• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:43
CEST 14:43
KST 21:43
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Serral wins EWC 202532Tournament Spotlight: FEL Cracow 202510Power Rank - Esports World Cup 202580RSL Season 1 - Final Week9[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15
Community News
[BSL 2025] H2 - Team Wars, Weeklies & SB Ladder8EWC 2025 - Replay Pack4Google Play ASL (Season 20) Announced48BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams10Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up0
StarCraft 2
General
The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings Tournament Spotlight: FEL Cracow 2025 Classic: "It's a thick wall to break through to become world champ" Firefly given lifetime ban by ESIC following match-fixing investigation Serral wins EWC 2025
Tourneys
Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) TaeJa vs Creator Bo7 SC Evo Showmatch Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $10,000 live event Esports World Cup 2025
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 484 Magnetic Pull Mutation #239 Bad Weather Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune
Brood War
General
Which top zerg/toss will fail in qualifiers? BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Google Play ASL (Season 20) Announced 2025 Season 2 Ladder map pool Flash Announces (and Retracts) Hiatus From ASL
Tourneys
[ASL20] Online Qualifiers Day 1 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 [BSL] Non-Korean Championship - Final weekend
Strategy
[G] Mineral Boosting Muta micro map competition Does 1 second matter in StarCraft? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Beyond All Reason Total Annihilation Server - TAForever [MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok)
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative
Fan Clubs
INnoVation Fan Club SKT1 Classic Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Gtx660 graphics card replacement Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment" Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale The Automated Ban List
Blogs
ASL S20 English Commentary…
namkraft
The Link Between Fitness and…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Socialism Anyone?
GreenHorizons
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 566 users

Question for pro poker players playing SC2.

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
Renaissance
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Canada273 Posts
July 29 2010 03:33 GMT
#1
Why?

I'm pretty sure if SC2 hits big in the competitive scene, the best players will barely make as much money as the average poker professional. I understand that not everyone is driven by money, but logically speaking, is it worth the time and effort to become good at SC2?

There are a lot of "rich" poker players here on TL so this just got me curious.
Live forever or die trying.
ROOTFayth
Profile Joined January 2004
Canada3351 Posts
July 29 2010 03:35 GMT
#2
Most of us used to play broodwar competitively a lot, cuz we liked it a lot, kiwikaki was WC3, either way we all have a similar backround, we do it for the fun of it, we can still play poker while playing sc2 you know
Renaissance
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Canada273 Posts
July 29 2010 03:38 GMT
#3
On July 29 2010 12:35 Fayth wrote:
Most of us used to play broodwar competitively a lot, cuz we liked it a lot, kiwikaki was WC3, either way we all have a similar backround, we do it for the fun of it, we can still play poker while playing sc2 you know

Won't it be hard to do both
Live forever or die trying.
MorroW
Profile Joined August 2008
Sweden3522 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-29 03:42:34
July 29 2010 03:41 GMT
#4
but to become a pro at poker dont u need a big cash roll that u can waste on better players to learn the game vs the good ones there and then climb up?

personally the thing that drives me most to play sc is the challenge and to improve. expand ur brain in strategy if u want money then get a job l<o<l
Progamerpls no copy pasterino
professorben
Profile Joined May 2010
United States15 Posts
July 29 2010 03:53 GMT
#5
I estimate the fish and old live pros have saved alot of money the last 2 days.
MiniTsunami
Profile Joined June 2010
United States274 Posts
July 29 2010 03:59 GMT
#6
I've been a pro poker player for the last 4 years, and have played for about 8 years total. While poker is fun and I've been able to make a very good living at it, it can also be extremely stressful at time, when running bad etc.

SC2 is a great game to play during my off time, and given that I have plenty of money invested from poker (enough that I make what most people make in a week without doing much of anything), I am happy to live off the interest and play SC2 which is purely fun for me.

I don't know if I will continue playing SC2 for a long period of time, but right now it is a great change of pace and I'm having a lot of fun playing it.

Also, I am the type of person who enjoys learning new things, and in SC2 there are a lot of new things for me to try and learn, so that makes it all the more enjoyable for me at the present time.
Learn from the mistakes of others, because you won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
ROOTFayth
Profile Joined January 2004
Canada3351 Posts
July 29 2010 04:18 GMT
#7
On July 29 2010 12:41 MorroW wrote:
but to become a pro at poker dont u need a big cash roll that u can waste on better players to learn the game vs the good ones there and then climb up?

personally the thing that drives me most to play sc is the challenge and to improve. expand ur brain in strategy if u want money then get a job l<o<l

you need anything between 10 and 50 bucks to start a roll and never look back and make bazillions

no need for a big cash roll, or else I would never have gotten into it
mcneebs
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Canada391 Posts
July 29 2010 04:20 GMT
#8
Treat poker like any other job and your question will answer itself. I used to play professionally, went to the WSOP, cash games etc. It was a job. Now I have my own little business in China. If you want to get better at SC2, then do it in your free time.

You're kidding yourself though if you think you're going to make anywhere near as much money playing SC2 than you would working or playing cards. The best players will NOT be making as much money as the average poker player (who play for a living). There's no where near enough prize money. If players were allowed to bet their own cash (a la poker) and play ladder matches for 1k, then I might see it. But if you think you're going to be making 50k+ as a foreign SC2 "pro" then you've got illusions of grandeur. The competition is way too stiff, and the sponsors are getting no where near enough publicity to pony up that kind of cash.

Think of it this way. McDonalds sponsors The Big Mac SC2 tourney, and offers 100k in prize money. Now how do you determine who gets in? The first 64 people who enter? The top ranked 64? Sure. Pick a method.

Now you have 64 people competing for a 100k purse. The top 8 people get paid. Winner's share is 30%. The same 20 people are going to be vying for that prize every time. The rest? Maybe getting lucky and coming up with a top 8 spot.

In the mean time, there's 250 000 competitive players trying to get to that top 64 rank. Only the best of the best of the best will get any action. This is also assuming that McDonalds would sponsor a 100k tourney (which is totally absurd).

Now look at poker. You can take 200 dollars, study, remain disiplined, and practice good bankroll management. All you have to do is sit down with 8 players worse than you in a table, and your roll will grow. As your skill/roll improves, so does your cash earned. Since you're the one taking all the risk, there's no saying what can/can't happen.

You can sit down with phil ivey this weekend if you've got the cash to do it. He won't mind playing you 1k/2k NL, I promise. Just as flash won't mind playing you a Bo5 for 25k. The problems are 1) betting on SC is grossly illegal, and 2) You can only play against the super elite.
You do it to yourself. Just you. You and no one else.
ROOTFayth
Profile Joined January 2004
Canada3351 Posts
July 29 2010 04:25 GMT
#9
would be retarded if you could make as much playing SC2 lol, there is 0 risk in playing SC2 whereas you can lose money playing poker (even though a winning player never really lose on the long run) so yeah we all play for the same reason, the game is awesome, it's fun, it's much less stressful than playing poker

It's the same reason we're all eager to play diablo 3 as well lol xD
obs
Profile Joined July 2010
United States1 Post
Last Edited: 2010-07-29 04:28:22
July 29 2010 04:27 GMT
#10
grinding sc2 is a lot more fun than grinding poker tables (also: stress)
MiniTsunami
Profile Joined June 2010
United States274 Posts
July 29 2010 04:30 GMT
#11
Oh yes I also forgot to add, I've been playing SC1/BroodWar since it was very first release (I bought the original the day it came out). I simply love the game, and it's in my blood! But I have no plans to make even 1/10,000th of the money I make playing poker from SC2, it's just unreasonable to think of SC2 as a money maker. It's a game to play for fun, and if you can make some money by playing it, more power to you!
Learn from the mistakes of others, because you won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
Armsved
Profile Joined May 2010
Denmark642 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-29 04:38:52
July 29 2010 04:33 GMT
#12
Played poker for a year, my biggest tourney wins were, 3rd place sunday warmup on star, 1st place 11+R on stars and 4th on the 110k on mansion. + a shit ton of cashgame. I was also doing 12+ tables on fulltilt.

I MADE A SHIT LOAD MONEY. However, poker is VERY VERY repetetive. After a couple of months its grinding. Litterally grinding. You play 8 hours a day and you dont enjoy it at all since you are doing the same shit all the time.

And also playing pro poker is more about disiplin than skill. You dont need a whole lot of skill to earn money of poker but you do need A LOT of disiplin. Your BB/hand is very low and rakeback is a big part of your income. So whenever you tilt just a little a huge loss. And thats only after the small setups you lose like AA vs KK or even KK vs AA.

But the worst thing about poker is... the downswings... These will are sooo hard to deal with... I had 3 days during my "pro" time that I experienced like 20 losses of buyins due to set vs higher set, flush vs higher flush, KK vs AA, you get the point. Losing an extreme amount of money to varians favored the opponent. This is SO hard to deal with.

Sc2 IS AWSOME. In denmark, most pro pokerplayers wish they had taken a different road.
YOOO
goswser
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States3546 Posts
July 29 2010 04:35 GMT
#13
I hope to get into online poker sometime, I've read books on poker and played with friends, but barely have any money and have no idea how I would go about creating a poker account/putting money into it anyways (isn't it illegal in the USA?). I've always been extremely competitive in all games, and think I could do well online (but of course, who doesn't).
say you were born into a jungle indian tribe where food was scarce...would you run around from teepee to teepee stealing meat scraps after a day lazying around doing nothing except warming urself by a fire that you didn't even make yourself? -rekrul
weebles
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada15 Posts
July 29 2010 04:39 GMT
#14
Hopefully some day SC2 will be as big as poker :D

We can all dream, right?
ROOTFayth
Profile Joined January 2004
Canada3351 Posts
July 29 2010 04:47 GMT
#15
On July 29 2010 13:33 Armsved wrote:
Played poker for a year, my biggest tourney wins were, 3rd place sunday warmup on star, 1st place 11+R on stars and 4th on the 110k on mansion. + a shit ton of cashgame. I was also doing 12+ tables on fulltilt.

I MADE A SHIT LOAD MONEY. However, poker is VERY VERY repetetive. After a couple of months its grinding. Litterally grinding. You play 8 hours a day and you dont enjoy it at all since you are doing the same shit all the time.

And also playing pro poker is more about disiplin than skill. You dont need a whole lot of skill to earn money of poker but you do need A LOT of disiplin. Your BB/hand is very low and rakeback is a big part of your income. So whenever you tilt just a little a huge loss. And thats only after the small setups you lose like AA vs KK or even KK vs AA.

But the worst thing about poker is... the downswings... These will are sooo hard to deal with... I had 3 days during my "pro" time that I experienced like 20 losses of buyins due to set vs higher set, flush vs higher flush, KK vs AA, you get the point. Losing an extreme amount of money to varians favored the opponent. This is SO hard to deal with.

Sc2 IS AWSOME. In denmark, most pro pokerplayers wish they had taken a different road.

lol what, I don't even count rakeback in any of my income from poker o_O

there are different type of winners but saying rakeback is a big part of income is not true for everyone at all
weebles
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada15 Posts
July 29 2010 04:48 GMT
#16
On July 29 2010 13:47 Fayth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 29 2010 13:33 Armsved wrote:
Played poker for a year, my biggest tourney wins were, 3rd place sunday warmup on star, 1st place 11+R on stars and 4th on the 110k on mansion. + a shit ton of cashgame. I was also doing 12+ tables on fulltilt.

I MADE A SHIT LOAD MONEY. However, poker is VERY VERY repetetive. After a couple of months its grinding. Litterally grinding. You play 8 hours a day and you dont enjoy it at all since you are doing the same shit all the time.

And also playing pro poker is more about disiplin than skill. You dont need a whole lot of skill to earn money of poker but you do need A LOT of disiplin. Your BB/hand is very low and rakeback is a big part of your income. So whenever you tilt just a little a huge loss. And thats only after the small setups you lose like AA vs KK or even KK vs AA.

But the worst thing about poker is... the downswings... These will are sooo hard to deal with... I had 3 days during my "pro" time that I experienced like 20 losses of buyins due to set vs higher set, flush vs higher flush, KK vs AA, you get the point. Losing an extreme amount of money to varians favored the opponent. This is SO hard to deal with.

Sc2 IS AWSOME. In denmark, most pro pokerplayers wish they had taken a different road.

lol what, I don't even count rakeback in any of my income from poker o_O

there are different type of winners but saying rakeback is a big part of income is not true for everyone at all



For lower limit players who struggle to profit this is true, but that's about it.
ROOTFayth
Profile Joined January 2004
Canada3351 Posts
July 29 2010 04:53 GMT
#17
I think you absolutely need rakeback when you start your roll going from microstakes to midstakes cuz rakeback can play a big part in ur winrate (especially since you're usually in a learning process)

but when you get to like 2/4 you shouldn't count on rakeback anymore as it shud be fairly small compared to your winnings even though rakeback is more than enough to make a living at this point
MiniTsunami
Profile Joined June 2010
United States274 Posts
July 29 2010 04:58 GMT
#18
On July 29 2010 13:53 Fayth wrote:
I think you absolutely need rakeback when you start your roll going from microstakes to midstakes cuz rakeback can play a big part in ur winrate (especially since you're usually in a learning process)

but when you get to like 2/4 you shouldn't count on rakeback anymore as it shud be fairly small compared to your winnings even though rakeback is more than enough to make a living at this point


I agree with this 100%

I generally play 5/10 PLO, and even w/ the large amount of 60/40's and large pots w/ lots of rake, rakeback is still a very small % of my total winnings.

Rakeback is a great way to help a breakeven/marginal winner's income, but once one becomes a strong winning player, rakeback is fairly negligible.
Learn from the mistakes of others, because you won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
LarJarsE
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States1378 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-29 05:04:14
July 29 2010 05:03 GMT
#19
Well.. SC2 and Poker are completely different games. You can say they have SOME similarities, but they require completely different skillsets. Yes there are SC2 tournaments that you can make money from if you win, but it will take alot of practice to participate in those tournaments like high stakes poker tournaments.
since 98'
newbkills
Profile Joined June 2010
United States25 Posts
July 29 2010 05:07 GMT
#20
Problem with sc1/2 and any other game is that luck is pretty much never a factor. Someone might be willing to throw down X amount of cash to possibly get lucky and win. No one will ever buy into a video game tournament since luck will not be a factor.

It's because of this luck factor that pro poker players have fish to win money from.

However, they do have huge buy ins for golf and there is no luck there either. But I would think its safe to say that the average golfer makes way more money than ur average gamer making it possible to have buy ins.
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
12:00
Playoff - Day 1/2
Mihu vs QiaoGege
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs TBD
ZZZero.O90
LiquipediaDiscussion
CranKy Ducklings
10:00
Sea Duckling Open #137
CranKy Ducklings146
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko406
RushiSC 22
Aristorii 8
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 43279
Sea 2745
Jaedong 2145
BeSt 896
Mini 742
GuemChi 643
ggaemo 517
Larva 478
Soma 345
ToSsGirL 312
[ Show more ]
Zeus 254
Last 209
Rush 179
firebathero 174
hero 124
Mong 108
ZZZero.O 103
TY 69
Bonyth 43
sas.Sziky 30
ajuk12(nOOB) 25
Yoon 19
sorry 17
Noble 12
Terrorterran 1
Dota 2
qojqva2567
XcaliburYe562
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K789
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor315
Other Games
singsing2169
B2W.Neo1161
DeMusliM481
SortOf149
Happy149
Hui .124
OptimusSC215
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
CasterMuse 1
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH197
• Gemini_19 34
• Reevou 4
• IndyKCrew
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
• intothetv
• Migwel
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Kozan
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• FirePhoenix0
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1367
• WagamamaTV731
League of Legends
• Nemesis1977
• Jankos1054
Upcoming Events
WardiTV European League
3h 17m
ShoWTimE vs Harstem
Shameless vs MaxPax
HeRoMaRinE vs SKillous
ByuN vs TBD
Sparkling Tuna Cup
21h 17m
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
1d 1h
Bonyth vs TBD
WardiTV European League
1d 3h
Wardi Open
1d 22h
OSC
2 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4 days
The PondCast
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 20 Non-Korean Championship
FEL Cracow 2025
Underdog Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #1
HCC Europe
CC Div. A S7
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025

Upcoming

ASL Season 20: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 20
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
SEL Season 2 Championship
WardiTV Summer 2025
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CAC 2025
Roobet Cup 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.