# I Can't Possibly Be Ready To Play Online Poker For Real Money Can I? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 20, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-possibly-be-ready-to-play-online-poker-for-real-money-can-i/468807 "2008-10-20T21:55:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-possibly-be-ready-to-play-online-poker-for-real-money-can-i/468807/21 "2008-10-24T16:04:39Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I think he was saying that he makes $70 and pays $55 in rake, so that if the game were unraked, he’d be making $125/hr. Right. > [@](#): > > Edit: But yes, rake is absolutely devastating. Only a small percentage of the even already small percentage of winning poker players will beat a game for more than they’re paying in rake. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that, without rake, there would be fewer winners than losers (because of the top players sucking up a disproportionate amount of the profit to be had), but I think the percentage of winning players would be within sniffing distance of 50%. But yeah, the rake is just brutal. The number I’ve heard says that 6-7% of online players turn a profit. > [@](#): > > I wouldn’t call $70/hr a “thin” margin regardless of the way you’re getting it. It certainly isn’t thin in an absolute sense, but it is relative to the games that I’m multi-tabling. Playing mostly 3/6, I’m making just over three Big Blinds per table/hour. The games don’t have to get much tougher at all for that number to shrink by two Big Blinds, which would basically mean a 60% “pay cut.” ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-possibly-be-ready-to-play-online-poker-for-real-money-can-i/468807/22 "2008-10-24T16:50:20Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that, without rake, there would be fewer winners than losers (because of the top players sucking up a disproportionate amount of the profit to be had), but I think the percentage of winning players would be within sniffing distance of 50%. I would guess the ratio of winners to losers would be something like 30/70 in an unraked game. But even ignoring that 70% would still be losers, they’d be much less significant losers. Many of them would be much closer to break even, and those that lost would lose significantly less. > [@](#): > > But yeah, the rake is just brutal. The number I’ve heard says that 6-7% of online players turn a profit. The numbers I’ve seen for poker in its entirety have ranged from about 4% to 8%. I would guess the online numbers would be higher, with the reduced rake/no jackpot/no tipping/ability to multitable. If 6-7% for online is true, 3-4% for live sounds more likely… but then again, live players are significantly softer for any given limit. > [@](#): > > It certainly isn’t thin in an absolute sense, but it is relative to the games that I’m multi-tabling. Playing mostly 3/6, I’m making just over three Big Blinds per table/hour. The games don’t have to get much tougher at all for that number to shrink by two Big Blinds, which would basically mean a 60% “pay cut.” True enough. Should online ever dry up for you, I’m sure you could make out nicely at 2-5 and 5-10 nl games in Vegas if you’re beating those games online. ---
**Author:** ![Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gut)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-possibly-be-ready-to-play-online-poker-for-real-money-can-i/468807/23 "2008-10-27T22:33:54Z")
The books that **VarlosZ** recommended arrived today and I’m about 100 pages into the first one. I’m really enjoying the reading and finding out how poorly I’ve actually been playing. I still haven’t had a losing night at the play money tables so that just seems to confirm that I’ll never get any better unless I play for real money. Having said that I think I should let the dopers have first crack at the new fish! Can one of you fine upstanding gentlemen PM me the details? I usually get home from work around 7:30pm Mountain Time so I should be able to join the Thursday night game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-possibly-be-ready-to-play-online-poker-for-real-money-can-i/468807.md?page=1)