Poker has evolved a lot in the past few decades and is getting difficult by the day. With the ever-increasing rake amounts, a high percentage of variance in the game and changing tournament structure, it is quite difficult to decide whether Poker, as a profession, will ensure a steady income for you.

However, there are many professional Poker players whose bread and butter depend on Poker. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Daniel Negreanu
   
   Source: wikipedia
   
   Daniel Negreanu, a Canadian professional Poker player,  is the biggest live poker winner of all time. At the tender age of 16, Daniel found his love for gambling and Poker. Later, he dropped out of his high school to pursue Poker full time. He has won six World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. Acc. to Global Poker Index, he is the best Poker player in the past decade. He is famously known for his cash games and has amassed over $31 million in his Poker career. Daniel was given the title of the 2013 WSOP Player of the year, the 2013 Bluff Player of the year, and the 2013 Card Player of the Year. He has also been inducted in The 2014 Poker Hall of Fame Class.

2. Daniel Colman
   
   Source: wikipedia
   
   Daniel Colman, an American Poker player, is famous for winning $15.3 million in One-Drop at the 2014 WSOP by beating Daniel Negreanu. It is the second highest first place prize in the history of Poker. Daniel is an online poker player as well. His net earning from poker is around $26 million.
    

3. Mustapha Kanit
   
   Source:cardplayer
   
   Mustapha, an Italian Poker player, started playing Poker in his early teenage years at private poker clubs later moving on to play online and live poker tournaments. His total earnings till this date amount to up to $7.7 million. He currently ranks 1st in Italy all-time money list and 58th on the Global Poker Index.
    

So, people around the world do pursue a career by playing poker and doing well in their respective lives. However, just like every other thing in the world, Poker as a career perspective have its pros and cons as well.

Pros:

1. Money-
   Money is obviously quite good in the game. There exists only a small amount of people who actually make it to the top list of people who become extremely rich. However, a comfortable living is definitely attainable for the rest of the people.
    

2. Flexibility-
   Being a poker player, you’re never under a compulsion of a 9 to 5 job. You are your own master. You can play/withdraw whenever you want.
    

3. You do what you love
   Almost 3 out of 5 people you meet in your life are stuck in a job they don’t like and have no interest in it. So, you have a fair chance to pursue a career in what you love. It’s an awesome feeling to be challenged out of your wits each day in a work you love.
    

Cons:

1. Variance-
   Poker is ever changing. You can never predict how good are you playing, so it means half of the times you may not have an edge over other players. You could either win straight for a number of hands or vice versa.
    

2. Living off others-
   The majority of your earnings come from beating the weak players. If you can develop a knack for hunting these bad players then your chances of winning the game will become sufficiently high. If you’re good at holding on to your emotional side then other’s loss should not affect your career.
    

3. Imbalance-
   Many professional Poker players just don’t know when to stop, especially when they’re winning consistently. Sometimes, it becomes to maintain a healthy balance in your personal and your professional lives and players end up losing out big time on their health.
    

4. Boring sometimes-
   When playing for more than 12 hrs with extreme grinding and little to no action happening on the table,the game becomes boring most of the time.
    

It depends on what approach you follow and how much financially sound you are in case if you ever go broke. I won’t say that Poker will give you steady income always but yes you can live at a fairly moderate level and pay your bills. Since we know that Poker is a game of 75% skill and 25% luck, so if you do your homework properly then who knows you might be playing alongside established Poker player. All you have to do is to keep that spark going in you.

PLAY & EARN