$$$ Per Hour Poll Results—Analysis

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As of this writing my recent informal, and obviously unscientific poll entitled, “How Much Money do You Make per Hour Playing Online Poker!” has produced some interesting results.

1228 views 532 votes 44%

I make $200 an hour or more—40 votes 7.5%

I Make Between $100 and $200 an hour—39 votes 7.5%

I Make Between $50 and $100 an hour—65 votes 12%

I Make Between $25 and $50 an hour—118 votes 22%

I make less than $25 an hour—238 votes 44.7%

I Am One of the Five Percent Who Lose—32 votes 6%

Comments—Opinions:

Over half who bothered to open the thread did not vote—I wonder why?

79 voters make over $100 an hour playing online poker—14.8%. This seems a little high to me. (Actually it seems a lot high, but I don’t want to get to picky—But if I’m wrong and it is accurate, or close to being accurate, then I would really like to meet some of these people.)

Almost 48% of the voters said they make $25 an hour or less. This rings true, and seems like the most accurate of all the votes. (All statements are my opinions only.)

And finally, 6% of the voters said they lose. This seems way too low, but it falls remarkably close to my 5% prediction.

David Sklansky once made an interesting observation, and I’m paraphrasing:

He postulated: how much money has to be lost in one month (B&M) for a winning 10-20 player to earn $20 an hour, playing a 160-hour month.

Assume a $3 max rake. Further assume a $2 average rake. Also assume 40 hands per hour. (I know many of you think that 40 hands per hour is much too high for a B&M game, but I can assure you it is not.) 40x160x$2=$12,800 raked off the table in one month over a 160 hour period. Next: our mythical hero will make 160x$20 for $3200. $3200+$12,800=$16,000 that must be lost in one month of playing for ONE winning player to earn ONE big bet per hour. If the average rake is $3, then the number comes to $22,400. (You’ll run into these higher rakes at many B&M casinos, and notice I didn’t factor in the money leaving the table in the form of dealer and other tokes.)

Now just for fun, lets assume that in a nine-player game (most B&M games are nine-handed by the way) that on average, eight of these players are winners and only one is a loser. That’s 88% winners and 12% losers, more than twice as many losers than in my unscientific poll. In order for all eight of these players to earn their mythical $20 an hour, with a $2 average rake, $128,000 has to be lost in one month by our losing players! Does that seem possible—even online!?

Conclusion: my unofficial and clearly unscientific poll is obviously, very seriously flawed. Way too many players win big, and far too few players lose at all. But let’s take a look at the argument that those who read and post at two plus two are an amalgam of winning players. After all winning players have to congregate somewhere, right? OK, in that case let’s assume my poll numbers are correct. If that’s true, then are the online players really losing enough money to make my poll results a fact? In other words, an enormous sum of money must be lost in order for there to be so many winning players (not just on two plus two, but everywhere), so even though this forum might have a large sample of players who make inordinate sums of money, do they really make as much as they say they do, and are there really as few losers as my poll numbers might suggest?

Once again thanks to all who participated.