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Professional Poker - So you want to play for a living

Playing poker professionally takes more than skill

So you've been playing poker for a few months now and are making good money in your part time hobby. You've seen the poker professionals on TV and are considering quitting your job to play for a living. Or, at the very least, you're curious as to what it takes to play poker for a living. Below I'll discuss everything a pro poker player must take into consideration before "jumping into the shark tank".

So who determines a professional poker player? The answer is: anybody and nobody. There's no application form that you fill out showing your win/loss record and hours logged in. You don't need to prove that you're winning 2 big blinds an hour in your $15-30 game or write an essay discussing Small pairs in a short handed game . A poker professional is simply a term that individuals use for themselves or that others place upon them noting that they are an expert poker player. There are many players with serious delusions about their skill level and who lose money long term. Yet many of these same players consider themselves professionals.

If you're seriously considering being a poker professional there are several other factors, besides a tremendous amount of skill, to analyze before you quit your job and start eating free lunch off of food comps at your local casino. They are as follow:

• How much money do I want to make?
• Am I just playing lucky?
• Do I have a serious bankroll?
• Do I have good money management skills?
• Do I have self discipline?
• What's my Tilt Factor?

1.) How much money do pro poker players make?

There are a large multitude of players making or trying to make a living playing poker and a few make millions of dollars each year. However, the vast majority barely scrape by. As with most things in the physical universe we occupy it takes money to make money. If your starting bankroll (see point 3 below) isn't big enough to play limits where you can make money, pay bills, and simultaneously build your bankroll then you won't ever be able to make a lot of money.

Why do I say this? Well, let us assume that your starting bankroll is $4,000 and you're going to play $10-20 professional poker. By the way at this limit if you can make $50k a year you are a damn good player. Now assume that you've got bills in the form of $48k a year allowing you to increase your savings by $2k a year. At this rate it will take a few years to have a big enough bankroll to play in a higher limit game. If you don't have the bankroll to safely play in a higher limit game then you either have to be happy making $50k a year for the rest of your life or take a big risk and try to play in a bigger game. What happens if you play a little unlucky in that game which is a little too big for you to handle? You'll either have to get a job or go down to a smaller limit and try to survive.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. If you can take your $50k a year poker income and spend only $30k to survive by cutting out extra expenses then you can safely build your bankroll to $8,000 where now you can play $20-40. It's similar to the corporate world. Instead of the corporate ladder you're climbing up the poker limit ladder. As you get higher and higher you should be making more and more money playing poker professionally. However, you must be aware of the fact that as you climb this ladder the competition will become tougher and it may be more and more difficult to increase your yearly income. From my personal experience and discussions with others the Texas Holdem game gets tough to a certain level and then at the highest levels it reaches a point where there are a few professional poker players and a few wealthy players. If you have the money to play in the super high stakes poker games then you really don't have to win that many hands to make a handsome living. For example, if you are playing in a $200-400 limit holdem game and can win 5 big blinds in a day you're making a nice income. ($200 x 5 - $1,000). That's basically winning one more hand than you lose in a day. If you play 5 days a week you're making $5k a week, $20k a month, or $240k a year. As you can see, poker is just like real life. It takes money to make money.

2.) Are you a good player or just getting lucky?

This is the first and most obvious requirement that you must satisfy before playing poker for a living. If you're doing well in the game is it just because you're playing a little lucky? Anyone can win for a short amount of time with a little luck. It's always nice to be lucky in the game but in order to survive in poker long term you must be extremely analytical and mathematical. You must have a thorough understanding of Poker Probabilities and Poker Odds. You must have faith in the long term statistics of the game and stick to them. For example, you can not draw to a flush if the pot odds are too small just because you want to gamble. If gambling is what you want to do, you'd better keep Texas Holdem as a recreational hobby.

3.) A pro poker player needs a serious bankroll

Let's assume that you have enough skill to play for a living and consider it a job rather than gambling (which is how it must be treated). You will also need a serious bankroll. In poker you are playing a game of percentages. Quite often you will have an 80% chance of winning the hand but will lose the other 20% of the time. In rare occassions you will find that you will always have the best of it but your bad luck allows your opponent to win. If you don't have enough money to sustain bad luck then you will quickly find yourself looking for a job instead of fulfilling your dream. How often have you gone to work for a week where you ended on Friday with less money than when you began? This will happen to you if you decide to play poker as a profession.

How big of a bankroll do you need? Well that depends on how big of a game that you intend to play in. The general consensus amongst those in professional poker is 200 times the big bet. So if you're going to play $10-20, you'll need 200 x $20 or $4,000. That should give you enough room to sustain a few bad beats.

4.) Professional poker demands good money management

Not only do you need money and skill but you must know how to manage your money. This means that on those occassions when you are playing lucky and winning a lot of money that you don't go out and blow it on a rolex, alcohol, women (or men depending on who you are), and fancy clothes. When you make a big hit you need to simply add it to your bankroll as if it were another day. You'll need that money if you run bad.

5.) Poker Pros have self discipline

Poker pros have excellent self discipline. Once you quit your job and begin playing fulltime you are your own boss. To the professional poker player this can be a good and a bad thing. If you don't go to work no one will say anything. You can take a day off in the middle of the week to get your haircut and run errands. However, most people can not function properly without a boss. They are not self starters and need someone there to motivate them. If you plan on playing poker full time you must have the discipline to play everyday. You must avoid the free alcohol if you're playing in casinos or surfing the web if you're playing online. The game must be taken as serious as any job you've ever had or instead of surfing the web for poker tips you'll be surfing monster.com for a new job.

6.) How often do poker professionals go on tilt?

Tilt is when you play a hand in a way that you normally wouldn't due to emotions or some other distraction. Poker professionals rarely go on tilt. In fact the best never go on tilt. You can not get emotional or caught up in the heat of the moment. I know a large number of extremely capable players who go on tilt after taking a bad beat. I actually think it's worth the investment to try and give them a bad beat so that they'll go on tilt and play badly. You can be an excellent player but if you go on tilt then you better keep the game as a hobby. Take out the emotion.

Still want to play professional poker?

So you still want to play poker as a profession? Well that's great. Just be sure you've got a long time of record keeping and positive results before you make your move. Don't forget, there's no 401k in the online casino. In reality most people are simply not talented enough to play for a living but some never have the guts to try. In this world the people who achieve their dreams are the ones who take a shot at them. Most simply let their dreams slip away with their youth. Good luck to you.

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