The Reality of Poker Almost As Glamorous as TV Away from the glitz of TV reality poker, college students are making the serious money in poker. Two years ago, many of these twenty-somethings started playing poker with a $10/hour job and less than $1,000 to their names. Now they play for the highest stakes on the Internet, many making $200,000 a year or more. Behind much of this rags-to-riches success is a figure well known in hardcore poker circles. Ed Miller, lead author of the landmark book Small Stakes Hold em: Winning Big with Expert Play (2+2 Publishing), has been teaching struggling players to be big winners for several years. Many people think television poker is the way to make money playing poker. For most people, though, chasing that one big score will be just an expensive frustration. Readers of my books play poker for relatively consistent incomes, often $10,000 a month or more. You wont see them on TV, but through study and dedication, theyve established excellent careers for themselves, says Miller. Whats so remarkable is that many of these guys are very young, often still in college. After class, instead of firing up the computer to play a shoot-em-up game, they play poker, sometimes six or eight games simultaneously. Some play extremely well, and they can win hundreds of dollars an hour from their opponents, making themselves a small fortune in the process. Many are so young, their only previous job experience was mowing lawns or shoveling snow, says Miller. Now theyve won $100,000 in a year playing poker, and theyre so green, they dont know that they have to pay taxes on it. Theyve never even filed a return before. A typical story comes from Drew Pruitt, a recent college grad from Southern California: I picked up poker in college purely as a hobby. I played recreationally for about a year, and, thanks to 2+2 Publishing's website and books on poker, was able to pay for about half my college tuition out of my winnings. By the time I reached my last semester at school and started thinking about job interviews, I was making significantly more money playing poker than I could hope to earn at any job I could get. Ever since then, I have been able to earn a very healthy living on poker alone. Barely older than his youngest readers, Miller, 26, has also carved himself out a niche career in poker. Three years ago I picked up poker as a diversion. At the time, I was an entry-level software developer at Microsoft. Soon poker was making me a nice side income, and shortly thereafter, I took the plunge and quit my job. Ive always been a teacher at heart, though, so I wanted to write books so others could learn to do what Id done. Poker has changed my life and the lives of many of my readers. It provides financial freedom for thousands of young people who otherwise would be fighting over the same low paying, entry-level jobs. Instead of struggling to pay rent and hefty student loans, theyre debt-free, buying homes, and saving for retirement. Ed Miller is author of three poker books and four DVDs. The beginner-level Getting Started in Hold em (2+2 Publishing) retails for $17.95. The intermediate-level Small Stakes Hold em: Winning Big with Expert Play, co-authored by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, (2+2 Publishing) retails for $24.95. The advanced No Limit Holdem: Theory and Practice, co-authored by David Sklansky (2+2 Publishing) retails for $29.95 and will be in book stores in June. The DVDs, entitled, Reading Hands, Adjusting Your Play, Advanced Pre-Flop Concepts, and Protecting Your Hand were filmed in London and retail for $24.95 each (Expert Hold $Em). Millers website it at http://www.notedpokerauthority.com/ |
