Providing for Your Family Online: Not a Farming Story

You’d never expect it to happen, but someone’s actually making a living from playing an online game, and it isn’t gold farming.

For a while now, Ben Foster has been playing online poker to support his family. Giving up his $110,000-a-year EBay job, he decided to play online poker full-time because of a calculated guess.

With his degree in Statistics and his know-how in tracking his games on a spreadsheet, he figured out that he could potentially make more money playing poker than working for Ebay. His mathematics showed that he could make around $125,000 yearly doing so. At the same time, he could stay at home and help his wife in tending to the kids.

With a lot of effort, and perhaps wins and losses, he has been able to get towards that goal. Making that kind of living in the home environment was tough though. Foster mentions, “ItÂ’s nearly impossible to play eight poker games at once when your 4-week-old son is screaming in the background.” Still, he does what he does, and he plays the game well.

At the same time, he hasn’t become obsessed enough with winning to forget his responsibilities as some addicted gamers have happened to do in the past. He has logged on to play less in recent months to help with the family, but makes up for it when he can.

These days he sits in his home in front of his two flat-panel displays, earning his keep in a more exciting, albeit unorthodox way. While he hasn’t lost his love for poker, it has become a profession for him, and one he seems to be doing quite well. It’s tough to risk a lot on a game, but it was a gamble that, for now, seems to have paid off. Let’s just hope it stays that way.

You’d never expect it to happen, but someone’s actually making a living from playing an online game, and it isn’t gold farming.

For a while now, Ben Foster has been playing online poker to support his family. Giving up his $110,000-a-year EBay job, he decided to play online poker full-time because of a calculated guess.

With his degree in Statistics and his know-how in tracking his games on a spreadsheet, he figured out that he could potentially make more money playing poker than working for Ebay. His mathematics showed that he could make around $125,000 yearly doing so. At the same time, he could stay at home and help his wife in tending to the kids.

With a lot of effort, and perhaps wins and losses, he has been able to get towards that goal. Making that kind of living in the home environment was tough though. Foster mentions, “ItÂ’s nearly impossible to play eight poker games at once when your 4-week-old son is screaming in the background.” Still, he does what he does, and he plays the game well.

At the same time, he hasn’t become obsessed enough with winning to forget his responsibilities as some addicted gamers have happened to do in the past. He has logged on to play less in recent months to help with the family, but makes up for it when he can.

These days he sits in his home in front of his two flat-panel displays, earning his keep in a more exciting, albeit unorthodox way. While he hasn’t lost his love for poker, it has become a profession for him, and one he seems to be doing quite well. It’s tough to risk a lot on a game, but it was a gamble that, for now, seems to have paid off. Let’s just hope it stays that way.