Online poker demographics

[bigjay]

29 year old (30 in Feb) married father of 8 month old twins (boy and girl). I'm a nurse, graduated from McMaster University in 97, working fulltime plus usually a shift or two of overtime. Also was a nationally ranked judo player for fifteen years or so back in the day, now practice a bit just to keep fit.

1) I started with $60. Put it in at Golden Tiger (Prima) but then discovered their freerolls, back when they were running NL tourneys from 1-5 in the morning, paid 20-15-10. This helped bolster my tiny BR through my growing pains, I really had no idea of how to play hold'em back then (September). Much better now.

2) As with others, my BR is all profit. Have paid back much more than my initial entry. I would never let my poker playing affect my real income or life negatively... I value my life too much (wife would kill me). My bankroll steadily increases so this doesn't look like it'll be an issue. My goal initially was to use poker to finance my kids education fund (3 grand a year) but I've already passed this. Now looking at an extra vacation or possibly a boob job for the wife (her idea, not mine). On a side note, she thinks I play for play money so is she ever gonna be surprised...

3) I usually log 1-2 hours a day. Depends on my day, how the kids are, what other stuff I have going on.

4) Depends on what I'm working. Since I do shift, I'm often up later if I'm coming off nights. I usually play in late evening when the kids are in bed.

[IMRichB]

Male, 38, married with 1.9 kids (2nd one due in 4 weeks [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]).
Software product manager with an MBA from U of Michigan.
Just got interested in poker a little less than a year ago.

1) I started by depositing $20 at Paradise. I played and won 3 $10+1 SNGs in a row and haven't deposited anything since. Of course I've since realized that I had no idea what I was doing and then started reading and learning. I eventually switched over to Party and have built my original $20 into $700.

2) Very small % of income (see #1)

3) I play probably 5-10 hours a week, mostly at $1/2 working my way towards $2/4 when my bankroll gets to $800.

4) I almost always play at night, usually 9:00 EST and later.

Interesting to learn about others here, good post.

Rich B.

[bicyclekick]

20 y/o college student studyign computer science at University of Minnesota: Morris.

Just broke up with the gf of 2 years...so single for now.

Started with $50 on party and played 3 table .50/1 til i got to 300. Then have played 3 table 2/4 and am up to about $1600.

All that 2/4 is since like dec. 20th too...god bless winter break...

[James282]

22 White Male in a "serious relationship" - Started playing online poker my freshman year in college with no poker experience at all. I deposited 50 bucks three times and lost it all every time playing .5/1 on Paradise. My friend emailed me the starting hands selection from WLLHE and I turned 50 bucks into 150, and then lost that all again. Bought WLLHE, turned 50 into 400, played 2/4 and lost it all again. Took a summer off, came back and promised myself to follow 300 BB guidelines and bought HPFAP, played .5/1 up to 3/6 on Paradise and built a bankroll of about 2k.. I lost most of that playing the 400 dollar PLO game on Paradise, cashed out 500 and left 100 in Paradise, and bought TOP and TPFAP. I then actually followed BB guidelines and dumped 500 into Party for the bonus. Over the last year and a half or so I moved into 5/10 and 10/20 shorthanded and full games. My best version of poker by far is the 50 and 100 dollar SNGs on Party, but I get too bored with them. I try to cash out about 3-4k a month for car payments, rent, back loans, and other personal expenses, and I keep about 10-12k handy for my poker bankroll as much as I can. I still have trouble dabbling in games way above my bankroll, but I am a lot better now than I used to be so it isn't as painful [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I try and play about 20-30 hours a week.
-James

[John Deere]

21 years old. Graduated last week with a B.S. in computer science from the University of Maryland. Now living in DC and starting work next week for a B2B software development firm in Tyson's Corner, VA.

Started playing a year ago and reading and studying pretty passively, making infrequent trips to AC. Really got educated and thinking more seriously following a trip to Vegas two weeks ago. Started playing $0.50/$1 on Party about 5 days ago with $50, and am currently at about $130. When I start work, I expect to play one or two hours every night.

[noddyholder]

37 years old married with 3 kids. Have been playing online for 3 months. College education.

[luckycharms]

Just turned 18 one month ago, been playing ring games for about half a year now. Deposited $50 into Party about 3 months ago, played .5/1 and worked it up to $150, lost it all on a huge tilt session.
Currently play home ring games, with initial deposit of $20 which is now $520 (over the last 75 days) Play about an hour of poker a day. Just finished Caro's Tells and TOP. Goal for the year: establish a good bankroll online and enter a WPT satelite (sounds ridiculous, but would be a lot of fun)

[Shaun]

25 years old. Been playing poker since I was 19. Online since I was 21. Poker got me through college. I have a virtually useless Humanities degree and planned on going to graduate school until recently, when I decided that getting thousands of dollars into debt to make little money in the world of academia was a bad idea. I may still go to grad school at some point, but probably not for at least a year.

I have been playing for a living since August.

Anyway I love poker, and no matter what I am going to do in the future, poker will always be a source of enjoyment (and cash hopefully) for me.