Genuinely curious: Don't famous/extremely-good poker players make a ton of money playing the game? How does 200k/year compare to the kind of money this guy could have made if he remained in Poker?
having an expected value over 200k/year playing poker would probably place someone in the top 50 players, worldwide, in my estimation. I would say it's a lot easier job to be a software engineer than keep up with the discipline required to maintain such an edge. 10 years ago it was a totally different story, there was a LOT more easy money around. The level of play has advanced quickly and the boom has been over for years.