Increase your win rate with the following bonsues:
Many people often ask or wonder how much it is possible to make as a professional online poker player. The truth is that the answer varies greatly. Many factors have a bearing on how much a pro can make. Some of those things are the skill of the player, the bankroll of the player, and the stakes that the player most commonly frequents. In our article Playing Online Poker For a Living, we touch lightly on income potential, but this article will take a deeper look at the math behind the money one can make.
In order to put some sense to this mystery, we first need to establish some starting points. For a brick and mortar poker player, if you can make one large bet per hour, your doing well. What we mean by that is if you are playing $10/$20 hold'em, and you are a good player, you can expect to make one big bet, or in this case $20 per hour. This obviously varies over time, and in an online game it is a completely different ballgame. Generally in an online game we look at win rate in terms of big bets per 100 hands. Below is a breakdown of possible win rates in an online game:
1.5BB/100
This is a solid win rate that a good player can realisticly sustain over a long period of time. You don't have to be Chip Reese to win 1.5BB/100 but you do need to be a good, experienced player with a thorough understanding of the game.
3BB/100
A win rate like this is possible to sustain over time, but generally it would be from an above average to excellent player. Win rates like this are often the result of loose or passive games, and even average players may experience them from time to time, but only the best players will maintain this kind of win rate in average to tight game conditions.
6BB/100 and higher win rates
Win rates like this are generally statistical outliers. There are several things going on that would lead to a win rate like this sustained over time. Only the absolute best players in the world could realisticly hold up these kinds of win rates. Average players and above average players may go on runs where they encounter a win rate above 6BB/100 but usually this would involve consitently ultra loose or weak opponents and a fair amount of luck.
So how much can be made?
Now that we understand some of the different win rates that a professional might encounter, we are able to get a little more specific on how much money can be made. The next thing we need to look at is the stakes a professional is playing, and how many hands per hour they are playing. We can start by assuming that the average table deals about 60 hands per hour. Lets look at a few examples of how much a player might earn playing $5/$10 hold'em:
Tables played: 1
Hands per hour: 60
Win rate: 1.5.BB/100
Hourly wage: $9 per hour
Tables played: 2
Hands per hour: 120
Win rate: 1.5BB/100
Hourly wage: $18 per hour
The hourly wage in each scenario is figured by dividing 1.5 big bets (in this case $15) by 100 in which case we arrive at a figure of $0.15 per hand, which then of course we multiply by the number of hands per hour to get to our hourly rate. Lets take a look at two more examples, we will use the same $5/$10 hold' em game, but this time we will do some serious multi-tabling and our win rate will suffer slightly:
Tables played: 4
Hands per hour: 240
Win rate: 1BB/100
Hourly wage: $24 per hour
Tables played: 8
Hands per hour: 480
Win rate: .07BB/100
Hourly wage: $33.60
In these two cases we see that the hourly wage clearly goes up, but the quality of our play has dropped. In a situation like this, it is probably a better idea to play less tables and slowly work up until you can sustain the same win rate while playing many tables.
Income possibilities table
The following table displays monthly earning potential at selected stakes assuming 40 hours of poker per week. The table assumes a win rate of 1.5BB/100
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$3/$6 hold'em |
$1728 |
$3456 |
$5184 |
$6912 |
$8640 |
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$5/$10 hold'em |
$2880 |
$5760 |
$8640 |
$11520 |
$14400 |
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$10/$20 hold'em |
$5760 |
$11,520 |
$17280 |
$23040 |
$28800 |
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$100/$200 hold'em |
$57600 |
$115,200 |
$172800 |
$230000 |
$288000 |
Please keep in mind that all figures displayed here are strictly estimates based on the experience of many others over the course of time since online poker has been around. Poker is a game full of variance so your results most definitely will be different! Use this information only as a general guide as to what might be possible to make as an online professional!
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Poker Strategy 
