I know there's not a ton of money in professional pool, esp when you compare it to sports such as MLB, NFL, NBA, PGA, even tennis. Is it possible that most pro pool players make the majority of their money in side games (bets with other players)?

I know that Johnny Archer owns a pool hall. Other than that, sponsorship money and packages perhaps?

Definitely not possible. Very rare any pool players ever gamble on anything, and certainly not at stakes which one could make a living off of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5HoHhCFlh8

most pool players in north america are broke.. 9 ball tournaments in the states and canada have ridiculously bad payouts. There is definitely lots of guys with cash to gamble, but i'd venture to say it's usually backer money.

Lol level?

This is more or less the correct answer. There are some players making money on the various tours, and some making even great money (Shane Van Boening for example) and a few others who have made some very good money from gambling (Scott Frost, Efren, and a few others here and there come to mind), but for the most part the vast majority are just scratching out a living. The smart ones make a few good scores and invest their money in businesses or something (usually pool halls) and build a life. Others live the road life, scuffling around small towns and 'action spots' looking to make soft games for big money (which is still very much possible, make no mistake).

Having tried them all, I'd say the road life is the most fun, but, as they say about poker, it's a tough way to make an easy living.

A related point that has been asserted (in an old, good Jimbo thread) is that many pros may be great at playing making shots etc, but not great or even good at making the odds.

Shane boeing won 80k this year and everybody else like 20k or less.

You have to be in the top 5 players ON THE PLANET to make any real money.

So glad I play poker. I been playing pool for 15 years competetively and the semi pro's have won like ten k at most. And I'm like yeh I"ve won 225,000 so far playhing online poker. Prob pisses them off. They need to get into poker if they want some real loot.

They play snooker

A very good pool player once told me that the best pool players in the world are unknown and stay that way for a reason. And it isn't because they couldn't win their share of tournaments.

Pretty sure poker used to be like this too only not to the extent that pool is.

I would bet it still is, just they will never be considered the "best" because they haven't skill-lucked it to a $7M payout and have never been talked about on 2+2.

Doubt it, its human nature to want to be recognized for your talents. I'm sure there's decent unknown players but not the best in the world

Perhaps a better way to look at this is to realise that a good handicapper always wins against any kind of other talent at the tables.

Good pool players are often very different from good pool gamblers, and there are plenty of incredibly good pool gamblers who no one has ever heard of, and plenty of incredible pool players who would struggle to get a single mortgage payment together.

The person who understands their ability vs the opposition and correctly handicap it so they gain an edge always wins over time. Full stop.

As a pool gambler, your skill with a cue is only as important as how good you are under pressure and how good you actually know yourself to be versus the prices on offer/being offered, which is a very different thing to being able to play the game 'perfectly' etc etc

And in the US, most of those kinda folks are now day traders, and watch Cramer 5 nights a week. Booyah.

good point!!

Well sure...

I'm guessing 'bout tree fiddy.

Since the men's pro billiards tour dried up, most tourney players are playing small tours and winning 700 bucks for a weekend's work. The only big tourney I know of is the Derby City Classic.

Any player playing for big money is backed by someone else's drug habit. All the players I know that play for big money also deal drugs.

I go out on Monday through Thursday nights looking for the 5-10 dollar bar tournaments. The players are usually horrid and it's an easy 50 to 100 dollars a night if I win. 30-60 for second. I get all the 5 dollar matches I can handle after the tourney and the money adds up quick. I played a lot better when I was younger but now I am mostly bored and thinking of quitting. My clothes smell like smoke every night too.