PDA

View Full Version : How easy is it to make a living playing backgammon?


betgo
02-02-2006, 11:21 AM
I used to be a chess and go player. I put tremendous effort into these games. However, I was not a top player (1700 USCF, 2100 USCF correspondence), 1 kyu in go. I have been playing poker for 2 1/2 years and I am making a living at it. In chess or go, you have to be a very strong player to play professionally. Generally, you need to start at a young age. There are more oportunities in go than chess, with about 500 professional players in Japan. The top go players do well from tournaments, but ordinary ones mostly make a living giving lessons.

Obviously, there is a lot more money available in poker and someone who understands game strategy has an advantage. I also may be better at poker, since it is more oriented towards math and deception, which are my strong points. I am not particularly good at space relations, which are important in chess and go.

I have played some backgammon online and against computer programs and read some books. I was wondering how hard it would be to make a living at backgammon. My strength in poker is at tournaments, so that is what I probably would play at backgammon. I am not interested in hustling.

Nottom
02-02-2006, 06:02 PM
My completely uneducated opinion on the matter based only on what I have read on this board:

I don't think its easy. Especially if you don't plan on "hustling" since I think thats probablt where most of the money is at. This doesn't even get into the fact that online backgammon has the bot problem which will keep it from ever being a money making oportunity like poker.

mattw
02-03-2006, 02:53 AM
my disclaimer reads as nottom's:

i think online would not be an option due to bots. live tournies is another matter.

i asked mr. robertie (i hope you know who he is) which he liked better. i believe he stated that his fav is backgammon but he can make more money playing poker. (another disclaimer: if my memory is incorrect, appologizes to mr robertie and he hopefully will correct me.)

Runner Runner
02-03-2006, 10:44 AM
All these chess guys, gravitate to backgammon and then eventually to poker. Reason being, the money is way easier to get in poker. Poker is by far the easiest game to make a living at right now.

starbird
02-04-2006, 04:22 AM
Nobody makes a living playing backgammon tournaments. The number of $100,000 prizes available each year on the world tournament circuit you could count on one hand.

Studying backgammon will benefit your poker game, but probably not as much as studying poker will. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Komodo
02-04-2006, 08:40 AM
Gus Hansen did, but im not sure how many else.

Nottom
02-06-2006, 01:09 AM
[ QUOTE ]
Gus Hansen did, but im not sure how many else.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure Hanson made most of his money off millionaires trying to prove something.

Baulucky
02-07-2006, 04:56 PM
I would think that Robertie would make a pretty decent living at online backgammon, provided he played under different aliases. But if he multitables high stakes poker games, he probably is right in saying that making money at poker is easier.

lastsamurai
02-08-2006, 04:20 AM
Yeah that would be cool if one of the big sites like stars/party ect could have backgammon on their site...heads up tournaments ect...

what would even be better if they had a site for madden fans...