Wow a topic I am actually qualified to talk about on here! How exciting. I've been playing live and online cash as a side hustle for 3 years now. I have a full time job and play poker mainly online to supplement my income. My hourly depends on the specific game, including how soft the game is, what are the stakes, what is the rake, etc. I would say I average around $40/hour over my large sample size, but as you will find out if you ever play poker for an extended period of time, you can have long periods of time where you are breakeven or even losing money and other times where you are crushing it. Over large samples (we are talking hundreds of thousands of hands to have a significant sample size in the poker world), if you are a solid poker player playing in good games, you absolutely will win money.
However, all this being said, I would generally advise people not to get into poker as a side hustle or as a main form of income. This is due to the following:
- To succeed at decent stakes (buy ins of $200+ online and $500+ live), you need to have put in a ton of time and study into the mathematics of poker and theory of poker (including game theory study). In addition, you simply need to have put in a lot of volume to have intuition in how to exploit other players' tendencies. This can come really quickly to you if you are gifted in strategy games and gifted in math, but you will still need to put in a lot of effort here regardless.
- Online poker in the US is not in the best state right now. Running an online poker business in the vast majority of states is illegal (I believe it is only legal in Nevada, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey). There are offshore sites that you can play on online in other states, but you run the risk at any point the government could come crack down on these sites, despite it being unlikely they do so (it is legal for you to play on these offshore sites, but not legal for the businesses to offer online poker which is an important distinction).
- Live poker in the US requires you be in state that has legalized gambling, obviously. You also need to live near a casino. Live poker is significantly softer/easier than online poker, but the amount of hands you get is significantly less than online. I generally play 4-8 tables online with 6 players and average 200+ hands per hour. In a live game, it is generally 9 handed and obviously just one table, so you only get 20-30 hands per hour. This means that if you are a live player, you need to either be playing high stakes with a decent win rate ($2/$5+) or be playing $1/$2 stakes with a very high win rate in order to make a respectable hourly.
- In order to succeed at poker, you need to be an emotionally strong person and not let swings get to you. You need to be able to lose a massive pot and not let it affect you emotionally. As I am sure you know, when someone starts playing differently because they are losing, we call that "tilt" and it can be extremely costly. If losing 10 buy ins at a stake (if you are playing $2/$5 stake and buying in for $500, that means losing $5k) scares you or makes you uncomfortable, you should not play it because over a large sample size it will happen to you.
- In the poker industry there is so much absolute BS training sites and methods out there to teach you how to play. If you are new to the industry, it can be very hard to sift through all the nonsense and bad advice to get to something that is good. I would say that 90% of the poker content you would run across just by googling "poker training" is just bad and harmful to you as a poker player long term.
- Artificial intelligence is catching up in poker. Using chess as an example, the best computer programs can absolutely destroy the best human players. This is making its way to poker. A few years ago a bot named "Libratus" developed by Carnegie Mellon beat some of the best heads up human no limit poker players in the world over a large sample. Now, the game tree for heads up is significantly smaller than 6-9 handed poker, so we are still a ways from "solving" no limit poker, but computer models and bots are just going to get better and better as computers become more powerful. This is more impactful if you ever plan on playing online.
- You are simply way behind a lot of people of the skilled players (like myself) that have been playing and studying extensively for years. That is not to say with hard work, a good mind, and utilization of the proper training resources you couldn't eventually surpass the skilled players, but it will take a lot of time to do so.
- You are going to need a lot self confidence, which can be difficult for some people. I will admit I am not extremely self confident, so there have been countless times in my career I have gone on a downswing and questioned my ability as a poker player. In order to succeed long term, you need to learn proper poker strategy and be confident that your decisions will win money over the long run.
- Proper bankroll management for people can be really difficult and I would say is one of the major causes for people failing in poker. If you are using poker as a side hustle, this is less of a problem as you are not relying on the income to support yourself, but you can still be playing stakes you are not properly bankrolled for and lose more money than you can afford.
- Some people have a moral problem with playing poker, as you are essentially winning money from the bad players, which can sometimes be people with real gambling problems. People rationalize this in many different ways and I personally have come to terms with it, but this can weigh on you morally if you decide to pursue poker.
Now if you got through all my ranting and are not hesitant or scared of getting into poker, let me know and I can answer any additional questions you have. I tried to be as complete as possible in my response, but there are probably some things I have left out.
