High Stakes Poker

So I was watching one of my favorite poker shows the other day on the Game Show Network, "High Stakes Poker." Poker seems to be one of the few things that I watch on TV these days. Basically it's a bunch of the best poker players in the world playing a cash ring game. I think the minimum buy-in is $50,000 and the maximum is $1,000,000. I'm pretty sure Daniel Negreanu bought in for a million (must be nice). The likes of Doyle Brunson, Ted Forrest, Sam Fahra, Jennifer Harmon, and others are on the show.

I'm just amazed that there are people out there that spend this kind of money on poker. I mean, I saw Ted Forrest lose $200,000 in a matter of 20 hands (I would love to put that money towards my mortgage). I'm not sure I would be able to walk after losing that kind of money. Later on I saw Daniel Negreanu raise somebody $1,000,000. What!?!?!?! Now, he did happen to have the best hand, but still how does somebody risk $1,000,000 on a poker hand? I would be interested to know how well off these players are. I guess if you have $100,000,000, a $1,000,000 raise isn't that big, right?