How Long Does it Take to Become a Professional Poker Player?

People often ask me how long does it take to become a professional poker player.

And as somebody who made a living as a poker pro for many years, I can provide some insight here on how long it takes for the average person to quit their job and be a poker pro.

But I must warn you that the amount of time to become a professional poker player is still going to vary tremendously from person to person depending on their skill level, work ethic and so on.

Nevertheless, I am going to break it all down for you in this article. Here is how long it takes for a typical person to become a professional poker player.

What is a Professional Poker Player?

I think before we even begin though, we do need to define what exactly a professional poker player is. Because many people get it confused.

A professional poker player is simply: 

Somebody who pays all or the majority of their bills and expenses with their winnings from the poker table, rakeback and any other poker related endorsements or revenue.

As I have mentioned many times on this blog before, all smart professional poker players these days have realized the need to create several streams of income through the game.

This is why you will see many poker pros streaming live on Twitch these days for example. They are essentially killing two birds with one stone here.

They are making money playing poker and creating an income stream through Twitch subscriptions/selling merch/affiliate deals etc, at the same time. 

The same principle applies for somebody who is a "sponsored pro" at a poker site. The famous poker pro Daniel Negreanu was a long time sponsored pro at PokerStars for example.

The poker site paid him to promote their brand while he plays poker. As a relatively unknown online poker pro, I have even had several sponsorship offers from well known poker sites myself.

So you don't need to be some world famous pro like Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey to do this. Anyways, I am not going to go into this any deeper in this article, because it is beyond the scope here.

But I did want to make it clear that most poker pros actually make a substantial part of their income away from the poker tables these days. 

Many people do not realize this.

A professional poker player is somebody who makes the large portion of their income from poker related activities, including playing poker, as well as sponsorships, branding and so on.

Those who do not branch out and just try to make it in today's (often tough games) with their poker table winnings alone, usually don't last.

Smart poker pros have multiple income streams, not just playing the game.

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 in extensive detail in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

My new Play Fearless Poker training program includes 12+ hours of advanced poker lessons, 100+ step by step example hands and "cheat sheets" below every single video.

If you're serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.

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How Long Does it Take the Average Person to Become a Professional Poker Player?

So with that definition of a poker pro out of the way, let's get into the topic of how long it takes a typical person to become a professional poker player these days.

And I need to warn you right away, that this isn't going to be the answer that most people reading this want to hear.

But in my experience, it will take a bare minimum of one year for the average person to become a professional poker player. 

This is the amount of time it will take both to learn the game at a world class level, and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are a consistent winning player.

Many people rush into becoming a professional poker player these days because they ran hot at the poker tables for a few weeks/months and in some cases they hate their day job as well.

This is almost always a terrible idea because a few weeks or even a few months is not long enough of a time period to prove conclusively that you are a winning poker player.

In fact, as I have mentioned many times before on this blog, I think you need to play a bare minimum sample size of 100,000 hands before coming to any conclusions about your poker results.

Many people (most people actually) simply do not want to hear this. And that is fine, but it has absolutely no impact on the veracity of this statement.

The long run in poker is much, much longer than what most people think.



For many people who play online poker, playing 100k hands will take several months and for somebody who plays live, this might take them an entire calendar year.

But I have run the numbers over sample sizes in the millions in PokerTracker though over my 10+ year career as a pro.

And I am confident that 100k is the very minimum sample size I would even consider before making any real conclusions about my poker results.

And for me personally, I would play 500k hands, minimum, before deciding to make a life changing decision like becoming a professional poker player.

By the way, for reference, when I first turned pro in 2007, I had already played over 2 million hands of poker at that point in my career, with consistently dominating results.

Your Lifestyle and Expectations Are Big Factors

Now with all that said, I need to point out as well, that everybody has a different situation in life, different levels of expenses and so on.

A single guy living in a low cost city like Bangkok for example is going to have a much easier time becoming a poker pro faster than a guy (or girl) with a family in an expensive city like LA.

Why does this matter?

Because the lower your expenses, the lower the stakes you will have to play to make it as a pro. Lower stakes games are always much easier to beat and therefore you can become a poker pro much faster. 

You also have to factor in your lifestyle and how much you need to feel comfortable.

Are you cool driving a 15 year old Toyota or do you need to drive the latest BMW? Do you need to live in a luxury condo/huge house with a huge pool or can you get by in a small apartment?

These are all factors that will influence how long it takes for you to become a poker pro.

I have lived for as little as $500 a month before in a small city like Chiang Mai whereas when I go back to my hometown of Vancouver I could very easily spend $5000 per month.

Guess which city it's going to be easier for me to be a poker pro in?

Poker Pros Must Have a Large Financial Safety Net

You also need to factor in your savings and investments. I always suggest having a large rainy day fund of at least 6 months living expenses or reasonably liquid assets on hand.

This is completely separate from your poker bankroll and poker related expenses by the way.

The reason why you need this is because it does not matter how good you are, poker is a very swingy game and you will go through extended losing streaks at times.

You poker "salary" is not guaranteed, nor will you be receiving any benefits like medical, dental, retirement and so on that often come with a more traditional career path.

So this is why it is extremely important that as a professional poker player you are better prepared financially than the average person in case of emergency (liquid assets/savings). 

All of this is stuff that only you know the answers to, your cost of living, your lifestyle expectations, how many mouths you have to feed, your current savings/investments and so on.

This is why it is difficult for me to say how long it will take you to become a professional poker player. It might take 5 years for some people, it might take 5 months for another person.

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That is why I wrote this free little 50 page poker cheat sheet to give you the exact strategies to start consistently making $1000 (or more) per month in low stakes poker games right now.

These are the exact poker strategies that I have used as a 10+ year poker pro. And I lay them all out for you step by step in this free guide.

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How Can You Speed Up the Time it Takes to Become a Professional Poker Player?

Now with all of that said, there is some good news if your goal is to become a professional poker player in a shorter period of time.

And that is, you can speed up your learning curve towards becoming a professional poker player tremendously by investing in your knowledge and understanding of the game early on in your career.

For example, I have written several best selling poker books like Crushing the Microstakes which are specifically targeted at beginners to help them quickly crush the lowest stakes games.

There is even a 6+ hour video course that comes along with the book now where you can essentially just watch me play live while I crush my opponents and explain every single decision I make to you.



By learning my proven strategies to crush these small stakes games you won't have to waste months or even years of your time like most people do, struggling to figure out how to even win in these games.

When you learn to start winning right from the very start you will also be much more motivated to continue learning more advanced poker strategies and climb up the limits even faster.

This is going to help the average poker player tremendously in achieving their goal of becoming a professional poker player much faster.

Once you have learned how to smash all the "wild" players at the lower limits, you can continue on with your poker education for high limits by enrolling in a more advanced poker training program like my new Elite Poker University.

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Should You Hire a Poker Coach?

And if you still want to take your game even further after all of this, you can also consider hiring a personal coach. This is something that I used to do.

I have coached a lot of players in small stakes games in the past myself, 100+. And I have also hired high level technical and mental game coaches to help me improve my own game as well.

In fact, many of the top poker pros in the world do a bit of 1 on 1 coaching on the side these days (this is also an extra form of income like I mentioned above).

But this is also one of the absolute fastest ways to quickly improve your game. You are learning from the very best after all and getting custom advice from them as well, which is huge.

There is one big downside though. It won't be cheap!

Many of the top high stakes poker pros these days will charge $1000 or more per hour because their knowledge and understanding of the game is in extreme high demand.

Even hiring a coach for small stakes games is not cheap these days. 

Any qualified small stakes poker coach will charge at least $100 per hour. I do not personally coach anymore but I would charge a lot more than this if I did.

So the bottom line is that hiring a coach isn't cheap, but if money isn't an object for you, then this is the absolute fastest way to quickly improve your game and become a poker pro yourself.

Is It Easy for a Normal Person to Become a Professional Poker Player?

Now with all of that said, I must say that it is still going to be pretty difficult for a normal person to become a poker pro these days. 

Most will simply not succeed.

And one of the biggest reasons why is because the games are not nearly as easy as they were several years ago.

This is because there are many people out there now who take this game just as seriously as you do, and also work hard on improving their game away from the tables.

This is why game selection has become so crucial. You need to be paying a lot of attention to what tables and poker sites you are playing on these days

You need to make sure that you are actively searching for the "fish" (bad players) and playing as many hands against them as possible.

Because whether you are an amateur or a pro, the large majority of your profit in poker is always going to come from these players.

Don't make the mistake of consistently playing at tables full of other strong players! This is seriously one of the biggest mistakes that I see people making these days.

They just play on any poker site and hop on any poker table that suits their fancy. This is a total disaster and it is why they don't win.

You need to choose to play at the easy poker sites instead. Because if you consistently play against the weak players you will profit a lot more.

You also need to be chasing the fish around and making sure you are getting on their left. This is not earth shattering news to any poker pro reading this. In fact, they already know that it is part of the job.

Most amateurs totally miss this absolutely crucial part of the game though. If you don't take game selection seriously, your results in poker these days will suffer massively.

By the way, I discuss this in much more detail in my new Elite Poker University training. 

Learn EXACTLY how to start crushing small and mid stakes poker games, play semi-pro or even full time pro. Use my proven elite poker strategies to start winning fast.

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Final Thoughts

So how long does it take to become a professional poker player these days? Well, I would say that for the average person, it will take at least a year.

This is because it is important to be sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a long term winning player before deciding to go pro.

You can speed up the process by learning some advanced poker strategy.

But being a poker pro is not a decision you want to make rashly. Take your time and make sure that this is the right path for you to go down.

As somebody who has successfully done it for 10+ years, I know it can be tempting to want to take the leap as soon as you see some early success.

But believe me, this is a hard game to make it in. You need to make sure that you are ready, both from a technical understanding of the game, and from the mental side as well.

Because while the freedom and the money are both great parts of being a professional poker player, handling the swings is the most challenging part of it.

You can't learn that emotional and mental control over night. It takes time and experience. It is important to make sure that you are completely prepared.

You should also have a deep war chest of savings and investments (rainy day fund) which is totally separate from your poker bankroll and poker related expenses.

This is because poker is a very swingy game and therefore you need a large financial safety net to back you up during the extended losing streaks that all poker pros go through at times.

For the vast majority of people reading this article, I would recommend that you focus on creating a solid side income from poker while keeping your day job or staying in school.

My free poker "cheat sheet" gives you a complete strategy guide on how to start quickly making a nice part time income from poker.

You can get a copy of my free poker cheat sheet, right here.

Professional Poker Player Salary (It Might Shock You)

People often ask me these days what is the average professional poker player salary?

And to be quite honest, the answer varies depending on your skill level, what stakes you play, how much volume you put in and so on.

So in this article I am going to break it all down for you. This is the ultimate guide to a professional poker player's salary.

Professional Poker Player Salary Hourly Wage

So there are many different ways to look at a professional poker player's salary. The first is their hourly wage.

This is the most familiar for many people because in most traditional jobs you get paid an hourly wage. However, in poker this is not really a metric we often use.

And the reason why is because poker is not like a normal job where you earn a consistent steady wage for every hour you work.

Instead, your results will be all over the place in poker.

Some hours you will win big or win small. Some hours you will lose big or lose small. The same goes for entire days and even entire weeks at the poker table.

So there is no such thing as a typical hourly wage for a professional poker player. But if we estimate over the course of say a year, we could get an average hourly wage for a poker pro.

If we were to focus on the small and mid stakes professional poker players, they would average over the course of a year an hourly wage of between $20 per hour and $500 per hour.

It will vary tremendously as you can see depending on what stakes they play, how many hours they put in, and how hard they work on improving their poker game away from the tables.

For a high stakes professional poker player, their average hourly wage over the course of a year could be anywhere between $500 per hour and $10,000 per hour or more.

There are very few high stakes poker pros however because you legitimately have to be one of the best poker players in the world to consistently beat these stakes. 

By the way, in my latest video I discuss how to make $5000 a month playing poker.

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 in extensive detail in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

My new Play Fearless Poker training program includes 12+ hours of advanced poker lessons, 100+ step by step example hands and "cheat sheets" below every single video.

If you're serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.

Enroll in Play Fearless Poker

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Professional Poker Player Yearly Salary

What about a yearly salary for a professional poker player though? How much will they typically bring home in an entire calendar year?

Well, this depends heavily on how much volume they put in. Or to put that in plain English, how much poker they play.

Some poker pros frankly are a bit lazy and just put in the minimum effort to pay the bills. Because after all they can do this.

There is no boss telling them what to do!

This is one of the best parts about being a poker pro. And this was how I acted actually through the first several years of my professional poker career. 

That is, just putting in the minimum effort. Only playing a couple hours on the weekends, which was enough to pay my bills.

But eventually I smartened up and realized that I needed to take being a poker pro a lot more seriously.

So I started playing much more consistently, often 7 days a week for 8-12 hours every single day. And then my poker pro career finally started to take off.

I was also spending several more hours per day studying my own game and learning advanced poker strategies on the side.

Let's just focus on the average poker pro though who plays an amount of poker somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

That is, a poker pro who plays about 5 days a week for 4-8 hours per day. What kind of yearly wage can this type of professional poker player expect?

Well, a small or mid stakes professional poker player's yearly salary in this case would be between $25,000 per year and $500,000 per year.

Again, it is going to vary tremendously on exactly what stakes they play and how much they work on improving their winrate (bb/100 or bb/hr).

And a high stakes professional poker player's yearly salary can be between $500,000 per year and $10,000,000 or more.

But once again it bears mentioning that there are very few poker players that will ever be capable of consistently beating high stakes games that are full of world class pros.

Make $5000 Per Month in Low Stakes Poker Games With My Free Poker Cheat Sheet.

Are you having trouble beating low stakes poker games online or live? Are you looking to make a consistent part time income playing these games?

That is why I wrote this free little 50 page poker cheat sheet to give you the exact strategies to start consistently making $1000 (or more) per month in low stakes poker games right now. 

These are the exact poker strategies that I have used by the way as a 10+ year poker pro. 

And I lay them all out for you step by step in this free guide. Enter your details below and I will send my free poker cheat sheet to your inbox right now.

 

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How to Increase Your Salary as a Professional Poker Player?

If you are a professional poker player already though, or you are planning on becoming one, how would you go about increasing your salary?

The easiest way to do this is to increase your skill level.

For example, there are tons of high level poker training programs available these days like my brand new Elite Poker University.

17+ hours of the most advanced cutting edge poker strategies available today, hundreds of example hands and "cheat sheets" showing you exactly which hands to play, when to bet raise and bluff.

If you struggle to beat good players in higher stakes games, this is the fastest way to start crushing these players and learning the skills of a professional poker player.

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Bottom line, take your poker training and study away from the tables seriously, in order to become a much more efficient player, with a higher average hourly wage.

As a professional poker player, I highly recommend that you invest in your poker knowledge, by learning the latest cutting edge strategies, if you want to stay on top of the games. 

Back to the Basics

What if you are still just starting out though and struggling to turn a profit at the lowest stakes?

If you are still struggling at the lower limits though, then you might not be ready for something as advanced as The Upswing Lab yet. You need to make sure you have mastered the fundamentals first.

In that case I would recommend checking out my best selling poker strategy book Crushing the Microstakes and the optional video course that comes with it as well.

Here I teach you the fundamental poker strategies that you need to start confidently beating the lowest limits and moving your way up the stakes.

Since I have some of the best results of all-time in these games online, you know you are learning the best strategies possible to win big in these games.

Lastly, I would also highly recommend using a good poker tracking program like PokerTracker in order to review your hands and study your opponents.

I have spent countless hours improving my poker game away from the tables in PokerTracker over the years. And it is absolutely one of the keys to my success.

Professional Poker Player Taxes

Now, something that a lot of people also ask me about is what taxes a professional poker player needs to pay.

And quite frankly, this is a difficult question for me to answer because of course it is going to vary widely depending on where you live (or where your tax residence is).

For example, some countries view poker winnings as a "gambling windfall" just like getting lucky at the roulette wheel and therefore, they are not taxable.



Whereas other countries define poker as a game of skill, which it is proven to be, and therefore make professional poker players file a tax return. 

And then of course there are many other countries where professional poker player taxes are basically one big grey area which are open to interpretation.

The best thing to do in all of these cases if you are a professional poker player is consult with a competent tax professional, and especially one with specific experience in dealing with poker or gambling related income.

This is going to be your best bet to make sure that you are obeying all applicable tax laws for a professional poker player in the jurisdiction that you live in.

They will also be able to help you perhaps setup a more beneficial tax residence in order to lower your tax burden as a poker pro, again if applicable (consult with a professional tax specialist).

Chances of Becoming a Professional Poker Player

Now with all of that said, what are your chances of even becoming a professional poker player these days? How many people even need to worry about all this stuff?

Honestly, the chances of becoming a professional poker players are pretty low.

As I discussed recently on this blog, the truth about being a professional poker player these days is often much different than the general perception of it.

And most people quite frankly do not succeed as a professional poker player for a variety of reasons.

In fact, most people do not even win at poker in the first place over the long run!

This is because poker is a very hard game to consistently stay on top of, both from a technical and mental perspective.

This is something that world class poker pros like Daniel Negreanu have discussed many times.

You need to be hard working, driven, have natural ability and have a cool and calm disposition in order to guide you through all of the inevitable lengthy losing streaks.

Most people have one but not both.

Being a professional poker player can be a great career choice for a few people. It changed my entire life and allowed me the freedom to travel the world and be my own boss.

But the reality is that it doesn't work out quite so well for most people. Most people in my opinion should just keep their day job.

By the way, I discuss this in much more detail in my new Elite Poker University training. 

Learn EXACTLY how to start crushing small and mid stakes poker games, play semi-pro or even full time pro. Use my proven elite poker strategies to start winning fast.

Enroll in BlackRain79 Elite Poker University

Get $100 OFF Use Code: Elite100

Final Thoughts

So what is the average professional poker player's salary these days?

Well, if you are a small or mid stakes poker pro, you can expect to make an average hourly wage of roughly between $20 per hour and $500 per hour. 

High stakes professional poker players on the other hand will typically make much more than this because they play poker for a lot more money.

As for the yearly salary of a poker pro. Once again a small or mid stakes professional poker player will make between $25,000 per year and $500,000 per year.

And a high stakes poker pro will again make considerably more than this, usually well over 7 figures per year.

Becoming a professional poker player these days is definitely not easy though and requires a lot of hard work, patience and discipline.

I don't recommend it for most people!  

Luckily though, it is much easier to learn how to quickly start making a nice part time income from poker these days while keeping your day job.

If you want to learn how to start making a decent side income in small stakes poker games, I recommend you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

The Truth About Being a Professional Poker Player

Many people ask me about what it is like to be become a professional poker player. And as somebody who played poker professionally online for 10+ years, I have a little bit to say about it!

Is it all about sitting at the beach sipping pina coladas living the easy life while you hop online for a couple hours a week, crush some souls and print money?

Or maybe you hop in your private jet to play in the big game in Vegas after a relaxing weekend in the French Riviera?

Unfortunately, the reality for most poker pros is quite a bit different than this.

And unfortunately there are also tons of myths and even downright misinformation out there about what it is truly like to become a professional poker player.

Short Answer: No, the life of a poker pro isn't like what you saw on Instagram or YouTube, with million dollar tournaments and a life of total freedom traveling the world. In fact, for most professional poker players, their day to day life is nothing like this at all, and it is a lot less glamorous than you might think.

So in this article I am going to finally dispel some of the ridiculous myths out there about what it is like being a professional poker player, and give you the reality of it, from someone who has done it.

This is the truth about what it is like to be a professional poker player.

1. You Probably Won't Win at Poker

Let's start with the most important point of all. And hey let's face it, nobody really wants to talk about this!

But I think it is rather important.

And that is the simple fact that most people don't even win at this game in the first place over the long run.

Poker is a hard game to beat these days, and for a variety of reasons, most people end up losing more than they win.

In fact, as I have discussed before, at least 70% of people lose at poker over the long run.

And the large majority of those that actually do manage to win are only very small winners, just above break even.

If we are talking about "going pro," it is probably 5% or less of all people who play poker who are significant enough winners in order to even consider it.

Bottom line:

Most people don't even win at poker over the long run.

It should of course go without saying that a major pre-requisite of becoming a professional poker player is being a proven long term big winner.

So for the large majority of people who play this game, becoming a professional poker player will just never be possible.

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 in extensive detail in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

Memorize the charts. Stop guessing. Start winning.

My new Play Fearless Poker training program includes 12+ hours of advanced poker lessons, 100+ step by step example hands and "cheat sheets" below every single video.

If you're serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.

Enroll in Play Fearless Poker

Get $100 OFF Use Code: 100OFF

2. You Probably Won't Survive as a Professional Poker Player

But here's the other perhaps far more important part about becoming a professional poker player that nobody mentions very often either.

Even if you do manage to become part of that small group of elite winners in this game, it's really tough to stay on top and survive in this game over the long run.

Many people dream about the "freedom" and so on of being a professional poker player as I discussed in a recent video.

But I can't even begin to tell you the number of so called "poker pros" that I have seen come and go over the years.

For a variety of reasons (which I will discuss later on in this article), most of them didn't last. In fact, most of them don't even last one year before it is too much for them.

You need to be 100% self-driven and have a superhuman work ethic in order to survive in this game as a pro. You also need the mental stamina and the emotional control of a Buddhist monk.

You also need to be constantly studying and improving your game if you want to stay on top.

For example, you need to be putting in the long hours away from the tables finding your leaks and fixing them in PokerTracker.

The bottom line is that for most professional poker players, the game is all-consuming if you actually want to stay ahead of the competition and make it in this game over the long run.

This is why most don't last.

3. Being a Poker Pro Can Be Really Lonely

The other thing they never tell you about what it is like to be a professional poker player is that it is really, really lonely most of the time.

Poker is simply not a team sport and the sad truth is that at the end of the day nobody actually cares about your wins or losses. They only care about their own.

And so most online poker pros end up spending long hours in a room (often by themselves), with nobody to really interact with or ever feel like they are part of something bigger.

For somebody like myself who is fiercely independent and doesn't really require too much company or interaction with others in order to be happy, this was never a huge deal.

But I am well aware that this isn't the case for most people. Most people enjoy being part of a "team" and they also enjoy the camaraderie of the office for example, at least to some degree.

If this is the kind of person that you are, becoming an online poker pro is probably not going to be the best choice for you.

What about live poker though?

There is more social interaction if you are a live poker pro, playing in a casino. With that said though, nobody at the poker table is really your friend.

While you can get more face to face human interaction in a live poker game, at the end of the day, you are there to take their chips, and they are there to take yours.

4. Becoming a Professional Poker Player Requires Incredible Mental Strength

As a professional poker player, your entire life will become one big emotional roller coaster. In fact, this is one of the biggest reasons why most don't make it over the long run (5 years, 10 years etc).

What do I mean by this?

I am talking about the never-ending ups and downs that are inherently built into the game of poker. And it doesn't matter how good you are, they will always exist.

By the way, if you want to know the mental habits of good poker players, I discuss it more in this video:

Here's the reality of being a poker pro though.

It is really difficult to win one day, lose the next day, and I am talking large sums of money for most professional poker players, sometimes 10k+ swings each day.

It is very difficult to just mentally remove these results from your mind each day and carry on as if nothing happened.

Because one day you are on top of the world and the next day you are down in the dumps. And this cycle of emotional ups and downs never ends.

This is why I always suggest being extremely well bankrolled as a professional poker player, and ignoring your short term results completely, if possible.

5. Lengthy Downswings Crush Most Poker Pros

But most real poker pros can actually handle the day to day swings. It's not the end of the world. You still ride the emotional roller coaster, but it is manageable.

The real danger for professional poker players is actually lengthy "downswings." A downswing by the way is what we refer to in poker as an extended losing streak.

These soul crushing downswings happen to everybody. You hit a really bad patch of variance (poor short term luck with the cards), and you literally can't win a hand for days, weeks or even months.

If you are a tournament pro, downswings can even last years!

As a cash game pro I have personally had multiple 100k+ hand stretches during my professional poker career where it felt like I would never win another hand again.

And I have some of the best results of all time at the micro stakes online!

Ya, variance can be absolutely brutal in this game. Much worse than most people think.

And the longer these downswings go on, the more difficult it is to handle it mentally as a pro without a good support network.

And like I mentioned already, unfortunately most professional poker players don't really have a great support system. For the most part you will be on your own to deal with it.

Learn How to Make a Good Side Income From Poker With My Free "Cheat Sheet"

Are you having trouble beating low stakes poker games online or live? Are you looking to make a consistent part time income playing these games?


That is why I wrote this free little 50 page poker "cheat sheet" to give you the exact strategies to start consistently making $1000 (or more) per month in low stakes poker games right now.

These are the exact poker strategies by the way that I have used as a 10+ year poker pro. And I lay them all out for you step by step in this free guide.

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6. The Game Isn't Nearly as Fun for a Poker Pro Compared to an Amateur

One of the biggest things I noticed when I first became a professional poker player in 2007 was that the game was not nearly as fun as it used to be.

Because after all, now I played poker to pay the bills.

And this quite frankly, changes everything.

It wasn't just a hobby anymore. And this meant bad beats hurt a bit more and I found myself getting frustrated with amateurs more easily.

The bottom line is that when you change poker from a hobby to a profession, there is something fundamental that changes about the game for you.

It is no longer just idle entertainment or a fun hobby to pass the time like watching Netflix or playing video games is for example.

No, poker is now a job to you and you also have to win.

Now, hopefully you didn't rush into going pro and you actually are a proven winning poker player, but regardless, you will still never look at the game in the same way.

7. Making Good Friends in Poker is Difficult

Alright, I don't want to throw all poker players under the bus here, as I have met a lot of really good people, especially in my travels. And some of my very best friends are poker players.

But I would be lying if I tried to say that everybody in poker is a fine upstanding individual. In fact, I usually go out of my way to avoid making friends with most poker players!

Because the reality is that poker does tend to attract a lot of people who are looking for a get rich quick scheme, instead of viewing poker as a serious long term pursuit.

Also, as I just mentioned above, most poker players are on a permanent emotional rollercoaster depending on how their results have been lately, so they aren't the most mentally stable people either.

There is also a ton of money that gets liberally tossed around (lended) in poker and, well, it doesn't always end well let's just say.

People sometimes disappear with your money, and it seems like there is a new scam of the week at times, whether it is multi-accounting, super-using, collusion or some other form of cheating in poker.

Heck, sometimes the poker rooms themselves are even in on some form of cheating!

The bottom line is that if you are looking to surround yourself with a bunch of morally upstanding well adjusted happy people, you might want to find another game.

It is an unfortunate truth that poker simply does not typically attract the best sort of people.

8. Most Professional Poker Players Are Not Rich

Another common misconception is that most professional poker players are rich. This also couldn't be further from the truth.

Firstly, as I just mentioned, borrowing or pooling money is so prevalent these days, especially in high stakes poker games, that very few poker players actually have 100% of themselves (or even close to it for that matter).

For example, most of the time when you see that guy win the $5 million dollar tournament he will actually be lucky to keep $1 million himself after he pays off all his backers and the taxman (depending on the country/jurisdiction).



This is not even to mention paying off all the losses for all the tournaments that they didn't even cash in, along with travel expenses like hotel rooms and flights.

The bottom line is that most poker players are not nearly as rich as they make it out to be and most of them are highly leveraged in the games that they play in.

In fact, there are many well known professional poker players who are chronically broke and only appear to be "rich" on their Instagram profiles.

9. Most Professional Poker Players Actually Make a Pretty Average Salary

In fact, if you really want to know the truth, most poker players make a very average salary of say between $20k and $100k per year.

On the bottom end of this scale, you can barely survive these days in any first world Western country. This is why many online poker pros move to a much cheaper place like Thailand or Mexico for example.

But even on the higher end of this scale, $100k per year is not exactly amazing money anymore these days, again, assuming you live in a Western country like the UK, USA, Canada etc.

The other thing is that most professional poker players do not have much of a safety net. They don't have a college degree for example or any other real world skills.

Professional poker players also don't get a medical plan, a retirement plan or any of the other perks often associated with a more traditional career.

So it is quite a big risk to take to become a professional poker player when the potential ceiling on your earnings for most poker pros is not even very high these days.

It is really only a handful of nosebleed stakes poker pros that actually can afford to live the wealthy lifestyle with the exotic cars, world travel, buy that NYC penthouse apartment and so on.

The large majority of poker pros are actually stuck grinding out minimum wage at NL25 online or $1/$2 live. I did it for years myself, as I talk about in my latest book, The Micro Stakes Playbook.

And believe me, while it does give you a bit more "freedom" than a traditional office job for example, it is far from glamorous and feels like a never-ending grind just the same.

10. Your Freedom is Limited

This next point is perhaps one of the biggest ridiculous myths about being a professional poker player, especially if you play online.

Sure, in theory, you can travel the world, play whenever you want and where ever you want, sip pina coladas on the beach all day and so on.

After all, I do post this sort of lifestyle on my Instagram a lot these days.



But what most people don't see is the 10+ year buildup to get to this level, and all the blood, sweat and tears involved.

The millions and millions of hands played. The endless hours studying, improving and working on my game. The 15+ hours a day, 7 days a week grind for years and years with next to zero social life.

They also don't see the incredible amount of work that went into creating the teaching business I built (thousands of blog posts, three published poker strategy books, hundreds of videos etc).

Because I knew that putting all my eggs in one basket like most poker pros do (only relying on poker winnings), is a pretty bad idea.

I have discussed all this before by the way in my big "10 years as a poker pro" post.

The bottom line is that most people are simply just not willing to put in this level of commitment in my experience. But this is the price to be paid if you want real long term success in this game.

Secondly, you can't just play poker from anywhere in the world anymore.

With online poker for example, you are limited in what sites you can play on in many jurisdictions like America or Australia.

And if you play live, while there are casinos all over the world, realistically if you want to be a live professional poker player, you need to be in a few select places like Las Vegas or Macau.

This is because this is where you will be able to find the most consistent action and games running at any time of the day.

But you still won't be completely "free" as a poker pro because there will always be better times to be playing than others. You need to be playing in the best games (most fish), in order to maximize your winnings.

For example, I live in SE Asia most of the year (Thailand, Bali, Philippines etc), and so I can't just online poker play any time I want.

And this is because most of the fish are from North America and Europe (i.e. not my timezone!), and so I often need to play either very early in the morning or very late at night.

Even if you play live poker for a living in Las Vegas, there are always going to be better times to play than others.

Such as a Saturday night for example, when all your friends want to go out and have a big night on the town.

As a professional poker player though, you need to be at the poker tables grinding out those tourist dollars instead.

11. Poker is Not Easy Anymore

This last point is arguably the most important of all especially for all you younger aspiring professional poker players out there who are reading this.

Poker is a lot harder today than it was when I was first coming up in this game over 10 years ago.

No longer can you just hop on a couple low stakes games online for example and expect to be surrounded by a bunch of huge clueless fish waiting to give you all their money.

Quite the contrary actually.

Even in very low stakes games these days (both online and live), you can expect to encounter many serious poker players, some of whom are even full time pros.

Many of them will be using a poker HUD to get stats on you and fix their leaks away from the tables. This is something I have been recommending for years, especially if you are a serious online poker player.

Some of them may also study to improve their game away from the tables and even learn some advanced poker strategy just like you do.

So it is by no means a walk in the park anymore to crush these games. It is a lot of work to stay ahead of these players and average winrates have generally decreased as a result of this as well.

Rakeback programs have also declined in recent years if you play online. And the player pool has been split due to government regulation, making it harder to always find good games.

Bottom line: Is poker still profitable? Sure, for those willing to work really hard and put in a lot of work improving their game away from the tables as well.

But the "golden era" easy money days are long gone. You gotta really want it much more than the next guy these days.

By the way, I discuss this in much more detail in my new Elite Poker University training. 

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Should You Become a Professional Poker Player?

So should you become a professional poker player? Is there any bright side here?

Honestly, I would say for 99% of the people reading this right now, the answer I would recommend is no, keep you day job or stay in school.

Heck, if you really want to be smart, start an online business, learn about digital marketing, learn Amazon FBA, learn content marketing, start streaming on Twitch, start a YouTube channel etc. (by the way, here is my poker YouTube channel).

Because honestly, there are many much easier ways to make a good to great income these days online (if this is your goal), besides online poker.

But hey believe me, I get it. Many poker players have a big dream of making it as a poker pro one day. It's totally natural, especially once you start winning to at least harbour the thought.

However, many poker players also tend to over-estimate their abilities substantially. This is especially the case if they run hot for a few weeks or a few months.

Many of them also severely under-estimate just how big of a mental toll this game will take on you when you choose to play it for a living day in and day out.

The cold hard reality is that most people don't even win at this game in the first place. And if if they do manage to turn a profit, almost nobody survives as a poker pro over the long run.

Now with all of that said, I was that stubborn young kid once and there was nobody on this earth who was going to tell me that I couldn't make it as a poker pro.

I will move mountains, I don't care what they say.



My own family told me I was crazy and that I was throwing my life away. I just used it as fuel for my fire.

And if this sounds like you who is reading this right now, then don't listen to me.

Follow your dreams instead.

Because the reality is that some people do make it in this game. Some people do manage to win big over the long run and make it as a professional poker player.

I hope this article has given you a bit of perspective about just how hard that is. I nearly quit/lost my mind countless times.

That would be a story for a whole different article that I may write one day.

But through all the insane ups and downs, the torment, the self-doubt, the haters, the brutal downswings, I came out the other side on top.

And this game did in fact change my life.

I have been traveling the world non-stop for almost 10 years now. I also haven't had an alarm clock or a boss in over a decade now.

And I live my life the way I want to live it, every single day.

Because a long time ago I had a crazy dream and goal to become a poker pro. And there was nobody on this earth that was going to tell me that I couldn't do it.

Final Thoughts

The truth about what it is like to become a professional poker player is often far removed from the fantasyland of million dollar final tables and a life of fame and total freedom that many people think it is.

The reality is that most people do not even win at poker in the long term, and most professional poker players do not last either, for a variety of reasons.

One of the biggest of those reasons is that playing poker professionally is a constant emotional rollercoaster and the lengthy downswings may even have you questioning your sanity at times.

Furthermore, poker does feel much more like a job when you choose to go pro, it is difficult to make quality friends in this game, and the financial ceiling isn't nearly as high as most people think.

Lastly, the games are quite a bit tougher to beat these days, and you need to put in a lot of long hard hours both at the tables, and away from them, in order to continually stay on top.

This means a continued commitment to learning and studying the latest cutting edge advanced poker strategies.

Now with all that said, I don't want this entire article to be all doom and gloom though. Becoming a professional poker player does in fact work out well for a small amount of people.

It changed my entire life for example and gave me the ability to work for myself (be my own boss) and travel the world as well, two things I cherish deeply.

But it has been anything but "easy" and it is difficult to put into words the emotional toll it took at times and the amount of work that went into it.

The reality is that most people should just keep their day job and play poker as a profitable side hobby in my opinion.

By the way, if you are looking to make a decent side income from poker, I recommend grabbing a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

It will teach you all the strategies that I personally used to crush the small stakes games online as a professional poker player for some of the highest winnings ever recorded.

You can pick up your copy of my free poker "cheat sheet" right here.

Should You Quit Your Job and Play Poker? (Read This First)

Many people dream about quitting their job to play poker for a living. I know this because I get the emails all the time from people who tell me that this is their goal.

But as somebody who actually did quit my job to play poker professionally over 10 years ago, I think it is necessary that I let you know what it is really like.

Most people should not quit their job to play poker. Poker is a very tough game and most people will not win in the end. However, for a small percentage of people, being a poker pro can be a very good decision allowing them to live a very good life.

Rose Colored Glasses

I think many people have this rosy vision of professional poker being their ticket to total freedom and the easy life printing money from their laptop on an exotic beach somewhere.

However, in most cases this isn't very close to reality.

Poker is actually one of the most mentally and emotionally demanding jobs that you can possibly do. And believe me when I say that it is a real grind.

Here I am with another poker pro talking about just what it is like:

So even though being a poker pro is a very hard thing to do, I know from meeting countless other online professional poker players here in Thailand and around the world that the "dream" is still possible, even in today's games, for a select few who really want it.

So before you go ahead and quit your job to play poker let me tell you what it is really like first as somebody who has actually done it.

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.

Playing Poker for a Living is Really Hard

Let's just go ahead and get the first and most important point out of the way here. And that is, making it as a professional poker player, especially over the long haul, is really, really hard.

If poker truly was the ticket to the easy life, then believe me, everybody would be doing it!

It doesn't matter if you play poker online or in the casinos, there just isn't as much easy money out there anymore.

I am talking about the totally clueless fish, who barely know the rules of the game, just throwing away their money like you would regularly see online and in live poker games 10 years ago.

Now don't get me wrong, there are still tons of bad poker players out there today who talk a big game and think they are really good, but in reality they aren't.



But that totally ridiculous "dead money" from the drunk tourists or the online fish playing 80% of their hands is harder to find. The skill level of the average regular player has also increased.

So what this ultimately means is that what is considered a good poker hourly rate in today's games isn't nearly what it used to be in most cases.

And what many people do not realize is that when you have a lower win rate like this (measured as bb/100 online), then your variance will be much higher as well.


Translation in Plain English:

• More wild swings
• More losing days

Not fun.

In fact this is the biggest problem with quitting your job to play poker in my opinion. Handling the ups and downs of poker is much easier to do when you are an amateur.

When you are a professional poker player every bad beat feels like a kick in the guts because this is what you do for a living. It is some idiot taking food off your table with his terrible play.

And since professional poker players also tend to be some of the most competitive people I have ever met, this is even harder for them to handle.

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.

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My Free Poker Cheat Sheet Teaches You How to Make $1000 Per Month Playing Poker Part Time

Are you struggling to beat low stakes poker games like 2NL, 5NL, 10NL, 25NL online or $1/$2, $2/$5 live?

Do you want a simple step by step guide to show you exactly how to start winning consistently right now?

That is why I recently wrote this free little 50 page no BS guide to teach you exactly how to start crushing these games right now.

You will learn the exact poker strategies I have used as a 10+ year poker pro to consistently make $1000+ per month in small stakes poker games.

Enter your details below and I will send my free poker cheat sheet to your email right now.

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Being a Full Time Poker Player is a Lonely Job

Another issue that a lot of people do not consider when thinking about quitting their job to play poker is the lack of a real social environment.

This is especially the case if you are a full time online poker player. You will often be sitting in a room all by yourself for long hours on end.

For me personally this has never been a big issue. I am a very independent person. But I know that not everyone is wired like me.



Many people need that "water cooler chat" that the office provides. Or just the general banter and gossip among co-workers typically found in the workplace.

As a full time professional poker player you won't really get any of this this. Even if you play live poker or move into a "poker house" with other online poker players, it is still not quite the same.

Because poker really isn't a team game. And in many cases, like in a live poker game, you are actually in direct competition with the people you are seated with.

So for me personally, playing online poker for a living often means hours and hours spent alone with nothing but some music or a podcast to listen to.

Again, this is fine for me, but it might not be fine for you.

If you are serious about quitting your job to become a full time poker player, then you need to understand that it is a solitary and often very lonely pursuit.

If you want to know more about the life of a professional poker player by the way, my latest poker book, The Micro Stakes Playbook, was written specifically for aspiring pros.

Should You Quit Your Job to Play Poker?

So now that I have laid out some of the facts of quitting your job to play poker:

• More difficult poker games today, less easy money
• Lower poker hourly rate than in previous years
• Constant ups and downs (very emotionally challenging at times)
• Lack of social environment, can be lonely 

You need to ask yourself if you personally should quit your job to play poker or not. Because this really isn't a question that I or anyone else can answer for you.

And believe me, it will feel like a giant leap into the great unknown should you ever choose to pull the trigger on it.

Because there is no way to actually know what it is really like to be a professional poker player until you actually do it.

However, let's get back to that in a moment and first talk about who absolutely should NOT quit their job to play poker for a living.

Do Not Quit School to Play Poker

First of all, if you are currently in university or college please finish your degree first! I was kind of lucky in this regard.

The year that I graduated from university (History/Philosophy - 2003) was the exact same year that Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker and the poker boom really started.

So it was absolutely perfect timing for me. Clearly I was running good before I ever even played my first hand of poker!

However, I know that many other people in the following years chose to quit school to pursue a professional poker career, especially during those early poker boom years when the money was literally falling out of the sky.



I am sure that it probably worked out well for a few of them. That was a crazy time (2003 - 2008) when many young millionaires were made playing online poker.

In fact the current cryptocurrency boom (although now arguably in decline) seems very similar to me. A lot of young people got really wealthy very fast once again.

But I still think that quitting school to play poker (or go full time crypto) was and probably is a mistake for most people.


Here's Why:

Look, we all think we are pretty good at this game and have the skills to make it. Poker is a lot like driving though. Nobody will ever actually admit that they are just average or bad at it.

But the reality is that most people do not win at poker in the end. And even fewer have the ability to make significant life changing money in this game.

These are just the cold hard facts, please don't shoot the messenger!

But the thing about a university or college degree is that you always have it and you can fall back on it if playing poker for a living doesn't work out for you.

Career or Family Man Should Keep His Day Job

Next on the list of people who probably shouldn't quit their job to play poker is the guy (or girl) with a solid career already (100k+ a year). Or the family man who is married with 2.5 kids, the white picket fence and all that.

If you went the higher education route and have a solid career as an engineer, doctor, lawyer or so on, then you should definitely not quit your job to play poker.

Just play poker as a profitable side income.

The same thing applies if you skipped college to be an entrepreneur and you have a successful business. Keep doing that!



The chances of you equaling a good salary like 100k+ a year by playing poker is extremely unlikely.

In fact, most guys who I know that play online poker professionally are not even making 6 figures a year. Many of them make around 50k a year.

Now I know that many people read this blog from all over the world and perhaps 50k USD a year might be considered a small fortune where you are from.

But in most Western countries this is just not a great salary these days.

In fact where I am from, Vancouver, Canada, 50k a year is borderline poverty. This is especially the case if you plan on buying a house or having a family.

The bottom line is that in poker these days there aren't nearly as many people making real money anymore, like 6 figures or 7 figures, unless your name is say Daniel Negreanu.

So if you are already in a high paying job (and/or have a family to support), then you should definitely keep your day job and don't even think about playing poker for a living.

Who Should Quit Their Job to Become a Professional Poker Player?

Ok, so far I have painted a pretty gloomy picture of being a professional poker player in today's environment. But is there anyone who actually should quit their job to play poker for a living?

Well, I wouldn't suggest it to many people but I still remember when I was first coming up in this game and all the dreams I had about quitting my job to play poker full time.

I will tell you flat out that there was no way on earth anyone was going to tell me that I couldn't do it. In fact when they doubted me, they just fueled my fire even more.

So here is a quick checklist for anyone who is possibly considering quitting their job to play poker:

• Deep passion for the game
• Young and unattached (20's or 30's)
• Adventure seeker
• Independent minded
• Can handle risk
• Emotionally stable
• Considerable history of proven winning (at least 1 year)
• 6 months to 1 year savings in the bank (not the same as poker bankroll)

The first thing that you need is a deep passion for poker. You gotta truly love this game even when it is kicking your teeth in for weeks or months on end.

Poker is just a hobby for most people. For the people who eventually do go pro though, it is better characterized as an obsession.

My first several years in this game literally all I did was eat, sleep and think about poker. There was nothing else. At all.

Next I would only consider quitting your job to play poker if you are young and unattached, (20's or 30's). And you are also an independent minded adventure seeker as well.

I am not saying that older folks can't make it happen but multi-tabling online in particular is kind of a young man's game. Also, most people who are 40+ are typically in a high paying career already.

You should also have a lengthy winning history in poker before ever deciding to turn pro. Now it is kind of crazy that I even need to say that, but you haven't seen some of the emails I get!

Being a professional poker player requires you to be a proven winning poker player.

I would suggest having at least one year of consistent success at the poker tables before you ever even think about going pro.

You should also have at least 6 months life savings in the bank.

And please note that this is completely separate from your poker bankroll. Your life savings (in your bank account/investments) and your poker bankroll are two totally different things.

Never Try, Never Know

Alright, I have said enough bad things about being a professional poker player at this point.

While it is absolutely true that the vast majority of people should never even think about quitting their job to play poker, the truth is that it does work for a few people.

At the risk of getting all "YOLO" on you, I will just say it. You only live once.

When I quit my job to become a full time online poker pro 11 years ago it felt like I was jumping off a cliff at the time. And this was despite that fact that I had all my ducks lined up in a row.

I hit the checkbox for everything that I just stated above: young, unattached, proven winning history, 6+ months savings, independent, emotionally stable etc.

But honestly I still had no clue if this poker thing was really going to work or not. It could just as easily have wound up being a really stupid decision.

But I thought I was young enough at the time to easily recover if it didn't work out with a college degree still in my back pocket.

And I felt like I would rather deal with a 6 month failed shot at being a poker pro than a life-time of regret over what might have been.

My workstation near the beach in Da Nang, Vietnam earlier this year

I gotta be honest though, I am still yet to get super rich playing this game. But poker has allowed me the freedom to live life on my own terms as well as travel the world and live in paradise year round.

Poker also allowed me to create a large side business teaching the game which continues to grow (3 books, video course, blogging, freelance writing, coaching, youtube and so on).

So for me, (and this is just for me personally), yes I can say it was worth taking the shot. And if given the chance I would absolutely do it all over again.

Final Thoughts

So what is the final verdict here? Should you quit your job and play poker for a living?

Well, I would say that in the vast majority of cases it is probably a bad idea. If you are still in school, have a high paying career or you are a family man, I would not suggest it.

There are very few people who are truly capable of surviving as a full time professional poker player over the long run. Because it doesn't matter how good you are, this game will chew you up, spit you out and bury you again and again.

And nobody is going to want to hear your bad beat stories, believe me. You need to be able to keep your sanity even when it feels like you are never going to win another hand again.

However, there will always be a small group of people out there who are made for this crazy game. And there are some obvious benefits that go along with it. The ability to be your own boss and choose when and where you work to name a few.

Lastly, if you want to learn how to start consistently making $1000 per month in low stakes poker games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.


Let me know your thoughts in the comments below on quitting your job to play poker full time. Would you ever consider it?