Poker is a sport?

[Wingnut]

Not to start another thread about game vs sport, but I found it interesting that our sports radio station here in Houston (motto, "All sports, all the time") spent a good half-hour on the morning show talking poker.

First they were talking with a young guy from the area (Josh McCauley (sp?)) who quit law school to play poker full time and qualified on-line for the WSOP (interesting note - he says he plays with a female avatar on-line), and then talking with Jim McManus of "Positively 5th Street" fame.

Just something that struck me as interesting...

[Stew]

Well hell, all along I thought it was some metal rod used to stir a fire.

[benfranklin]

It is a sport, and Mike Sexton and VVP are heading an effort to get it introduced as an event in the Olympics. Two major hang-ups are that the French claim that they invented the game ("Poque") and want the rules to state French only at the table, and the current US administration is threatening to boycott unless the games are played with the Iraq Most Wanted 55-card deck.

Interestingly, there is a new branch of sports medicine that deals with poker-related injuries. These include CSS (chip shuffling syndrome, a highly specialized variation of carpal tunnel syndrome), flung-card laceration (generally limited to B&M dealers), and suck-out concussion, caused by repeatedly banging one's head on the monitor after getting a monster cracked on the river.

[andyfox]

Very good.

Bravo!

[Poker blog]

If it's on ESPN, then it must be a sport.

[NotMitch]

[ QUOTE ]
If it's on ESPN, then it must be a sport.

[/ QUOTE ]

The National Spelling Bee is on ESPN and that isn't a sport. However Spellbound was awesome.

[Acesover8s]

Spellbound was awesome! You must have been the other guy in the theatre that day. . .

B A N . . . .

Do I sound like a talking robot?

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Not really. ESPN = the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

Therefore, if it's on ESPN, it must be either a sport or entertainment.

[TimTimSalabim]

[ QUOTE ]
Not really. ESPN = the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

Therefore, if it's on ESPN, it must be either a sport or entertainment.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd say they're pretty well covered then, since anything on television presumably is there to entertain us. Although the spelling bee kind of stretched the e word a bit.

[lefty rosen]

It is if Bridge is a sport and Monopoly.

[DanS]

[ QUOTE ]
Not really. ESPN = the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

Therefore, if it's on ESPN, it must be either a sport or entertainment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Kurn, it's a subtlety, but I think it's the Entertainment Sports Production Network.

Dan

[NotMitch]

WHAT DOES ESPN STAND FOR?
It doesn't stand for anything, but the story is this...When ESPN started in 1979 we were the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (thus, ESPN). However, the full name was dropped in February 1985 when the company adopted a new corporate name --ESPN, Inc.--and a new logo. We are a subsidiary of ABC, Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Co. The Hearst Corporation has a 20 percent interest in ESPN.

http://espn.go.com/sitetools/s/help/espn-faq.html#ESPN

[krazyace5]

Spelling bee on ESPN is nothin, I cracked up one day when I saw the Scrabble championship being played. You should of seen the contestants interviews, they were hilarious.

[MicroBob]

there was an outstanding book about scrabble tournaments and the top scrabble players.
i think it was called Word Freaks. or Word Games...or something like that.
the author really gets into the scrabble tournament scene...i guess not unlike mcmanus in positively 5th st (although i havent read that book).

scrabble uses a ratings system very similar to chess...and they use the clocks as well.

i dont really play scrabble at all....but the book was terrific and i would have enjoyed seeing the tv coverage.


the sports radio station around here has a weekly sunday morn program dedicated to gambling. i would guess they are paying for the air-time (the host is some author named Frank Scoblete). i havent heard the show though.

i'm pretty sure the sports-talk station in Las Vegas has a weekly poker show...thought i saw an ad for it in card-player.