Poker a sport

[ArchAngel71857]

ESPN ran this article today.

Enjoy and discuss.

-AA

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Excellent article

[Dan Mezick]

TV poker is something new.

Trying to fit poker into the 'sport' category (using current definitions for that term) is just way to limiting.

The demographic of the audience (age, income, education) is incredible for advertisers and poker sells tons of TV ads.

Poker is a new kind of TV entertainment that is not going away. Note that chess and bridge cannot compete in teh TV medium against poker.

Poker has self-defined a new, unique spot in entertainment space. And it OWNS that space.

Just the fact the 'is it sport' article was written tells you this is at least partially true. They don't know what the hell it is, they just know it works on TV.

[Dan Mezick]

The article might as well entitled "TV Poker: What the Heck Is It?"

Of course, the answer is that it is a money machine for the cable programmers selling ads into that demographic.

[Cry Me A River]

[ QUOTE ]
The article might as well entitled "TV Poker: What the Heck Is It?"


[/ QUOTE ]

Seems pretty obvious - It's a Game Show! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I'm surprised ESPN haven't courted Wink Martindale or Bob Barker as hosts... [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Filip]

[ QUOTE ]
5) Competitive eating:

74.1% Not a sport

25.9% Sport



[/ QUOTE ]

Not a sport!? By the definitions posted earlier this MUST be a sport.

[Monty Cantsin]

As the article points out, our common understanding of what makes a game a "sport" is some significant physical component. Clearly Poker doesn't have this.

But it's interesting to consider what other qualities distinguish "sports" from other games. For instance, there are plenty of physical games that we don't consider sports, for example: Hide and Go Seek, Twister, and Red Rover. Physical games become more "sport-like" the more they acquire large-scale institutional organization - tournaments, associations, rankings, etc.

That's what makes Poker (and to a lesser extent Chess and Bridge and even Starcraft and Magic: The Gathering and Scrabble) feel like a "sport", while Othello and Euchre and Halo don't.

Personally, I consider Poker to be a martial art.

/mc

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
(and to a lesser extent Chess...)

[/ QUOTE ]

The person pictured in your avatar might quibble with the "lesser extent" portion of this statement.

[ArchAngel71857]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
(and to a lesser extent Chess...)

[/ QUOTE ]

The person pictured in your avatar might quibble with the "lesser extent" portion of this statement.

[/ QUOTE ]

It still looks to me like he is giving me a bony finger!

[img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

-AA

[TimM]

See, it is a sport!