Filthy Rich

I'm on my second shot at 2/4. This time, with some rocket luck (seriously, up 6 buy-ins in 500 hands), I think it just may have stuck. I'm still playing 1/2 when I can't find any good tables at 2/4, but in general I'm looking for good spots at $400NL tables first. A decent win-rate at these stakes means serious money and causes me to committ the mortal sin of "multiplying;" Irexes' and my name for when non-professionals start to win money at poker and extrapolate how much they could make if they were doing it full-time. We've started the Multiplyers' Support Group* for this very reason**.

Now, in the middle of all the multiplication I've been doing recently, I find myself with an interesting conclusion: It's really, really hard to get really, really rich off of poker. I mean, making a million dollars a year is nice and all, but that's not reasonably achievable for most of us. And as much respect as I have for Leatherass, I don't want to spend most of my days (and most of the time of those days) 10-tabling no-limit. But even if I could imagine doing that, a million dollars a year still isn't filthy rich. It's good money, but it's not "I-can-buy-anything-I-want"-rich.

The big problem with poker income is that it doesn't grow exponentially. Once you hit the highest stakes, your salary curve, such as it was, flattens out. If you're one of the lucky ones, it just stays flat. If you fall behind the other curve - the learning one - it will start turning down. I think the way to become filthy rich from poker is to win a bunch of money and invest it cleverly. Making your net worth grow by 10% a year on its own (as in, not counting the amount of money you add from your latest cash-outs) may not sound so much for us poker players who are used to laying 10% of our bankroll on the line on any given night, but 10% a year means it doubles in 7 years. And quadruples in 14. And so on. If Leatherass puts aside one year's winnings with a good investment strategy, he'll have about $30 million by the time he retires. Not counting whatever else he'll have won since that first investment deposit.

So for a multiplier like me, it's important to remember that while I might someday be rich from poker, the vast majority of that wealth will have been accumulated off of the ROI of my portfolio, not the ROI of my online poker.

Boring, isn't it?

* If you have a better name, post it in the comments.
** So far it's just him and me in it, but anyone considering playing full time against their better judgment are welcome to join.