I've been playing online poker seriously for a couple of years now. I'll try to provide some insight into today's online poker climate and what to expect:
Poker is a mindgame, a game of skill. Luck influences poker results only in the short term. There are 2 types of poker players: losing/break even players - about 90% - and winning players. In order to be in the latter category, you need
years of study into game theory and strategy, a sound mental game and sheer experience. Anyone can sit at a table, play 500 hands, get lucky, win a couple of pots. But an average poker pro can play up to 1.000.000 hands a year. When you play that much volume, you must constantly make decisions with the most
expected value, otherwise you'll be constantly bleeding money. Cash game online pros will find a stake that they can beat for a high enough
winrate and will grind that stake for hours on end, playing 4 up to 24 tables at one time. Kind of like this:
So there's a difference between playing poker, and making a living out of playing online poker. The difference isn't only the "+ev" oriented play, but also things like using tracking software.
All serious poker players use tracking software for their online sessions. This advanced software uses a database to constantly track your opponent's tendencies, and provides with a HUD with those stats. This is how it looks like
(Just by looking at this random pic i know why he colored the button with green, it's because he's a fish, running at 41/26 means he opens 41% of his hands, which is too loose to be profitable. Notice how all the other players are running at around 23/15 which is standard TAG play, means they're solid players)
Solid winning players also always discuss hands with other players. This way they check their line of thought and plug "leaks". This is how hands look like for a poker pro:
![[Image: Capture.png]](http://s8.postimg.org/rcm374jvp/Capture.png)
That will probably sound like gibberish to you, i know it did to me when i started..but it's not. The point i'm trying to make is, that not only poker is a hard game to master, but playing poker online profitably takes a lot of knowledge to pull off, which in turn takes a lot of effort to learn.
Back in the days(circa 2004) playing online poker was like printing money, if you were a good player. Now, post Black Friday(the day when Online poker was banned in USA) and with the current economy, the field is very tough, and full of hungry 'sharks'. The average player is much better, and in order to make a living in a western country from playing poker, you need to grind a lot and always be working on your game, in order to keep up with the constantly improving players.
On the flip-side, if you have the dedication and the possibility to excel at this, you will never have to work a 9 to 5. You also have maximum flexibility, being able to play from anywhere in the world. And your limit for profit is only dictated by your skill level, your bankroll, how much you work and of course, the stakes you play at. I don't think there's a better way to make a living other than travel the world playing poker..and there a few out there that can do it, it just takes a lot of work.
Oh, and to answer the question in the OP: "how much can you make", i'll leave some graphs here