Where is the money coming from in high stakes poker?

[Orpheus]

Out of fairness, I should have mentioned that good online players can also help fund the B&M tables. The casino setting and table rules can be unsettling (vs. paying off/on at will in your underwear). Single tabling the slower tables may lead to boredom, and definitely increases variance. Table selection/changing is an entirely different issue. Reading/hiding physical tells becomes important. The minimum B&M stakes are often higher than their accustomed play, and the visceral impact of physical chips and money can make them scared money when they're down.

As I said, I have full respect for B&M players, but by calling 5/10 "high stakes, the OP was clearly asking about ONLINE play. The influx of 5/10 B&M (low stakes) players probably contributes greatly to online "high stakes" 5/10.

The convenience of online vs. B&M play, the larger table availability, the allure of slightly lower stakes (that may still betougher because they are not the lowest stakes online), plus the common drive to "get even", may lead B&M players to return periodically despite many losing online sessions. (A few winning sessions will only increase their play.) On the other hand, online players who lose in B&Ms are less likely to make repeat B&M trips to play at higher than their accustomed stakes; it's easier to go back to their familiar lower stake online game and "catch up" there.

[Jorge10]

Something also I found out this weekend, the amount of hands you play in live is much smaller, it takes online players a while to figure out they are not long time winners, usually when you clear the 50k hand beating a level, you can consistently beat it, but to reach 50k hands live would take several months.

Which means people can play live just going up and down, up and down, never realizing, that they arent going to beat the level long term and move down. They could be playing 5/10 forever because it takes months of careful record keeping and what not. Most people dont do that, the average person will never realize they are long term losers.

Figured this out this weekend, because some old lady kept trying to get me to play more hands in a crazy high low game when I was getting crap, in her mind she was a long term winner, also she kept saying it, lol. I saw her play for several hours as I was folding a lot, and she could not be a long term winner the way she played, but she had never realized this.