Pretty much my reaction to those figures too. It's funny how, when it comes to posting graphs of their monthly results, so many of those 2+2ers lose some of their hand histories.

Good post Monk.

very interesting read.

I think your post is pretty off-base, monk. I've worked my ass off to get where I am and I'm while I consider myself good, I'm not in the top tier of poker players. I would say that I probably have worked as hard at poker in the last five years than I will in the next 4 years in college and (possibly) getting my masters after that to get a job that will pay what poker could. And that's saying something because I'm haulling ass in college as it is.

Maybe it's not the same for you but I read the forums for probably 1-2 hours a day, plus think about hands while doing other things, develop tournament strategies, etc. And that's not even the playing part! I'm sure pros do it even more than I do. To say they don't work hard to get where they are is pretty ridiculous imo.

And while I do enjoy poker a great deal, I still consider it work. Hell the job I'm eventually going to get will be a college guitar professor/performer. I know I will love it. But it's still going to be hard work. Does enjoying your work make it any less of a job?

But I can agree that poker players don't really contribute much to society. But hell, someone's gotta take this money!