Playing Online Poker for a Living

by Matthew Hilger

Many people have become enamored with online poker and ask me frequently, "I want to play poker professionally on the Internet, what do you recommend?" One problem I have with this question is that is seems that the decision has already been made. Online poker is a lot of fun as a hobby, but playing for a living is quite different and is a decision that should be carefully thought out before quitting your day job.

There are some great benefits to playing online poker for a living:

• You can work your own hours.
• You are your own boss.
• You can take as much vacation as you like.
• You can work wherever you want in the world.
• You can work in your underwear, lol.

I quit a very good job as a Finance Director with a large pharmaceutical company to be able to take advantage of these benefits. I moved to New Zealand for a couple of years and enjoyed a nice relaxing life. The great thing about Internet poker is that I could work around my social life rather than plan my social life around work. It was a good life....but playing poker full-time began to take its toll after a couple of years.

As with any job, playing poker for a living is not all fun and games. Playing 10 hours a week can be a lot of fun and be a great hobby but the fun and thrill of playing poker is not quite the same once you start playing 40 hours a week in front of a computer. I still have a passion for the game and enjoy playing most of the time, but playing poker full-time was not something that I saw myself doing for many years.

I have been fortunate in that I am still involved in poker full-time as a business with my book, website, and publishing company. This makes playing poker once again a part-time activity that I can enjoy when I want to without having to rely on it 40 hours a week to pay the bills. Before making the transition to full-time online poker, think very carefully about how you would enjoy playing poker in front of a computer screen full-time for many years. It would be a shame to ruin what is now a great hobby for many of you.

Let's look at some of the practical downsides to playing poker for a living. Although it is great to have as many vacation days as you want, these vacations days are not paid! I always enjoyed four weeks of vacation before with my finance job, but it is quite different when you know that no income is coming in while you are away. If you do decide to play for a living, I recommend setting aside some vacation pay each month just like a regular job. This way you can feel like you are being paid and enjoy your vacation without worrying about money.

There are also some additional expenses for being self-employed. American residents must pay full FICA and Medicare payments, which is 15.3% of your salary up to certain limits, rather than the 7.65% you pay when working for a company. You must also pay for medical and dental insurance.

Remember also that gambling income is taxable in the United States just like regular income, even if you play part-time. If you are an American citizen and move overseas, you are able to deduct over $80,000 a year from your income since you are not residing in the States. This effectively eliminates most income tax, but you still must pay the FICA and Medicare taxes.

Obviously, poker has some inherent risks that are part of the job. You will have an unstable income each month with the risk of actually losing money during a month. Even experts can play hundreds of hours and still lose money. To play professionally, you need to be the type of person that can handle these fluctuations. Although they shouldn't happen too frequently, they will occur, and believe me they are not much fun.

Finally, many players who ask me about playing online are still rather limited in their playing experience. They make a lot of money over a few hundred hours and think about how great this would translate into a full-time job. Poker is a game of luck and skill and a few hundred hours of play is not nearly enough to know how much you could expect to earn. Even a player who should normally lose one big bet an hour could win up to 250 big bets over a 100 hour period simply by getting a lucky run of cards. Be sure that you have enough experience and bankroll before you even consider making the plunge to online poker.