There’s no need to worry about the shrinking job market. Plenty of great positions are still available for qualified college graduates, provided that college is Harvard. Otherwise you’re going to have to find more demeaning backup employment, such as rodeo clown or auto industry executive.

That’s why it’s a shame this year’s $25,000 World Poker Tour Championship, which concluded Saturday evening, attracted only 338 players, down from a high of 639 in 2007.

My backup job was going to be professional poker player, but this year’s WPT champion, 21-year-old Yevgeniy Timoshenko (pronounced “Yevgeniy Timoshenko”), only made $2.1 million. “I guess it’s an honor to win,” Timoshenko said, “but this isn’t enough to buy more than two or three private islands.” Read the rest of this entry »