I Want Your Job: Professional poker player

Maria Demetriou, 34, is a professional poker player based in Grantham, Lincolnshire.

What do you actually do?

I play poker with people in casinos and poker clubs for money. I play cash poker, where you put up your own money, and take part in poker tournaments, where there's an entry fee of a certain amount from around 50 up to 1,000 or more then it's free, and the winner takes a percentage of the money in the prize pool at the end. I generally prefer to play live poker in front of other people, rather than online poker.

What's your working schedule like?

I work for myself, so I decide how often I play and when. Usually, I play two or three nights a week in a poker club or casino, plus sometimes a couple of tournaments on the internet. A standard 100 player poker tournament might last from 8pm until 4am but you might get knocked out after 10 minutes. If you're playing cash poker, you can play for as long as you can afford to keep going.

What do you love about it?

It's the absolute freedom from the humdrum, nine-to-five rat race. I hate to be pinned down in an office. I have no boss, and I work when I want to. Playing poker is my only source of income, but I've never seen it as a job. I really enjoy the psychological aspect of the game. You have to get inside people's heads.

What's not great about it?

It can be infuriating. There is a lot of luck involved in poker, so you can outplay your opponent but still lose if they get a really lucky hand. A single card can ruin everything. But that element of luck can work in your favour as well. If there was no luck involved, it would be boring.

What skills do you need to do the job well?

You need the mental discipline to make the right choice at the right time. You can't allow yourself to make irrational decisions based on a bad hand. You've got to focus and carry on with the game. You should be analytical, with the psychological skills to read people. For instance, if someone picks up their chips and you notice that their hand is shaking, it could mean that they have a fantastic hand. Having a good grasp of maths, and understanding odds and percentages, will help you although some players ignore maths and just go by gut instinct.

What advice would you give someone with their eye on your job?

Think long and hard before you give up your day job. I often wish that I had a second source of income. In March, I came fifth in a big tournament and won 26,500 but you can easily play for months without winning any significant amount of money. With live poker, you have to pay for travel costs, hotels and petrol, so there are expenses involved. Ideally you should keep your poker money and household money separate you should have at least a year's worth of living expenses saved up to cover you through the bad times.

What's the salary and career path like?

How much you earn is completely down to the individual. One friend of mine has just won 500,000; on the other hand, you could make a loss. For a standard tournament with 100 players who all pay a 50 entrance fee in order to take part, the winner would get to take home around 30 per cent of the 5,000 prize pool about 1,500. A very lucky few get sponsorship deals, which mean you don't have to use your own money to enter tournaments.

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Licensing Board has the smallest $ 0.02 / $ 0.04, it is ideal for novice start; Bonus gradually released, a 100 per hand (must be the site received 0.5 U.S. dollars more than the fee in hand), the release of 10 U.S. dollars, equivalent to 10 per dozen hand, The release of one U.S. dollar. If participate in the Championship (TOURNAMENT), one dollar fee, a hand count.

At the same time the number of on-line at the peak of 26,000 people, at least at the same time online daily number about 8,000, at any time of your players and you have to play, unlike some small sites, sometimes boost could not find opponents.

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Every 30 minutes there was a free Championships, the daily total of more than 40 free competition, free competition is the largest poker site. Every free game total prize money of 50 U.S. dollars, any accession to the site is open to players No need of any deposits, the game began 45 minutes before registration. If you win, prize money immediately into your account, you can immediately start to real money tables on various real game. The author of this free competition to win by 20 U.S. dollars prize money, and then use this 20 U.S. dollars prize money to a +0.1 and +0.2 of 2 SIT GO table participate in the single-table game, one month down, to have won more than 300 U.S. dollars. Like to play against friends, we should not miss the site.

The network poker game types:



Texas Hold em (Texas Hold em, Texas Hold em Poker)

Omaha Poker (Omaha Poker)

High - low 8 Omaha Poker (Omaha high-low 8 or better)

Pile high seven unlicensed poker (seven-card high stud

High - low seven piles card poker (seven-card high-low stud

Limits:

Restricted (LIMIT), quota-free (NO LIMIT), bottom of the pot limit (POT LIMIT)

$ .02 -. 0.04, $ .10 -. 20, $ .25 -. 50, $ .50-1, $ 1-2, $ 2-4, $ 3-6, $ 5-10, $ 10-20, up to $ 75 -150, And so on

Players flow

At the same time the number of online daily maximum of approximately: 16,000

At the same time in at least daily about the number: 2 1000

Deposits:

Visa, Mastercard, Neteller, FirePay, bank cards, remittance or other means

Withdrawals:

2 days to deposit withdrawals, the minimum withdrawals 50 U.S. dollars

Attack and defense strategy skills:

Players look at the general rate of licensing in 30% - 45% of that audience playing relatively tight, the Chinese people Tingduo

Suitable for novice to the AbsolutePoker (absolute poker) 0.02/0.04 game play, or participate in the tournament (Tournament)

AbsolutePoker (absolute poker) dividend release rate (per hour, each Taiwan):

AbsolutePoker (absolute poker) can also play the Taiwan: 6

Additional features:

1. Audience Points (FPP): In AbsolutePoker (absolute poker) to play cards, you can accumulate points, and then into cash, clothing, poker books and gifts.

2. Gamers are between the internal transfer functions to facilitate the transfer of money between friends. (Required by the inspection staff

3. Diary of history: One way to improve the technology is to study their own history to play cards, you may recall played before the licence

4. Audience records (player notes): timely recording the characteristics of players, to help you identify and better insight into other players.