IS POKER A SPORT?

Based on the physical condition of some of the people I run into at the tables I'd say not a sport, but a fun game to play.

As a side note, my 6 year old will be playing in his first Pokemon card game tournament in a couple weeks, will be interesting to see how that goes.

I think that all variants of poker are a sport game. Unless you are referring to video poker or casino pokers 3 card etc..

Poker is a game, like any other. Some countries consider Texas Holdem Poker to be a sport game, some others not yet..

Any game involves luck, INCLUDING CHESS, and Billiards ! Well if you play ultra perfect white should never lose in chess, because the advantage of the first move. (the same apply to checkers game - a game played with backgammon checkers on a chess table)

- OK, ok but who decides who will be playing with white and who will be playing with blacks ? - There is the LUCK FACTOR !!!

Luck and skill are part of the game, and anyone can GAMBLE ON and IN any game or event, be it elections or marriages !

Backgammon as well, Yahtzee and any game which can be organized and played in a professional manner should be part of a sport.

Regarding to POKER (Texas Holdem Poker), the tendency to be accepted as SPORT is increasing in all countries where is not already.

One thing to keep in mind is that a sport is nowhere defined by necessary involving physical skills into it, can be mental as well !

Sport - an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

I would not consider playing poker athletic. Neither is chess, dominoes, craps, staring contests or spelling bees. It's the continual dumbing down of America trying to let as many people qualify for cool titles as possible so their feelings don't get hurt.

ZCore13

Quote: PlayHunter

Any game involves luck, INCLUDING CHESS, and Billiards ! Well if you play ultra perfect white should never lose in chess, because the advantage of the first move.

Chess is not yet "solved" in a way that you know the perfect strategy. Hopefully someday it will (so white can win by calling "checkmate in 169 moves" - and the response of black will of course be "oh boy, not again"...)
But maybe chess is like tic-tac-toe, where the first move is not enough advantage to win, and black can always reach a remis (possibly by forcing white into circular play). Of course there is a ultimate truth about this game, we just don't know (yet).

Quote: MangoJ

Chess is not yet "solved" in a way that you know the perfect strategy. Hopefully someday it will (so white can win by calling "checkmate in 169 moves" - and the response of black will of course be "oh boy, not again"...)
But maybe chess is like tic-tac-toe, where the first move is not enough advantage to win, and black can always reach a remis (possibly by forcing white into circular play). Of course there is a ultimate truth about this game, we just don't know (yet).

was that from futurama?

Yeah I guess so, Bender was visiting his old robot fraternity house at Mars University.

Quote: MangoJ

Chess is not yet "solved" in a way that you know the perfect strategy. Hopefully someday it will (so white can win by calling "checkmate in 169 moves" - and the response of black will of course be "oh boy, not again"...)
But maybe chess is like tic-tac-toe, where the first move is not enough advantage to win, and black can always reach a remis (possibly by forcing white into circular play). Of course there is a ultimate truth about this game, we just don't know (yet).

I would guess, but of course it is just a guess, that black will just call 'stalemate' after white's first move!

Poker is a game of chance. It involves skill, as do most card games. Not as much as some. In the end, any form of poker comes down to betting on who has been dealt the best cards.

Cash game poker definitely isn't sport. It's not a competition, but a sequence of bets and trades.
Tournament poker, I would think, is only just enough to count as sport.

But it's not designed as such. For instance, when bridge is played competitively, it's played as duplicate bridge, with the same deal at every table. There's no particular reason poker MTT couldn't be played in such a way. Let's say at first stage you have to play 9 tables, starting each with 1,000 chips, all players get to play the same 9 series of deals, chips are summed up to determine next stage players.
It's not done that way. There are reasons it's not.

Any sport has luck in it, but luck can be reduced to opponent selection, and serious sports try to mitigate even that, or it can be kept as prominent as in poker. Chris Moneymaker, a strong but hardly world-class player, is testament to its role.

Tournament style maybe, any game with a bluff element is not a sport. Poker is a game of chance and the calculation of advantage/disadvantage bsed upon hand-strength, pot-size and bets made. Mental and fiscal gymnastics, but not physical gymnastics.

But, that cramp in my ass really hurt!