How Many Hands of Online Poker to Make $10,000 a Month?

So how many hands of online poker does it take to make $10,000 a month? This is the dream for most people because that kind of money is nothing to scoff at. For most people this might seem like you would need to be a top 1 percent player to make this kind of money playing poker but a lot of it comes down to math.

The nice thing about online poker is that you can scale up the number of tables you’re playing which can add to the volume and hands you see per hour. However, if it was simple everyone would be doing this. The good news is that it’s possible to get there because I have cleared this amount in a month many times over.

Top Site: Ignition Poker

Best for dedicated poker players who want softer games and multi tabling.

If your main goal is hitting $10k a month playing online poker, I recommend Ignition.

Better overall poker experience
Anonymous tables 
Softer games for recreational players
Poker-focused promotions 

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How Many Hands Per Hour Can You Play?

Okay, this is where I want to start and it’s about how many hands you can play per hour on the short-handed cash games. Yes, I’m talking about 6 max cash games because this in my opinion is the best format to play for consistent money. It’s where I make all of myself. Keep in mind I don’t recommend any of you try more than 6 tables at a time because it really becomes impossible to pay attention to what’s going on so your win rate will go down significantly if you keep adding tables. I find the sweet spot to be 4 at the very most.

Regular 6-Max Cash Games
(Approximate Hands Per Hour)

1 Table | ███ 80
2 Tables | ██████ 160
4 Tables | ████████████ 320
6 Tables | ██████████████████ 480
8 Tables | ████████████████████████ 640
10 Tables | █████████████████████████████ 800
12 Tables | ███████████████████████████████████ 960

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Monthly Hands by Daily Grind Schedule

Let me be clear about this. Most of us have lives and things going on so I would say the sweet spot for hours played per day is 4 hours. You can break this up into 2 sessions of 2 hours, which is the ideal amount to keep yourself fresh at the table and make good decisions.

4 Hours Per Day

Tables	Hands Per Month
2 Tables	~19,000
4 Tables	~38,000
6 Tables	~57,000
8 Tables	~76,000
12 Tables	~115,000

Stakes Needed to Play for $10,000 Per Month

Okay, this is a hard truth about playing online poker and putting in volume. You can only make so much money playing lower stake games. And I’m not saying you can’t make good money playing low stakes, but anything under 100nl meaning $100 cash games won’t cut it. The math doesn’t work. So, you need to be playing either 200nl or 500nl. These games are still easy enough to beat on most sites if you have skill, don’t get emotional due to variance, and are just a well-rounded player. You can absolutely beat the players at the mid stakes.

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200nl Cash Game Scenario

The first scenario is beating $200 cash games short handed and winning 5 big blinds per hour. This is very achievable because I’ve done it. I prefer to play a bit higher stakes still because you will have to put in a lot of volume to make it happen even at this stake.

At 5 bb/100

Result:

• ~100,000 hands/month
• Much more realistic
• Common for strong regs

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500nl Cash Game Scenario

This is where I prefer to play most of the time because moving up from 200nl to 500nl isn’t that big of a shift in my opinion. But you will deal with more aggressive opponents, there is no way around it. However, if you can do the same thing at this stake which is very reasonable, you won’t have to play nearly as many hands.

At 5 bb/100

Result:

• Only ~40,000 hands/month
• Extremely strong income efficiency

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Is Any of This Really Possible?

Yes, it is. I think a lot of this just comes down to how bad you want it. Clearing $10,000 per month is a lot of money especially just from playing a game in your spare time. But even if you do this in your spare time it requires a lot of work and dedication.

You will also be putting in lots of volume which can eventually lead to burn out even if you cap out at 4 hours per day. I also think most people would be happy making just a few thousand dollars extra per month playing games which you can do at lower stake which is always an option. But if you want the bigger money, I’ve given you the math that can take you there. This also isn’t just theory because I’m proof it can be done consistently if you are playing on a site with a lot of recreational players. Ignition is where I’ve made a lot of my money playing over the years.

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Final Thoughts

Most of us put these money targets in our heads before we even attempt running the numbers to see if it’s even possible to make $10,000 or more playing online poker monthly. The good news is that it absolutely is. You just need to figure out if you can fit this kind of thing into your schedule and if you enjoy the game enough to keep playing it for a long period of time.

I’ve personally been playing online poker for over 20 years, and I still enjoy playing as much as I did when I got started. If you’re the same type of person as myself then I would recommend you give this a shot. Always try and keep a minimum of 20 buy ins in your roll because variance can be brutal, especially playing shorthanded. I would also learn the ins and outs to GTO and don’t play garbage hands out of boredom because you are doing this to make money. Don’t overthink any of this because I am telling you it’s more than possible. It’s freaking possible to make good money playing online poker every single month.

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Frequently Asked Questions