[FlyWf]

You've had retail sales, but have you had real sales? Pitching refinances over the telephone is another low barrier to entry, high income right away job. Maybe you should give it a shot. Anyone with a good grasp of English can get brought on at a chopshop mortage house.

Getting back to professional sports, is basketball work? I'm a reasonably intelligent and competent fellow, what that translated to at most of the jobs I've held was that I'd get my responsibilities done and then dick around for a while. You can't dick around 8 tabling the $55s.

It's a fun job, but it's still a job.

You're absolutely right that there are a lot of people who could be making $50K+(and yes, $100K is an arbitarily high total. $35K is average income in the US, I'd say $20K is 'making a living') playing poker who aren't doing it. It's not because they aren't aware of the opportunity, though:
If your boss at your regular job offered you a promotion and a raise(to, oh, your current salary+80% of your current poker income) with the condition that you stop playing poker, would you turn him down?

Money is only part of the equation. People select for utility, and professional poker playing has a unique set of pros and cons. Almost all of it's utility comes from the income earned, whereas, say, Senator has almost all of it's utility from non-salary areas.