I for one do not even imagine playing at the highest stakes, my stomach just couldnt handle the pressure and the variance, like stated above everybody at the really high stakes are excellent players and as a poker player I do not see a reason to play in such games. You can win shit loads of money at smaller stakes with lesser variance.

I also agree that having a regular job and then playing some poker on your free time is the best option for most of us, the problems will arise when you work a lot and have a family and you may not find enough time to play...

finally:

"Putting their money where their mouths are, Gates and Buffet have alloted a $1 million grant to fund a junior high school program dedicated to teaching the game to teenagers. So far, however, it seems that their money isn't good enough, as they have no takers among U.S. schools. Sharon Osberg, Buffet's longtime playing partner and two-time world-champion bridge player, believes that it will be very difficult to get kids to stop playing poker and take up bridge, as its players are usually on the older side. As the average age of American Contract Bridge League members is 67, Osberg definitely has a point.

For now, poker's popularity doesn't seem to be waning at all, especially among American teens and twenty-somethings. With all the enjoyment and intellectual cunning that bridge might have to offer, this writer can't see it overtaking poker as a national pastime, at least until it gets the same type of television and media exposure. Gates and Buffet will have to dig a lot deeper into their tremendous pockets if they really want bridge to give poker a run for its money. On the other hand, if they'd offer me a million bucks, hey, I'll teach bridge to anyone."