Making a lucrative living in pool?

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wambamcam

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Seems that pool has greatly become less viable as far as real income nowadays, especially in the states. You get the rare successes such as Jeanette Lee (via endorsements and smart management) and Van Boening, but can you really get rich with pool as your career?

How hard is it to actually make a living through pool? I'm not just talking about just making it by earning 25k-30k a year, but actually making very good money, like 100k.

And not just as a player, but by other means as well, such as a room owner, tourney director, cue maker, league operator, billiards supply retail, etc.
 
wambamcam said:
Seems that pool has greatly become less viable as far as real income nowadays, especially in the states. You get the rare successes such as Jeanette Lee (via endorsements and smart management) and Van Boening, but can you really get rich with pool as your career?

How hard is it to actually make a living through pool? I'm not just talking about just making it by earning 25k-30k a year, but actually making very good money, like 100k.

And not just as a player, but by other means as well, such as a room owner, tourney director, cue maker, league operator, billiards supply retail, etc.
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Just my opinion, rich is not 100K a year.

You can make good solid money but you have to think of yourself as the business and be ready for opportunity.

Easy example would be Steve "The Miz". He was a school teacher turned Pro in Pool. He probably did around 100K based on his time period. He got a Gig doing Miller Lite commercials and used that money for his Miz collection of cues and knic knacks which turned into millions.

You have many cue makers that limit production, offer fantastic quality and will get the 100K on just a few cues.

Many go out with no biz plan. When you do this except for luck you are doomed to fail.

By next year I will be making over 100K a year on my Tips and just started. This however is just a Hobby for me, something to leave my Niece and Nephew when I pass.

The question and answer is "are you a business person or working for yourself to pay yourself higher wages than a job would pay"?
 
I wouldn't consider 100K a year rich, but doesn't expenses have to come out of that? Travel, food, lodging? What's a player at the that level left with, 70 thousand, maybe?
In addition, he or she may not be able to make that kind of money year after year, either. :smile:
 
TomHay said:
Just my opinion, rich is not 100K a year.

You can make good solid money but you have to think of yourself as the business and be ready for opportunity.

Easy example would be Steve "The Miz". He was a school teacher turned Pro in Pool. He probably did around 100K based on his time period. He got a Gig doing Miller Lite commercials and used that money for his Miz collection of cues and knic knacks which turned into millions.

You have many cue makers that limit production, offer fantastic quality and will get the 100K on just a few cues.

Many go out with no biz plan. When you do this except for luck you are doomed to fail.

By next year I will be making over 100K a year on my Tips and just started. This however is just a Hobby for me, something to leave my Niece and Nephew when I pass.

The question and answer is "are you a business person or working for yourself to pay yourself higher wages than a jobs would pay"?
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Rich may not be the best word, but if someone's making six figures annually, that's substantial compared to most Americans and more than many engineers, pharmacist, and managers. It puts you in the top 5% of earners.

BTW, congratulations on your business endeavor. Seems to be working out for you and if you're doing that well so far, it must mean you're doing something right.
 
Tramp Steamer said:
I wouldn't consider 100K a year rich, but doesn't expenses have to come out of that? Travel, food, lodging? What's a player at the that level left with, 70 thousand, maybe?
In addition, he or she may not be able to make that kind of money year after year, either. :smile:
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AMEN. Plus you have those unfor seen things like the cost of Health Care should you get sick.
 
wambamcam said:
Rich may not be the best word, but if someone's making six figures annually, that's substantial compared to most Americans and more than many engineers, pharmacist, and managers. It puts you in the top 5% of earners.

BTW, congratulations on your business endeavor. Seems to be working out for you and if you're doing that well so far, it must mean you're doing something right.
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Short story, we old guys always gotta tell stories.

I got taken for everything in around the year 2000. I had to rebuild and moved to Jacksonville Florida. A group of us used to play Texas HoldEm, 3 matches a night twice a week $40.00 buy in per match. I was the poor guy, we used to switch off houses except for mine, everyone had Million dollar plus houses. I was fortunate though as me and another guy were picked to win at least one match per night so it was a little money maker.

The recession kicked in. Slowly but steady all the players were losing their cars, houses etc except for the other guy picked to win and they all had family income of over 200K a year. The games stopped, they had no place to play and no money to enter.

Its not what you make, its what you can live on. I had no debt then and no debt now. My car and Real Estate are all paid for and I have renters that pay my utilities. I have no credit cards but 3 Debit cards.

Its not about what you make its about controling what you make and finding happiness.

100K is not making 100K, off the top of my head its like 78K take home which if you have a child going to College you won't have enough to buy lunch.

Your 5% figure? We have 2 people running for President that both claim middle class today is over 200K a year.

Throw the money out. If you wake up happy every morning doing what you do and can pay all bills with enough to throw in a can for a rainy day, you got life licked.
 
You would be self employed. Would you state your income to the Govt? If you do and are honest, 33 % would be the Fed's take --17% for your social Sercurity. In my state there's another 10% for state and personal property tax. Now if your state has a sells tax like mine add another 6% to the above.
That's hard to look at (the above) but do you see what just happened to that 100 grand. It sounds like a lot of money until you find out what's going on when your self employed. So after everything is said and done your lucky to keep 26 cents on every dollar you earn. Also you would be paying your own health insurance, because remember your self employed.
 
If 200k is middle class then I am one of the destitute "poor" that Romney continually refers. And I have a solid job at that. Apparently something seems amiss.

Making pool a living? You'd have to own a business or be a pro level player. It'd be nice being a tournament promoter, but you'd need to be part of the 200k middle class to even get it started with any sort of serious attendance.
 
Irving Crane couldn't make a consistent living at pool and he was the best of the best. Had to sell cars for a living. Had a pool hall and a bowling alley once that couldn't make it either. His wife was a teacher at a school. Pool was his love and he followed his happiness.

When the best are having a hard time of it, how can the rest feel good about that? If people where not so selfish they would think of deserving others after they help themselves. Some do not have the business sense but are busy creating beauty in life for others to be elevated from the daily existence of making a dollar. They must be supported in their work if humanity is to have a chance at peace. War makes dollars while genuine Art makes peace. Pool is a creative game and a peaceful direction. It is in my opinion one of the few pursuits where making a dollar leads to helping others.
 
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TomHay said:
Short story, we old guys always gotta tell stories.

I got taken for everything in around the year 2000. I had to rebuild and moved to Jacksonville Florida. A group of us used to play Texas HoldEm, 3 matches a night twice a week $40.00 buy in per match. I was the poor guy, we used to switch off houses except for mine, everyone had Million dollar plus houses. I was fortunate though as me and another guy were picked to win at least one match per night so it was a little money maker.

The recession kicked in. Slowly but steady all the players were losing their cars, houses etc except for the other guy picked to win and they all had family income of over 200K a year. The games stopped, they had no place to play and no money to enter.

Its not what you make, its what you can live on. I had no debt then and no debt now. My car and Real Estate are all paid for and I have renters that pay my utilities. I have no credit cards but 3 Debit cards.

Its not about what you make its about controling what you make and finding happiness.

100K is not making 100K, off the top of my head its like 78K take home which if you have a child going to College you won't have enough to buy lunch.

Your 5% figure? We have 2 people running for President that both claim middle class today is over 200K a year.

Throw the money out. If you wake up happy every morning doing what you do and can pay all bills with enough to throw in a can for a rainy day, you got life licked.
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Not trying to get into a financial debate, but I was just pointing out what some of the numbers indicate. Everyone knows that with the economy nowadays, 100k may not feel like a lot, but the fact is that it's consider quite a bit compared to what the average American makes. My first "real" job after graduating college was $11.50 an hour as a counselor, and that was 12 years ago. I make substantially more now, but still nowhere near 6 figures now as a lead respiratory therapist. I guarantee you that even $78,000 is a pay raise for over 80% of working Americans.

Guess my point was that if you consider "pool" as your profession in any way, are you just making it by or making a decent living.
 
My first real job paid $1.25 an hour but on to the next part of your question. Many years ago when Pool was being considered for an Olympic Sport a Poll was taken. Pool was the number 1 sport participated by more people than any other. Bowling was 2nd. This makes your product "Pool". Now to make 100K a year knowing those figures and finding your own niche market, easy. Biz savy and a good biz plan comes first. Heck you could probably do it by building Web Sites and hosting them for residual income.
 
Well, at least he sold Cadillacs...and he did pretty well with it, putting three kids through college!

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Maestro said:
Irving Crane couldn't make a consistent living at pool and he was the best of the best. Had to sell cars for a living. Had a pool hall and a bowling alley once that couldn't make it either. His wife was a teacher at a school. Pool was his love and he followed his happiness.
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I would take a 100K to live on the road and pay entries. Assuming you never match up and lose then it could be substantially more.

So to make a 100K profit you would have to earn at least 250K before taxes and expenses.

Unless you are a world beater you would have to pick up sponsors and soon or it would be a quick road to being broke.

Of course opinions vary and this could be the first time I was wrong. :wink:
 
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