What a poker professional actually is

There is no licence, no register and no governing body that hands out the word. A poker professional is someone whose living comes, mostly, from playing the game. That is a statement about a person's finances, which is exactly why this desk treats it as an editorial label rather than a fact it can source.

How the label is used here

1. Professional player. The person is publicly described as playing for a living, over years rather than a season. It says nothing about how well that is going.
2. Broadcaster who plays. Known first for work off the table. Victoria Coren Mitchell is filed this way; Stephen Chidwick is not. Merging the two would make both descriptions useless.
3. Scene regular. A recognisable name on the British circuit whose income is nobody's business and is not implied here.

What the label is not

It is not a skill rating, not a leaderboard position and not a promise that anyone is ahead. A profile can carry the word Professional player and an empty record in the same breath, and often does, because the label is editorial and the record has to be sourced.

If you came here to find out whether poker is a sensible way to earn money: this site does not answer that, and anyone who answers it confidently is selling something.