Can Anyone Make a Living Playing Poker in 2016?

Poker has been getting tougher year on year for as long as I can remember. The online player pool has been segregated and legality issues over the years as well as the involvement of US authorities has discouraged the casual player from depositing and playing online.

The picture is not much better for live poker. We are seeing fields flooded with experienced players, tournament structures changing, and even rake increasing. That begs the question - Is poker, as a career, still viable and worth striving for.

The short answer is yes. It IS possible to make a living playing poker professionally in 2016, and many players are doing so. That said, players need to be a lot more focused and must cut out all of the bad habits that they could have gotten away with in the past.

This article is going to highlight some of the things you can do if you are looking to make poker your profession be it live, online, or both.

Play Fewer Tables

Mass tabling online and becoming a rakeback pro was a realistic possibility a number of years ago. You could simply learn basic strategy, study some charts, and load up table after table until your head hurt.

You could play a very robotic and predictable style and break even at the tables. This was enough, because monthly rakeback payments would follow. It was not unheard of for players to get close to 90% rakeback and live off that payment each and every month providing they got enough hands in.

Doesn’t sound like much fun to me, but it worked for many and it certainly beats flipping burgers.

Those days are pretty much behind us now. Sites are tightening their belts and becoming stingy with rakeback and bonuses. PokerStars recently removed their very sought after SuperNova VIP status, which has cost some players tens of thousands of dollars.

I would now advise lowering the number of tables you play. Instead, really focus on every decision you make, take lots of notes and you will be surprised at how quickly you improve. Your hourly rate may be lower in the short term, but increasing your ability will allow you to move up the stakes much quicker and that will soon make up for the lower hourly and then some.

Get Real!

All poker players seem to think that they’re world beaters and can sit down in any game and beat it for a huge win rate. The reality is that this is only the case for a very few elite players. We would all be wise to take a minute and honestly assess our abilities. If you are a tournament player, live or online, are you absolutely certain you should be playing the $100 online, Sunday 500, or all of the SCOOP High Rollers? For the live players, should you really be jumping in every €5k, €10k, and €25k on the planet?

A lot of players at every level are probably playing some tournaments where they’re not as big a favourite as they would like to think they are, and in all honesty some of us have no business playing some of the games we do. For tournament players this is actually pretty simple. IF you are honest with yourself and look closely at past results, you will soon find some games to take out of your schedule. There is so much choice nowadays that we can hop in a €1k somewhere or instead of the Sunday 500 play a couple of mid stakes tournament online instead. Those will have bigger fields but your expectation will be much higher.

Cash players have the same problem, but identifying it is far more difficult. Let's say you’re a $200nl player and you have a decent win rate over a large sample. You would think that you can just jump in any $1/$2 game right? Wrong!

The truth is, every $200nl game is different. If you have bad position or a really tough table, your win rate will decline dramatically and in extreme cases you may no longer be a winner in the game. There is no shame in leaving the table and looking for another or even dropping down in stakes if there are not any good games available at your usual stake.

If you can’t play seriously at a lower stake then either get over it, it really is no big deal, or just try and experiment with some different lines. Alternatively identify a leak you have, maybe you're ionot 3 betting light enough. Head to the lower sticks and 3 bet at will.

Study

The days of being able to just show up and book a win are long gone my friends. You have absolutely no chance of beating a reasonable stake for a long period of time without working hard on your game. The introduction of training sites and more coaches in the market has brought about a sharp increase in the average skill level.

Do not let yourself fall behind.

Sign up to a training site

If you are looking to play for a living, then it really shouldn’t be much of your bankroll - probably about the same amount as a mistimed 3 bet.

Make sure you do not just sit and passively watch the videos, you will get nothing from that. Pay close attention, consider taking notes, and when done go to the tables and try and implement something you have just learned.

Revisit videos over time and make sure you understand the concept completely. The majority of training sites have great forums too. Use them, they are much more focused than some of the other forums you may be accustomed to.

Get involved on the forums

I am going to go ahead and assume anybody who is considering a career is a member of a forum, but do you use it to it’s potential?

It is true that the number of trolls far outweigh the superior posters, but you will find the strategy sub-forums have a much better ratio. I, myself, am not a forum lover, but I am a great networker. Use the forum to build contacts in the poker world.

Many players meet like minded individuals on the forums and soon migrate over to a private Skype group to talk poker strategy. I simply can’t explain how much of an impact talking poker wit hother good players has on your game. It is huge. Just listen to a few ‘what’s your poker story’ interviews and see how many of today's top pro’s consider finding poker friends to talk strategy with a key factor in their personal development.

Hire A Coach

This might not be necessary depending on where you are in your poker career, but if you have gone through all of the other steps and feel like you’ve hit a wall, then you should consider hiring a poker coach to help unlock your full potential.

Quality coaching does not come cheap, so make sure you’re ready to take full advantage of it and do your research. Really good coaches are few and far between.

Once you have found a coach, approach them for a sample lesson or at the very least have a good discussion with them first to make sure your thoughts on the game are aligned. When your sessions come around, make sure you are armed with a bunch of questions and are ready to make the most out of the time.

Many of my poker playing friends have used coaching as a way to improve their game. The majority of them have had extremely positive experiences with coaching and would definitely recommend it.

How Much Do You Want It?

We have established playing poker professionally is not easy. If you’re a good player who just can’t make it to the professional level there are other options available to you.

It is not uncommon for players from the US to move for poker due to the fallout from Black Friday. However, those are not the only guys moving around. More and more players are moving to keep their costs down.

A London grinder just about getting by with poker could move to Thailand and live a very good life. The cost of living varies from country to country and players desperate to make the jump to professional could consider moving.

Hard Way to Make an Easy Living

The saying has never been as true as it is today. It is definitely possible to make a living playing poker in 2016 for the really good players and for the great professionals who are level headed and perhaps live somewhat of a frugal lifestyle.

Many smart professionals who have had some big wins in their career have invested that money, be it in stocks, property, or business. This is a very wise move and helps them to fully relax at the tables knowing they have something to fall back on if it goes wrong.

One final thought for those of you who are not professional but would love to be one day: I would say keep playing the game you love. Poker has been on the decline for a long time, but with regulation finally starting to happen all over the world, more and more people are going to pick up the game. Keep your game sharp and take full advantage when the next opportunity arrives.

It must be said a lot of today’s professionals were in the right place at the right time and took full advantage. Stay ready and maybe you could do the same.