This is a question I always wanted to know the answer to. Yes this is a very long post so don't read it if you don't like reading very long paragraphs.
First off let me say this. I had played online poker professionally for a bit less than 2 years but I didn't make that much money compared to most online pros. And of course after black friday, well no more income. I had played mid stakes sngs.
I always hear about poker players going broke etc. I know most people in other professions with a lot of money go broke because they are not smart with their money. Such as athletes spending all their money on cars and other stuff and gambling it away. Or people who have money that lost it in bad investments and of course gambling at the casino or betting sports and then losing their homes because of it.
Well for professional poker players, majority of them are skilled... otherwise they aren't considered professionals if thats their sole income. Now I have read lot about poker players and how they started such as oh i deposited $50 or $100 and lost it then deposited again a few times and then started winning and never looked back. But these people aren't broke as they always could put in a few hundred more dollars to build. Or only making $50 deposit and then never had to deposit again. I read about how Daniel Negreanu started and how he played limit holdem in vegas when he first started out and then went broke so many times and needed a stake to get back in the game and thats when he won a tournament for 100k and then things went well for him after that.
I know there are many people that go broke playing tournaments because its pretty much close to impossible to play tournaments only as a living. But then you always hear about those cash game players that go broke. This is what confuses me a bit. When people say they are broke... do they mean they have no more bankroll only for poker? Meaning they still have money in the bank but say its in a CD or in another investment and the money is locked up? Because when i hear that a poker player is broke... the first thing that comes to my mind is he lost all his bankroll money and probably needs to sell his house if he has one or can't even pay his rent. Am i right or wrong here?
Also, I'm curious but would I be right to assume most live poker pros don't pay taxes until they even built a decent bankroll? When i played online, i filed my taxes late because at first I didn't know you had to pay it because I heard it wasn't reported but when i read that if thats your only income, then yes you had to so i did it because that was my only income. But the thing about me was during this time that i played... i didn't have a losing year. But again... my play for being professional was very short time. I'm just thinking hey if a guy say made a great amount of money playing poker say $100,000 every year for like 5-6 years and then loses like $200,000 the following 2 years.... isn't this guy going to be broke since after you pay your 30-33% in taxes... then he's now breakeven since losses from previous years can't be carried back?
The thing about me was i was always a huge bankroll nit when i played my online mid stakes sngs so the chance of someone like me busting my account was going to be very hard. I was also a very solid player and i usually have at least 200x the buy in my account even though i probably never needed more than 100x.
You hear about guys like JRB being broke. My question is... how in the world is he broke when he lives in a nice apartment in las vegas. I saw a video of him on youtube that showed his place. Also... he has that site that tracks his bankroll every time he plays. What confuses me so much is since he has tons of swings... how in the world does he do his taxes? He seems to be the type of guy that might have a great winning week and then next year lose all of it back and then after taxes... he's actually down money if like his wins were late in the year and his huge losses come say in january of the following year. Isn't this a huge killer?
A guy that I think would never go broke is someone who wins consistently year after year. The first person that comes to my mind would be nanonoko since he plays mid stakes cash games and plays a lot of tables and have like the best bb/hr ever. Yes i know he moved up and play high stakes but if someone like him whose the best mid stakes online cash game multitabler... the chance of him going broke would be near impossible unless he goes crazy and play 25/50NL against tough competition. Would i be right or wrong here?
I mean, i heard ivey and daniel mention they went broke many times. The thing i'm wondering is when ivey and daniel were getting their feet wet playing live... would it be correct to assume they didn't pay any taxes since their roll was not much? And thus once they built a huge roll to play at least 2/5Nl... then thats when they start paying?
What do you guys say is the average amount of times poker players go broke?
Would i be correct to assume that if one goes broke when they are much younger... its not big deal since their bankroll was probably never that big to begin with? I mean, when daniel talked about him going broke when he first arrived in vegas... surely he probably didn't have more than $10000 max to his name right?
Am i wrong with saying that if you ever go broke playing poker, then that should never happen?
I would like to know which poker pros have never went broke before. Off the top of my mind, i would think its nanonoko, annette15, tom dwan.
As far as those live pros... would it be correct to assume all of them have went broke before?
But I really want to know about those live pros who play 20/40 limit minimum and 2/5NL minimum because the majority of poker pros are cash game players.
Last edited by Videopro; 06-16-2012 at 09:49 PM.
Reason: merge 3 posts. Has anyone ever told you, you are long winded?