How many pro pokers players are there worldwide?

Xavier · Aug 18, 2009

How many players do youthink make enough money to live on - say $20,000 a year or more, which is about the minimum you can afford to live on.
There must be thousands.
Could there be tens of thousands or is that a bit excessive?

Kebo11K · Aug 18, 2009

I'd think more definately with online play, there's tournament play, and hold'em all sort of different types of games. Just IMO im shooting blind that there more!

Monoxide · Aug 18, 2009

Id say theres like 4425 of them, but maybe like 9204

could be in the area of 12000-14500 though

SydTheCat · Aug 18, 2009

Xavier said:
How many players do youthink make enough money to live on - say $20,000 a year or more, which is about the minimum you can afford to live on.
There must be thousands.
Could there be tens of thousands or is that a bit excessive?

who can live on 20k a year?

Olddog21 · Aug 18, 2009

Pros

I'ld be willing to bet ..world wide...5000..pros..that make a living playing poker...and that doesn't count the one time wonders that win once and think ...now I can make a living at this!:deal:

ted80 · Aug 18, 2009

SydTheCat said:
who can live on 20k a year?

i've always seemed to. man its awful! but that's not poker that's manual labor. that's real job though, i usually get an extra couple hundred or a little more with football betting(weak bankroll there too), practically nothing from horses cause i just don't ever stick with it. an actual poker withdrawal has never happened but i always played play money. god what an idiot. been building bankrolls slowly, haven't deposited many places or very much (oh, because i'm poor). i'm conservative though and patient so every penny is gold to me. i'd love to be a one hit wonder, haha. all my jobs are really slow on top of it all right now so its awesome i'm extra broke right now...anybody hiring?

pantin007 · Aug 18, 2009

10% of world population

BelgoSuisse · Aug 19, 2009

Xavier said:
How many players do youthink make enough money to live on - say $20,000 a year or more

Making $20k+ a year does not make you a pro.

At 100nl+, you can do that playing recreationally, i.e. an hour or two a day while spending most of your time on a real job.

Xavier · Aug 19, 2009

SydTheCat said:
who can live on 20k a year?

I know a lot of people who only earn that much where I live, working full time, or slightly more or slightly less.
You must live in a very rich area if you think noone lives on that.

Xavier · Aug 19, 2009

BelgoSuisse said:
Making $20k+ a year does not make you a pro.

At 100nl+, you can do that playing recreationally, i.e. an hour or two a day while spending most of your time on a real job.

Anyone who makes a living playing poker is a pro, even if its only $20,000.

Grindit9 · Aug 19, 2009

Monoxide said:
Id say theres like 4425 of them, but maybe like 9204

could be in the area of 12000-14500 though

Lolled at this, good point

BelgoSuisse · Aug 19, 2009

Xavier said:
Anyone who makes a living playing poker is a pro, even if its only $20,000.

That's not what i meant. What I meant is that you can make more than $20k/year and still be a recreational player because poker is not your main income/activity, your job is.

Xavier · Aug 19, 2009

BelgoSuisse said:
That's not what i meant. What I meant is that you can make more than $20k/year and still be a recreational player because poker is not your main income/activity, your job is.

So if someone was making $200k+ a year but still did a 9 to 5 job as well u wouldn't consider them a pro?

BelgoSuisse · Aug 19, 2009

Xavier said:
So if someone was making $200k+ a year but still did a 9 to 5 job as well u wouldn't consider them a pro?

Depends on their salary. It this someone earns $500k at his job and $200k at poker, than no. If he earns $50k at his job, than probably yes, but he should quit his job anyway.

And it's not strictly about earnings. A student who lives on poker income but studies full time is still primarily a student in my book, not a poker pro. How much time you spend on each activity is a pretty huge factor.

Stu_Ungar · Aug 19, 2009

Xavier said:
So if someone was making $200k+ a year but still did a 9 to 5 job as well u wouldn't consider them a pro?

We have had this discussion before.

Basically to be a pro it has to be your main source of income AND take the majority of your time.

Otherwise all lottery winners are 'pro' lottery players.. (as the lottery win is usually greater than their life times earnings).

Your profession is the activity which earns you the majority of your money and takes the majority of your time.

If you play 40 hrs a week poker and earn 20K a year from doing it, so long as you dont do anything else for as long or earn as much from another source, then poker is your profession and you are a pro.

Usually when people talk about pros they don't mean all pros, they mean the top pros.

RedEe · Aug 19, 2009

You could start by taking the numbers from PokerListing and BluffMagazine pro rankings.
PR2 13782
PR1 +7526
Add the number online player rankings which only include the top 1500 in each buyin category (Gold+Silver+ Bronze).
+4500 = 25,808
Multiply that total by x (your guess) to include the underground economy in non-ranked events.

Assumption: the majority of the players in reported ranking events (PR1, PR2, online) have additional earnings from poker in casinos, online or locally.

JohnnyFronts · Aug 19, 2009

How about the "pros" who are very unprofessional? One "pro" i played with at the Horseshoe in Hammond, IN was berating all the fish for bad play, telling everyone how to play their hands, and complaining about bad beats. They were very rude altogether, yet they still made a living off the game. Imo that is not a pro...

Monoxide · Aug 19, 2009

lolitsimpossibletocalculatearealnumber

Kenzie 96 · Aug 19, 2009

JohnnyFronts said:
How about the "pros" who are very unprofessional? One "pro" i played with at the Horseshoe in Hammond, IN was berating all the fish for bad play, telling everyone how to play their hands, and complaining about bad beats. They were very rude altogether, yet they still made a living off the game. Imo that is not a pro...

So, this makes Phil Helmuth what?

RedEe · Aug 19, 2009

BTW the worst ranked online player 1500th in the Silver level (lowest) made $215,489 in three years between 01/01/06 and 08/19/09 on one site PokerStars. That said, there are thousands more online players across multiple sites that earn a living to qualify as a professional poker player.

JohnnyFronts · Aug 19, 2009

Kenzie 96 said:
So, this makes Phil Helmuth what?

A very talented yet unprofessional individual

.

Good call Kenzie. PH needs to work on his etiquette fer sher.

RedEe · Aug 19, 2009

JohnnyFronts said:
How about the "pros" who are very unprofessional? One "pro" i played with at the Horseshoe in Hammond, IN was berating all the fish for bad play, telling everyone how to play their hands, and complaining about bad beats. They were very rude altogether, yet they still made a living off the game. Imo that is not a pro...

There are pro's in every industry whom have behaviors which deem them unprofessional but you still cannot deny even the white collar criminals earned a living. That is a philosophical question of moral values - not economical.

Fryd · Aug 19, 2009

I have read somewhere, that in Denmark where I am from - the estimation is that about 75 players have poker as their profession

Population: 5,4 millions

JohnnyFronts · Aug 19, 2009

RedEe said:
There are pro's in every industry whom have behaviors which deem them unprofessional but you still cannot deny even the white collar criminals earned a living. That is a philosophical question of moral values - not economical.

You are correct, therefore I respectfully retract my statement. I guess we could then ask the question of how many professional pro's are there?

PoKeRFoRNiA · Aug 19, 2009

I agree with Stu Ungar. To become a professional, your main source of income has to be from poker. I had bankroll upto 20k but it doesn't make me pro because I'm not dependent on poker and still pay for my apartment, food, car, insurance, etc from my job aka teaching students. Poker is my hobby. To become professional, I have to be able to make a lot of money through poker where I can quit my job. Poker has to be your main income. 20k is just an amount to START playing professionally but not an amount to determine if you're professional or not. My bankroll is currently at 11k and has been dropping a lot lately. But I do know what I'm talking about because I've had my hands on 20k but it didn't prove me as a professional.

How many pro pokers players are there worldwide?

Xavier

Rock Star

Kebo11K

Enthusiast

Monoxide

Cardschat Elite

SydTheCat

Rock Star

Olddog21

Rock Star

ted80

Rock Star

pantin007

member

BelgoSuisse

Legend

Xavier

Rock Star

Xavier

Rock Star

Grindit9

Rock Star

BelgoSuisse

Legend

Xavier

Rock Star

BelgoSuisse

Legend

Stu_Ungar

Legend

RedEe

Enthusiast

JohnnyFronts

Rock Star

Monoxide

Cardschat Elite

Kenzie 96

Legend

RedEe

Enthusiast

JohnnyFronts

Rock Star

RedEe

Enthusiast

Fryd

Enthusiast

JohnnyFronts

Rock Star

PoKeRFoRNiA

Legend

About CardsChat

Our Community

Our Site