And it is difficult to give a clear answer because it is going to be different for everybody depending on their abilities, work ethic, commitment to improving and so on.
However, there are a few rough rules of thumb though.
You should be looking to master the fundamentals of poker in your first 30-90 days. This is the time to learn how to play a basic tight and aggressive strategy (TAG). You should also be starting at the lowest stakes. There is no expectation of profit at this point.
At the 6 month to 1 year mark, you should be looking to steadily move up the stakes and make a consistent profit of hundreds or thousands of dollars per month. You should also be studying and learning more advanced material.
This is a fairly simplistic answer though, so in this article I am going to break it all down for you step by step.
In other words, exactly what you should expect to earn in your first year playing poker at each step of the way.
As mentioned, in your first 30 days at the poker tables you should simply be looking to get the fundamentals of poker down. And specifically this means a tight and aggressive strategy.
The basics of a TAG strategy are:
Now quite frankly, there are very few people who are truly going to master all of these basics of a TAG poker strategy in the first 30 days. It will likely take a bit longer than this.
However learning these basics should be your goal. If you need a guidebook (exactly what hands to play, when to bet, bluff and so on) I always recommend just downloading my free 50 page TAG poker strategy guide.
Regarding poker profit in your first 30 days, you shouldn't expect much. In fact if you are even winning at all, this is excellent. But it is not the goal at all at this point.
You should be starting at the very lowest stakes online or in the casino in your first 30 days playing poker and this is not the time to worried about your results.
Poker is a long run game. The real results in poker don't come until at least the 6 month or one year mark. Therefore, if you are just in this game for the "quick buck" I would highly considering looking for some other hobbies.
So by the 3 month mark you should be quite a bit further along the path in the development of your poker game. You should aim to move up just one limit during this time.
So if you are playing online poker and you started at NL2 (1c/2c blinds) then your goal should be to be playing NL5 (2c/5c blinds) by the 90 day mark.
If you don't know when to move up or what bankroll requirements you need, make sure you check out my full guide to bankroll management first.
If you play live poker, and assuming you start in the $1/$2 games, then your goal should be to move up to the $2/$5 games by the 3 month mark.
This is the time to really be working on your TAG strategy, starting to understand player types better and mostly just getting some solid hours in at the poker tables. Because as I always say, the best way to learn poker is through direct experience.
However, at this point you should also start supplementing your learning with some lower level poker books or poker courses aimed mostly at beginners or novices.
Regarding poker results, you still shouldn't expect much by the 3 month mark. If you have made a couple hundred dollars or a thousand online or live, that is great.
But it is still all about the process at this point. You need to develop a solid understanding of the game and how to beat other decent players as well. The money will come later.
Alright, you hit the 6 month mark! Congratulations. Most people honestly do not make it this far. They are too impatient, they don't play consistently, they don't study and they eventually quit.
Now it is important to know that it is completely fine if you are still not earning consistent good money by this stage. It took many world class pros years to get the kind of results they do now.
I certainly wasn't raking in the big bucks either by the 6 month mark. But hopefully you should be able to at least break even in low limit games by this point. That is certainly a reasonable goal.
Along with your basic TAG strategy you should be studying some more advanced poker material by this point including how to play a loose aggressive (LAG) strategy and beat good players.
You should also be using a HUD if you play online and doing regular session reviews for not only your own play but studying the best players you have played against as well.
I attribute a ton of my own success in poker to simply studying (and sometimes even copying) some of the top players in my games in PokerTracker.
These are the guys who are already crushing the exact games that you are playing in. Study their hands and find out exactly what they are doing!
Make sure you also have a dedicated poker work environment by this point:
You should also ideally have moved up a few stakes by the 6 month mark to some games where you can make some reasonable money.
If you play online you should aim to be at NL10 or NL25 by this point. NL25 (10c/25c blinds) is actually the first stake online where you can expect to make some significant money. Top winners in this game can make $1000 per month with rakeback and bonuses added in.
But once again, poker is a long term game. You shouldn't be looking to get rich by the 6 month mark. Just keep making steady progress and work on becoming a better player every day.
If you managed to make it to the one year mark seriously give yourself a quick high-five right now because 80%-90% of poker players have thrown in the towel and quit by this point.
Poker is a lot like starting a small business, most will fail. These are just the facts. And this is because most people lose for months and months before they ever see any kind of a profit at all.
This is difficult because you aren't getting the positive reinforcement that all your time spent studying poker and the long hours at the poker tables are actually having a real impact.
This is indeed why most people quit. So you need to prepare yourself for this. As I have said repeatedly throughout this article, poker is the exact opposite of a get rich quick scheme.
You need to be in this thing for the long haul or else there is no point in even bothering with it.
So anyways, by the one year mark in your young fledgling poker career you should ideally have moved up several stakes and be consistently making hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month. So at least NL25 online, although NL50 or NL100 would be much better.
NL50 and NL100 are the first games where you could realistically be making job replacement money even if you come from a wealthy western country.
But hopefully you are at least a winning poker player at the lower stakes by the one year mark. If you have managed that, then once again, you are way, way ahead of most other people.
So there you have it!
The poker results that you should expect by the end of your first year is to be playing at some reasonably decent stakes and be consistently making hundreds of dollars per month, or in the best case scenario, thousands of dollars per month.
However, truthfully most poker players will not achieve these results. In fact, most will quit the game long before they ever even reach the one year mark.
This is why it is so important to learn poker the right way from the beginning and understand that this is a long term game where it may take years in some cases to see real significant profit.
Keep in mind that I am also assuming throughout this article that you are willing to put in the hours both at the tables and away from them studying every day. Anyone who is truly serious about poker is going to do this.
Anyways, I hope this article gave you guys some realistic expectations of where you should be at throughout each stage of your first year playing poker.
Big time success in poker is neither quick nor easy. However, for those who are truly willing to put in the effort and stick it out over the long haul, this game can be very good.
Make sure you download my free poker cheat sheet to learn the strategy I used to quit my job over 10 years ago, become a poker pro and travel the world.
Let me know what results you achieved in your first year playing poker in the comments below.
By the way, if you're new to poker and you just want to learn my simple system for exactly what hands to play, grab my free poker cheat sheet.
Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.
Poker Results You Should Expect in Your First 30 days
As mentioned, in your first 30 days at the poker tables you should simply be looking to get the fundamentals of poker down. And specifically this means a tight and aggressive strategy.
The basics of a TAG strategy are:
- Tight starting hand selection
- Positional awareness
- Sustained preflop aggression
- Consistent and well balanced postflop aggression
- A few bluffs versus weak/tight regs on scare cards
- Eliminating or at least minimizing the effects of tilt
Now quite frankly, there are very few people who are truly going to master all of these basics of a TAG poker strategy in the first 30 days. It will likely take a bit longer than this.
However learning these basics should be your goal. If you need a guidebook (exactly what hands to play, when to bet, bluff and so on) I always recommend just downloading my free 50 page TAG poker strategy guide.
Regarding poker profit in your first 30 days, you shouldn't expect much. In fact if you are even winning at all, this is excellent. But it is not the goal at all at this point.
You should be starting at the very lowest stakes online or in the casino in your first 30 days playing poker and this is not the time to worried about your results.
Poker is a long run game. The real results in poker don't come until at least the 6 month or one year mark. Therefore, if you are just in this game for the "quick buck" I would highly considering looking for some other hobbies.
By the way, if you just want to learn my simple no BS system for exactly what hands to play, when to bet, raise and bluff, I cover this all in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.
Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.
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Poker Results You Should Expect in Your First 3 Months
So by the 3 month mark you should be quite a bit further along the path in the development of your poker game. You should aim to move up just one limit during this time.
So if you are playing online poker and you started at NL2 (1c/2c blinds) then your goal should be to be playing NL5 (2c/5c blinds) by the 90 day mark.
If you don't know when to move up or what bankroll requirements you need, make sure you check out my full guide to bankroll management first.
If you play live poker, and assuming you start in the $1/$2 games, then your goal should be to move up to the $2/$5 games by the 3 month mark.
This is the time to really be working on your TAG strategy, starting to understand player types better and mostly just getting some solid hours in at the poker tables. Because as I always say, the best way to learn poker is through direct experience.
However, at this point you should also start supplementing your learning with some lower level poker books or poker courses aimed mostly at beginners or novices.
Regarding poker results, you still shouldn't expect much by the 3 month mark. If you have made a couple hundred dollars or a thousand online or live, that is great.
But it is still all about the process at this point. You need to develop a solid understanding of the game and how to beat other decent players as well. The money will come later.
Poker Results You Should Expect in Your First 6 Months
Alright, you hit the 6 month mark! Congratulations. Most people honestly do not make it this far. They are too impatient, they don't play consistently, they don't study and they eventually quit.
Now it is important to know that it is completely fine if you are still not earning consistent good money by this stage. It took many world class pros years to get the kind of results they do now.
I certainly wasn't raking in the big bucks either by the 6 month mark. But hopefully you should be able to at least break even in low limit games by this point. That is certainly a reasonable goal.
Along with your basic TAG strategy you should be studying some more advanced poker material by this point including how to play a loose aggressive (LAG) strategy and beat good players.
You should also be using a HUD if you play online and doing regular session reviews for not only your own play but studying the best players you have played against as well.
I attribute a ton of my own success in poker to simply studying (and sometimes even copying) some of the top players in my games in PokerTracker.
These are the guys who are already crushing the exact games that you are playing in. Study their hands and find out exactly what they are doing!
Make sure you also have a dedicated poker work environment by this point:
You should also ideally have moved up a few stakes by the 6 month mark to some games where you can make some reasonable money.
If you play online you should aim to be at NL10 or NL25 by this point. NL25 (10c/25c blinds) is actually the first stake online where you can expect to make some significant money. Top winners in this game can make $1000 per month with rakeback and bonuses added in.
But once again, poker is a long term game. You shouldn't be looking to get rich by the 6 month mark. Just keep making steady progress and work on becoming a better player every day.
Poker Results You Should Expect in Your First Year
If you managed to make it to the one year mark seriously give yourself a quick high-five right now because 80%-90% of poker players have thrown in the towel and quit by this point.
Poker is a lot like starting a small business, most will fail. These are just the facts. And this is because most people lose for months and months before they ever see any kind of a profit at all.
This is difficult because you aren't getting the positive reinforcement that all your time spent studying poker and the long hours at the poker tables are actually having a real impact.
This is indeed why most people quit. So you need to prepare yourself for this. As I have said repeatedly throughout this article, poker is the exact opposite of a get rich quick scheme.
You need to be in this thing for the long haul or else there is no point in even bothering with it.
So anyways, by the one year mark in your young fledgling poker career you should ideally have moved up several stakes and be consistently making hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month. So at least NL25 online, although NL50 or NL100 would be much better.
NL50 and NL100 are the first games where you could realistically be making job replacement money even if you come from a wealthy western country.
But hopefully you are at least a winning poker player at the lower stakes by the one year mark. If you have managed that, then once again, you are way, way ahead of most other people.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it!
The poker results that you should expect by the end of your first year is to be playing at some reasonably decent stakes and be consistently making hundreds of dollars per month, or in the best case scenario, thousands of dollars per month.
However, truthfully most poker players will not achieve these results. In fact, most will quit the game long before they ever even reach the one year mark.
This is why it is so important to learn poker the right way from the beginning and understand that this is a long term game where it may take years in some cases to see real significant profit.
Keep in mind that I am also assuming throughout this article that you are willing to put in the hours both at the tables and away from them studying every day. Anyone who is truly serious about poker is going to do this.
Anyways, I hope this article gave you guys some realistic expectations of where you should be at throughout each stage of your first year playing poker.
Big time success in poker is neither quick nor easy. However, for those who are truly willing to put in the effort and stick it out over the long haul, this game can be very good.
Make sure you download my free poker cheat sheet to learn the strategy I used to quit my job over 10 years ago, become a poker pro and travel the world.
Let me know what results you achieved in your first year playing poker in the comments below.
