Quote:
Originally Posted by rollllon
Yes, I will need the potential to make much more than $50 an hour to make this worth it. Possible? Realistic?
I absolutely do not plan on ditching my day job, this is supplementary income.
Not much. But I have a suspicion I will understand poker much better now than the last times I tried.
I would not get started in live poker to supplement your income. I'd do it because you enjoy it, and supplementing your income from a hobby is a nice side benefit. $50/hour on average is probably close to the top that you can realistically achieve at 2/5. Obviously once can play higher stakes too, but often those games revolve around one or more whales, and there will be a lot of times when they're filled with pretty good players and not easily beatable. If I had to guess, maybe 0.1% of live players have an expectation of earning meaningfully more than $50/hour, and that may be an overestimate.
If your primary goal is to increase your income, you're probably much better off devoting whatever time you're considering using for poker to improving your strength as a programmer, improving your marketability, networking, etc. The upside will be much higher here.
Just as an FYI, I come at this from the background of someone with a well-paying career (lawyer) who is also a winning recreational poker player. Winning money at poker is a nice side benefit, but frankly I'd still play even if I was a loser overall because I enjoy it (ignoring for a minute the fact that I'd enjoy it less if I was losing). It's a hobby. If my goal was maximizing income I'd spend my poker time billing legal time, meeting clients, learning new areas of the law, etc. People pursue all sorts of hobbies (golf, cars, travel, etc.) knowing that it costs them money and it's worth it anyway.