Many people, especially those not too experienced with poker in general, usually see live tournaments as the way to go. At the same time,as juicy as these games may be, there are other problems like possible collusion, security risks, etc. Many of these games are private, and you can only get a seat if you get invited or know someone to get you in. Live cash games are probably the juiciest out there, but getting in the best high stakes games isn’t easy. Nowadays, it is much harder to find good games, especially as you move through the limits. Online cash games are still a good way to go for anyone looking to make decent profit playing poker, but these aren’t what they used to be some years ago. On top of that, many of the juicer live tournaments have high buy ins, so many players aren’t able to afford to pay them on their own. Live tournaments, on the other hand, are a better way to make money on the surface, but they have many expenses connected to them, which are discussed a bit later. Polk believes the number for a solid player playing an average buy-in of $400 would be around $500,000 – but some years can be very brutal and barely winning. There is money to be made for sure for a decent player, but that number is, on average, much smaller than most people would guess. Online tournaments, although hugely popular, are one of the toughest arenas, because of long hours and huge variance connected to them. In his video, Polk breaks it down nicely, talking about popular online and live formats. Playing poker for a living and expensesĪnyone wanting to play poker for a living needs to first decide on what they want to play.

Earning a living from online poker