[Collin Moshman]

Hi Slim,

Here is a general answer for required monthly playing volume to hit your target SNG income.

Assumptions:
A decent living is $L/year.
If you N-table you can average around 1.5 N games per hour.
You work H hours per month, 12 months per year.
Your ROI at your buy-in of choice, B, is R% when you are N-tabling.

(R, in turn, is a function of N, B, and other factors such as your ever-changing competition. If you want to determine R based on these factors, I'd recommend a forum search.)

Math:

Then you play 12 x H x 1.5N = 18 x N x H games per year

Each game you profit B x R/100 $/game

Multiplying these last two terms and setting equal to $L tells us ...

Result:

H =

$L
-------
18 x N x (B R/100)

Example:

So for instance, if you can average 9% ROI 4-tabling the $55's and want to make $50k/year, you would need to work $50k / (18 x 4 x $55 x .09)
~ 140 hours. So you would have to average 140 hours a month of straight playing to hit your goal in this case, which equates to roughly 35 hrs/week if you include inevitable short breaks during the day.

The above formula for H is the general answer for how many hours/month you need to work to hit your target SNG income.
Clearly it oversimplifies -- R, for instance, will vary over the course of a year as you improve, face tougher competition, etc. But plug numbers into the above formula for H, and you have a rough idea of required playing volume to achieve your target yearly SNG income.

Best Regards,
Collin