I felt the point of my comment was obvious, though I've noticed you do seem to miss quite a lot of obvious things so I'll elaborate - just for you!

Jungleman plays against his peers, who also happen to be the worlds best players. Through hard work and study he manages to show an edge of 10bb/100.

Small and midstakes players also play against their peers, who in this case are obviously other small and mid stakes players. It stands to reason that through hard work and study one of these players should also be able to develop a reasonable edge over his peers, perhaps 10bb/100.

Unfortunately in the case of the small/midstakes player this means they're just barely beating the rake. At many games and stakes, they're not even doing that. This leads, through necessity, to an overall game ecology heavily focused on bum hunting and aiming to play almost exclusively against completely unskilled players.

Thus for the game to be rebranded as a game of skill and 'geniuses' the rake needs to be changed as it inherently prevents competition amongst skilled players at lower and mid stakes.

probably means that Pepsi would add 1mil to whatever the prizepool is

My sister works for Miller/Coors and they sponsor me. They pay my entry into any live tournament, and all I have to do is wear a t-shirt/hat or hoody/hat to the event. It would be sick if they expanded their stable.

.

qft

"They’re gambling that poker, minus the gambling, can be a much bigger business — and seen as something people do for fun and personal betterment, not money."

WTF? They want people to take part in a big advert for the likes of Coca-Cola, when they don't even win any money?
Poker as an amateur sport? Er...

I watched the EPT "Champion of Champions" tournament the other day. All 50 entrants had already won 500K+ by winning EPT events. Only the top 4 in the tourney won prizes (a few buy-ins for next year's tour). Everyone else just treated it as a joke, even playing the 72 game for 100 euros on one table. Serious poker players aren't gonna devote their time to big tourneys if they don't get paid.

Results oriented thinking . . .