Other people have it better. The store clerks, the serving girls, the secretaries, the typing girls in the typing pool, all of them have it better than professional poker players. Professional poker is not, has never been, and will never be anything other than a tough way of making a living.

Three Considerations in Earning a Living through PokerA poker player who wants to earn a steady income from playing poker has to consider three things: luck, skills, and endurance. And all these things have great bearing on how a professional poker career would turn out.

LuckLuck has a great impact on how a poker play turns out, and it’s not something a poker player can control. It can make a fool out of a player. A poker player may win continuously for days, months and even years so a player is deluded into thinking that he has great skills. In a game like basketball or tennis, a few games would immediately reveal the player’s level of skill. Not so in poker. A poker player can continue playing without a true idea how skilled he really is.

Luck is very fickle as well. One moment a poker player can have all the good luck and the next moment he can have all the bad luck. Unprepared for the bad luck unaware of his true skills, a mediocre poker player would continue to play and lose. When he finally comes to accept that he is not as proficient a poker player as he supposed, he is more than likely broke.

SkillSkill is very important in professional poker and not everybody has it. Some people are also more skilled than others. A professional poker player, whether he is playing in a ring game or a poker tournament, is continually pitted against other people who may or may not have excellent poker playing capabilities. A poker player can therefore be very skilled in poker yet still lose money because he is cursed with more skilled playing partners.

EnduranceSince the main purpose of playing is earning a living, a poker player must be able to earn enough to pay for his room and board, utilities, and other incidental expenses. If he has a family to support, he has to earn even more.

To earn enough for himself and his family, a professional poker player has no choice but play all day. He has no sick leave, he has no vacation leave, he has no leisure and he can have no interests other than poker. A poker player must play continuously until he has attained his monetary goal.

So for those of you, who are thinking of taking poker up as a source or income, please think long and hard before taking the plunge. Professional poker is a tough life and not everyone can handle it.