what is the average income of a professional poker player?

Question

aside from winning a big event, which is way coool btw, what is the average income of a professional poker player?

Answer 1

I think that is so hard to answer.

It's rather like saying, what is the average income of a retail store manager. There are so many different stores and variables that the answer will change all the time. There probably is an average, but I'm not sure it is all that useful to know what it is.

Professional poker players come in all shapes and sizes. Some are tournament players, with reasonable cash game skills. Some are only cash game players. Some grind it out in medium stakes games. Some play in major high stakes cash games. Most of the named players that you've seen on TV have lucrative sponsorship deals and supplement their income with personal appearances, books, magazine columns, online play, wearing web site branded clothing on TV etc.

I'm sure there are professional poker players out there that barely scrape by with enough to pay the rent. They may even go broke from time to time and have to borrow money. On the other end of the scale there are those who make over a million in a year.

Answer 2

I play poker as a part time pro, although I have another job as well. I play poker an average of 20 hours a week and I make about 25000 a year for the last 4 years. I only play cash games, very rarely do I play tourneys. My other job pays around 36 a year and I work about 30 hours a week in that. There are guys that I play with that play way more hours than me, and they pull in a ton of money. Id say closer to 100 large a year. The average is probably around 40large

Answer 3

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RE:
what is the average income of a professional poker player?
aside from winning a big event, which is way coool btw, what is the average income of a professional poker player?

Answer 4

Poker pro? Hard to define, everyone that plays thinks they are a pro. Part time pro that's something I've never heard of. I'm a casino Manager and I've had the misfortune of having to run many card rooms around the world and the only thing I know for sure is that the same money is passed back and forth.

Answer 5

I hate to dodge your question, but it's a nearly impossible one to answer.

It really depends on the stakes that one plays. However, even with a qualifier on that (ie. what's the average of pros that play 30-60 limit), you'll still get flawed numbers because the best players move to higher stakes and the worst either bust or go to lower stakes.

I have friends that have made $25K, $50K, etc. in a year playing semi-pro (in college). Some top pros make millions. It really depends how good you are and what stakes you play.

Answer 6

I play poker for a living, and there is no average income, it depends on what stacks you're playing, how often, it depend on your poker skill, money management. And on how many hours you're putting on...

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