BOB COSTAS RIPS POKER!!!!

[Smoothcall]

???? If you want to respond to my post by answering the questions asked by all means go ahead. If not don't respond. You chose your own door of asking you own quesitons. Make a post of your own asking these irrelevant quesitons you have and maybe i'll answer your quesitons. But not in my post.

[Smoothcall]

No i'm not sayig a sport is determined by whether you can bet on it. I don't see how you made that mistake. The point of the whole post isn't whether poker is a sport. That was just a side note to show some people like costas think golf is a sport but doesn't think poker is. And part of his reasoning being that you can be fat and out of shape to play poker. But you can be fat and out of shape to play golf and bowling. The point of the post was to show how his insults about poker being filled with degenerates that should be looked down upon was unfair. As in any sport or event(whatever you want to cal these events and sports) you have degenerates. But just because you play poker doesn't mean you are a degenerate. You seem to agree with this. And i care thats why i wrote the post. You shoulda been able to figure that one out. It annoyed me that some guy who probably knows nothing about poker, probbaly not a great athelete himself, would go on national television bashing it and almost everyone who plays it. Saying basically if you play poker your making a mistake with your life. Your a degenerate gambler and should loooked down upon. Since this is my life i am ofended he would make such insults when it is nothing more than a stereotype he is going by to make these attacks. And who is he to say my life is garbage. How do you think he would feel if i became very famous then went on naitonal television and did a commentary on sports broadcasters. Saying they are a bunch of degenerate wannabee's that since they couldn't play sports decided to tlak about it. And they are losers for dong so. That they should go and and get a real life and stop wasting there time and disrespecting themselves by being a broadcaster. I bet he wouold make nother commentary on tv saying what he thought of me and my insults and sterotypes just as i am him. it doesn't seriously upset me what he thinks(he is just ignorant) about my lifestyle. But it just irked me in his tone and insults(and his arrogance) when he probably has never sat down at a table or been in the world to make these assertions. i thought i would share with other poker players to see what they thought. Remember he is insulting you to by his comments. As he is insulting all people in the poker world. So you should be irked too. But to each his own.

[Smoothcall]

There is a difference in your example about american not understanding or liking soccer. And Europeans not getting baseball and american football. The difference is i wouldn't mind if he didn't get poker or enjoy it. Like in your examples. That is fine. To each his own. But he said more than that. He put poker in a very negative light. Saying people who play it are degenerates and making a mistake with there life. Or something close to that. Thats is alot more than just saying i don't see the fascination with it. He is condemming poker players. Do you see that difference? Btw it doesn't upset me very much. Just irks me when some weasel thinks he's important because he's on tv and can condemm a lifestyle and many people. Based on generalizations as i bet he has never sat in a live casino and played poker. that is all.

[Smoothcall]

There is a difference in your example about american not understanding or liking soccer. And Europeans not getting baseball and american football. The difference is i wouldn't mind if he didn't get poker or enjoy it. Like in your examples. That is fine. To each his own. But he said more than that. He put poker in a very negative light. Saying people who play it are degenerates and making a mistake with there lives. Or something close to that. That is alot more than just saying i don't see the fascination with it. He is condemming poker players. Do you see that difference? Btw it doesn't upset me very much. Just irks me when some weasel thinks he's important because he's on tv and can condemm a lifestyle, and many people based on generalizations. As i bet he has never sat in a live casino and played poker. that is all.

[FrontonPoker]

i hear ya, but the reason i used soccer, is it gets bashed all the time in the sports talk media like jim rome and the like.. they assume we are all thugs or hooligans just there to get drunk and start fights, etc.. and i think the same thing, i think they probably never watched a match in their lives..

[Boris]

Well then we can't forget about the Angry Persian Man phenomenon either.

[meow_meow]

Poker isn't a sport.
Neither is chess.

I had a wacky friend in school who was on the football team and liked to argue at great length about how baseball wasn't a sport because most of the players were doing nothing most of the time. He was a moran. Nobody liked him. In the end, what difference does it make whether poker is a 'sport'?
Don't be that guy.

[MicroBob]

I didn't see the TV show you mentioned...but I do believe that Costas has ALWAYS had a rather negative view towards gambling in general because his father was quite the degenerate sports-bettor.

So he does have SOME personal experience with degenerate gamblers.

And I find it hard to disagree with him if his general idea was that people who play a ton of poker are wasting their lives.


I'm not sure he really portrays the athletes of the other sports in such a positive light all the time either.
He's been around...and he certainly knows what jerks/degenerates can also be found in sports such as baseball and basketball can be.


FWIW - I don't consider poker to be a 'sport' either and think that it's silly to consider otherwise.

I'm a chess-player too....and a few years ago there was a serious movement in the international chess federation (FIDE) to make chess an olympic 'sport'. They thought it would be good for the worldwide appeal of chess.
One of the first steps was instituting drug-testing at their major events...because chess couldn't be considered an olympic sport unless they started doing that first (or something like that).
Most chess players thought it was completely idiotic.

I view the whole 'poker as sport' argument to be about as ridiculous as the movement in chess to get into the olympics.


However - if pissing off of Jay Lear's balcony were an olympic sport...you better believe I'd be watching. Ratings would be sky-high for that 'sport'!!!!

[AndysDaddy]

What, this again?
From Dictionary.com: Sport The relative entries:

Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.
A particular form of this activity.
An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
An active pastime; recreation.

Note the use of words like "physical" and "active". By this definition:
Football, baseball, hockey, etc: Sport
Golf: Sport
Poker: Not Sport.

There is still room for argument, of course. Note the absence from the definition anything about particular skills or talents. Also, how much physical activity is required to pass the sport threshold?

It is because of this that I question, say, pool. Other than the ability to get around the table and stroke a queue(note that the special skill or talent of stroking the queue in a particular maner is not relevent, according to this definition), there is very little that is physical about playing pool. I lean toward calling it a sport however.
--
Scott

[Smoothcall]

Your the one saying poker isn't a sport. So your being "that guy". And this original post was more based on his poker in a bad light and making generalizations and stereotypes that are unfair. But many seemed too concerend about the sport or not sport comment rather than the major jist of his comments and my post. Don't be one of those guys that miss the big picture. Nobody likes those guys either.