Professional poker players like to brag about their victories and voice unimaginable earnings. But you need to understand that there are many gamers, and only a few become poker pros. Therefore, the card game is turning into the main source of income for a limited number of poker players.
It is possible to become a poker pro, but it requires mastering a lot of strategies and tricks of the game. Lest you have any illusions, let’s say right away that only 1% of poker players achieve a professional level of play. And even they often find themselves on the verge of complete bankruptcy.
How much do poker pros win?
Especially for you, we have compiled the top players with the most impressive earnings. The ranking of the most successful players includes:
- John Cynn is a former IT consultant who is now a professional poker player. On the card game, he earned almost $9,000,000.
- Justin Bonomo is an American player who won 2 WSOP gold bracelets. In 2018, he won over $10,000,000 in the next WSOP series.
- Bryn Kenney is an American poker player who has earned over $30,000,000 playing poker.
- Fedor Holz is a 26-year-old ambassador of the famous Partypoker, whose income is $6,240,265.
In total, there are only 159 players who managed to earn more than $1,000,000 in 1 year.
How do these players do it?
The income level of a poker pro depends on the number of sources of income. Before the poker boom, the pros spent more time playing tournaments. But events have a lot of disadvantages:
- Large dispersion;
- High material risks;
- Unstable income.
To maximize their profit, poker pros had to combine events with online play. As many of them admit, you can really make money only on recreational players and fish.
Making money on poker has become more difficult
The most famous poker players in the world who earn an average of $9,000 per 80,000 hands say that to receive such an amount, they have to spend up to 250 hours on the game. According to this, making money on the game has become more difficult.
It’s connected with:
- Total popularization of poker;
- Availability of poker literature;
- The advent of statistical software.
In modern conditions of life, there are many more strong poker players than 10-15 years ago. Therefore, making money on the game has become much more difficult. And in order to succeed, you must learn how to use poker strategies competently.
How to become a successful poker player?
Anyone can succeed in a card game if they are willing to devote all their free time to learning. The continuous growth of skill is the key to a successful poker career. To turn poker into the main source of income, you need to:
- Constantly study and apply poker strategies;
- Analyze your hands after the end of each session;
- Find and fix flaws in your own game.
On average, poker can bring in $4,000 per month.
Explore new game formats
To expand your capabilities, you must not stop there. If earlier for a profitable game it was enough to sit down at the tables with Hold’em, today a lot has changed. To increase earnings, many players master more exotic types of poker:
- Razz;
- 7 Card Stud;
- Badugi;
- 5 card Omaha, etc.
The question about the average earnings of a poker pro is impossible to answer unequivocally because the winning numbers do not reflect the real picture. Pros spend huge sums on:
- Buy-in payout;
- Traveling expenses;
- Housing rental.
Few people manage to make money on sponsorship contracts. Therefore, players are looking for additional sources of income. Some become representatives of online rooms, others become poker coaches, others become streamers, etc.
If you used to think that professional poker players earn a lot and have no problems, now you can look at the situation from a different perspective!