How does 'Playing poker' work as a side gig? Is this online poker? And can you reliably make money?
It doesn't work as well nowadays. The boom is basically over. Lot's of pros. If you are already a pro, you can still make a decent living, just not near as good as you used to, plus the variance is sky high compared to 7 or 8 years ago.
If you are new and looking to get into it, it's killer, because you have to learn by going against tons of pros. Even the fish are a lot better than the fish used to be.
I used to make $50/hour doing it when the games were fishy, so I was a VERY borderline pro. I could not beat the game as it currently is online...too hard for me. My friends are much better, so they can still be the game reliably, but again, with far greater variance.
Pretty much anyone capable of winning by gambling online are going into Daily Fantasy Sports right now. I don't think the DFS bubble will last long though, because it seems easier to figure out than poker, plus people can sell/share rosters, which could flood the games with solid lineups quickly. We'll see though.