[Chunderbunny]

Yes you can make a living off poker. Before I came to Japan, I played poker to earn some money. I started off with 60GBP and made that up to 500GBP in about 3 months, playing occasionally. My earnings weren't big, I calculated it at about 5GBP an hour, but then again I wasn't playing too seriously either. Theres a few points to make about poker:

- Read, read, read about it. A friend of mine plays poker professionally, and one point he made is, if you read even just a couple of good books on poker, your more knowledgable then 75% of the people you play with online. So many people online are just there to whittle a few quid away and get a few hours enjoyment

- Devise a strategy to ensure that your spending never gets out of hand and STICK TO IT. My strategy was I only played tournaments (real cash games could get way out of hand too easily) and I only played games that I had 20x the amount of in my account (eg. At 200 pound I was playing 10 pound entry tournaments). Youll find that you'll have a hiccup phase at each buy in boundary, as you have to pick your skill up to start playing them games, but given time, you'll get there. I'd say this is a really important point. Also, expect to lose money before you start making it. I put 60 quid in to start with before I started making money with any consistency.

- Don't listen to the old 'too much luck involved' argument. On a long term basis, theres suprisingly little luck and psychology involved in poker. The trap that people fall into is thinking about each hand on its own merit, or each game on its own merit, and doing this you get trapped into the whole bluffing/luck/thrill element of the game. Bluffing is only one strategy in poker, of many, and its overrepresented, especially in beginner players. Read about something called expectation, and this should explain why poker isn't that much to do with luck. I can't explain it properly off the top of my head, but its a calculation you make before making a bet. Basically you should *always* bet on hands were the odds are favourable, and fold in situations where there not... This is a cardinal rule of betting. E.g. If the odds are 1/5 of you winning, but your due to multiply your winnings by 6, you should always bet. If your due to only go up 4 times, you don't bet. If you do this, then on a long term basis (ignoring day to day fluctuations, which not looked at in the long term will be percieved as 'luck'), you will earn money. And since, with a little experience you can calculate to a high degree of accuracy how many 'outs' you have in poker at a given time, you can calculate your expectancy and act appropriately. The key is to not get trapped in the psychology of the game. Sure you'll take bad beats, but this should be percieved as a natural fluctuation, and not 'bad luck'. This in conjunction with the above strategy, will ensure success.

- Finally, know your limitation, theres probably a personal ceiling to the second rule as the highe r you go, the easier it is to get shaken by bad beats and winning streaks.

My mate does it full time and earns a few hundred a week. Hes also considering a career in poker, travelling the country and starting tourneys and the like, so hes actually getting a 'real' job out of it too.