’re able to be successful. I’ve added an additional section to each of these positives that will tell you things you need to be careful of. These tips will help you to make sure that you don’t let the perks of the job get in the way of the job and force you to end up having to leave the industry and head back to “normal job” city.

Freedom and Flexibility

There is nothing like having no boss and no fixed schedule to follow. I am free to play when I want, go to bed when I want, eat cookies in my bed when I want…I have no boss. The freedom and flexibility that comes with being a poker professional are incredible. Got an event you want to go to but are supposed to play? You don’t have to ask anyone for the “time off.” You just don’t play that night or day and go to your event.

Where to Be Careful

This freedom and flexibility can cause a lot of issues for people that don’t have discipline. I HIGHLY recommend having some sort of fixed schedule and structure to your life that you follow along fairly closely. Don’t abuse the freedom and end up letting your game or playing time suffer. If I had to skip a tournament or a session for something when I was planning on playing, I always made it up. I picked another event or day to play extra to make sure that I was still putting in an adequate amount of time on the felt.

Potential Profits Through the Roof

It’s no secret that there is a lot of money to be made in the poker world. On any given day, there are new millionaires being made and people moving from the low limits to the high stakes glitz of the upper echelon. Having the ability to make an endless amount of money is amazing. My biggest issue with a lot of normal jobs was that you were capped on how much you could make.

With poker, you’re free to play as much as you want and work as hard as you’d like and ultimately make as much money as you want. Sure, it’s not THAT easy, but the opportunities are there for those willing to go for it. The uncapped potential is something you just don’t see in a lot of industries.

Where to Be Careful

Mo’ money mo’ problems. For a lot of people, poker gives them an income they’re not even close to used to. When you take a 21-year-old kid and give them several hundred thousand dollars for playing a game they love, it can create problems. How do I know this? I was that 21-year-old kid.

It becomes easy to blow your money on useless stuff and take on a lifestyle that may or may not be sustainable. I didn’t do much in the way of savings or planning for a rainy day, and it ended up biting me in the butt years later. If I could impart any sort of wisdom on new and aspiring professionals, it is this. Save some of your money and make plans for the rainy days. If you don’t know how to save money, ask someone who can help. I GUARANTEE that you know someone who can walk you through a budget and a savings plan in no time at all.

Also, be careful of the moochers and those wanting to take advantage of you. As soon as your success gets out, they will come running. Trust me on this one. People that you thought would never ask you for money will ask you for money. People that you lent money to will suddenly feel like they don’t have to pay you back because you’re “so rich.” Be prepared for this and don’t let people take advantage of you. This was the biggest shock for me and one I wasn’t ready for because I was too nice at the time. I’m a lot more sharpened as a person now and wish I could have passed that information back to the old me.

The Ability to Travel and See the World

One of the coolest parts about playing poker for a living was the ability to travel the world freely. I had the money, the means, and the reason to get out there and see what was beyond my countries borders. Not only was the international travel great, but I was able to see areas of my country (the US) that I would have never dreamed of going to.

Where to Be Careful

This one just requires a little common sense to be careful. When you travel to other countries or other cities, make sure that you take precautions to protect yourself. This is especially the case if you are traveling with larger sums of money. Here are a few tips for moving money around.

  1. See if you can wire money to and from the casino you’re playing at, so you never have to carry it.
  2. See if you can bring a cashier’s check to the casino to cash. Remember, if you cross the border and they ask you if you have $10k or more, a check counts towards that. They aren’t asking if you only have $10k in cash, but any financial instruments for that amount.
  3. If you MUST carry cash, don’t flaunt it and don’t let other people know about it. Go directly where you need to go and secure your money.

I’ll probably end up writing an entire blog about what to know when traveling for poker, but in the meantime, I want to add that you need to be aware of the laws where you are traveling. Don’t get in trouble or let a foreign government take advantage of you because you don’t know your rights. I was getting off of a plane from the Bahamas once when customs decided they were going to tell anyone that was a poker player to go to some back room and get interrogated for several hours. I knew they couldn’t profile me like that after I had already gone through the customs process and I just kept going. My friends ended up going back there, and several of them had money confiscated and were grilled by interrogators for hours.

Complete and utter bullshit. For the record, I’m saying to disobey customs or TSA by any means.

I’m just saying that you should read the rules and laws about what they can and can’t do and don’t let some Paul Blart tool bag over exert his power on you.

How to Improve Your Game

I’m sure you’ve read a million articles about how to improve your game. Usually, they just gloss over some options available and don’t really give you actionable steps to get better. What I want to do today is tell you what I personally did to get better and what options are available to you and which I think is the best to take advantage of. I’ll also let you know what options I think are garbage and a waste of your time.

Training Sites

These were a big factor in the growth of my game. Training sites allow you to watch great players play online (and some live now) and get inside their heads and their thought processes. I think this is a must for anyone looking to take their game seriously.

The biggest follow up question is which site should I join since there are so many. You need to look into a few things before selecting a training site. If they don’t know it out of the park on all of these, then find another site.

  1. Make sure the site has legitimate pros that are making the videos. Do your own research into the success of their pros. Make sure that the big-name pros are actually making the videos. A lot of the time sites will have one big name player and then a bunch of nobodies who actually make the training videos. That’s garbage and not what you should be paying for.
  2. Make sure that the site is current. There was a big influx of training sites a few years back, and a lot of them are still up and running but not making any new videos. Check to see when the latest videos were uploaded.
  3. Check to see how much content there is and how often new content is uploaded. Some training sites only have a few videos and only add new ones every couple weeks or months. You want to be at a site where you feel overwhelmed with the amount of content that is there and being uploaded.

Network of Players

Being friends with other players that are playing for a living is crucial to being successful at poker. Being friends with other GOOD players is more crucial to being successful at poker. You need people that you can bounce ideas and hand histories off of. You need people that are willing to tell you when you played a hand badly and how they think you can improve.

The good news about this is that it usually helps both players or the entire group to get better. Poker pros seem to run in “cells,” and the cells live and die together. Don’t have any of these friends? Look online in forums, or it’s time to get social. Don’t be a tool that is only looking to make friends to get tips. Work on building genuine friendships and all of that will come. The forums are a great place to get involved in discussions, and you don’t have to worry about making friends. Everyone is there to talk poker and get better.

Books

Books are interesting. Have I read a lot of them? Yes. Did I feel smarter and like a better player after reading them? Yes. Was I? Hard to say. Books seem to do a great job of making you feel like a better player without giving you a ton of groundbreaking information. Here’s where I think books fit into the equation. If you are brand new or new enough that you still have a ton of basics to learn, I definitely recommend getting some books. If you’ve got the strategy basics down, finding a book that will help retool your game is going to be rare. Frankly, I think you can become a strong player without wasting your time with any books.

Online Articles

These I would probably rank after books as most everything that is out there now is garbage. I say that as I write an online article for you 🙁 Hopefully, you find this useful and don’t think it’s garbage. The problem is that a lot of sites have content being written for search engine optimization purposes only and rarely care that there is quality content.

You also have a lot of sites trying to draw you in to purchase something that gives out strategy articles with click-bait titles that don’t really deliver on what they say is in their content. They’ll typically have some very general advice and a lot of times the same thing said over and over again in different language. If you can find a source of great online articles from notable writers or great instructors, awesome! However, from my experience, it will be a challenge to find some of that.

Practice

I do not like the phrase that practice makes perfect. I think a more accurate and effective phrase is that INTELLIGENT practice makes perfect. By just going out and playing a lot of poker, you will not get better. You need to be working on your game and constantly practicing things that you learned and worked on off of the felt. Banging your head against a wall repeatedly is not going to get the wall to move.

Make sure that when you’re playing, you are working on the things you’ve learned. You need to be practicing to get better, not just playing and calling it practice. Remember, “practicing” in poker can become expensive as you’re not going to get legitimate reactions if you’re playing for free money or playing for super low stakes. I can guarantee you that things that work at home when you’re playing for pennies with the family will NOT work when you start playing for real money at the tables.

Online vs. Live

One of the biggest decisions that you’re going to have to make when becoming a professional poker player is whether you’re going to be predominantly an online player or live player. Most players do a bit of both, but for the most part, they have an area they specialize in. While it might be the same game you’re playing, the experience is going to be completely different. Ultimately, the decision is going to be up to you for whatever works best for you and your style.

I’m going to do my best to give you the most important nuances of live and online so that you can hopefully make a more informed decision about where you “belong.” These points for each might not be interconnected and may seem a bit jumbled, but there is a lot of information and I’d rather you get it through word vomit than not get it at all.

Online Cash vs. Live Cash

The cash games are significantly different than they are live. A $1-$2 online might actually be a tough lineup where a $1-$2 game in the casino is going to be full of morons. Online cash games are all about volume and squeezing out a few big blinds per hour. The secret is playing multiple tables at once and making fewer mistakes.

On the flip side, playing live cash is more about getting people to make massively huge mistakes. The players are going to be worse live and are going to be much more likely to make big mistakes. The drawback is that you can only play one table at a time. A live $5-$10 game will usually have 2-3 pros/regs (regular players that are decent), and the rest fish (bad players). A $5-$10 game online these days is going to be filled with good players and will be tough to beat. Your hourly win rate will be much lower per table online but should come up with the fact that you’re playing multiple tables.

Rakeback Online

One of the perks of playing cash games online is that you may be able to get a rakeback deal from certain sites or you may be able to get some cash back bonuses. Check with the support of an online site before you start playing and see if they have anything they might be able to offer you.

What is rakeback? Rakeback is when the site gives you back part of the rake that they take from the pot. They pay that out to you at the end of the day, week, or month depending on how the deal is structured. This means that you can break completely even at the game and then make money thanks to your rakeback check at the end of the time frame.

Why can’t you get this live? You get this online because their costs are lower to run each game. They don’t have to pay for a dealer or an actual table or a physical location to run the game. It’s as easy as them opening another table which allows them to charge significantly less and still make a profit. Rakeback might be called bonus points or frequent player points or something like that. Just check with the site’s customer service reps before you start playing to see if they have anything they can offer you.

Using Software

This is going to come down to your personal preference about what style of poker you want to play. Online poker has taken a very statistical turn thanks to a lot of new software and Heads Up Displays that will track the other players at the tables stats and display them to you in real time. You end up making all of your decisions based on statistics, and it becomes a data game and less of “classic poker.”

Playing live is, of course, the exact opposite of this. There is no software to track what players are doing live, and you have to use your mind to remember things and spot trends yourself. A lot of people consider the HUDs to be cheating and despise when players use them.

This brings up a ton of questions. Is it better to play online where the HUDs are used or to play live where they aren’t? Well, it’s 100% up to what you prefer and more importantly what you’re good at. People that are great with quick data analysis are going to love the online style and will be able to excel even if everyone at the table is also using the HUD software. People that are more feel players and don’t like getting neck deep in data are probably going to enjoy playing live more.

The next question is if you choose to play online, should you use the software? The answer is almost always going to be yes as long as the site you’re playing on allows it. If you’re not using it, you’re putting yourself at a huge disadvantage and are going to struggle to be profitable. Whether you like the software or not, if you elect to play online you need to be using it.

Playing Zoom Poker For A Living

An important side note here is that you need to put in just as much time into learning the software and how to use the stats properly that you put into your actual poker game. The only thing worse than not using the stats while playing online is using the stats poorly and incorrectly.

Game Availability and Volume

When you decide to play live, you need to be a bit more selective about when you play. Why? There may not be games available at certain off points, or the games might not be as good. Games on the weekends and at nights are always going to be better than mid-day or mid-week games. This is because those are times that the fish and recreational players are usually at work. You can play at those times if there are games, but you can expect to be playing against a lot more good players.

Remember, if you do choose to play at the peak times to catch the fish, you need to plan on being there early before the action starts to guarantee you get a seat. Showing up at 9 pm on a Friday night will most likely end up with you waiting a few hours to get a seat (depending on your casino of course). You need to be playing as many of these peak hours as possible and taking advantage of the drunks and the fools that come in to donate.

Playing online is a little different in finding the optimal times to play. If you’re playing tournaments, it’s pretty easy. You play when the big tournaments are. Most of the time these are going to be at night or on the weekends. Cash games, on the other hand, are going to be a little different than they are live. You’re still going to be looking for the peak times to play when all the fish are on, but this may be different than what you think it is.

You need to know where the bulk of the players on a site are located. If they’re in the US, you are going to want to play during the late hours of the US time zones. Personally, I’d find after about midnight Eastern Standard Time on the weekends, the games would get incredible. If you’re playing on a site that has a lot more European players, you’re going to want to adjust to that time zone if you’re not located there.

The easiest way to figure this out is to pay attention and look at the lobby at various days and hours to see where the volume is. You can almost certainly count on the fact that when the volume is the largest, the games will be the easiest. Don’t use that as an absolute rule, but it’s a good starting point.

In regards to tournament volume, you’re obviously going to be able to get much more when you play online. If you’re capable of multi-tabling, you’re going to be able to get a lot more volume in. This usually means that you’re going to be able to overcome the variance and cold streaks that are inevitable with tournament poker.

For me, this is personally why I am a big fan of online poker over playing live for tournaments. My swings online have always been smaller and shorter in duration than those in live poker tournaments. The only issue with this now if you live in the states is that the volume just isn’t as big with the sites available. While it’s still much better volume than you’re going to get live, it’s just not what it was back in the glory days. Euro players and the rest of the world need not worry about this as the volume is still there for you.

Tournaments vs. Cash Games

When deciding to pay for a living, a lot of people ask if they should be playing more cash games or more tournaments. As an aside, if you’re having to ask this question, you are not ready to start playing for a living yet. I’ll get into this a bit more later in the When to “Go Pro” section.

The simple and most accurate answer to this question is to play what you’re best at. If you crush at cash games, you should be devoting most or all of your playing time to playing cash. If you’re a tournament rock star, you should be playing predominantly tournaments. Now, the cold streaks and swings can be a bit more aggressive for tournaments, so I actually advocate playing a mix if you’re a tournament stud. Play mainly tournaments but mix in some cash of sit and gos to help keep the bills paid in the meantime (as long as you aren’t a terrible cash game player and ONLY good at tournaments).

Now, that answer sounds like one you might get in one of those online articles I was giving a hard time. The reason is that the answer to that question doesn’t need to be over complicated. You should play what you’re best at and what makes you the most money. Don’t play what you enjoy more or what your friends think you should play. Play what you’re best at.

I would assume that anyone reading this article is aware of this, but in case you’re not, I want to make sure I mention it. Cash games and tournaments are WILDLY different. I won’t get into it today because I could write another gagillion pages on it, but you need to be aware that the strategy and how you attack cash games is wildly different than how you attack tournaments. If you’re currently playing both exactly the same, it’s time to start doing some homework before you even step foot in a card room again.

What Makes Someone a Pro or Not

If we’re talking about becoming a pro at playing poker, I guess it’s important to define what being a pro means. It’s funny that this is so widely debated because I really think it’s fairly easy to determine. Now, I do understand why it’s become so debated. If you watched the WSOP on ESPN a few years ago, there were only a few people that identified as pros. Now if you turn it on, literally every single player on their claims to be a professional. I can assure you that a large chunk of these “pros” are not that great at poker.

Here’s my definition of what a pro is (at anything). If you make over 60% of your income doing something, you can consider yourself a professional at something.

If you make >60% of your income from playing poker, you can consider yourself a professional.

To be honest, it really doesn’t matter. It’s just a label that doesn’t mean anything. In some sports, it means you have the ability to compete in different competitions for money, but in poker, it means absolutely nothing. It’s really just a title that people typically use to feel cool.

I remember when I first started playing poker and told people I was a professional the reaction was that it was super cool. Now if I tell people I play for a living, it gets met with mixed results. This is because so many people that are terrible at the game and unable to maintain long-term profitability have taken ownership of the term. As these people fall off and have to return to normal jobs, it tarnishes the cloud that comes with the term. This isn’t really important at all to being a “pro, ” but it’s something I wanted to share and rant about.

When to “Go Pro”

Now that we’ve talked about what it means to be a pro (at least by my definition), the obvious follow-up question for anyone aspiring to play professionally is when they should “go pro.” I put that in quotes because I want to draw attention to the fact that I think the question is a little silly. When I “went pro,” it just happened. There wasn’t a day that I woke up and said today I’m going to be a professional!

I have asked a lot of other pros, and they all said the same thing. It’s just something that happens. Now, this may be because most of the people I asked started in school or when they were young and didn’t have a lot of other commitments that they were required to uphold. If you’re a bit older or have an established career/job, your experience is definitely going to be different.

You’re going to have to decide at some point to stay at your job or leave your job. For those people considering this, I put together a question checklist below to help you decide if the time is right or to figure out what you need to work on to get to that point.

  1. Do you really want to be a professional poker player?

Make sure that you read the negatives that come along with the profession outlined above and make sure that this is really something that you want.

Make A Living Playing Poker

  1. Do you have the correct bankroll to withstand downswings?

Playing Video Poker For A Living

A lot of people forget that downswings can happen starting the first day you start playing for a living. They aren’t something that makes sure to wait until you’re established. There are PLENTY of bankroll guides online that should walk you through this much better than I could.

  1. Do you have the correct life-roll to keep you afloat if you go on a downswing?

Your bankroll and your life-roll NEED to be two different things. You should have completely separate funds for both. Make sure that you have money put aside to pay your bills for several months (ideally six) without touching your bankroll.

  1. Are you good enough/do you have a high enough win rate? Also, is there enough volume of tournaments or games to sustain you playing more hours or more games?

I’ve attached a link to a page about gambling math that you need to peek at. Specifically, you need to look at the section about calculating your win rate. You need to know how much money you are making for every hour that you put in. Here’s a quick teaser that should show you why you may need to read this.

Let’s say you make $20 an hour playing 10 hours a week for a total profit of $200 per week. If you play for 20 hours (twice as long), how much will you make total? If you answered any amount, you need to read this section. Your win rate is never going to be linear meaning that it’s not going to just jump up to $400 a week.

Make sure that when you’re calculating your win rate that you accurately calculate your expenses. This is addressed in the page above, but I need to reiterate it. Improper win rate calculation is the number one mistake I see from people that are wanting to go pro. They want it so badly that they’re willing to lie to themselves about how successful they are and how much money they are actually making.

Remember, your win rate is not something you have to share with other people. It should only be for you and your decision-making process. You need to report your winnings accurately AND your losses, your time commitment, and your expenses. Think a session doesn’t count because you were drunk? No. That needs to be calculated in. Make a stupid call that you “normally wouldn’t make” and don’t want to count that? No. It gets counted.

You HAVE to be as accurate as possible if you want your win rate to mean anything. Neglecting this by any means will result in you struggling and most likely falling short as a professional. You may only get one shot to make it as a pro, and you don’t want to fail because your ego couldn’t take admitting you weren’t ready yet.

One additional thought on win rates is that you need to make sure that you calculate in EVERY expense that you have. For example, tipping at the casino counts as an expense. Gas to the casino counts as an expense. Paying for a babysitter or a hotel room counts as an expense. All of these expenses (and more) count against your win rate. Remember, the more accurate and honest you are, the higher your chances of success will be.

The Intangibles

I’ve got a few closing thoughts that are equally as important as the information up above. These just didn’t fit well into any of the above sections.

Emotional Stability

Something people rarely talk about is the emotional roller coaster that playing poker for a living is. Imagine going to your job and not getting paid a dime. Imagine that you actually have to pay money and come home with less than you started with. That would piss you off, correct? Now imagine that happening over and over and over again for months. Think you can stomach that and come back every day with your A-game?

If the answer is no, then you have no business playing poker for a living. The financial ups and downs are a lot for people to handle. You need to have control over these in the short term and in the long term. If you lose a hand at the table, you need to be able to get over it immediately and not allow yourself to go on tilt. I’ve known very few successful poker players that had tilt problems.

Vices

I’ve seen so many great players or players with great potential crash and burn in the industry thanks to their other vices. This could be drugs, alcohol, sports betting, or the pits (table games). You MUST have control over these things before you try your hand at playing professionally. The flexibility and freedom that comes with being a professional poker player coupled with the increase in disposable income can be a nasty recipe for someone with a problem.

I can’t give you much more advice here other than being honest with yourself and seek help if you need it. The best way to get a handle on your vices is to stop them in their tracks before they get out of hand. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life and not tell you that those things can’t be fun. I’m just saying that everything is better one in moderation. Make sure that whatever you do it does not affect your success or productivity at the tables.

Some People Don’t Have It

This can be a tough pill for people to swallow. Sometimes you just don’t have what it takes. Now, I’m not saying that to discourage you in any way, shape, or form. It’s going to be a tough road, and you’re probably going to want to quit quite a few times. You may have a lot of people tell you that you don’t have what it takes, but most likely that is going to be coming from jealousy or a lack of understanding.

I’m not saying it from either of those points of view. I’m just saying that not everyone in the world is built to play poker professionally. If that were the case, everyone would be doing it, and it would no longer be a lucrative endeavor.

Be honest with yourself and with your progress and keep detailed records of how you’re doing. Know when it’s time to push harder and persevere and know when it’s time to hang up the towel and move on to something else. Sadly, there really is no formula for knowing the difference. The only advice I can say is to be honest with yourself and set goals. If you are constantly falling short of your goals (and they’re not absurd goals), it may be time to reevaluate.

Burn Out

Poker can take a toll on you after playing it for a living for years. It’s long hours in sometimes crappy conditions and constant stress day in and day out. This can cause burn out pretty quickly if you don’t make strides to stay ahead of it. I am telling you this from experience because I have hit burnout several times in my career where I lost all desire to play and all love for the game.

Here are a few tips to help keep you from this. First, take breaks. Don’t play and study seven days a week 365 days a year. You need to take some time away and clear your head from the stress. Second, you need to have some sort of balance. This means have some other hobbies. Find things that release stress, and you enjoy doing. For me personally, I work out and do martial arts. It gets the blood pumping and strangely relaxes me off of the felt.

Living

The most important thing you can do to fight burnout is to take care of your body. Get sleep, exercise, and eat healthily. You don’t have to be a fitness model by any means, but you need to take care of yourself. This will allow you to be sharper and work harder and ultimately be more successful as a professional poker player.

Becoming A Poker Pro

It can be tempting to fall into bad habits and abuse your body. You have to ask yourself what is more important to you, having short- lived fun or having long-term success in the industry. The choice is up to you and you alone.

The Wrap Up

This post definitely ballooned a lot longer than I expected it to be, but I think that’s ok. There is so much that goes into making such a big life decision that I felt like I couldn’t leave anything out. Hopefully, you got a lot out of this and can make the proper decision or your dreams and goals are at least a bit more realistically aligned.

Remember, be honest with yourself about everything and never let your ego get in the way. The player who can’t get out of their own way is one that will never make it in the industry. Being a professional poker player is not about being able to hack it for a year or two. It’s about being able to survive and thrive in the industry for many years to come. Before I start sounding like a motivational speaker, I’ll climb off my soapbox and let you get to the decision-making and planning.

If there’s anything you have questions on or want to be clarified, please comment below, and I’ll gladly check back in and try and offer as much insight as I possibly can. Thanks for reading!

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