If you are reading this, I will make the assumption that you have already read Part 1, and are interested in pursuing poker as at least a part-time career. This article will help those who want some advice on where to get started.

Enrolling in poker college is not tough. There are no long lines to wait for, no financial aid forms to fill out, and you'll get every class you want. You won't have to get up early if you don't want to, and you don't have to move in to dorms where you get an idiot roommate who never cleans up after himself. Those of you who were hoping for a dorm full of attractive college students can make do by going to your nearest college campus and studying poker books in a coffee shop full of students, as long as they aren't too much distraction.

Let's start off with choosing a major. You may already know what you want to do, like my cousin T.J. who always wanted to be a firefighter, in which case you can skip this and head on to Part 3 (coming soon) where I help you choose your classes. Otherwise, you can read on about the four major areas of study available at Poker College these days. There is similar money to be made in all of them, though your choice of home state, family, attention span, and other issues may make one or two of them much less profitable. And remember that many of the classes transfer, so you can always choose to change your major later.

Tournament Play

For many PocketFivers, this will be the obvious choice. The glory, the fame, the endorsement deals... there is much to recommend tournament play as a fine choice of major. Almost all winning tournament players these days play online at least some of the time, though if you live near enough to Atlantic City, Las Vegas, or some parts of California, you may be able to play live tournaments every day and make an excellent living without playing online at all. If you don't live in one of these areas, and cannot relocate, then playing tournaments online will be your primary source of income.

Playing online poker tournaments for a living will require big chunks of time once you start to play seriously upon your graduation from college, so this major won't work for you if you just have one or two hour chunks of time available throughout your day. Usually, fairly long sessions are required to get in a good number of tournaments all at once, so stamina is important to a tournament player as well. A significant portion of your money is made after you get to the final table, so if you can stay sharp after five hours of play when your opponents are starting to fade, this might be a good major for you.

Online Cash Games

Playing cash games online allows you the most freedom of any of the four majors, including setting any hours you like, taking breaks whenever you like, and playing from any location where you can get internet access. I actually know a player who doesn't live anywhere, he just travels constantly, seeing the world and playing online poker from his laptop in hotel rooms. Last week he was in France, but a few weeks before that he was in Peru. Sounds like a great life to me.

The bad news is that online cash games are getting tougher every day, and they might require a little more study than the other options to make the real money. Low limit games are still easily beatable, and probably always will be, and with rakeback and player rewards programs, even a break-even player can make a significant income. The vast majority of successful cash game players play at least four tables at a time in order to survive, and many of them are playing eight or more tables. Playing this many tables of the same game all day long can be quite a grind, and I know more than a few players who have simply tired of the grind to the point where they find something else to do and leave poker behind even though they were making excellent money.

Online Sit and Go Tournaments

Sit and Go's or Single Table Tournaments can still provide a living for a very good player, but these games are getting even tougher than cash games. 95% of correct SNG strategy is simple to master, which means that opponents at the $50 and higher buy-in level have usually learned these things. The ROI or Return On Investment is very small in these tournaments, so playing a large number of them is necessary to maintain a good hourly rate. Like cash games, this can be a grind. Rakeback and player rewards can be nice in these games, especially for those players who play twelve or more tables at a time, but you must play near perfect poker to make more than $30 or $40 per hour in these games. This is certainly possible, and playing very well is easier to do in SNG tournaments than any other form of poker, but the big bucks are tough to achieve and the ups and downs can be frustrating.

If making $20 an hour as a side job interests you, then single table tournaments might be a great place for you to focus your studies. Playing four tables at a time at fairly reasonable buy-in levels like $30+3 could earn you an hourly rate that helps you pay for an extra family vacation once or twice a year or supplements your income slightly. This hourly rate is fairly easy to achieve for a graduate of Poker College.

Live Poker

Also known as brick and mortar, playing in actual card rooms and casinos is a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but is it a good way to make a living? A lot of that decision will hinge on whether you live near an area where there is enough live poker at sufficient limits to survive. The quality of the games is important as well, and I can assure you that there is a huge difference from one place to another. A $30/60 game here in Minnesota is tougher than many $100/200 games in Vegas which are tougher than many $200/400 games in California. If you are willing to move to a place where there are plentiful live cash games, there is certainly money to be made, and probably better job security than online players who must worry about whether local and national lawmakers might try to outlaw their career and make things hard for them.

Currently the spots where a brick and mortar player can make a good living are probably limited to California, Nevada, Colorado, states within driving distance of Atlantic City or Foxwoods, New York City and a few Native American reservations which contain smaller card rooms. It's probably possible to eke out a living in another ten or fifteen states, but when you tire of making $20 an hour you'll want to relocate.

No matter what state you live in, don't delude yourself into thinking that live poker is a dream job. The chairs are not very good in most rooms (notable exception - The Hard Rock Poker Lounge in Vegas), the people you work with will often be drunk and unpleasant, and you won't be served wonderful healthy meals while you are there (notable exception - The Bellagio Poker Room). If you have a long drive to the card room it's no different than any other commute and you will tire of it before long. This does not add up to a wonderful work environment, though it beats digging ditches.

The upside of live poker is that it will be interesting, it will get you out of the house, and you will meet people. Live poker is a lot more fun for me, and if it were as profitable here in Minnesota as it is elsewhere, I would rarely play online. Unfortunately, my live income is only about 35% of what my online income is in terms of hourly rate, so live poker is just a diversion for now.

Now that you have enough information to choose a major and get started, I'll get to work on the next article which will include study outlines and courses that you can create for yourself for each major. Somehow I feel like I've become a Guidance Counselor. -- < Part 1

I'll see you at the final table.
Chris Fox Wallace

* Check out Fox's new site at pokerwhip.com

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Scouting Report for Fox

In April 2005, Chris "Fox" Wallace wrote his very first article for PocketFives. He would go on to become one of the most respected internet poker authors in the world and has contributed quality, entertaining content that has inspired many players to give online poker a try. His Basic Bankroll Management article is among the most popular in this site's history and won the 2005 Presto Award for Article of the Year.

Fox is currently an instructor at www.pokerxfactor.com, where he specializes in cash game instruction. He is also the editor of pokerwhip.com. Although he doesn't play online tournaments as much these days, he still has a Dec '08 final table appearance in the Full Tilt Poker $90k Guaranteed for $5,600.

Related Articles

Vote for Poker 2008 Nov 02, 2008
Chris Wallace to Attend PPA Fundraiser at RNC Sep 01, 2008

Articles by Fox

Poker College - Part 1 Aug 03, 2009
Taking the Plunge Jun 23, 2005
Wax On, Wax Off Jun 14, 2005
A Damn Fine Week for the Fox Jun 06, 2005
A Quick Update Jun 02, 2005
Thanks to Beanie and Annie May 27, 2005
Killing the Single Tables May 17, 2005
Playing Multiple Tables May 12, 2005
Meeting Beanie and Feldliss May 09, 2005
Still Chasing Bonus Dollars May 06, 2005
A Frantic Week May 02, 2005
Party Bonus This Week Apr 22, 2005
I Learned Something Today Apr 16, 2005
Put On Your Tin Foil Hat... Apr 12, 2005
Whipping the Entire Field Apr 08, 2005
Introduction to Fox Apr 05, 2005

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