Sure, tourney income has a long gamma distribution. But you can't just look at it as an investment problem. The reality is it's very time-consuming.
Since some on here have a problem with sample size, let's look at total stats on Bax available :
http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/pok...5A21C072E4.html
That $538K profit from 3620 games. I'd say avg of 3 hrs per tourney (please correct if anyone has better idea). That's only $50/hr.
Difficult to account for multi-tabling, because the closer one gets to ITM, the less likely multi-tabling is still going on, but let's say avg of two tourney tables at once. Now we're at $100/hr.
A nice living yes, but actually below the avg accountant, attorney, high-producing sales/marketing guy (think real estate). Definitely well below the avg doctor. Even a senior level nurse can make up towards $100/hr.
And Bax is the best in the business. Imagine if the best attorney in the business could only make $100/hr.
And now we're back at my original question: is there really any such thing as a professional online tournament poker pro?
If you have to be the Michael Jordan of tourney poker just to make what a lot of avg white collar professionals make, then the answer could very well be "no", not in any realistic sense, considering normal distributions of talent.