There has been intense interest in my interview with controversial video poker player and author Rob Singer. See our page "Video Poker News and Commentary" to see the video interview at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. One of the Las Vegas discussion forums on another website picked up on this interview and some of the discussion has included the question about the possibility of being a professional video poker player and what the income possibilities are.
I was curious about this so I asked a professional video poker player what it would take to earn $100,000 a year playing video poker, plus some extra money to pay for insurance and other benefits.
Here is the reply I got:
"Dollar VP with a 2% advantage playing 8 hours a day and 5 days a week for 48 weeks at 1000 hands/hour."
Let me translate that for you in case you are not familiar with the lingo. Dollar VP means you would play a video poker game at $5 per "hand" or each play. The 2% advantage means that the paytable on the game plus other bonuses and comps such as cash-back gives you a potential for a 2% profit. Perhaps the key thing is that you would have to play 1000 hands per hour-- which is awfully fast. Frankly, it takes me about 4-5 seconds to play one hand which includes the dealing of the cards and choosing the cards I want to keep. That means I could play about 12 hands per minute or about 720 hands per hour-- and that doesn't include time to take a drink of water, go to the restroom, or order a bottle of water from the cocktail waitress. I'll never be a professional video poker player.