General Discussion - Is poker a sport or a skill?

[mosquito]

Football is not a sport. It is an analogy of war.

[mikewvp]

Ofcourse its a sport, ofcourse its a skill, those of you talking about athletes are pretty dull in my book (Except for the people simply clarify than a poker player is not an athlete). A sport does not have to be ATHLETIC. I can also do ATHLETIC things that aren't sports, ex: jogging with no competition. This thread is dumb why am I even responding.

[K C]

I guess common to all "sports" is that they involve a physical activity that is primary to the outcome of the game. All sports are games, but not all games are sports. In terms of poker, yeah there's physical activity, but it's not really anything that's fundamental to the outcome. It's more of a mental game of course, like chess. So no, I guess it wouldn't be a sport according to how the term is generally used, but who cares anyway [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

KC
http://kingcobrapoker.com

[ACW]

It can matter a lot.

There's been a campaign going on in the UK for a while to get duplicate bridge recognised as a sport. Sports are eligible for community funding from the sports council, while games are not.

On the flip side, since bridge got some level of recognition from the IOC (I think it's on the list of potential demonstration sports), drug testing has been introduced. Strictly speaking, I should be careful about taking flu medicine if I'm planning to play bridge once I recover. In practice, the tests have only been carried out at high level international competitions, but in theory they could turn up at my local club and test everyone....

[BarronVangorToth]

[ QUOTE ]
philately

[/ QUOTE ]

Bravo, Bison, Bravo!

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com

[Francis]

Maybe I'm too old school, but I'm sorry, poker (to me) isn't a sport.

A sport must have some physical component to it. Poker, chess, backgammon, etc. are all games of skill. I can respect the skill, work and dedication it takes to excel in these games, but don't call it a sport.

I could be a quadrapligic and still be a world class poker player sitting in front of my monitor driving the buttons with my tongue controlled keyboard...

My rule of thumb is this; If I, a 44 year old weekend warrior engineer is physically able to kick the ass of the worlds best at something, it's probably not a sport, it's a skill... And yes, I'm aware some poker players are young and fit, but that has nothing to do with their poker prowess [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

In the end, it probably doesn't matter (unless you're trying to get government funding for your game in the UK)

Regards,
Francis

[Francis]

[ QUOTE ]
This thread is dumb why am I even responding.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey! I resemble that remark!

[berk]

Are there any sports that require a degree of luck or chance beyond the athletes' limitations/control? To quote Roy Cooke "Poker is a game of people, played with cards."

[Leduke]

I think that sport and poker has a lot of common things: player (in poker) and competitor (in any kind of sport) must have success and skills. I think that poker can be compared with any sport. I found comparison of poker and tennis in one poker strategy article