Now i have had many a debate over this. I believe poker IS a sport and i have reaosns to back it up.
1) It is shown on the 3 main canadian sport broadcasters, TSN, sportsnet, and The Score. (dont know about U.S)
2) In the tv guide it is listed green, which is the colour of sports.
3) The definition of a sport is a recreational activity that requires skill. Now i realize that there are endless definitions for sport, some including physical activity, others not. So this points DOES sort of fail...
4) There is a world series, world cup, etc. I mean c'mon i kno its just a name but C'moooooon. How many activities that aren't sports have a world series or cup?
poker is really more about luck and knowledge than skill... would you call a spelling bee a sport? probably not. this is in the same category. if you know probability, you can better choose whether to risk, but its all about the luck of the draw. having a good poker face is not a skill... you could just as easily have an unpredictable poker face and not give away a message.
id consider it as less of a sport... more of a contest... in a category with game shows and spelling bees and the such. but thats just me
Poker is not all about luck and knowledge. There are books that can tell you hot to be good at poker, and what you should do with certain hands in certain situations. But what makes the real poker players (the ones who you see on tv, winning WSOP events, and WPT events) is the ability to not listen to the book, and make your own move. And when luck comes into it i have one question, how come it's always the same people we love and know at the final tables after a tournament? Phil Hellmuth says, "If it wasn't for luck, I'd always win." This man had also won 13 WSOP events. And i also believe a poker face is bull...stuff. For that exact reason, but that doesn't bring down the overall skill in poker.
I also don't see poker as gambling. There is a rule so you never lose too much money playing poker. And anyone who knows poker will understand the following sentence. If you have always 300x every big blind in your bank roll, you will never run out of money, if you are remotely good. By the way, most people play online here the big bling can be as low as 2.5 cents.
WSOP-world series of poker Big Blind-if there are 5 players at a table you would have to pay the big blind every 5 turns. 7 players-7 turns, etc. It is an amount of money that each player needs to doll out at his time to encourage action, and so the game will start with money in the pot.
By the way, WPT, is world poker tour, forgot about that. And i didnt finish my thought about poker faces. The exact reason I mentioned is your reasoning RedWinger.
if you're bad its just a way to lose all your money. The last EPT winner (european poker tour) won...i think it was 1,100,000 something euros. Either that or 800,000 sumething euros, but those 2 numbers keep popping into my head.
I believe by webster's definition of a sport golf and bowling aren't even sports...because sports involve athletic activity. This is merely going off what I've heard.
an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess
That's what dictionary.com says, and poker doesn't fit into the "athletic" category. lol
dictionary.com has many different deifinitions of sport. Thats what i pointed out when i brought up definitions. Dictionary.com is also the same website i got the following definition:
"the occupation of athletes who compete for pay"
As you can see there are so many definitions that, that point is mute.
Technically, poker is a sport. It has afew components of all sports.
1) Has more than 1 person playing. 2) The people are playing against eachother. 3) There is a way to win or lose. 4) There is a refferee. (card dealer) 5) You have a win-loss-tie ratio.
