Online Poker = Work?

[jaymack]

Would you consider this a job? This dude I know sits on "stars one table" (he calls it) allll day clicking his little mouse playing online poker. Hes in his 30s. The kinda guy that puts shirtless pics as his FB profile.
Can people maintain a living playing online poker? And can it be called work?
Seems kinda fukkin sad.

 

[HarveyCanal]

Friend of mine just quit his accounting job to play online poker full time.

 

[jaymack]

How are the benefits?


Is it addicition or is the money just too good?

 

[dj_cityboy]

to hell with gambling and the destruction it creates....

 

[Mr_Lee_PHD]

Online poker is dodgy.





You never know how many people are colluding in some way or if you're playing a bunch of bots (that whole game has gotten hella sophisticated recently).

 

[jaymack]

It seems like a great way to be able to say to ur parents, who i'm sure they're still living with, or to their baby mamas, "see I have a job"

 

[HarveyCanal]

Benefits? Parents?





I have another friend who is a bookie...that's way better...but I don't think any of these types of folks are looking at their "careers" the way you are here.





Fast cash. No Boss. Minimal taxation, if any. The excitement that the risk brings.





What's not to like?

 

[jaymack]

HarveyCanal said:Benefits? Parents?







sarcasm

 

[dj_cityboy]

i realized my buddy had a serious gambling issue years ago, he got so out of shape one night that he banned himself from the casino and 3 years later ripped off his parents and his daughter sold most of their stuff and went on some gambling escapade playing machines until 4am, got freaked out and walked for 4 hours out of the city and slept in the woods by the international airport here...sounds funny, but when you see your friends do that shit, you realize how bad things can get, he totally disappeared for about 4 days didnt go to work or anything, he called me from a hopital after he admitted himself for having a gamling problem spent 2 months in there...on some gamblers anonymous trip..





that was about 6 yrs ago and he has played the machines 4 times since then (based on what he tells me)...but has started playing poker with his buddy up the road from me, although it is for $5 a game, he still feeding into that gambling issue. like quitting smoking i assume its sumthin hes always going to be dealing with...





its not cool to see your friends or family go through that crap...

 

[Junior]

I have a close friend who's now 60,000 in debt mainly due to his online Poker addiction. Guy quit his job, lost his flat and owes loan companies and banks a fortune and is now playing it full time in the self belief that he is on a winner. Was so destroyed financially from it that he now plays with a sponsor he gives a cut to.


Since all online poker has to be published I check his stats from time to time, he's ranked really highly in many of the leagues but I think his actual take home when you account for buy ins etc from the last three years averages around 12,000 a year which isn't even anywhere near minimum wage when you factor in that he seems to play for around twelve hours, dusk till dawn, every night.


The man still likes to think of it as a cool job and has told a fair few people that he plays poker professionally. This is utter bollocks, he sits in a room all night by himself and clicks a mouse which, you know, could be a living but as I stated above, it's nearly impossible to come out enough on top for the sacrifice off all social activity. Not saying necessarily that online poker is anyway bad but I'm pretty sure that if you have an even mildly addictive personality, particularly for gambling, it is going to entirely fuck up your life as you don't even have to make the mental or physical effort to leave your room.

 

[asstro]

It's possible to make a living at online poker but it requires you to sit for 12+ hour sessions almost every day, playing 20+ tables at a time and pretty much folding/raising automatically according to the situations presented hand to hand. It is definitely work in the sense that there is nothing very fun or glamourous about it, and no matter how skilled you are you are still at the mercy of random swings of luck. If you can be content playing for low to moderate stakes you can make enough to live OK off of the casual players and people who are playing above their level. There are a lot of college kids and dudes in their early 20's who have the time trying to grind out money that way. Many of them do well and run hot for a little while but when they try to move up in stakes and play for bigger money most end up losing it all. In the end poker money always flows upward to the really skilled players who have been playing for many years, and they didn't get rich losing to college kids.





There is nothing wrong with online poker if you play for enjoyment and within your means and skill, it's way more fun than chess or golf IMO. But as they say "It's a hard way to make an easy living".

 

[billbradley]

A friend of mine had some software that kept track of players online and the patterns they used when playing. It would help her predict whether or not a player would fold when raising based on how they had played previous hands and stuff like that. She ended up living off her earnings and put herself through grad school with the money too.

 

[asstro]

Yeah, pretty much any serious online player uses some kind of tracking software. It helps you see what other players are doing and also points out when you are making poor decisions that cost you money. It takes thousands of hands to get enough data to really help much though. Of course, if you are really grinding online you are seeing thousands of hands every day...

 

[nzshadow]

Not if you're a Dutch teenager.





http://www.onlinepoker.net/poker-news/general-poker-news/pokerstars-confiscates-500k-winnings-underage-dutch-player/9845





OUCH.

 

[highscheme]

So much misinformation in this thread.





It depends how good you are obviously. Some make high six figure incomes, the best make millions. You can grind a $30-50k a year living with low risk if you know what you are doing.





The games are getting a lot tougher though.





90% of players are break even or losing however. You have to learn how to play, and you need to be extremely intelligent/talented to make it to the top.

 

[Junior]

highscheme said: you need to be extremely intelligent to make it to the top.




I personally don't see how Intelligence has anything to do with it. It's a game based on intuition, learning patterns and a fair degree of luck. Just like any other online multiplayer game.

 

[highscheme]

Junior said:highscheme said: you need to be extremely intelligent to make it to the top.




I personally don't see how Intelligence has anything to do with it. It's a game based on intuition, learning patterns and a fair degree of luck. Just like any other online multiplayer game.




ok

 

[thrope]

yeah i was going to respond to him but couldn't even formulate a strategy. just a huge pile of fail.

 

[Junior]

Unnecessary post. Ignore.

 

[Tuff_Gong]

Junior said:highscheme said: you need to be extremely intelligent to make it to the top.




I personally don't see how Intelligence has anything to do with it. It's a game based on intuition, learning patterns and a fair degree of luck. Just like any other online multiplayer game.







So you're saying you're not very good at poker? Really, anybody who thinks that intelligence has nothing to do with poker and that it's all luck likely hasn't played much poker or just doesn't play well. There's a reason you see a lot of the same faces at final tables in poker tournaments. Yes, luck is an element of poker, but there's so much more to it. There's also a reason so many of the top players have backgrounds and degrees in mathematics or other science-based fields, and lots of poker players were also prodigies at other games like chess. There's lots of poker theory that involves odds and percentages and knowing when the right time to make certain plays is based on your chances of hitting a hand. There's betting strategies so you can extract the most money from the opponent. This is strictly the mathematical element of the game and mentioning nothing of being able to read people and find their tells. Sure, there's poker players who do tremendously well because they're great at reading people rather than being great at math, but to assert that intelligence has nothing to do with poker is completely absurd.





Yes, luck is an element of poker, but proper poker strategy shows that over time luck can only account for so much, and if you have the intelligence to put your money in the pot when the odds are in your favor then over time you come out ahead.