OT: My mom wants me to be a poker pro

[beeyjay]

hahaha... i pray you're not banking on this. i admit the only thing i know about you is this post that i just read so maybe i'm way off but you are the exact type of person that should NOT bank on making a living playing poker... at least not yet anyway.

[tshort]

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$50 an hour playing 2/4? Are you serious? A great player would have to run hot for the whole year to average $10 an hour. $100k a year playing 2/4, yeah!

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Well OK if that's too high for you, then howbout 3/6? The level of skill doesn't change that much at casinos moving to that level. I've had many of 2/4 sessions where I did 100/hr. I think it is reasonable that you could do $50 an hour playing 3/6 if you played correctly over the longrun. My experience is that tables at casinos are rediculously loose at that level, so you just adjust accordingly.

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$15/hr would be great at 3/6.

You think you can make $50 hr playing 3/6 at a B&M? You're nuts.

Poker is great for pocket change but I think it would be kinda depressing still only grinding out $100k a year when you are in your 30s and 40s.

[Unarmed]

Go live in Reno and amuse yourself by watching my loc change over the next year.

[Bluff Daddy]

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Poker is great for pocket change but I think it would be kinda depressing still only grinding out $100k a year when you are in your 30s and 40s.

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I think its kind of depressing working a shitty ass job your whole life never making close to 100k a year which is what most of the people on this planet do

[raptor517]

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Poker is great for pocket change but I think it would be kinda depressing still only grinding out $100k a year when you are in your 30s and 40s.

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I think its kind of depressing working a shitty ass job your whole life never making close to 100k a year which is what most of the people on this planet do

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its what most people on the planet dream to do. 100k a year is NOT chump change. check the average salary of american families. holla

[Mr_J]

"Second, even if you made $100,000 a year: it's true there are very few jobs out of college that pay that much for 40 hours a week."

Ok I'm 22. I'm getting my 12tabling setup tomorrow. This will give me an hourly rate of something between $130-$160, give or take $20. On top of that, I live in australia so that is tax-free baby. So in aus that's equiv to an income of $250 an hour before tax. Working 3hrs a day for 40 weeks a year, this is a $210k job. Bump that up to 4hrs and I'm making the equiv of $300k before tax. Throw out poker, acting, singing, modeling and whoring and tell me how many jobs would pay a 22yo like that??

"And those jobs, when you get to your late 20s and early 30s, will pay you significantly more than you could ever make playing poker"

You're forgetting the investments a young poker player can afford to make.

"But don't compare how much you're making right now with how much you could make right out of college."

I see poker as more of a way to get a solid financial base. I'm sure alot of other young poker players feel the same way.

"are a slew of finance jobs that pay that much or more for 60-100 hours a week."

Who the F*CK wants to work hours like that? Anyway the proper comparison would be to give the 2 jobs similar hours. A 12tabling $55er will make >10k a week working 60-80hrs.

"whereas the "salary" from poker levels off pretty quickly."

Poker is shorterm for me, a way to build capital quickly. By the time these guys with finance jobs are making 'big money', I will have retired.

Edited to say ok it's not for everyone, but poker is a great opportunity for a wide range of people to get a headstart.

[TheNoodleMan]

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$50 an hour playing 2/4? Are you serious? A great player would have to run hot for the whole year to average $10 an hour. $100k a year playing 2/4, yeah!

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Well OK if that's too high for you, then howbout 3/6? The level of skill doesn't change that much at casinos moving to that level. I've had many of 2/4 sessions where I did 100/hr. I think it is reasonable that you could do $50 an hour playing 3/6 if you played correctly over the longrun. My experience is that tables at casinos are rediculously loose at that level, so you just adjust accordingly.


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You are in for a very rude awakening. You think you can win 8BB per hour playing limit poker at a full table live? That is either the funniest or saddest thing I have ever heard. At 40 hands an hour (which is pretty generous) that would be 20BB/100hands! That is so unbelievably unsustainable that I don't even know why I'm responding to you in the first place. There is not a player in the world that can sustain that.

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I work at a proprietary trading firm. My roommate (another MIT grad) works at Bank of America for Mortgage-Backed Securities. And trading is different from brokering.

There are other jobs out there besides sales, ya know.

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Sweet. I used to work at GS in Capital Markets and after going through a whole "owning my own business" thing I'm moving back into banking, with a long term view of moving to NY (currently in London), for at least a couple of years at least - I'm a fair bit older than you mind; gonna turn 29 in a while. Dunno if I want to move into something like Derivs or start back in Capital Markets with a potential view to moving later.

Prop trading is great. I have a couple of friends who do just that (high yield, derivs, etc). Congratulations on an awesome job.

Which segways (just about) back into the point of the reply to the original poster - STAY IN SCHOOL or all you'll be good for is playing poker and looking at a massive struggle to get a decent job elsewhere should you ever wish to.

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Poker is shorterm for me, a way to build capital quickly. By the time these guys with finance jobs are making 'big money', I will have retired.


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I like your point of view, but bear in mind they'll have the potential to be earning every year what you've earnt in 10 years. Not saying it's a good way to look at things, but playing poker profitably is never going to earn you as much as being an investment banker. The best poker players in the world might make millions every year, including side games, sponsorship, etc... there are thousands of bankers out there earning similar amounts, and plenty of them certainly aren't the best at their job and those in trading don't push more than 60-65 hours a week a lot of the time (god, to think I find that a pretty easy week...).

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100k a year is NOT chump change. check the average salary of american families

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What does average have to do with anything? If you are true winning poker player YOU ARE smarter than the average person, and should not expect merely average. If you want average, look at the 'average' winnings, or losses should I say, of all poker players by looking at Party Gaming's annual earnings. $100k/yr actually won in cash, not some theoretical calculations which are always much more difficult to achieve than they seem, is extremely good for a poker player, whereas it's the near bottom of the food chain as far as investment banking firms are concerned.

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Anyway the proper comparison would be to give the 2 jobs similar hours. A 12tabling $55er will make >10k a week working 60-80hrs.

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1500 SnGs a week? I believe that's unsustainable, even for the best, for more than a week and unrealistic. Whereas working those hours in finance is very doable. The reason for this is that playing poker is far more difficult than simply churning out tournaments. Most greatly winning players would spend an equal amount of time studying and improving their game, so that has to be taken into account as 'working'. Also few things are as intense as 12 tabling continously while having to sprint to pee or get a drink and stuff, although trading during a stock crash or major catastrophe could be on of them, but the exception and not the normal.

However, I definately agree poker is a great way to make some cash to make some good investments now, while still studying. But in 10 years time I would hate to still be grinding it out playing poker.