How much money do professional poker players really make?

Question

Daily, weekly, monthly?

Answer 1

It's so hard to answer that. On the one end of the scale you have the grinders that grind out $10 or $20 an hour. On the other end you have those who sit in the big game at the Bellagio and play $1000/$2000 blinds. You have cash game experts and tournament experts. Those that play small tournaments others that play the big ones that cost $10,000 or more to enter.

Some poker players can make several million dollars a year, whereas others make just enough to live off. Some make a fortune and squander it almost as quickly gambling.

Your question is like asking, how much money do people in retail make? Well clearly the person operating the checkout at Wal-Mart is on little more than minimum wage. But a Wal-Mart executive makes much much more.

Answer 2

Lots of good advice already (and a bit of what you didn't want to hear), but wanted to add in a perspective that's a bit different. I was in a similar boat as you 2-3 years ago. I had just gotten to college, and nothing even came close to holding my attention like poker had for the last 5+ years. I thirsted for poker knowledge, and every other subject seemed 'uninteresting'. So I made it through my first year of college with little direction, a minimum wage job that I wasn't too fond of, and went home to a place that now functioned well without me for the summer. Luckily for me, I had managed to final table the Midnight Madness tournament on Full Tilt a couple of times freshman year and had a fairly nice BR saved up. (Always was good keeping my BR separate from everything else). I live in Michigan where there are 18+ legal charity poker rooms EVERYWHERE. (Which just means the room has to split the income with a rotating charity). Michigan also has many Casinos that are 18+. So that summer I played, and played, and played, and played, and played keeping great notes along the way. The end of the summer came and I realized how tired I was. I was up a fair bit, but it was the hardest money I had ever earned. I learned I had a knack for tournaments, and that I knew myself better then at the start of the summer. Mentally it was almost a relief when I went back to school. Poker can be draining, did you know? I decided to use the money I made to lighten those college loans, and I pursued a teaching degree in math and psychology; a fitting major for a poker player I figured. I'm going to school full time, usually playing 3 live poker tournaments a week, and playing lots online. Is poker still the most interesting thing I have ever done? HELL YES! But I'm a year away from graduating with a degree, 2 additional years of poker playing experience, and different look on life. I turn 21 this July... needless to say I'm as excited as you are for that day. Not sure if my (long) story helps at all! But thought you might like to know that you are not the only one with that kind of dream. If you ever want to talk poker, let me know!

Answer 3

Hi,I play poker for a living, and the money I make can be variable. The amount of money a poker player make each day, week, month or year depend on a lot thing: How many hours does the pro play?, what limits does he play? does he play more cash games or more tournaments......etc. So many question to be answered before giving you a number. Basically it's different for each players.

Take care

Answer 4

It depends if you are someone like Mike Matusow you can make 1 million in several days, then lose 1 million in 3 days and eventually be thrown in jail for a coke addiction.

You really cannot determine how much money a person will make when so many factors are involved. Daniel Negreanu made a lot of money for a while, but if you watch High Stakes Poker you see he's down about 600k on the show, but there is no telling exactly how much he's won in other games and online gambling. Your best bet is to play poker part time until you build up a steady bankroll. More money you get commit a bit more time, but make sure you are doing your studying and take a lot of notes on the players around you. I'd say once you hit a bankroll of 100k+ that you should start taking poker seriously, maybe still not necessarily full time. There is always the risk it can all be taken away in less then a couple days.

Again with Mike Matusow he had a few thousand lent to him when he got out of jail from Phil Hellmuth(wikipedia search Mike Matusow) and he brought it up to a couple hundred thousand and then lost it all yet again. So I mean you really need to watch your stakes and keep up on your studying. There is never a way to completely master these games and staying on your toes for new and different strategies is a must.

Answer 5

That's like saying "What does a 30 year old person make?" There's way too much variability in the stakes and skill to make a blanket statement. It is further clouded by the fact that playing poker has tons of inherent volatility in returns. It isn't something we can observe by watching them play for a little while. Most of the figures thrown around for top professionals come from the players themselves. Whether you choose to believe them is up to you, but I'd question them.

Answer 6

i don't think you should be thinking like you are working on a salary basis when you are gambling or playing poker or whatsoever, its a matter of luck and in poker more or less some necessary skills and nerves. if you are lucky and got the nerves and skill to be a good poker player you can be a millionaire in a matter of months or weeks even days or a very poor guy sooner than you expected.

Answer 7

the big ones on TV make millions a month but have nothing 2 show for it. Think about it how much can u make when u r always playing against the other best players in the world. Plus a lot of them are into drugs and sportsbetting, just see Mike Matasow. They are always borrowing off each other. So they win 500k but owe their staker 250k. Then they lose 100k in a cash game. Then they blow 300k betting sports. Then they win 100k in a cash game. Then they blow 20k at the horse track, etc, etc, etc.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

Depends on if they are really good poker players or really bad poker players.....

Answer 10

They don't make a lot unless they get on one of those poker tv shows.