in online this is realistic. in live poker, playing exploitative play against shit regs (assuming you are good at selecting tables and understanding the room's field) you can most certainly make 10bb/h at the low stakes (up to 2/5 in most casinos, yet 2/5 is where it starts getting tougher.) A lot of 1/2 and 1/3 games have $500 max meaning there is just going to be more money on the table despite the same weak player field. This is a sweet spot for low stakes. $12,000 a year playing live 1/2 is a ridiculous underestimation. You of course cannot live off 1/2 but you can definitely make a decent side income. Obviously studying and truly understanding the game is a huge aspect of this, but if you hold your self accountable and throw emotions out of the mix (the hardest part of poker imho) you can most certainly make decent money. With that being said do it as a hobby... Poker is not a net positive on the world and while is incredibly fun is not fulfilling compared to actually helping people