[bustedromo]

I'm not talking about FTP in general. I'm talking about high buy-in tournaments on FTP.

FTP Pros may or may not be paying tournament buy-ins with their own money (I've heard different stories on this) but they definitely are compensated for their participation in various manners ($/hr, free merchandise, covered travel/expense/buy-ins for live tournies). Effectively, their buy-ins to the big online tournies are free.

You can't have it both ways. If they're great players, then they're reducing the average player's tournament $EV. If they're lousy players, they're dis-educating the average player.

Based on what people on this very thread have said, some of them are good players, some are lousy players. And so net-net they function as merely as shills. 45 $/hr is the figure I've heard from a number of sources. Who wants to play with shills ?