is 1-2k a mo realistic playing online nl holdem?

Sup yall. I have a question. I have looked and looked and maybe its because its been so late at night when I get home from work, but I can't for the life of me find an answer to this question. So, my question is 1-2k a realistic ammount to make in a month for a novice-moderate player. Ive been playing for a lil over 2 years, but have never really been serious about it. I have read multiple books and countless online articles and such on holdem. I am confident in my knowledge. The main thing I need to do now is practice. Ive only really played sit n gos and mtt. I have not read much on cash games. I only play nl holdem. The thing is I want to go to college. A nice college. Texas Tech to be exact. The tuition is 10k a mo with housing/food. I'm sure I can some loans, however what I want to do is put my self through college playing holdem. Im 21 and I didnt get to go to college when I graduated h/s like I wanted because my mom was in an accident and had to have both knees/hips replaced aswell as some other things. So basicly ive been her nurse the past 2 years. It sucked but I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her so whatever. Ive paid that debt is how I look at it. SO now its time for me to go on about my buisness. I wish I would have played more holdem these past 2 years...but I didnt and no point in looking at the past.

So with that being said, if you are still reading this THANK YOU for wanting to help.
Heres what I want to accomplish.

I need to be in college no later then fall 2010. By that time I need to be making a minimum of 3k mo. I have a $10 hr job atm 40 hrs week. So I want to start playing on the side.
Is this possible? Am I being unrealistic? How many hours/day would I need to play to make 3k+mo? How much does the average low/med stakes online nl holdem player make? Whats the average ROI in low/med stakes sitngos/mtt?

Basicly what im trying to do is devise a plan and set goals. I dont think im being unrealistic, but I want to make sure. And I want to know what I need to do to get where I want to be.
Thank you for reading this and thanks for the help/advice you give. I just dont see anyone mentioning how much they make playing low/med stakes online.

pce

I just read through my post and I sound like im just starting out or have been a complete losing player and I havn't. I just dont have that many hours of experience. I have alot of knowledge. I probably onjly have a few hundred hours total. I have won a .25 buy in tourney aswell as won my fare share of $5 sitngos. I just have not gotten serious about it. Its been just for fun ive never really tried to make money at it.

pce

I made like $3,000 last month
I started last summer with $100-something dollars in pokerstars

so sure, it's not that hard
it comes down to emotional control in the long run
that doesn't just mean "never tilting" but it also means not quitting when you're up, stopping when you're tired, etc.

it seems to me that you are looking at the wrong information. The amount of money you can make per month is directly related to the stakes you play x the number of hands you play per month x your winrate. What you really need to figure out your winrate and the rest shoudl be pretty easy.

Average winrate is calculated differently for the various games. Cash games use bb(or ptbb) per 100 hands. Most tourneys use ROI and ITM%.

I would suggest that you find out the standard winrate at the stakes you are playing and see if you are winning that that rate. You can then use the above calculation to determine how much you need to play to make the amount of money you need.

Well you need to have a good bankroll to start with.

Work on that first.

IOPQ- Thx for stopping by. What stakes are you playing? What game? How many hours a day on avg did you play to get that 3k/mo. Is that a good month or average?

GatorJH- Thx for your advice. That is the information I cant seem to find. Im itm atleast 50% of the time and I get 1st most of the time in stt sitngos on stars. Ive tried to find the average ROI and ITM % but thats the info I cant find. I would be playing $5 sitngos on stars and work up from there.

Stuventous- Thx for stopping by bud. My bankroll is $500. I dont think im good enough to play the $10 games yet, but I am good enough to play the $5 games.

So is 50% a good ITM %? How many hours would I need to play a day?

And are sitngos or cash games more profitable? Im not the greatest multi tasker....I definitly can only play 1-2 games at a time. I actually like to play a big MTT and sitngo at the same time. Since I just play super tight until bubble on MTT it helps keep me focused and keep me from getting bored. But any more then that and when it gets down to the bubble on the sitngo it gets to fast. To be profitable in sitngos do you have to multi table? What would yall suggest be the best stakes/cash or stt with the $500 sitngos?

Im not trying to get yall to make a decision for me. I will make my own decision on ultimatly what I want to do...im just trying to get a clear picture on what the successful holdem players are doing so I can devise a plan.

Thx for your patience.

pce

Yes it's very realistic. But not until you have gotten to the appropriate stakes which takes multiple hours of study and experience.

which stakes are these? Thats what im asking. How many hours/day and at what stakes.

pce

I played 40 hours last month 6-tabling at 0.50/1.00 NL cash on full tilt poker and I have rakeback there

Alaskan, You really shouldn't be worrying about it at this time. What we are trying to say is that if you have no idea if $1-2k is realistically attainable per month in poker, you likely aren't going to be achieving those goals in the very near future. You are likely a few months away at least, and that it would probably be best for you to work on improving and actually playing and working towards this goal.

oooo I C. Im sry I didn't word my question right. I was wondering if I could make 1-2k playing a couple hours a day on low stakes($5 sitngos) sry I was very tired when I wrote that message. Thank you for all your answers and I welcome any others.

IOPQ- Thank you. You cleared alot up. I c that 1-3k mo playing a few hours day is very possible. It also seems from what ive read on some other places that multi tabling is where you make the money. Now that I know my goals are not unrealistic im str8. And if you did it in a year I know I can. Thank you my friend.

Now I just got to get it going.

pce

I doubt you will be making 1-3k per month playing $5 SNGs. Not unless you are putting in an enormous amount of volume.

16$ i would say yes easily

The higher the stakes the more realistic it becomes. You could make 1k a month playing $5 sngs but i'm sure you would need to play a enormous amount.

Thanks yall. So now I know what I need to do. I think for me to make 1-3k mo I need to be playing the $20 sitngos on stars (I dont play on any other site...idk if this is bad or not) so now I am going to take my $500 bankroll and build it to 1.5-2k at which time I will start playing the $20 games for profit. Thanks again for your patience and help. I will post a progress report in a month or so. I will be checking on this post for the next few days incase anyone wants to chime in. I am still very open to suggestions.

Take care
pce

If anyone thinks I should go about getting to $20 differently id love to hear it. I figure when I get to 2k I will be ready to play the $20 games. Let me know if you disagree.

Pce

Well if you intend to leave the site and just play, then whatever. But if you don't feel you can improve from discussing, posting, etc on the forum, then either you are the shit, or you believe you are. If it's the first case, I would expect you to already have a $2k roll. If it's the latter, oh well.

I played SNGs for about 9 months. You can win $ and you can learn to beat the next level and all that, but honestly, I don't think 1k/month at the $20 SNGs is realistic. A fantastic ROI in SNGs is 25%. So if you're crushing $20 games, you'll be making $5/game. You plan on playing 200 games/month?
It's much more realistic to make this income in cash games, that's why I switched.
If you decide to go the SNG route, become a regular on the SNG forum on this site, it's superb.

Originally Posted by AlaskanShark

Ive tried to find the average ROI and ITM % but thats the info I cant find.

Read this thread:

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...aq-t15929.html

Also, I don't think it's such a good to make a decision about what you are going to do for living for the next few years, based on what "somebody on the forums" (no offence, iopq) told you.

As Gator pointed out, the money you make per month is dependent on three things.

1. Number of games per month
2. Stakes
3. ROI

You have to play with the numbers a little bit to find a balance that works best for you. (Creating a spreadsheet might be a good idea.) Making 1k-2k per month definitely IS possible, but asking others, how much and at what stakes THEY play, is not necessarily going to help YOU.

For example, if you're playing the 20+2 SNGs, and expect to have a ROI of 10% (it's possible to have it higher, but I suggest being conservative in that kind of estimations), then you earn $2.2 per game. 1000 : 2.2 = 455 games per month. Playing 24 days every month you need to play 455 : 24 = 19 games every day you play. Even if playing on 4 tables at once (and you say you can only do two), that's still about 5-hour workday.

Are you willing/able to play that much?

If the answer is no, then you have a number of options:

1) Increase the number of tables (affects ROI)
2) Play on higher stakes (requires extra study and more time before you start profiting)
3) Increase ROI (requires extra work)
4) Be satisfied with earning less than 1k per month

All are viable options. It's up to you to find out what best suits for you.

I think if you have to ask that question the answer is: probably not.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as iopq... started playing online last summer, got past the micros in november and build up my BR over 10k, and I can't say with a lot of certainty that I can sustain 1k+ per month... although I probably can.

But to your question: I've sustained 10bb/100 hands over more than 100k hands at 25c/50c and 50c/$1. playing an average of 8 tables - usually more lately. So I expect to make ~$22 per hour @ 50NL and $44 @ 100NL. But that can vary between $100/h and $-10/h over the course of a month - depending on volume, how good I run, how good the games are, how well I'm playing on average and so on.
I haven't been on the very low end of variance so far, but a loosing month is definitely not impossible.