My total online poker winnings has just topped $80, owing to the fact that I’ve won 4 out of the past 5 games I’ve played in (three 1st place finishes, and one 3rd place). I’m hoping this isn’t just some weird lucky streak, as I am starting to seriously consider devoting more regular time to this. I’ve started to get a very good feel for strategy (it helps that most of the people playing these low-end tables are sheep) so if your lifestyle isn’t too extravagant, you could, in theory, survive by playing poker 8 hours a day … especially in this country.
Each game takes about 30-45 minutes to play fully, so it’s highly possible for a seasoned player to play 30 games a day … probably way more than that if they can handle multiple simultaneous games. If you apply the win-ratio from my last 10 games (I’ve won cash in 7 out of 10), a dedicated person could take in about US$300 a day. A lot of poker pros began their careers by playing online so much that it became an all-consuming occupation, including my all-time favorite player Iain "Tillerman" Girdwood, of Starcraft fame.
Obviously I don’t have that kind of time available, but if I played 2-3 games daily on weekdays and 5-6 games on weekends, it’s totally possible to be generating about US$180 a week. Of course, the cost to enter those 20-25 games would be nearly US$75, so you’re really only looking at $100 profit. Even so, that is well over the national average wage, and not bad for what is essentially a recreational hobby. I’m never seriously going to give up the whole web dev career thing, but it’s nice to know there are other ways to extract money from this world.