Is poker a sport?

[PoKeRFoRNiA]

In every sport players are going to lose to someone not as good as them at times if they don't play their best or make mistakes or whatever.
If the better player won every time in sport would be very boring.
I accept that theres lots of luck involved in poker but there is still a massive amount of skill, so I still consider it a sport.
I think there is some luck in anything.

So tell me, if you were to play against any NBA player 100 games of 21, you'll be able to beat him once? Poker is NOT a sport. People don't even consider my hobby a sport. My hobby is breakdancing. If it's something where anyone (fat, lazy, disabled, unintelligent all at the same time) can do and beat any professionals, then it's not a sport. Not anybody can join Professional leagues of sports, such as NBA, NFL, MLB, World Champion of Chess. But anybody including my 58-year-old mother who stays home all day as a house wife can enter world series of poker and beat any professional poker player on any given day while she won't stand a slim chance against professional sports player such as Ichiro Suzuki, Hines Ward, Lebron James, etc. I can teach my mother how to play poker for 1 month and she will beat anyone anyday due to variance in poker. Sure, she'll get eaten up by Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu but that's during LONG-TERM period if they play 50,000 hands. My mom can still crush them anyday on days where she gets good run of cards. But 1 month of training isn't even close enough to beat any professional sports player. Even if I were to teach my mother how to play basketball, she won't even be close to beating any NBA player, not even Korean minor league basketball players(prolly worst professional basketball players in the world).

I honestly think poker is overrated to be considered a sport. If poker is a sport, then you might as well accept monopoly board game, tetris, dance dance revolution, rock-paper-scissors, yo-yo, counter-strike, stock market as sports too. Poker is a game of skills, but not a sport. I've trained physically for years in basketball and bboying and when bboying can't be considered as a sport due to its roots and the category it goes under, which is dance, I'll never consider poker a sport.

I got love for poker since I relate lot of things in reality to poker, but poker is not a sport.

There is a difference between a GAME and a SPORT.
Poker is a game of skills but it's not a sport. If I were to write any sports achievements or activities I've done in college applications or job applications, I will gladly write about how I was in varsity basketball and tennis teams. But I will not be able to mention local casino's biggest multi-table tournament ranking. If poker is a sport, I would tell my student to write their poker accomplishments under sports activities/achievements in college application.

 

[Lazmansa]

Every 1 mentions the physical aspect of poker,

I would think it would be mental and physical exausting to sit at a table for 10hours and play this game.

Point 2 is that you always see the same faces making the money.

Point 3,black jack and rulette is a game and trust me,there is only 1 winner when it comes to that game.

Conclusion is that it is competitive,mentaly and physical tiering and you can perform consistantly with a verians of luck but lets just say that a bad beat is like an injury.


Lazmansa:deal:

 

[Tonky666]

same question for chess!!
is it a sport or not??
well i dont know..
if poker bot a sport,then what is it gambling!?
then how can phil ivy win 2 bracelets and outlast around 6500 people to make it to the GODAM FINAL TABLE OF THE wsop ME!!!!!!!
i regard poker as a sport because its a skill like chess!
i regard them as mental sports not physical ones..
I AM NOT A GAMBLER IM A POKER PLAYER ..
and how do u explain scott fishman doing sooooo well in so many big GTD tourneys online...

 

[m2lucky]

That is a really good point Tonkey you always do see the same people over, and over make the same final table. I would call that skill, and those are the professionals of the sport, because on any given day if Lebron James was having a really off day, and feeling sick, I might be able to score a point on him. Just like if Chris Fergusen was having a bad day I might be able to edge him out, but not in the long term... Yet.

 

[PoKeRFoRNiA]

Too many people here are overrating poker. Just because the game requires skills doesn't mean it's a sport. For Christ Sakes, Monopoly Board Game requires skills just as much as poker. Dance Dance Revolution requires skills. Hide and Seek requires skills. But they don't qualify to be considered a sport. Poker is just a game of skills that has the highest salary of all other game of skills.

 

[dj11]

Poker is a game, as would be Bridge, Clue and Monopoly.
Football is a game
Is track and field a game? Or a pure competition?
Baseball, basketball and tennis are games, and each would have athletes.
Is car racing a game?
How bout competitive knitting?

The definition of sport is the problem,

Personally I believe a big part of the problem goes back to the early 60's and the ABC program 'Wide World of Sports', which mostly covered competitive games, of all sorts, and thus ingrained competition and physical activity as being necessary to sport. But they also covered the first WSOP's.

If endurance is a part of sport then clearly any 5 day event like the current WSOP should be considered a sport, as much as the 24 hours of Le Mans, or the Triathlons, or that Death Valley to Mount Whitney run.

This is actually a very important question to us U.S. poker players and how we might address repealing existing sanctions biased against poker.

Relevant related threads from across the web;
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060803114437AA17ddo
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1403227/how_to_define_a_sport.html

And many others.....

 

[m2lucky]

Wow that is very very insightful as well as very true. If poker was considered more as a sport rather than a GAME of skill then there would be much more of an advantage to the PPA. It would show congress how poker truly requires much more skill than luck, and it would indeed be a sport. Also we US poker players could be accepted at a lot more, better sites that have poker. I think that if we all agree that poker is a sport, we will have a much better advantage in congress.

 

[Grossberger]

The definition of sport is well-rooted in the English language so I'm not going to challenge it. Here are a few of the definitions:
1) an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
2) Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. www.thefreedictionary.com/sport
3) an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sport

Most all the definitions of sport include physical activity, therefore poker is NOT a sport. Poker like Chess is a GAME that conform to a set of rule, requires skill and is played competively but neither of these games actively engage your body.


Ok your using the first definition given for sport when in reality it has several different, according to Dictionary.com a sport is defined as the following: ( I used the first 3 as the 3rd is what would define poker as a sport)


sport AC_FL_RunContent = 0;var interfaceflash = new LEXICOFlashObject ( "http://cache.lexico.com/d/g/speaker.swf", "speaker", "17", "15", "

", "6");interfaceflash.addParam("loop", "false");interfaceflash.addParam("quality", "high");interfaceflash.addParam("menu", "false");interfaceflash.addParam("salign", "t");interfaceflash.addParam("FlashVars", "soundUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.lexico.com%2Fdictionary%2Faudio%2Fluna%2FS08%2FS0838300.mp3&clkLogProxyUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fdictionary.reference.com%2Fwhatzup.html&t=a&d=d&s=di&c=a&ti=1&ai=51359&l=dir&o=0&sv=00000000&ip=7f000001&u=audio"); interfaceflash.addParam('wmode','transparent');interfaceflash.write(); /spɔrt, spoʊrt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [spawrt, spohrt] Show IPA

Use sport in a Sentence


See web results for sport


See images of sport

–noun
1.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.
2.a particular form of this, esp. in the out of doors.
3.diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.



So I would say by this definition that poker is indeed a sport

 

[CAMurray]

To me a sport is a competition that exclusively required physical activity, which is why chess and backgammon are not sports either. To be classified as such the activity would have to command the respect and following of the greats like jalapeño eating and fart lighting.


arty:

 

[TJ Cookier]

it is a mind sport

 

[Tonky666]

thats what i meant it a MENTAL sport..
what about golf??
is it a sport?
u just hit a ball!
and requires skill!
i dont care what any1 sais poker = SPORT!!!!!!
believe what u want i wont let this bother me

 

[PoKeRFoRNiA]

Why is it that when some people say poker is a sport, they sound like an inactive people who never played any sports in their lives. I played in basketball and tennis team during high school and also bboyed as my hobby when I'm not in school. If someone says poker is a sport, they really sound like a person who never played a real sport in their lives. Because if they really played a sport or done something active in their lives, they wouldn't say poker is a sport. Sports take lot of time and dedication to improve their skills and their level. But poker does NOT take time and dedication to become better once they become veteran and know how to play.

For instance, in sports, whoever trained harder to build their skills and perform their optimal level will ALWAYS beat the person who has inferior skills. But same does NOT apply for poker. Just picture yourself playing against Lebron James. Lebron James will ALWAYS beat me on any given day.

Same does not apply for poker. Phil Ivey can try all he wants but there will be days when I can crush Phil Ivey. The hell, I can crush him tomorrow if I want to. There's no training required to get better hands or get good cards or control of outcome. But if I were to play Lebron James any day, Lebron James will crush me in basketball anytime I play him.

If poker is a sport, then Monopoly board game, Rock-Paper-Scissors, Counter-strike, should be considered a sport too. They're not any different from poker. Monopoly requires as much skill level as poker, and as much luck as poker. No matter how well you manage your money in monopoly, if you keep rolling the dice where you constantly land on your opponents properties where most people dont' land while your opponent luckily dodges EVERY of the properties you've bought, then you'll lose, just like poker, how you'll lose even when you have the best hand every single time.

Poker doesn't qualify for mind sport as well. Chess, Backgammon, starcraft require intelligence. Poker doesn't require intelligence. In chess, backgammon, starcraft, if you clearly suck and have no strategies, you'll clearly lose every single game. In poker, you'll lose in a long-run but you can still win tournaments and big pots. If I played against Anand in chess, I'll clearly lose every single game, if lucky, then a stalemate but I highly doubt a stalemate. If I played against any professional starcraft players, I'll lose every single game. But as for poker, NOBODY can beat me every single game. I'll beat anyone, including Phil Ivey. I can beat Phil Ivey at least 25% of the time if we played 100 games(not 100 hands).Anyone can beat Phil Ivey at least 25% of the time.

We can all agree that Michael Phelps is the best swimmer in the world and nobody can currently top him. But can we all agree that Jerry Yang was the best poker player of 2007 and nobody could've topped him in that year? Can we agree that Jamie Gold was the best poker player in the world during 2006 and nobody was better than him during his time? Poker has too much luck and variance to be considered a sport.

 

[Tonky666]

i play sports now im a student ...but play british sports not american like baseball and football(not soccer)
i play rugby,cricket and soccer i used to play in high school !!!
u will never ever crush ivy u wouldnt risk 4k a BB..thats if u have enough to sit at that table and play him!
if ivy was beaten 25% of the time 4 people would take him out...
but he playes larz,ziig,eli,durrrr,boosted and massacres them..
it same in soccer it also luck or how the HELL DID BURNLY BEAT MAN UTD!!!!!!!!!!
the people who say it a sport dont wanna be regarded as gamblers any1 can beat ivy in a 5/10 playchip game obviously anyone would win and if u play him 2k/4k real cash no1 will win anything ull be destroyed mentally and financially ...
and u know it the truth
dono y u even try to convince people poker not sport doesnt matter manopoly u roll a dice in poker u play the person u versing...
gotta wait a while to reply my posts finished for a day...

 

[Grindit9]

I also say it's a sport but I wouldn't like to see poker, chess and other "mind games" in olympics

I would like to see them in olympics actually, it means it is commonly accepted as a sport. Maybe taxes would get lower as a result and Americans could also play it again. Possibly the Asian market will be up for grabs 2.

 

[PoKeRFoRNiA]

If you really think monopoly is just rolling the dice, then you don't know shit about Monopoly and you just sound just as ignorant as Congress and rest of non-poker players who say poker is luck, gambling game and is just matter of getting better hands. Just like poker, Monopoly requires skills. Its skills are managing properties, buying certain properties in given environment, learning how to fool your opponent by raising the bid on auctions so your opponent pays more than he should, knowing what to trade, when to mortage properties, etc, just like poker how you need to know when to be aggressive, when to fold, when to bluff, when to trust your instincts and call, etc. In Monopoly, if you're unlucky, you'll keep rolling a dice where you keep landing on your opponent's spaces or keep drawing horrible chance/community chest cards even when you have majority of properties owned. In poker, if you're unlucky, you either get sucked out, become card dead, or keep running into cooler deck where you keep having inferior hand compared to your opponent.

Just like how poker has WSOP, monopoly ALSO has competitions called Monopoly World Championships. Only difference is, poker is more popular than Monopoly and has more stakes and money involved than Monopoly. But as game of skills, they're both game of skills and aren't any different from each other. Just like poker, skilled player will beat unskilled player more often in long-run in Monopoly.

Poker is a game of skills but not a sport. Just because something requires skills doesn't mean it's a sport. And yes, every sports have very little luck involved, but not as much as poker where you can witness every bad beats and suckouts, which occurs every 2 seconds or less in the world. In definition of sports, they mention that it requires very little chance or no chance involved. Poker still involves lot of chance. Otherwise, there wouldn't be such thing called suckouts, bad beats.

 

[Hambone8705]

I agree its not a sport, just a card game. I'll make you a deal, take pokers best and someone elses best and have a competition. If phil helmuth can beat tiger woods in ANYTHING not involving a deck of cards you can call him an athlete and you can call poker a sport! How about that! MAKE US PROUD PHIL LOLOLOL!!!!!!

 

[PoKeRFoRNiA]

i play sports now im a student ...but play british sports not american like baseball and football(not soccer)
i play rugby,cricket and soccer i used to play in high school !!!
u will never ever crush ivy u wouldnt risk 4k a BB..thats if u have enough to sit at that table and play him!
if ivy was beaten 25% of the time 4 people would take him out...
but he playes larz,ziig,eli,durrrr,boosted and massacres them..
it same in soccer it also luck or how the HELL DID BURNLY BEAT MAN UTD!!!!!!!!!!
the people who say it a sport dont wanna be regarded as gamblers any1 can beat ivy in a 5/10 playchip game obviously anyone would win and if u play him 2k/4k real cash no1 will win anything ull be destroyed mentally and financially ...
and u know it the truth
dono y u even try to convince people poker not sport doesnt matter manopoly u roll a dice in poker u play the person u versing...
gotta wait a while to reply my posts finished for a day...

If I had as much money as Ivey and if Ivey were to play me tomorrow, he can't guarantee himself that he'll beat me tomorrow. He's FAVORITE to beat me tomorrow but he's not guaranteed to beat me tomorrow. If we were to play against each other for 50,000 hands heads-up, which is what durrrr and Patrik Antonius are doing right now, then Ivey will crush me in LONG-RUN straight up. But in short-term, anyone can beat Ivey. But if I were to play any professional sports player, they'll crush me on any given day guaranteed. If Lebron James were to go 1 on 1 against me in basketball, he'll crush me no doubt. It's a guaranteed thing. In basketball and tennis, I can beat anyone who's not as skilled as I am anyday. But can I say the same for poker? No. No matter who it is, such as donks and idiots, I can't guarantee myself that I'll beat them on any given day because variance is heavily involved in poker. If you clearly cannot see this, then you're either an inactive person who never played any sports seriously or you haven't played much poker to experience running cold no matter how optimally you play.

 

[evildoesit2003]

Poker is definitely a sport cause I see bad sports all the time lol then there are good sports 2

 

[pokercoco]

saw your post b4 hittin the lavvy, heavy nite of drink last nite,so 4 last half hour been ponderin your question.and can honestly say i havent got a scooby,but in my view poker is the same as chess so if chess is a sport so should be poker, i mean guys firing bow n arrows at a target in the olympics ,why not poker aswell,

by the way golf must be a sport becauce its in the olympics from 2016

 

[WORM]

No poker is not a sport. If my grandma can beat me at something then it's not a sport. She can't even walk across the living room floor but she can check raise me and take a big stack of chips. NOT A SPORT FOLKS!

 

[scaryjarry]

Anyone who thinks poker is a sport are delusional. Is chess 1 too?

 

[Tonky666]

**** knows wat chess is but i will always regard poker as a sport..
love it ....
chess nice too..
is dominos a sport!?

 

[PoKeRFoRNiA]

Just because chess is a mental sport, poker is a mental sport? Chess is considered a mental sport but poker is NOT. In chess, skilled player will ALWAYS prevail at ALL times. In poker, skilled player can get crushed by any dumbass who sucks out or gets lucky. In poker, skilled player will just be more favorite than a dumbass but can't guarantee himself that he'll beat that dumbass. In chess, skilled player will always beat idiots anytime. To become skilled in chess, it requires lot of intelligence and lot of strategies. If you can actually beat a chess grandmaster one game, which I highly doubt you will, then you can consider poker a sport. But in poker, any retard can get lucky and beat any skilled poker player.

 

[Tonky666]

so u saing ur a dumbass..ok at chess im good its why i brought it up...i play on pc and live often on pc i have a high rating and live i play for fun and some tourneys ...
dont talk bout something u have no info of ...

 

[PoKeRFoRNiA]

so u saing ur a dumbass..ok at chess im good its why i brought it up...i play on pc and live often on pc i have a high rating and live i play for fun and some tourneys ...
dont talk bout something u have no info of ...

The real dumbass, inactive, couch potato is you since you think of poker as a sport. I play REAL sports, such as basketball, tennis, even breakdancing. In real sports, skilled player will ALWAYS defeat unskilled player at ALL times. In chess, skilled chess player such as Anand, Bobby Fischer, or any legends of chess will beat me every single chess game. Best I can do is have a stalemate. But same does not apply for poker. Any dumbass, including yourself, can knock out Phil Ivey from the tournament or beat Ivey. Yes, Ivey will be more favorite to beat you but he can't guarantee himself that he'll beat you in poker on a specific given day. If you think I'm talking out of my ass, why don't you try watching past WSOP and see how they get knocked out. Skill in poker is determined through LONG-TERM result. But as a game, anybody can win but skilled player will be FAVORITE to win while unskilled players will be UNDERDOG to win. There's no guarantee in poker since variance plays a huge role in poker. There's a difference between a GAME and a SPORT. And you better believe it or not, MONOPOLY board game requires just as much skills as poker.