Poker Articles

The Online Poker Grind
Making a Living Playing Online Poker
by David Huber
 

One of the things I get asked the most is “What is it like to play online poker for a living?” To be honest, I often asked this same question only 18 months ago. There are various ways to make a living playing online poker, and not all of them involve investing huge amounts of money (or collecting six figures in return). I consider myself part of a new breed of online players who grind out a living without the benefit of a large initial investment. In other words, I make money by multi-tabling low-stakes online poker games (in my specific case – about 80% Sit & Go tournaments and 20% MTT’s).
So when I read that question in an e-mail or instant message, my first inclination has always been to “set the record straight”. It’s no secret (or source of embarrassment) that players like me aren’t multi-millionaires who have taken advantage of the recent influx of mediocre players to gain access to some proverbial Easy Street. Online poker has provided us with an opportunity to make enough money to justify the long hours we put into it, but until someone has actually “taken the plunge”, it’s impossible to comprehend the trials that poker puts a full-time player through; or the amount of respect that The Game demands from any aspiring player.
It always gives me a chuckle when I scroll down to read the next question that usually follows the former… “How can I make a living playing online poker?” It flatters me that an unknown player would think I hold the key to unlock a universe of worry-free profit-making. I attempt to answer similar questions in a non-negative, yet realistic, manner. Living the life of an Online Grinder is no walk-in-the-park… and it doesn’t exactly lead to a star-studded fantasy lifestyle that most envision. Playing winning poker commands more time and dedication than most “9 to 5” jobs; and can include moments of enormous emotional swings and financial insecurity.

However, online poker has been a savior to me. It may sound incredible, but poker has played a principal role in increasing my income, helping my marriage, and providing financial peace-of-mind. For over a year, poker has given my family a positive means of earning income, while at the same time paying for necessities. Oh, it’s been very difficult at times (and will continue to be), but one should expect no less from any employment. The main reason I hold online poker in such a high regard is the fact that it has opened up so many doors to me personally and professionally.
But you’ve probably accessed this article in hopes of gaining insight into how someone (like yourself) can become successful and reap financial rewards from online poker. I don’t blame you. I wish there had been more information on this subject in circulation in early 2005 when I became an Online Pro… it may have saved me a lot of headaches (or I may have ignored it). Either way, my aim in this article is to help a winning online poker player decide whether to turn pro.

"Bankroll vs. Expectations vs. Time"
It all starts here. Without a proper bankroll, your ship will eventually sink. So we must first ask ourselves just how much money we need to make (on average) playing online poker. If you only require a very small supplemental income, then there’s no need to deposit thousands of dollars into an online poker account. Major poker sites offer low-stakes ring games and tournaments that allow a “budget player” much more flexibility than ever before.
For those who decide to become full-time players, there are plenty of well-written bankroll management articles available on the net; and you should refer to those when deciding how many Buy-Ins or Big Bets to start your professional career with. The amount of time you can spend on playing (and studying) the game will also influence the stakes you play, since you’ll be able to play lower stakes to reach your monetary goals by increasing the number of hours you play each day/week/month.

"Multi-Tabling"
At some point, you will have to decide what you think about multi-tabling. While many players who can afford a large initial investment can get by with playing only one high-stakes table at a time, multi-tabling is very common among winning players in online poker. In many cases, it’s comes down to simple mathematics. If a low-stakes Limit player can expect to make 3 Big Bets per 100 hands while one-tabling, and 1.5 Big Bets per 100 hands when 4-tabling, then a $3/$6 Limit player can increase expectation from $9/hour to $18/hour (assuming an average of 50 hands per hour, per table).
But a word of caution: multi-tabling is not for everyone. And don’t be fooled into thinking that overall expectation doesn’t drop very much when a player decides to play 4 tables or more at a time… because it does. Most importantly, there is absolutely NO logic in multi-tabling if you’re a losing player. The first step is to learn to beat a certain game/level while playing one table at a time. Until you can do this, multi-tabling should be a non-issue.

"Personality & Attitude"
In my experience, people who are stubborn are the first casualties when it comes to playing the game for a living. Those who burden themselves with short-term financial goals (i.e. “I have to play a ton tonight so I can cash out and pay rent tomorrow”) are setting themselves up for failure. After all, a player cannot “will” the cards, and this is what leads to the downfall of so many young and capable start-ups.
To combat a popular myth: winning at poker (long-term) is not easy. Yes, there are some players who are far better than others. There are many who display prodigal abilities here and there but are not psychologically built to handle the inevitable downswings involved in poker (or they’re too stubborn to try). Domination is defined by a few percentage points of overall edge; not by repeatedly blowing-out your opponent by 100 points in some virtual sports game.
In my case, I had to change the way I approached online poker in order to keep my mind (and bankroll) intact. While I endeavor to take poker seriously at all times, I’ve learned through experience not to take MYSELF so seriously. Extended bad runs are much easier to handle for players who are good at letting negative things “roll off their back” while continuing to do their best. Playing poker full-time may not be a wise choice for those who take uncontrollable factors (like the cards) personally.

"Talent"
If I received a nickel for every time a poker player complimented him/herself, I’d be rolling in the dough for sure. Talent is certainly an important aspect of winning at poker, but perhaps not as much as one would think. Once a player comes to terms with the fact that he/she probably isn’t a “natural” at the game, improvement takes on a whole new meaning. Overestimating your talent or skills can lead to horrible consequences for those who aren’t able to separate fact from fiction.
If ever you arrive at a point in your poker career where you feel there’s nothing left to learn, do yourself a favor and take a break. Constant improvement means all the difference when it comes to playing poker for a living. The game evolves daily and learning to adapt to new environments and situations is key. Talent in poker, for the most part, is something that can be achieved through hard work and dedication.

"Other Responsibilities"
I have a wife and two kids. In the entire mix of things, my family comes first and poker is second. While many full-time players look at exterior obligations as obstacles, I’ve found that appreciating and embracing my family obligations has improved my poker game. There are times when I’d rather spend time with my family than play poker – and vice versa. But for the most part, I don’t have to deal with depression or guilt from outside influences when I sit down at an online table – and this allows me to bring my ‘A’ Game to the table at a much higher rate than many of my opponents.
Whether it’s school, family, or personal relationships, a full-time poker player should be willing to set poker aside from time to time to concentrate on more-important matters. A poker player is only as good as his/her mindset will allow. Breaking your own values by not spending enough time on other aspects of your personal life can lead to a downfall in your profession.

"Leaving Yourself with Outs"
Let me be frank. Online poker may not work out for you… it may not work out for many in the long-run. There is no shame in leaving yourself with other options just in case full-time poker isn’t quite what you expected.
As I mentioned, online poker has opened many doors for my career. I consider myself very fortunate to receive other poker-related income from writing and announcing that allows me to take short-term poker losses in stride. I’m also proud that I’m able to make money from translating and my part-time radio job here in Mexico City.
Believe me, if I had a full-time “regular” job (especially one that provided health insurance & benefits), I’d hold on to it and play poker part-time. There will always be a game starting somewhere… online poker isn’t going anywhere in the near future. I’d advise any start-up player to maintain employment opportunities and seek other means to earn a more stable income while gradually increasing time spent playing poker.

"In Closing"
Experience is the number one teacher. Although many of us attempt to provide others with insight, nothing compares to the actual learning experience you’ll receive once you turn pro. Play within your means, bring your ‘A’ game to the table at all times, allow yourself to make mistakes, keep your cool, work on your game, give priority to family and other positive activities, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you can follow all these rules without exception, then you’ll be well on your way to justifying your leap into a new profession.
 

One Year of Playing Poker for a Living
By The Maroon

I just realized that it has now been over a year since I quit my job to play poker for a living. I was working 25-30 hours a week at $11 per hour, for a net income of about $15,000 (pre tax) annually. I am not sure exactly how much I made because I didn’t keep records of my live play the first few months (which was most of my play) but I can estimate my expenditures and know about how much my bankroll grew during that time. So I am positive that the net sum was either 6 figures or very close to it, meaning that I made more in one year than I would have in 6-7 years of working my regular job.
When I first quit my job I had saved up a bankroll of about $5,000. I started playing live and immediately lost a few thousand, which forced me to move down to playing $5/$10 in real life. Then at some point I discovered Party Poker and began playing $3/$6 and $33 Single Tables on there. I played quite a few hours and over the first 2 months I covered my expenses and grew my bankroll to back over $5k. A few times during that period I would take a shot at playing a few $5/$10 games but each time I hit a bad streak and lost my way back down to $3/$6, at which point I promptly rebuilt my bankroll. This was trying to my confidence, but I knew that it was simply short term results working against me and I kept at it. Then came my lucky break.
Just around the time I quit my job my friend Keith had the kind of run you only hear about. One day he had a few hundred in his PokerStars account, and since he had a job he decided he didn’t care about it and was going to either lose it or make some serious money. So he went and bought in at $30/$60 with only a few hundred (which is the bankroll equivalent of Russian roulette), went on a rush, and a month later had won over $30k. To me and my friends this was somewhat like winning the lottery. So Keith started playing quite often (eventually quitting his job to do so) and he and I would run some of the tournaments on Party Poker. At that time they had a nightly $55 NL tourney, and a $109 Limit one once a week, and that was as big as the stakes got. Now they have a $162 tournament (or above) every night and numerous $109’s. Oh how the times have changed.
So anyway my big break came when in one week Keith won me about $5k. He won a $55 NL and got second (and should have won if not for an incredible run of bad beats when heads up) in a $109 limit in back to back tournaments, both with about a $5k prize. He also picked one off for $10k a few weeks later when splitting with my friend John. What a run that was for him. Anyway now my bankroll was over $10k, which may as well have been a million as far as I was concerned, and I could move back into what I thought was more profitable, the $10/$20 games at the Vegas Nights around Akron. I also took a trip to Atlantic City which didn’t go well, but only shrunk my bankroll by about $1,000, most of which was expenses. So I began playing full time at the games around town for a month or 2 and was making a little, though not much. Because you see so many less hands per hour in real life your bad swings last a lot longer (in terms of time) though they are for the same dollar amounts. You are just as likely to lose $2k playing $10/$20 online as you are in real life, but you are much more likely to lose over a month in real life than you are online, assuming that you are a winning player.
Then one day I went to a house game and had a big loss playing $10/$20 in a 5 handed game. I had thought that I played very well, but simply took a good number of bad beats, and it got me thinking about short handed play. A few people I had met before (who were friends of John) had been playing short handed online full time for a few years and making six figures annually at it. In fact you can now see these people playing in the $100/$200 games on Stars almost every single day. Though I won’t divulge their screen names here, they are players who are often talked about on 2+2 and RGP and are well known to anyone who plays bigger limits online. So I decided to give 6 max a shot.
At that time I had worked my initial $250 Party Poker buy-in to over about $5k so I figured Id take one or 2 thousand and give the $10/$20 6 max a shot. This was in early October and for a few days I won every time I sat down and ended up about $5k ahead. It was at this point that I started to realize what incredibly high fluctuation the game must have, and at the same time that it must be incredibly profitable. So I immediately quit playing it, afraid to lose that much back which in hindsight was probably a very intelligent thing to do. I decided to move down to $5/$10 6 max where the games were probably easier and learn the game more while building my bankroll. So I played that game for the next couple months and managed to win a little over $15k. I was on top of the world.
Then after a couple hundred hours of beating that game for over $70 an hour I decided to take a shot at the $10/$20 games. I started out losing a little which I think was due to a combination of the games being radically different and a little bad luck. I wasn’t down much though and wasn’t too dismayed so I kept at it and in no time had the game figured out and was beating the hell out of it. At $5/$10 the games were very passive, but the games were almost insanely aggressive at $10/$20. Luckily many hours of playing against the 1 maniac who seems to be at every $5/$10 table had prepared me a good deal for what I was to encounter, because even though the players were aggressive they were far from good. So for the first month or so I ended up making over $125 an hour.
It was at that point that tournaments began to explode on Party. At first they had the Sunday $215, which was offering first place prizes of $50,000 or more. Then they added one on Saturday, then one on Friday. Then came the weekday $162 buy-ins, and before you knew it every day of the week had a tournament with first place prizes bigger than my entire bankroll. When you are first starting out and playing $3/$6 games making $25 per hour a $215 buy in seems like a lot of money. When you are making over $100 an hour it is peanuts. So I launched headlong into tournaments, playing every $215 I had the time for and every semifinal and super satellite for the Party Poker Million, which I was desperate to play in. The big weekday tournaments (which are now just $162 buy in regular multis) originally came from their $162 super satellites, which they would run once or twice a week. After a while the boat was apparently oversold so they switched to just paying out $9k prizes instead of cruises, and then eventually made them into just normal tournaments.
So I began playing many tournaments and I had little success at first. I seemed to money enough to break even in regular tournaments, but I had spent quite a bit on satellites with nothing to show for it. However during the very last set of semifinals I managed to win my way into the cruise (after spending almost $2k in satellites). At this point I still spent most of my time playing $10/$20 6 max and only played a few tournaments each week. Then a few weeks before the cruise I caught another big break. I had gone to sleep one Sunday morning (the last day of February) around 11 a.m. and as such didn’t have any intention of waking up to play in the $215 tournament at 4 p.m. However at about 3:30 my friend John called and told my girlfriend to wake me up, which she did, and he told me there were already 1700 people registered for the tournament. Normally 1500 was a big turnout and there was still a half hour left to register, so this one was bound to be much bigger than usual. Knowing I would be unable to go back to sleep anyway I decided to play in it with him, and it ended up having something like 1997 people in it, which is a record I still have not seen bested. Back then Party Poker was still experiencing massive growing pains and the tournament spent at least a couple hours on pause waiting for the servers to be fixed. The whole wile I had an average stack and was desperately hoping that the servers would go down so I could receive a couple thousand (they payout people when the server fails, which had happened to me a few times before) and go back to sleep. Fortunately for me that didn’t happen, since 10 hours later I had taken 4th and was $24k richer. I had to give $12k to my friend, but still it was a hell of a boost to the bankroll.
I went on the cruise in March and didn’t win anything in the tournament (I had started my blog before this so my trip report and the report of my $24k win are in here somewhere) which was pretty much uneventful. I came home and resumed life as usual. I wanted to start playing tournaments pretty much full time, but unfortunately there just aren’t enough big buy in tournaments online to really make this possible, and I haven’t got the bankroll yet to play all the major events around the country, so I kept on playing ring games part time and tournaments part time, which I still do to this day.
Since then I have won a few tournaments. I took down a $109 NL on Party for $8500, and a $200 limit at the Mirage for $5k. I have done pretty well in live action as well, mostly playing $20/$40 and $30/$60 limit hold’em, and a little bit of live no limit hold'em in AC. Hold’em is the only game with which I am extremely comfortable, but fortunately due to its recent popularity explosion you really aren’t missing out on much (if anything) by being unable to play the other games. The suckers want to play hold'em and I want to play with the suckers. It seems though that you really can’t find hold'em only games above the $100/$200 level so at some point I do hope to become proficient in Seven Stud, Stud 8, Omaha, Omaha 8, Deuce To Seven Lowball, Razz, etc. If I am going to be playing the white chip games eventually (which is my ultimate aim) I am going to have to learn those games. I still feel that even though I have improved so much at hold'em in the past year I have plenty more to learn about this fascinating game. Right now I am learning to better play no limit and tournaments (and no limit tournaments), as well as improving my limit game. I am playing a lot of single table tournaments, a lot of multi table tournaments, and a lot of short handed limit games. My bankroll has stayed pretty static over the last couple months due to a pretty bad run which has caused me to win very little more than my expenses, but I am optimistic about it as I feel I have been playing well.

How Big Should Your Bankroll Be?
By Angel Largay

Determining the size bankroll you need can seem like quite a challenge but it's really not all that difficult. First of all, you need to determine what your poker goals are. The size bankroll needed to play some .25/.50 on weekends with family is much different than the bankroll needed to go pro. It is actually quite impossible to have someone come up with a one size fits all number and yet it's not hard to find those 'one size fits all' numbers in many poker books.

To determine the size bankroll you need it is important that you have some numbers handy as well as your goals set out. The question has come up a lot about how much is needed to go pro and so the following is geared toward that end. Just remember, that if all you want to do is play $3/$6 every other weekend or so - you probably don't need any more of a bankroll than a decent job. Some of the numbers you're going to need are your hourly rate, your standard deviation (SD) and you're going to have to make a determination how much risk you are willing to take that you won't go broke due to poor short term luck. Truth is, you can never be 100% sure that you won't go broke due to short term fluctuations. The good news is you can pick any other percent you want for instance, you can calculate a bankroll requirement to assure that you won't go broke due to short term luck 99.999999999999999999999999999% of the time if you like - you just can't pick 100%. This is called the risk of ruin and is actually expressed as the inverse of your chance of not going broke i.e.: if you want to ensure that you don't go broke 99% of the time, then your risk of ruin is 1% or 0.01.

Standard deviation is a number that most people don't calculate and can be tedious to do so which is why many people use 10 times their win rate as a standard approximation. There are many reasons to do the math yourself, not the least of which is that I'm going to take the time to walk you through it and we both know that you don't want me to waste my time.

So... ready?

Bankroll needed = -(SD^2/2*hourly win rate)ln(risk of ruin). Let's say you are playing $10/$20 (which is probably the minimum for making a living wage) and your win rate over time is 1BB/hour or $20/hr. Let's also say that you are willing to accept a 5% risk of ruin. Punching these new numbers into our formula we get: -(200^2/2*20)ln(.05) or -40,000/40*ln(.05) = $2996 (rounded to the nearest dollar). 5% is pretty risky though - it means you'll go broke 1 time in 20 which is not a good plan if this is your only source of income. 1% is a more practical and advisable number to work with. Let's try it: -40,000/40*ln(.01) = $4605 (rounded to the nearest dollar). So assuming that you are a winning player with a standard deviation of 10x your win rate - you can expect to play forever with a 99% confidence with a bankroll of $4605. The bonus is - if you are winning and adding to your bankroll this confidence number goes up quickly. i.e.: a 99.9% confidence requires a bankroll of only $6908. I say 'only' because your likelihood of not going broke has increased 1000% but your bankroll only had to increase 50%. Note that $6908 is approximately 345 big bets. Did you ever wonder where that magic 300BB number came from?

Keep in mind that your standard deviation is important and if it is off significantly, this can really affect these numbers. For what it's worth, my standard deviation is way off the tenfold my win rate number. You should calculate standard deviation yourself if you want to be certain. So how do you do that? Standard deviation is the square root of variance and variance can seem a bit difficult to calculate if you haven't done it before so I'm going to put an example in here so anyone that wants can have an example to work off. Let's say you played 10 sessions and lo and behold (because you're so great and the poker gods love you) you won them all. Here were your results:

1. +100 - 8 hrs
2. +300 - 8 hrs
3. +200 - 8 hrs
4. +200 - 12 hrs
5. +100 - 12 hrs
6. +250 - 10 hrs
7. +400 - 10 hrs
8. +50 - 10 hrs
9. +300 - 12 hrs
10. +100 - 10 hrs

Now if you wanted to calculate your standard deviation you would probably just think to yourself, "Hell, I made so much money I'll just hire a mathematician!" which isn't a bad idea but since this is imaginary money you'd have to get an imaginary mathematician and they aren't too useful so... let's assume that you want to do it yourself - you know, to build character.

First, add up all your results. This equals $2,000. Now add up all your hours. This equals 100 hours which we'll also refer to as 'T'. To determine your hourly earn simply divide your total amount won by the total number of hours played: $2,000/100hrs = $20/hr.

Then it gets a little tricky. Add up each win squared divided by the hours; in other words:

= 100^2/8 + 300^2/8 + 200^2/8 + 200^2/12 + 100^2/12 + 250^2/10 + 400^2/10 + 50^2/10 + 300^2/12 + 100^2/10= 10000/8 + 90000/8 + 40000/8 + 40000/12 + 10000/12 + 62500/10 +160000/10 + 2500/10 + 90000/12 + 10000/10= 1,250 + 11,250 + 5,000 + 3,333 + 833 + 6,250 + 16,000 + 250 + 7,500 + 1,000= 52,666 which we'll call 'x'.
Not to worry, that was the tough part - it gets easier from here:

Variance= (1/number of sessions)x - ((hourly earn)^2/number of sessions)(T)= (1/10)(52,666) - ((20)^2/10)(100)= 5,267 - (400/10)(100)=5,267 - 4000= 1,267 Recall that the standard deviation is the square root of variance so we need the sqrt of 1,267 which is approx. $36 (rounding up).

Your standard deviation should be calculated using (according to Mason Malmuth who is a guy you can trust when it comes to math) a minimum of 30 sessions but when you get these 30 sessions - you'll know how to calculate it now.