is there such a thing as an online tournament poker pro ?

[THAY3R]

Sheets and Bax are worth 8 figures.

[NoahSD]

This is a forum full of online MTT pros.

[Bonified]

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Umm like no software engineers make 300k, very very few anyway. You're looking at 80k tops intro and kind of a low ceiling.

Plus, coding really blows, and poker does not. Actually, poker does blow, but at least it's more enjoyable than being a code monkey.

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As an ex-software engineer who is now an online tournament pro I can safely Q this for MFT, even though I think OP was probably trolling at least a little.

[WarDekar]

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Umm like no software engineers make 300k, very very few anyway. You're looking at 80k tops intro and kind of a low ceiling.

Plus, coding really blows, and poker does not. Actually, poker does blow, but at least it's more enjoyable than being a code monkey.

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As an ex-software engineer who is now an online tournament pro I can safely Q this for MFT, even though I think OP was probably trolling at least a little.

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I went to school for CS and realized my sophomore year I was never going to be able to handle sitting in front of a computer coding all day for a job, especially with such limited advancement opportunities in the field. I was looking at working 60 hour or more weeks and intro salaries under 100k with a cap of probably only 150k or so, [censored] that [censored] I want to be balla

Now I sit in front of the computer all day anyway, but at least it's kinda by choice.

[baltostar]

I specifically titled the thread re online tourney pros.

I don't think my questions are unreasonable. It's extraordinarily difficult to be a consistent winner in online tournies. There's enough data points on the tracking sites to show that. You can't look at the 5000% ROI guys, with relatively few data points. You have to look at the 125% ROI guys, with lots of data points. There's a recent article on PocketFives about tournies v. cash and what a relatively raw deal tournies are.

Re sw dev -- I don't see a huge difference in the glamour factor in reality. Either way you're involved in what can easily become a very anti-social profession, staring at a screen by yourself all day and night.

A lot of these young online players who stay up all night by themselves will get impossibly sick of it in a few years. Right now there's an illusion of glamour because of all the television coverage and overnight multi-millionaires.

Live tournies are even more difficult to make a living at than online. The house take is much higher, like 20% (or even higher -- talk about comparisons with horses !) versus 7.5%. You've got travel expenses and the time lost travelling, games are slow and you can't multi-table, no sophisticated sw tools at your disposal, you can't do other things at the same time, like watch the kids, etc.

This seems to happens whenever a certain area of gambling gets hot, like day trading in the late 90s. People concentrate on a few outliers (like the WSOP winners past 4 years) and think the life is way way better than it really is.

I don't think someone like Bax would be miffed at all by reading my post. You should never be afraid to re-analyze and re-consider where you are in your profession, and where your profession is at.

The absolute best in the business can only make about $300K per year from online tournies ? That really opened my eyes.

[stevepa]

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There's a recent article on PocketFives about tournies v. cash and what a relatively raw deal tournies are.

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yes that was a well written, eye opening look at online poker

[Bonified]

I mostly enjoyed the coding right up till the end, it was all the designing, testing, meetings and so on that got on my nerves. I could never, ever have done a 60-hour week. I quit last year and (maybe I'm running good but) I should have done it at least 3 years ago. I only play 3 or 4 MTT sessions a week and that's bringing in more money than my job ever did (again with possible running good caveat).

[Toronexti]

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There's a recent article on PocketFives about tournies v. cash and what a relatively raw deal tournies are.


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Are you reffering to the article which states that anyone can make 4k a week playing 10/20 and that a really bad downswing at that level is 1k?

[mlagoo]

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There's a recent article on PocketFives about tournies v. cash and what a relatively raw deal tournies are.


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Are you reffering to the article which states that anyone can make 4k a week playing 10/20 and that a really bad downswing at that level is 1k?

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teehee

[baltostar]

Regardless of whether the P5s article was well written or not, I think the conclusion is valid. Taking money from cash game fish is what makes it possible for most poker pros. Not tournies. Actually, that guy gave tournies a very generous ROI, 80% wasn't it ?