Some work ten hours a day … or week. Some make income that CEOs would envy. With the explosion of the game of poker online, they are now hundreds of online poker pros who make a living from poker.

Often they make the move to pro when they start to realize that they can make more money in online poker than from their regular job. And if their job is a pain, the choice is even easier. Multi-tabling is a common practice where that play from 4 to 24 tables simultaneously, just to maximize their gains.

The ideal that such players seek to achieve is to get sponsorship by an online poker room. Recently Tom “durrrr” Dwan joined the prestigious Team Full Tilt Poker in a contract valued at about 2 million a year. As Full Tilt pays travel and registration fees for all major international tournaments. And Tom Dwan does not pay rake, which equates hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings every year as he plays in the ultra high stakes.

To last in this business, you must be good at cards and in your head too.

Having a job where you earn a good living and where you have total freedom is a great plus. No boss, a lot of travel to the Bahamas, Australia, Monte Carlo, etc . Nothing to complain about.

It is estimated that about 10% of poker players earn money from the game, but only 1% of them manage to live very well from it. Many smaller grinders only succeed in making a smaller income that just pays the bills. And they play ten hours a day. It is a question of style and stake level.

Being a poker pro is having a great freedom and earning lots of money only to the best of them. But there are also a lot of instability. Players do not know at the end of the month how much they will win or if they will win. To last in this business you must be good cards, but most importantly have a strong  head. Because poker is a game of strategy and psychology, where luck plays an important role in the short term.