Is online poker a hard way to make an easy living?

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Me too (old white man playing poker) 😎

I started playing online poker seriously in 2001/2002. And yes, I can say that it was much easier to build up a stable bankroll back then. There were so many sites and skins where you could win with bonus whoring and rake back and a not even astronomical winrates.
In my first year I played NL 10, 25 and 50 and made it to a 5 figure bankroll.
There were no trackers and training sites back then. What I did use was 2p2, especially the strategy part.

Until black friday came I played NL 1000 and PLO 400 and achieved small winrates.
Poker was never my main source of income, but it was a nice extra.
Achieving this today has become much more difficult. The player pool has shrunk dramatically and providers have become much stingier when it comes to bonuses and rake back.

So we old white poker players have no choice but to mourn the good old days. 🙂

I think you can still be and become a winning player today, it's just more difficult than it used to be.
However, you have to be pretty damn good to make a living playing poker.

But as we all know, you should never give up on your dreams if you have any. 😉
 
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Of course yes, my personal opinion is that you can still make money from poker. The statistics of winning players confirm this!
 
every year there are more and more poker players, and accordingly it is more difficult to earn money in poker) Now poker is like a casino, whoever has more luck is the one who is tweaked by the room)
 
gravii2011 said:
IMG 3588every year there are more and more poker players, and accordingly it is more difficult to earn money in poker) Now poker is like a casino, whoever has more luck is the one who is tweaked by the room)
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Att: gravii2011. You are criminally wrong and spreading misinformation. Every year there are fewer and fewer poker players. This has been going on since 2011. Here the poker world was shocked by Black Friday. The day when the FBI raided and shut down PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker. But the downfall started in 2009, where the then biggest site PartyPoker excluded US players - 85% of the player pool.
As of now there are <30.000 online cash game players at peak hours. Check Pokerscout.
And I take it for granted that you are not thinking of the play money donk paradise. Several sites. That ain’t poker but bingo.
 
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Well, not the easiest. You have to have discipline. and wait) Well, skills, of course
 
I would never be a full time poker player. It's tougher than most people think it is and you don't get the recognition, people think you are just a gambler
 
Online poker and poker in general is a hard way to make an easy living. Players have gotten much better over the years and the real easy player have either improved or left the game. If you really wanted to make a living of it online you can but it will really take work and dedication to the game to make it. I personally have put in the work and hold my own but to make a living at it would be a risk and take away to muck of what I Have and love. My family and kids are work more than attempting to make a living online or live.

I would love to have the opportunity to try but as I said the cost is way to much to give it a shot.
 
Professional online poker is a stressful, hard work. It needs discipline, emotional intelligence, dedication and a good orthopedist.
 
nabmom said:
What do you think? Can online poker still be beatable and profitable?
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You can make yourself a bulletproof mindset, put it on and never take it off🙁😢
 
Live poker would be a hard way to make an easy living. Online.... almost impossible!
 
Earning money playing poker online is difficult, but not impossible. Although, to be honest, you can earn the same amount of money with much less effort from a regular job.
Only bingo players believe that poker can give you easy money.
 
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I still remember the days around 2010 when I first started playing poker. What’s really interesting to me is how Fedor Holz didn’t truly hit his peak until 2015. That’s a solid sign that with passion and dedication, you can still make good money in poker—if you’ve got the talent and the drive.
 
It all depends on your needs. It is not very difficult to earn, for example, $100 a month playing online poker. But earning $1,000 is much harder. Everything is relative, for someone, $100 is good money, and for someone, $1000 is nothing.
 
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When i first started playing Poker online it was great i was killing it,pulling down between 2/3 hun a month.Now the government is in to it and they have limited me to just playing in the province i live in. So playing is just for fun now no way to make a living here but it's still play and have fun.
 
riff_raff312 said:
When i first started playing Poker online it was great i was killing it,pulling down between 2/3 hun a month.Now the government is in to it and they have limited me to just playing in the province i live in. So playing is just for fun now no way to make a living here but it's still play and have fun.
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Do you realize that there are players who are making a living while playing online in Ontario (in the segregated player pool)?
Some of these guys were playing full-time prior to the division and were 'making a living'. What they assumed was going to be terrible for them soon became a blessing - - their winrates skyrocketed and they jumped up from being low stakes MTT regs. to playing Mid & High stakes now.
Smaller player pools = less variance. And apparently there's some huge fish playing in Ontario now. (or at least there was last year)

Derek957 said:
Live poker would be a hard way to make an easy living. Online.... almost impossible!
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It's a good thing the players who are currently 'making a living' while playing online poker don't have this way of thinking. And there are players who are 'making a living' playing online poker, some even while playing at Low stakes.
 
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Poker Orifice said:
Do you realize that there are players who are making a living while playing online in Ontario (in the segregated player pool)?
Some of these guys were playing full-time prior to the division and were 'making a living'. What they assumed was going to be terrible for them soon became a blessing - - their winrates skyrocketed and they jumped up from being low stakes MTT regs. to playing Mid & High stakes now.
Smaller player pools = less variance. And apparently there's some huge fish playing in Ontario now. (or at least there was last year)
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Everyday for quite a number of years now I've been hoping for a Canada wide geo-locked player pool. F**K Govt is so stupid.

Cheers!!!
 
It depends on the lifestyle you want to live, and the cost of living in your country as @najisami said. Making a living out of poker is the hardest as of now because there are a lot of players, both good and bad, and a lot of downswings which can last for long.

So to make a living out of playing poker is just not worth it, unless tons of luck are by your side.
 
nabmom said:
As a somewhat "older player" (I will not share my exact age, even if my gray hair does! 😉) I remember the golden age of enormous poker fish tanks online. It seemed that poker was so easy to beat online. Playing NLH almost felt like printing money. And online Omaha was perhaps even easier to win.

Now as we near the end of 2024, I find myself wondering if there is still a way to beat this game. What do you think? Can online poker still be beatable and profitable?
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I am sure that online poker can be profitable. But it's a matter of your perseverance and your capabilities. If you have enough free time, if you are financially secure, you can devote yourself to the game and if you are persistent enough, in a few years poker can start to bring you additional income.
 
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Yes it is a hard way to make an easy living.
There is no such thing as "easy living" to me playing online poker.
I play the micro cash games at ACR and make "extra money" but there is not living money for me.
I do not multi table like a lot of the more serious players but I use a HUD.
To make a living in online poker for me would require investments in computer equipment, software, and training that I can't devote the money and time to make it happen.
It is an easy way to make spending money but a hard way to make an easy living.
 
Online poker appears easy because you can play from home but:

  • Easy Part: You get paid to play a game, which seems straightforward if you're skilled.
  • Hard Part:
    • Skill and Luck
    • Variance
    • Mental Fortitude
Good luck..lol
 
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I believe that competitiveness has increased, the players have improved. It is certainly possible to be profitable, but it will be much more challenging.
 
Having read 99% of your replies, I agree that it is difficult. However, I believe it is possible as long as you have the time, willingness to learn, and patience.

Tournament players find it harder than cash game players. As a tournament player, you can play 20 - 30 tourneys without cashing. Although, in the same breath, you can go on a roll as a tourney player and cash 4, 5 or 6 games in a row.

The best way is to have a plan, including strictly monitoring your stats and how you feel when playing different games. We all know that BR management is important too.

I read once that you should study and check your past play, in as much time as you spend playing. I believe this can be altered, because you may play a tourney that lasts 7 hours, then you will check that game and see what you did right and what you could improve on. (That would definitely not take 7 hours), but the other time could be spent studying, so I believe it is not so important to study as much as they say, I believe the most important thing is to review your play and make sure no bad habits slip into your game.
 
yes it can. As long as you keep your discipline.
 
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