Historical question. What is the poker? It is sports or simply next gambling in cards!!! I consider that poker is sports, but many say that poker hasn't the right so to be called. And how you think?
Joined: Oct '09
Location: United Kingdom
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I think poker is a game of skill and chance. The skill part is knowing when and what to bet, the chance is the intuative feeling we all have and when to use it combined with our own knowledge of poker. That sounds a bit deep, but poker is not a sport but more of a frame of mind and wanting to compete at an intellectual level on a game we understand at our own level.
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
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If the Olympic Committee see bridge as a sport than I see poker as one too..HA! The only true thing missing is physical exercise, so if we start using heavy chips then yes it will be a true sport....or is it already? what is physical exercise? A display od Strength, Speed, Coordination, Reflexes, Physical endurance, Ability to play through pain...now I think we can use some of the terms that describe sport in poker, such as Reflexes, Physical endurance, Ability to play through pain. Yes, it is not very active but nor is bowling, golf, pool or bridge etc etc wich are all sports. And the grandaddy of it all is that it is shown on ESPN and Fox Sport, conclusive I think. Screw the WSOP I want my gold medal at London 2012.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United Kingdom
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i think poker is a game of skill luck and id say most importantly patience. I wouldnt class it as a sport. sports are physical maybe in the future it will become a sport
Joined: Mar '10
Location: Greece
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Posted by T3ddyKGB:
the olympic games is losing more and more its seriousness the old greek's would laugh about us......
I'm GREEK and I'm OLD (well, not quite) and I'm laughing about it...
Seriously though, it takes lots of physical energy to be able to get through a 3-day WSOP MTT and reach the final table, so I guess you have to keep in shape, work out a bit, eat lightly etc. But no sport is called "poker" in my book whatsoever
I see poker along the same lines as chess. Tremendous amount of skill required combined with luck when an opponent does not see what one is trying to achieve (set a trap). Both can be mentally exhausting exacting quite a physical toll on the body. The stress alone from the compitition and the time spent competeing until concentration wanes to the point where one becomes ineffective in making correct decisions and the competiton ends. A sports purist would not agree with the notion that these events are sports. Most everyone I know thinks I'm a gambler because I play online poker. Try to explain to them it is a learned skill and takes practice to master and they laugh me out of the room. I wouldn't dare suggest it is a sport! Call it what you want in the end it's poker.
Joined: May '09
Location: India
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its one of those questions people will never agree upon and there will always be difference in opinion and most of the times the objective of knowing the answer is irrelevant. i think poker is not a typical sport but if u keep it under mind sports its not wrong too
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
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I think poker could probably fit a VERY loose definition of sport - but to be honest - I wouldn't really consider it so - and I think this loose definition would be a fair bastardisation of the original definition.
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Location: Canada
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Posted by rbdflyboy: Most everyone I know thinks I'm a gambler because I play online poker. Try to explain to them it is a learned skill and takes practice to master and they laugh me out of the room. I wouldn't dare suggest it is a sport!
Agreed. My wife and I don't talk to anyone about online poker playing, and my kids think I play for pretend money. Just starting to teach my son (8) how to play a variation of rummy my wife's family plays whenever they get together, and after that I'll show him poker (live among family). I also wouldn't consider poker a sport.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
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It's a sport for sure, it requires a lot of concentration and focus, a clear mind, reading abilities and much more, all are available both for live poker but also for online poker. It's true that poker also has a luck componnent but on long term the skill is much more important and luck only takes the last places in the things that make you a great poker player overall. Many don't want to admit it but even on all other sports that you can think of there is also a luck component involved, i mean even the best runner or other sportsman needs a bit of luck in the competition, on practice you can make record breaking runs but it doesn't matter if are done outside the competition. As posted above you one word you definately need to be smart if you want to win at poker and you also need to be very disciplined, like on judo or karate for example
Joined: Jan '11
Location: Romania
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What can i say depend of how you luck at the problem, when you first meet poker you are gambling but after a whyle if you want to become much good you will se that is a mind game.
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