to not understand how poker players make millions

[ladygingina]

Surely its just a card game? Didn't Victoria Derbyshire win 2 million at a tournament. I want to do that. Its not like you need to train 5 hours a day for 10 years or anything like most sports?

Victoria Coren Mitchell? I think it's prize money.

I can't get my head around poker unfortunately, or keep a straight face, so I've got no chance.

I believe you DO have to "train" by playing hours and hours of it.

I know someone who treats it like it's a full time job - you do need to train for it! He travels to tournaments and plays online, often a number of games at once. There's a real art to it, and he's pretty good as well.

Oh and it does require a certain set of skills as well, given his success a couple of other people in our group have tried it out as well, but they don't quite have the head for it so it hasn't worked out for them

My cousin plays poker professionally, he's not made millions -yet- but he's won loads of prizes, cruises, holidays and large amounts of money. But he spends a lot of time playing and travels around a lot. God knows how much he loses though. That's never mentioned!

As others have said, prize money. The big tournaments are worth hundreds of thousands. The buy ins (the fee you have to pay to enter) is steep though, eg the WSOP (one of the biggest events) costs $10,000 to enter. The EPT which Vicky Coren Mitchell is the only person to have won twice pays c. £400,000 to the winner. It is hard work, long hours and you have phases of playing well and badly just like in anyone who makes their living competing. Good players will also be sponsored but that often only covers the cost of buying into events and their travel, hotels etc. Don't forget for UK players winnings are tax free.

Online poker is a huge business and there are many people who make a living playing online. Relatively low value tournaments can pay a couple of hundred to those on the final table so if you can finish in the money a few times a week then the money starts to add up. To make decent money you need to be playing high roller tables where each hand will have a blind of least $100. Many professional players do experience lean times. Johnny Lodden who has lifetime winnings of over a million dollars famously lost all his bankroll 7 or 8 years ago and had to work his way back up the stakes again.

Vicky Coren Mitchell's book, (For Richer for Poorer) is well worth a read for an insight into the life of a professional poker player.

I don't understand poker, so I'd never make millions.

Ben Affleck is a serious poker player as well. Iirc he is banned from Vegas now though because he counts cards. Don't understand that either.

Poker isn't a card game in the way say, Snap is.

It requires knowledge of the odds of each card being in another players hand , a lot of patience and the ability to read the body language of other people at the table (if playing in real life, not online).

Someone I went to school with has made millions playing poker.

Counting cards is for Blackjack, see the film 21 or google the MIT Blackjack Team for how that works. It doesn't apply to poker in the same way, although you are constantly working out the odds in poker based on the cards that have already been dealt.

As someone else said there is a strong element of skill in poker. Knowing how to play the cards you are dealt is something you can study and learn. When you are playing you also adapt your play depending on what others at the table are doing. Being able to read players is really really important as well. There is an small element of luck in that you can make the perfect play according to the theory and still get shafted by the final card but that is part of the game and you factor that into your calculations about odds etc.

Seconded vote for Victoria Coren Mitchell's book. Interesting in all sorts of ways.

I used to make my living playing poker. Now I've got kids I just play occassionally as 1) I don't have the time and 2) I'm a single parent and there is obviously risk involved.

There is a lot of skill involved. These big tournements have huge prize pools. The world series of poker has thousands of entrants and its $10, 000 to enter.

You have to put in a lot of hours to become good. The cards that you are drawn are luck but the real skill is building a reputation, reading other people well and undestanding percentages and risks.

There is a reason why you always see the same faces at final tables and winning prizes. Phil Hellmuth I think has won 13 world series of poker bracelets.

Once you've won a big competition, particularly televised ones, uou become well known in the poker field and are sponsered by well known poker sites and therefore enter other larger competitions and high stakes poker games. The pots really build up.

Victoria Coren is a great poker player. Being a female poker player can really work to your advantage if you know how to use it.

The millions poker players make come from other poker players who lose it. Lots of people enter a tournament, they have to pay to enter, as people get knocked out the money they paid accumulates among those still in the running, eventually everyone but the winner is defeated, the winner gets everyone else's money.

At least I think that's how it works, I don't play myself, or even follow it on TV.

Its not like you need to train 5 hours a day for 10 years or anything like most sports?

Like all other sports, to make money you have to be better at it than nearly everyone in the world.

Thanks , knew I was being ignorant about it. Second hand book bought for 2.90 :) thanks for the rec

OP - have a go at Texas Hold Em poker on Facebook. Free to use and good fun. I've "won" over 5 million $ on it (and have lost a similar amount....)

I had no idea how to play but the game has tutorial so good way of learning.
Start on low stake tables and work your way up.

Warning - you can chat to other players at your table, but I turn off chat as some players get really abusive if they lose......

Enjoy the book, it's a really interesting read - she's very up front about the good times and the bad times.