Im thinking about starting to play poker to pay rent. Im by no means a good player, I can hold my own with a bunch of casuals, but Im nothing specially. Ive recently bought a few poker books of the internet, and im working on strategies in my game to vastly improve it, and Im confident I can get pretty good at it.
Now I need rent money. Namely $200 extra a week. Ive got 30 spare hours a week, and I cant get another job for personal reasons.
If I apply myself, learn, listen, watch, and improve, could I do it? I consider myself mathematical minded, as a college student I think Ive got the brains.
Whats my chances, and are there any tips? Im thinking 1-2 low limit texas holdem on party poker.
I personally wouldn’t count on poker as a steady source of income. It would be nearly impossible to make $200 a month on a regular basis, especially at such a low limit.
Pros aim to make 1 big bet an hour…trust me, you’d be better off with a part-time job.
I have a friend who does this. Not knowing much about poker myself, I can only pass on what he told me: That if you know some basic rules, strategies, and “things to watch for,” and if you pay close attention, you should be able to make $10-15/hour.
Unfortunately, that’s all I know. I didn’t ask for more details because I knew they’d go right over my head.
Have you considered eBay? I can make a few hundred a month there, and it fulfillss my shopping requirements nicely.
It’s quite possible if you’re truly a good player, but even good players get runs of really shitty luck. Even the best players can’t avoid spells of bad luck. Your poker winnings aren’t likely to be consistent enough that I would depend on them for rent, nor are they likely to be large enough to cover $800/month, especially at first. I wouldn’t risk the roof over my head on my luck at the poker table.
As a general rule, unless you belong on the pro circuit (and you’re a long way from that point), you’re much better off treating poker winnings as extra money, not as an essential part of the budget. Dr.J plays a lot of online poker, and he’s quite good at it, but there’s no way in hell we’d depend on his winnings to pay even part of our mortgage. No, his winnings are extra money for the vacation fund, or the computer toy fund, or whatever we’re saving up for at the moment. And, of course, if he has a bad week and takes a massive hammering, we can afford for him to lose his entire buy-in.
That’s another consideration: Can you afford to lose your entire buy-in fairly regularly? It’s likely to happen from time to time, especially early on. If you’re already short the rent, what’s going to happen if you hit a crappy patch at the tables and lose all the money you’ve invested in this venture?
perhaps I should be a bit more specific, not just rent, but also entertainment money too.
Ive heard success stories from people who play online, now Im usually a very skeptical person when it comes to this shit, but if I could make, on average, about 8$ an hour playing poker, thats good enough for me. Im not looking to turn 50$ to 1 million dollars, just something tidy.
I guess its all about developing the right strategy too. I consider myself pretty switched on, tinkering a good low limit hold em strategy is vital, but if you tweak it properly, I dont see barring some super bad luck why you couldnt be a fairly consistant winner.
Also Id prefer actual hold em players advice, rather then people speculating about poker when they dont really play it for read up on it, or know how the game works, and think gamblings “a fools game, how the hell can you expect to pay the rent???”.
Also I probably wont be paying the rent with it, however it will count for some nice entertainment extras like drinks, dvds, that sort of thing (things that one needs to survive ).
I am a real poker player, and I would advise against your plan.
I’m not being snotty, just realistic. You are an amatuer, you will be picked clean by a pro, and you probably can’t afford to lose your buy-in every time you sit down.
Also, when I was learning, I hated to make amatuer errors that messed things up for other players.
And Internet poker? No thanks. Go buy a video game, all the fun with none of the risk.
Low limit = low returns, usually. A 10-20 table is about the minimum we play, and that’s probably more than you had in mind.
I’ve played low limit poker for a year or two, off and on. Overall, I’m probably up about $500, although it has fluctuated a lot over time. I think at one point I was up about $1100 before hitting a long losing streak, which I’m sure I exacerbated by getting frustrated and playing differently. This last point is why you should not depend on poker for your income until you’ve played through several long runs of bad luck without going on tilt or playing poorly in response. Mental toughness is a key part of the game, and I think it takes most people a while to develop.
I personally couldn’t do it for rent money, even though I think I’m well above average in terms of skill level for low limit online play – the stress factor of needing to win isn’t worth the small amount of money you can make over the long run. And no matter how well you play, you will hit long runs of bad luck where you lose again and again when the odds are in your favor. It’s just part of the game.
if I thought i could make any money at all playing video games, I would. Unfortauntly, to make money off my favourite game (warcraft 3) requires me to plan LAN games, even then its piddly amounts not worth the time.
I’ve read a lot of bloggs about successful low limit poker players, your right, I couldnt tackle the higher limit without a lot of practice, experience, and an immense amount of patience.
I always considered myself fairly skilled with number games, patient, and competent. Fortauntly, most low limit players dont have these skills, and prefer social gambling as opposed to mind wars. They can be cleaned up in my opinon.
I’m an ex poker pro. I played for the rent money for several years. I still play online poker, and made about $20K at it last year (strictly part time).
You can not make a living at 1-2 poker. Sorry. Even playing two tables at once, you can’t hope to make more than minimum wage. Also, you typically need a playing bankroll of at least 400 big bets, or $800 in your case. Expect to make a couple of bucks an hour over the long run.
Poker is a fine hobby that can earn you some spending money. Played at high enough limits, it can earn you significant money if you’re good. But as a way to pay the rent, for someone who doesn’t have a huge wad of cash in the first place, it’s a very, very bad idea. It’s stressful as hell. Trust me - you will go through long losing stretches of a duration that will test your sanity. It’s annoying when you’re losing your beer money, but devastating when you’re losing the rent. Just don’t do it.
To make enough money to actually make a career at poker, you need to be playing limits of 10-20 and up. This requires a playing bankroll of maybe $10,000 or more.
If you’re having trouble making the rent now, don’t play poker. Get a job. Make some money. Put aside a small playing bankroll that you are willing to lose. Start at the lowest limits, and get your skills in shape. As you grow your playing bankroll, move up in limits. Eventually, you might get to the point where the limits you are playing are high enough to make the rent. Even then, keep your day job. Keep building your bankroll. If you want to play for the rent, it’s not enough to just have the money to stay in the game. You have to have enough money that you won’t sweat the losses. You need a bankroll not only big enough for the limits, but big enough that if you go on a three-month dry spell you can still pay all your bills AND have a bankroll big enough to continue playing.
Mind wars rarely work in low limit online poker. The other players can’t see your face, aren’t keeping track of how you’ve been betting, and will rarely if ever be scared into folding a semi-decent hand by a raise. Bluffing too often is a good way to lose money quickly at low limits.
It is very difficult. I know a couple of pros who could make a living off of playing poker online, but they have tremendous skill. For example, one pro I am acquainted with keeps exhaustive notes on every player he has ever encountered online. He also has a PHD from MIT and a law degree from Harvard, both obtained before he turned 23. He can calculate odds of any card combination in his head.
One thing you have to realize is that most gamblers consistently overstate the amount they win. So if you have heard others brag about their success you can be sure that they are not keeping accurate books to back up their claims. You tend to remember the big wins and file the losses away. I would play for fun, but I would never budget for the winnings. There are some truly poor players online, but more and more the skill level is quite high.
Not true. The casino makes money from raking the pot. It doesn’t care who wins. Your opponents are other players, not the house. If you can play better than they can, you’ll win money.
Online poker is not a visual game, because you can’t see anyone. That makes it different, but doesn’t change the fact that there are skills that you can use to beat other players who aren’t as skilled.
As I type this, there are 22,588 players on 'PartyPoker. How many of those do you suppose are poker experts?
Well, if you’re not planning to pay the rent with it, why’d you say you were thinking about trying to pay the rent with it?
Once you gain some skill, it shouldn’t be much trouble to make enough to keep yourself in beer and Skittles. Until you get to that point, though, you’re liable to be losing your beer and Skittles money to more experienced, more skillful players. If you’re playing a lot and have some skill, it’s fairly easy to finish a week $200 up. It’s equally easy to finish the week down $200 if you’re just not getting the cards or playing someone better than you. Realistically speaking, if you make $200 a month, you’re doing quite well for the level you’re playing at. That’s a fair chunk of change for entertainment or savings purposes, but it ain’t gonna pay the rent.
Wow! I haven’t been on this board in ages, and was very surprised to find a post on poker! I am an ‘online’ poker pro, and also coach/tutor/teach online poker part-time.
Hourly earn rates online are higher than in B&M play as we get at least twice as many hands per hour. The online poker pro aims at more than 1BB/hour.
If you want to make it as an online low limit pro playing 1-2, you will have to learn to multi-task very well. There are examples of low limit pros online doing relatively well for their stakes. Many are by no means ‘experts’ but are professional by the very strict definition that they earn their money playing poker. There is one person I am aware of in Ontario that plays six, $0.50-$1 games simultaneously with an earn rate of 2BB/100 hands per table = approx. $7.20 per hour. Supposing you could do the same playing 1-2, you’d be making $14.40 an hour.
I personally am unable to deal with 6 tables, and 1-2 is just a wee bit small for me. My typical setup when I’m working is usually (a) 2 shorthanded (5 or 6 max) tables at 5-10 or 10-20, or 3 to 4 full (10 handed) tables at 5-10 or 10-20. Be warned, that you will require proper equipment to make multi-tabling workable: at least 1 monitor with 1600 x 1200 resolution (preferable 19"). Many multi-table professionals actually use two 19" 1600 x 1200 CRTs so that they can clearly see at least 4 tables plus the lobby screen. You need to have the lobby screen active all the time so you can be on a continuous search for better games - table hopping as they become available.
A little off topic. This year, I’ve taken on three online poker students:
A guy on welfare that I’ve known for a very long time. His first month out was at 1/2-1 and he very quickly expanded to playing 3 tables simultaneously. The first week was hell on me - he gave me no shortage of fits with some rather bizarre plays and lost most of the $100 I gave him. I then stuck $200 in his account, and the last three weeks saw him make $200. For the second month out, I moved him into the 1-2 game, and continued my review of his mistakes. He made $600 his second month out playing 30 hours a week at 3 tables simultaneously, and has never looked back.
My second student is from Mexico, where according to him, their daily wages is only $7. Needless to say, any reasonable amount of success at even low limit poker is a substantial paycheck to him. It was tough at first, as all our consultations had to be done by email. But after a couple of months, he has hit 1BB/hour at 1-2 and three tables as well, so is making roughly $6/hour playing poker in a country with a factory workers wage of $7 per day!
My third student is a college kid in Washington State. I think college kids are more quick to pick things up. He progessed very quickly and within a month, moved up to the 2-4 game and has been solidly trouncing it at 1.3BB/hour for the last month while 2-tabling for an hourly earn rate of $10.40. Not what any of us consider to be a good living, but it still beats working at a McDonald’s for a summer job!
So, it is possible. But it certainly is not as easy as simply saying it. You’ve got a lot of learning to do and many concepts and ideas to become familiar with. It will be very hard work, mentally and emotionally. I have personally advised in the past, and will continue to advise for the rest of my life, that anyone considering poker as a profession should first exhaust every other possible career choice. It should be your last choice. Period. If and only if it is your only remaining option, and you are absolutely serious about this endeavor, I wouldn’t mind helping you out.
