Poker Pros - Do they really make it?

For a while I have been thinking about poker professionals - those who choose to spend their life playing poker for a living. Having seen the industry and the way poker operates, I have begun to think that the number of people who actually make money off playing poker is actually very small.

Keep in mind, in saying this I am EXCLUDING ancillary activities related to poker. I am not talking about royalties from writing poker books, fees for promoting poker sites, etc. I am purely refering to actually playing poker, and poker only. I greatly respect many of the people who have managed to make a name for themselves in this realm. For example, Tom McEvoy, T.J. Cloutier, and Dan Harrington have done excellent jobs cornering the poker book market (along with David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth).

Are there really many people out there that make a good living in the long term by only playing poker? And when I say "good living" I don't mean survival, or $30,000 or even $50,000 a year. I mean something more in the six figure range on a consistent basis from year to year (if you are a professional poker player, $50,000 is actually a lot less than a job paying the same amount because of health care costs). Obviously, today is a better poker environment than ever before. Winning the World Series of Poker Main Event surely gives somebody enough money to live on for years if they choose to use the money wisely and not gamble it away (something that many winners probably cannot do). However, it seems as though, regardless of how talented someone may be, that it would be extremely difficult for a professional to make enough on poker alone to be a winner in the long term.

This is enhanced by the fact that many of the top professionals cannot stop themselves from constantly gambling their winnings (I'd recommend One of A Kind about Stu Ungar as a great way to get an insight into this mentality). Sure, someone may have a good year here and there, but how many professionals make enough money every single year to live comfortably? My guess is that it is not a very high number.

What do you think?