A foriegner winning the WSOP has made me think aobut something. Could we see an outsourcing of poker professionals oversees?
Many people in poorer countries could learn how to play winning holdem. Provided with the funds, they could easily educate themselves enough to win. Moreover, there are a lot of them. If someone made $10,000/year playing $3/6 in America they would quit, thus one less shark and the pool of fish money goes up for everyone else. However, if someone in India could make $10,000/year playing $3/6 they could live like a king.
Online poker is a classic outsourcing friendly industry. It is fairly unregulated, done over the internet, and is a mental skill. Hell, maybe people in India could actually understand party tech support [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
It seems to me that the economics of the situation make it so that the "wage" of a professional at given level (skill held constant) will eventually settle over the long run. I don't see why it should settle at $50,000/year for a $3/6 player, I think the influx of foriegn players will bring it down.
If anything, I can see poker sweatshops getting set up in foriegn countries. A similair thing happened in MMORPGs:
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815
Disclaimer: This is not meant to be an analysis of wether this or outsourcing in general is good/bad. Merely I'm trying to postulate what may happen.