Play poker for a living? Doubt it. A great hobby to have though.

[Luzyfer]

One year ago, on October 2006 I started a project called Sponsored Online Investments Project in which I planned to take $50 turned into $2,000 and make a monthly income of 4,000+ which I believed could be done online by multitabling mid stakes while taking advantage of reload, monthly bonuses and rakeback (which are exclusive benefits of online poker). We are all aware of the great things about the lifestyle we could have if we could play this game profitable so I was very excited about making it happen.

During the first 6 months I read more than 15 books, watched all the videos I could and played more than 6 hours a day. After lots 6 months I built my br to about playing NL25 and NL50 to around $1,200 but started having variance at NL50 and NL100 so I was unable to achieve any significant profits and my bankroll got stuck.

Since there arent a lot of easy to clear sign-up bonuses for the micro level players anymore, I decided go the kickbacks at pokersavvy.com and built my bankroll to around $2,000. After that I was only left with reload, monthly bonuses and rakeback which are difficult to clear at the NL micros. Remembering the variance that I had at NL50 and NL100 I decided to switch to limit 1/2 and 2/4 in order to take advantage Cryptos monthly, PartyPoker, PokerStars and some IPoker and Ongame sites monthly and reload which have a decent clearing rate at this levels. With $2,000 I thought my br is healthy enough to play there. Limit has less variance than NL so if I can play 10 hours a day and break even I could clear $200/day at 2/4 for $4,000+ a month.

Well, as it turns out, I lost $600 in two days due to cold decks and bad beats and I played well. I am calling it quits with this project as I am tired of this fluctuations and not seeing any results. I mean players perhaps make less mistakes at those levels but c´mom, how hard could it be to play break-even poker?. I am gonna hate having to be an employee but I need to stop fooling myself thinking I could afford to pay rent, food, car loan, gas, etc doing this.

I know lots of you are probably going to tell me to just take sometime off and then come back, but I am interested in consistent results (within reason because poker is still gambling) and if I can´t do that bonus whoring breaking-even a 2/4 limit I dont know how in the world I could make a living playing online poker. I dont want to be cynical, but I am not completely sure poker can be beat today (players are better and bonuses have gotten harder to clear). Look at sbrugby, the best online player today, won 3 million this year and lost 2 million in less than 2 months, and he is is the best...imagine the rest of us. From now on, poker is a hobby to me.