$$$ Per Hour Poll Results—Analysis

[grimel]

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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

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This is what I responded too in the original post.

For online play the ability to get rakeback and bonus money makes it MUCH easier to hit $20/hr and do so at MUCH lower limits which SHOULD greatly reduce risk for a good player. Just clearing bonus alone at 1/2 is roughly $15 plus $2 rakeback makes getting $20/hr relatively easy even at 1/2 - just play 200 hands an hour of 1BB/100 poker. Shift to 2/4 and one need only play 0.5BB/100 to make over $20/hr.

That's one reason as it relates to your poll, I can't see how anyone playing .50/1 or better using 2+2 principles/methods isn't making SOME profit per hour. Thus I can't really see how ANYONE on THIS site is losing money IF they are getting rakeback and clearing bonuses. At the 1/2 level there is ALWAYS a bonus available somewhere to clear. Even if the rakeback at 1/2 isn't available for/while clearing bonus money, playing break even poker 3 tabling is at least $12/hr on all the major sites (even UB). At some of the sites it's close to $27 (per BW because it has "all" the major sites rated). Do note these rates are for full ring games. Even just playing ONE table at 1/2 someone would have to be playing -2.4BB/100 to just break even clearing bonus at the worst major site.

Yes, someone is losing a bunch of $$ playing each month, but I'd expect "everyone" at 2+2 to be making some small hourly profit even playing LOSING poker.