[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Do you think the online sites would/could segregate the market?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. But they won't. It is not in their interests.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it is. I would argue that its in their interest to kick the best players to the curb. They take more money off the tables than they contribute in rake. Thing about it this way. Given a finite number of players and finite bankrolls, would the site be better off if all players had the same skill, or if it was highly polarized with the better players taking the worse players money? People of equal skill swap the money, letting it get raked and reraked, good players take their winnings (raked once) and deposit it in the bank.

Not a perfect comparison but one could see how the same arguement could be made for segmenting the market. Allowing an unproportional number of good players from developing countries would lead to more money being pulled off the table and less total rake being generated.

This thought process requires a long term view on profitablity/rake, not short term where obviously the more players the better.