If you have enough heart, work hard enough and put in the volume anything can be achieved in poker. There are definitely more than 1000 players in 2015 that made over 100k on playing online poker. The games have changed and everyone is playing multiple sites, changing formats/or games, and adjusting to the times.

I myself can't speak for cash games, but for MTTS the present and future of poker is very positive both online and live, on pokerstars and other networks as well. It is very possible to make 6 figures playing mtts on every +ev netwok (combined) if you work hard enough, study, and put in heaps of volume. Not a simple task, but far less challenging/beatable than midstakes+cash games.

You are right that its the softest option left, but ask yourself this....If theres soooo much money to be made in MTT's...why are (95?%) of MTT pros playing backed?

Becoming a poker pro is a terrible decision generally made by those with a loser/slacker mentality. Those sorts of people are thick on the ground so they flocked to poker en mass and ruined it. Now its in its death spin and still there are idiots/dreamers with their "if you work hard" bull****

All the smart guys got out around 2012. That was 4 years ago. If you stay in the game now you are incredibly stupid. (with obv exceptions people with disabilities or w/e with few options)

If you are reasonably smart and have people skills you will be fine out there

I guess that depends on what you feel would make it worthwhile. If you need to make 6 figures at the game, then likely not, unless you're prepared to work very hard at it and even then possibly discover you're unable to make it.

But if you enjoy the game and like to improve at it, and would also be satisfied with less than six figures, or making a little spare cash at a hobby, then yes, it could very well be worth it.

Maybe a better way to tackle the issue to look at what a realistic ceiling is for winrates on the major sites (for people who put in significant volume).

Grunching: People still enjoy playing poker.

If you don't just move on.

There's probably at least 100 people who made 100k+ in 2015 in Pokerstars cash-games only. The number of overall poker players who made 100k+ in 2015 is definitely over 500, and could be over 1000. Far from the 30 people you mentionned. I have like 30 players on Skype and at least 5 of them made over 100k in 2015.

Seems like you could easiliy print money, no ?

is it like illegal to play poker for fun or something?

im guessing the question about why players are backed is a rhetorical question right? you dont actually need anybody to clear that out for you?

i dont want to win 0,03$ blinds for living, i want to win big 2$ pots.

You sound somewhat delluded maybe as you are in the thick of being a mtt pro which is all encompassing. I assume you are someone that plays mtts for a living so I'm sure you understand the variance involved. A question, have you been progressivley moving up in stakes or moving down the last 3 years? Post some graphs of your career progression. Of course there are some MTT grinders doing very well and mtts are obviously hand for hand much softer than mid stakes cash games but the variance is insane and 70% of fields are backed arent they? The future is grim for all formats unless US legalises and world wide player pools become a thing again. As someone who played msnl for a living for 8+years it was always so laughable to me that people think mtts are the easier route, even now if you dedicated your time and spread across all networks and bumhunted you'd be able to make a better less variance, less hours commited living than a mtt pro trying to do the same thing which is just so demoralising over and over again.

On topic: I would say they are >1000 <1.5k people making 100K+ at msnl/msplo+ across all networks. Which is pretty depressing.

If they are folding too much, you will make even less than this if they begin to call with the right frequency

I'd argue that if you have a good education, taking 3 years out after your degree even to make $100000 a year will be a bad long term decision unless you are doing other things to improve your future prospects.

i follow an ''MTT pro''. the guy was up like 850K since last 8-9 years but last year he constantly lose and he's now down almost 100K for the year. his graph is like a big 850K straight upswing line and then... **** happen.

you can see by his graph something dont work anymore.

He just describe a good part of the US, mainly low populated areas in the south and midwest.

He lost 950K or lost 100k in 2015 (is still up lifetime 750K?) If its the latter you're an imbecile.

30 number is fairly silly. Only 25/50 + tracked there - opt outs + excl RB. And the biggest point only taking one site into account. There are a ton of guys making 100+ across several sites.

Not going to argue that the online poker situation is grimmer than ever, but anyone who can beat midstakes 6max and hu nlh or plo can fairly easily make 100 over a few sites. How many years can that be done, that's probably a better Q.

Another interesting point is the 100k number though. At 100k net profit I think it's worth serious re-evaluation as to whether or not grinding poker is a decent long term goal, given the uncertainty and the missed career value for most degree holding grinders in mid-late 20's.

i'm not good at math but i rather being call when i 3bet pre. its more fun too. anyway the point is the game is ''dead'' at nl2. i thought nl2 was supposed to be a nooby paradise no matter the crisis of the global economy. like the buy-in is so cheap that people call an AI with TP middle kicker and stuff. but now its almost just full or ukrainians playing AA and making hero fold for 3,26$/hour. average 4 regs per table at nl2 on stars. is this supposed to be normal ? nl2 is supposed to be for noob in learning process.

i beat nl2-nl5 on stars but with a ****ty 5bb/100. i will be destroy at nl25 without even playing badly i guess. the problem is not that people are not good enough to move up, the problem is the game became to fkn nitty, even at nl2. people folding QQ on a 3bet pre without hesitation, folding a straight on a 50% pot bet cuz they know you have hit your flush on the river, etc... they make the kind of play you are not supposed to see at such micro stake.

people are to fkn nitty. we need some slot machine degenerate gamblers to cover all theses fkn ukrainians.

still up 750K. i dont think its normal to lose 100K in 9 month even if its tournament. the drop is so quick, that 750K can be lose in 4 years. and it looks like it will be.

its his 11th post lol

It's extremely time consuming to move up solely by depositing a 2nl bankroll. Do a lot of studying and deposit $750 or so from a real job to play $25nl

Can easily do that in MTTs. If you play a fairly big schedule on a Sunday that is $4-5k of buy-ins alone. Then, if you are playing the $500's and $1k's that go off each week. You can be racking up $8-9k in buy-ins each week before you know it.

If you aren't +EV in the games anymore, play a big schedule and run really badly you could go through a lot of $'s very quickly. Variance in MTTs is enormous, and why so many MTTers are busto /staked. They go spending when they hit a win or two and don't consider just how big the swings can be.

It takes a certain type of person to live in a poor area where there is nothing going on just to make your low income lifestyle work. That lifestyle is usually the result of some kind of life mistake. I don't care where you live in the U.S.. you definitely can't live like a king for 50k.

Unless you somehow know for sure that you are never going to want a family, playing poker for your primary income is a poor choice at this point for almost everyone.

Two thirds of Americans earn less than $40k a year.