How long before Poker Marketing is offered as an option for a student to read at University? Poker players who play professionally are supporting themselves financially by doing a very unpredictable profession. There are not many self-employed businesses that rely so heavily on luck to determine whether or not they make a profit or a loss. Most businesses require the knowledge of procedures to earn money a certain way, then repeat as often as possible. With poker, the outcomes are never guaranteed. For this reason players usually do things alongside their table play to give themselves a more reliable income.

Phil Hellmuth owns his own clothing and publishing company alongside playing professional poker. His antics at the table and his affiliation (possibly even part ownership) of Ultimate Bet serve as major parts of his income these days. Simply winning a lot of money playing poker and winning 11 WSOP bracelets was not enough to secure his life forever. He could still lose money in the high stakes cash games he played in, so he developed his businesses to allow him security in an insecure profession. This clever investment in his own poker profile is what has given him most of his wealth.

If you look at any top poker player, most have a large sponsorship deals or another major stream of income. All of the top Full Tilt players make a massive income from the site each month. Daniel Negreanu has Full Contact Poker and Poker VT, Doyle Brunson has Doyles Room, and so on. Playing $10,000 buy-in poker tournaments week after week diminishes any bankroll quickly so these players understand the need to invest to keep them in the public domain and in the game. Not many players rely solely on the turn of a card for their money. Even top cash game player Tom “Durrr” Dwan, who is seen as the young crazy gambler willing to risk everything for poker, has invested his money in businesses away from poker whilst battling it out at the very highest stakes both online and live.

How can the average player like you and me learn from this? Firstly, this is yet another example that poker is never reliable enough to play solely forever. I would recommend any player to look at ways of ensuring they invest any substantial earnings to secure their futures. You can set up a poker website or a blog and look to gain money through poker advertising. Once you have a good win or a notable final table appearance this should generate interest in you and when people search on Google for your name your site will appear. Always be on the look out for people willing to pay you to wear their logo. Be willing to network and give people your email address and contact details. You never know what idea they may think you are suitable for that they will pay you to participate in. If you are worried about giving out a personal email address, then simply set up a free account with yahoo or hotmail that you use only for poker business.

Be unique but not foolish. Marcel Luske is a player that always wears a suit and appears very smart and is well known for this preference. Other players like Andy Black wear their sunglasses upside down on their face (common in poker). You may even like to design some poker apparel and tell people about it when you play. A good bomber jacket or pair of sunglasses may give you the look to sell your products.

As with any type of enterprise PR is everything. You need to network furiously but not like a salesman. Drop into the conversation that you can write articles, you keep a blog; you design poker clothing, or whatever you do so that people remember you and want to associate with you. Always be extremely friendly and warm, this will draw people to you as a person. Marketing is about developing an image and then profiting from that image. Poker is a unique niche where people are willing to spend money in the right circumstances so ensure that if you do arrive at a point where you can profit from your poker success you are able to offer something unique to the willing poker sponsors who will come knocking.

By Malcolm Clarke

Tags: danial negreanu, doyle brunson, full tilt poker, phil helmuth, play poker, play tournaments, poker, poker marketing, tom dwan

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