Is Poker A Sport?

[David]

Mental endurance, 7 days playing 12 hours a day physically taxing. Not to mention percentage plays, as well as reviewing plays to improve your game.

Applies to both Baseball, Basketball, football, soccer, e.t.c All are sports.

So yes by me saying it is a sport.

But the best soccer player in the world would never be beaten by a kid playing his first game.

The same is not true for poker.

CT

True, and somehow irrelevant

(IMHO)

[bennymacca]

But the best soccer player in the world would never be beaten by a kid playing his first game.

The same is not true for poker.

CT

i can think of numerous examples where this might be the case.

possibly a better example is tennis because its an individual sport.

people cause upsets all the time. obviously this requires some short term luck. anyone can beat federer on their given day. but if they played federer 100 times, then of course fed would win the majority of them.

poker can be thought of the same way. short term luck can mean that even the worst can beat the best, but over a sufficient amount to time, the best WILL win.

the key point is that there is MORE short term luck in poker than in other games, so that point at which the luck factor evens out is longer. for tennis, it might only be a set or even a few games of luck before skill takes over, but it could be hundreds of hands in poker.



havign said all that, i still think its a game. a skill game. that argument is kinda different to whether its a sport or not, but they are related.

[David]

It's the term SPORT that's the issue.

It can be used in a variety of ways.

[Brett Kay]

Mental endurance, 7 days playing 12 hours a day physically taxing. Not to mention percentage plays, as well as reviewing plays to improve your game.

Applies to both Baseball, Basketball, football, soccer, e.t.c All are sports.

So yes by me saying it is a sport.

But the best soccer player in the world would never be beaten by a kid playing his first game.

The same is not true for poker.

CT

Horses for courses on this one, or comparing apples to oranges. Soccer is a team sport, poker is an individual sport. Even if we say the worst team can still beat the best team on any given sunday.

The main question you have to ask yourself is what is your defintion of Sport? Some people equate sport to being physically taxing. Sprinting, Team sports, all fit that bill. Golf is classified as a sport but is not physically taxing, especially if you are using the golf carts.

If we use sub classifications such as Mental sports, precision club and ball sport, Endurance, Strength.

Then you find poker is listed as a Mental Game and also endurance.

Skill comes in all forms throughout sports, obviously better players have better skills, and have trained to improve those skills.

Sorry my post was short before, but i had to go to work.

[trishan]

The Oxford Dictionary defines sport as:

• noun 1 an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others

This to me seems to require three elements, a degree of physical exertion, skill and competition. I think poker definitely meets the requirement of skill & competition. The contentious aspect is that of physical exertion (PE) and what we define as physical exertion.

Is staying at a computer for an online session PE? Is a live tournament over 2 or more days PE? This is where the arguments can arise. Personally I think that poker is a sport even though when I went into a bookstore yesterday the poker books were in the section of "Games & Pastimes" as opposed to Sport (where I looked first).

[JMACK007]

At the moment, the poll is being led by the "sport" votes, but in my opinion, poker is a game, a CARD GAME, always has been, always will be. Just because its popularity has caused bigger, longer and more "endurance" based tournaments does not change it from a game to a sport.

I have played sport most of my life and there is a big difference between the two. Look at it this way, in a sport such as tennis, let's say you are one on one with your opponent and down 2 sets to love. If you really concentrate, and get into the "zone" you can force your way back into the match physically. With poker, if you are really short stacked against your opponent, and the blinds are huge, you are basically reliant on the luck factor to get you back, alot of the time it is taken out of your hands.

I think we all want to call it a sport to give it a little more glamour, but realistically, would you call any other card game a sport??

[David]

The second you can put a peg on your nose, jump in the water and stick your legs in the air....

Anything's a sport.

[Brett Kay]

The second you can put a peg on your nose, jump in the water and stick your legs in the air....

Anything's a sport.

Or sweep some ice, so a big block of granite can slide into a circle.

[JMACK007]

Yeah, but even with those two silly sports, you can influence the outcome physically.....

[bennymacca]

Look at it this way, in a sport such as tennis, let's say you are one on one with your opponent and down 2 sets to love. If you really concentrate, and get into the "zone" you can force your way back into the match physically.

you have contradicted yourself here. getting into the "zone" is very much a mental thing, nothing to do with your physical attributes. ignoring physical fitness differences, which would be fairly small at the top of each sport, a lot of it does come down to the mental game, not the physical.

sport is not physical exertion per se, but physical and mental skill imo.

you need both of them, which is why chess and poker aren't sports, but something like darts is a sport, because it takes physical skill.