How Poker Pros Make Money in 2025 | Three Modern Pro Archetypes Explained

Archetype 1: The Working Live / MTT Pro

This is the backbone of the poker world — the travelling tournament regular and the live-room grinder.

Primary income:

• Tournament profit
• Live cash game profit

Common secondary income:

• Selling action for big buy-ins
• Coaching sessions
• Occasional backing deals
• Minor sponsorships or logo appearances

For this archetype, stability often comes from diversification. Tournament variance is brutal, so many players offset it with coaching or by selling pieces during major festival seasons. Some work with backing stables that cover buy-ins in exchange for a percentage of profit.

This is the “traditional” pro most fans imagine, but even here, the revenue mix is wider than many expect. 

Here are some examples of successful poker players that fit this mould:

Ari Engel

A Canadian itinerant poker pro known for grinding live tournaments and circuits worldwide. Engel holds a record 18 WSOP Circuit rings.

He has also won 4 WSOP bracelets, amassing nearly $9 million in live tournament earnings as of 2025.

He exemplifies the consistent live MTT grinder, supplementing his income with occasional coaching and staking, but without a major content platform.

Ari Engel has had a big run of late 2025, turning consistent volume into real results.

Shannon Shorr 

An American live-tournament veteran who consistently posts high earnings year after year. 

Shorr has over $15.6 million in lifetime live cashes (top 85 on the all-time money list) and has remarkably surpassed $1M in tournament earnings annually every year since 2019 (excluding the 2020 pandemic break).

A purely competition-focused pro, Shorr’s income comes from steady success in events (he won the 2025 U.S. Poker Open series) rather than streaming or sponsorship deals.

Brian Altman 

A U.S. poker pro and WPT standout who grinds the live circuit with great success but little fanfare on social media. 

Altman has four World Poker Tour titles (tied for the WPT record) and nearly $9.6 million in recorded tournament winnings. He even earned WPT Player of the Year in Season XVIII for consistent results. 

Altman’s career is built on live cashes (including a WSOP bracelet) and selling action, fitting the archetype of the live pro whose main revenue is from tournament play rather than content creation.

Archetype 2: The Online Grinder / Strategy Pro

This group lives on volume, data, and structure. Many learned the game online, study in groups, and operate with precise bankroll management.

Primary income:

• Online tournament or cash-game profit

Common secondary income:

• Coaching
• Training-site revenue shares
• Backing horses
• Occasional YouTube or Twitch content

This archetype thrives on consistency. They often mentor other players, sell solver-based courses, or take on roles inside staking schools or training communities. 

Their income is steadier than that of live-only players, with fewer travel expenses and thousands of hands or hands per day shaping long-term results.

For many of the most technically skilled players in the world, this is home base.

Patrick “pads” Leonard 

A British online MTT grinder renowned for technical study and staking. 

Leonard co-founded the BitB staking/coaching stable and has 10 WCOOP and 8 SCOOP titles to his name, reflecting a formidable dedication to solver-driven online play. 

He owns a WSOP bracelet and over $3–4 million in live earnings, but his primary arena is online. A former partypoker Team Online member and now CoinPoker ambassador, Leonard is respected for sharing strategy insights while still deriving most of his income from high-volume online tournament grinding and coaching others.

Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle 

A German poker theorist and high-stakes online tournament pro, best known as the founder of the Raise Your Edge training platform. 

Rolle’s online volume and study habits are legendary – by 2025 he’d played and studied his way to over $35 million in online MTT winnings. In September 2025, he won the WSOP Online Main Event for $3.9M and his first bracelet, cementing his status as an online crusher. A former PokerStars Team Pro, now a CoinPoker ambassador, “bencb” fits the strategy pro archetype with minimal live results (only ~$125K live) but huge influence through coaching content and solver work.

Ryan Laplante 

An American tournament grinder turned coach who splits time between online volume and teaching. 

Laplante has played 50,000+ online tournaments, racking up over $8 million in combined live/online winnings. He earned a WSOP bracelet in 2016 and has 14 WSOP final tables plus a Poker Masters title on his resume. 

As co-founder of LearnProPoker, Laplante is deeply involved in training the community, and his income reflects a mix of online grind profit, staking, and subscription coaching – hallmarks of the “strategy pro” archetype.

Archetype 3: The Content & Ambassador Pro

This is the biggest shift in modern poker.

Some of the most influential players today earn as much from visibility as they do from pure gameplay.

Primary income:

• Tournament + cash-game profit
• Sponsorship and ambassador deals

Common secondary income:

• Streaming revenue (Twitch, YouTube, Kick)
• YouTube AdSense
• Affiliate links and sign-up bonuses
• Coaching, appearances, and meet-up games
• Merch drops and collaborations

For creators, content and brand partnerships can rival or exceed playing profit in certain years. Ambassadors for major brands, including WPT® and WPT® Global, blend competitive play with media presence, event hosting, travel content, and community engagement.

This archetype represents where much of poker’s cultural momentum sits in 2025 — part competitor, part entertainer, part entrepreneur.

Lex Veldhuis 

A Dutch PokerStars Ambassador and one of the most popular poker streamers on Twitch. Veldhuis focuses on playing online tournaments on stream and regularly draws thousands of viewers to his channel. 

In May 2020 he set a Twitch poker record with 58,799 concurrent viewers sweating his deep SCOOP run. 

With a solid poker background (over $700K in live earnings and past high-stakes cash experience), Lex now earns a substantial income from content creation, sponsorships, and his role as a global ambassador, exemplifying the pro who leverages poker achievement into streaming and brand deals.

Brad Owen

An American poker pro turned YouTube vlogging star, famous for his relatable cash-game vlog series. 

Owen has logged roughly $1.2 million in live tournament earnings, but it’s his consistent cash game profits and engaging video content that built his fame. Over nearly a decade, he grew one of poker’s largest YouTube channels by vlogging sessions with hand analysis. 

This content success led to business opportunities: Brad is now a co-owner of The Lodge Card Club in Texas and an official ambassador for WPT/ClubWPT online events. His revenue comes from a blend of poker wins, YouTube ad revenue, and ambassador salary – a model content-creator pro.

Brad Owen building momentum with another deep run on the live circuit.

Andrew Neeme 

A pioneer of poker vlogging and a community-builder in live poker. Neeme’s YouTube channel (nearly 200K subscribers) documents his life as a mid-stakes cash grinder, breaking down hands and the lifestyle of a full-time player. 

While his tournament earnings are modest (~$280K), Neeme’s influence and following have opened other revenue streams. He co-founded the popular “Meet-up Game” trend for fans, partnered with Doug Polk and Brad Owen to co-own The Lodge Poker Club, and serves as an ambassador for WPT Global online poker. 

Neeme’s profile typifies the content/ambassador pro who monetizes their brand and audience alongside playing profits.

Why These Archetypes?

Poker in 2025 has become a network of overlapping career paths, each with its own rhythm and risk profile.

There are some players who live at the tables. Others build systems and teach others, while some grow audiences and bring new players into the game.

All three archetypes are real. All three work. 

The infographic accompanying this article is designed to show that structure at a glance, clean, honest, and without the false precision of percentage charts.

Understanding these paths gives players a clearer view of the modern poker economy, and a better sense of which approach fits their own goals.