Having a profitable year

For purposes of discussion now and in the future, let's define "small cash" as any tournament where I cash for less than five times the buy-in.

Yesterday I placed 4th of 59 for a cash of $115.  That's a pretty interesting number.  If I played 200 tournaments in a year (200 days is considered a standard work year*) my cashes for the year would total $23,000.  That's close to the median national income in the United States, which is just over 26 thousand.

Of course, poker doesn't work that way.  Tournament players fail to cash more often than not, and most of the cashes are small.  A few large cashes are usually most of a tournament player's income.

I thought about all of that for a minute, then I realized something.  $115 was a the gross amount, not the net.  The entry fee for the tournament was $60, which means my profit was only $55.  Oops!

If my average daily profit over a 200-day work year was $55, my annual profit from poker would be $11,000.  That's a nice supplementary income, but not a real income when it's my only job.

I often think about the income issue and what I could reasonably expect to make, even though it could be a while before I can play full-time.  We will probably be moving shortly after my caregiver duties are over.  When everything settles down it could be 2016 before I'm playing full-time.

I looked up the median income number a few months ago when one of the many "How much can I make playing poker?" questions appeared again on the 2+2 poker forums.  I mentioned that $26,000 number and said that there are lot of poker players who will never be famous or be a poker millionaire.  They just play tournaments several days a week or grand cash games for six hours a day and support their families.  Let's not forget study--some of the top pros study for 20 hours a day,  I'll probably be studying about 15 hours a week and playing about 30 hours when I can get back to full-time.

If I am full-time on January 1, 2016, I think it's realistic that I could end the year with a profit of $10,000,  I would like it to be more, but I'm not laying the groundwork to make that happen. I can't be improving a lot playing three live tournaments a month and studying only a few hours a week.

I would expect to make above the median income in 2017--but that would be working more than 300 days, not 200 or less.  I'm trying to get a business off the ground.  Vacations and long weekends off are not part of the plan.

I'm looking forward to the day when I get the "poker isn't a real job" line and I can say "I make more than the median national income."  That will be very satisfying.

*This is of course an oversimplification of the schedule of a tournament player.  A player in a poker room or casino could play more than one tournament in the same day..  A live tournament with thousands of players could take several days to finish.  Threre would probably be online tournaments in the mix, in fact, some online players play 10 or more online tournaments simultaneiously (see the link, below.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnLh_DrQ3Uw