Televised poker will never become a major sport

Yes, poker is not as exciting to watch as football. It is more exciting than bowling, golf and even baseball. IMO

[imported_adhoc]

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I like chocolate cake.

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- Greg "Fossilman" Raymer

This may replace my current quote about David Sklansky wanting to buy Barry Greenstein's baby

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BAM.

[Pov]

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Watching sports like college football, and of course all the pro sports is a complete waste of time, unless you are somebody who likes to bet on them I guess. How a grown man can sit and watch a bunch of blingged out, arrogant, wanna be multi millionaire wanna be gangstas chase a ball around a field is beyond me....

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You sound just like the ignorant people who don't understand poker that describe it as a "just a bunch of cheaters bluffing and it's all luck anyway" game. You don't have to like football, but you can't really deny there is a lot of strategy and quick wits necessary to succeed along with the physical talents and hard training. Sure, some of the players are a bad example, but many of them are an excellent example. If you take the time to understand it and all its nuances, there is a *lot* more going on than you'd think at first glance and just listening to the announcers, particularly at the pro level. The opportunity to see strategy, improvisation and athleticism all combined while rooting for you favorites and booing their rivals is what televised competition is all about and football delivers it probably better than anything else right now.

I like televised poker too.

[mackthefork]

I always thought people in the US didn't like football, they play that other game instead, similar to rugby only with a suit of armour on.

Mack

[Pov]

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I always thought people in the US didn't like football, they play that other game instead, similar to rugby only with a suit of armour on.

Mack

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I think soccer is on its way to becoming quite popular here actually, though clearly not nearly as much as American football currently is. Most middle-aged Americans didn't grow up playing soccer, but a LOT of kids growing up now do so I expect in another ten years or so it will be as big a deal to the majority of Americans as it is to the lucky few of us now who already know what a great sport it is.

We just clinched for Germany a few weeks ago and our U-17 team advanced to the quarter finals of the World Championship yesterday by beating Italy 3-1. I'd say it's catching on. Look out. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Anyway, interesting terminology trivia, the use of "soccer" to refer to English football actually comes from the English. It's derived from association as in Association Football Club (AFC) from when you had association football and rugby football. But two-word names for sports are annoying so it was shortened to just rugby and football. Here we took the assoc and made it soccer, dropping the second part instead of the first. But as long as FIFA calls it football I think it's football on the world stage. Clearly that would create confusion in the United States though so we stick with soccer much like the Canadians.

[Mikey]

Your opinion is your own.

I watched so many guys down in AC this week.... so happy and excited that they WPT came to the Borgata and they were reciting things that they saw on ESPN.....

Some guys really do love poker.

I know for me that I would rather watch a poker Tournament on TV of course with reputable players rather than watch the Super Bowl.

[Quicksilvre]

It's been a major recreational sport in the US for a long, long time now. However, it's never caught on as a spectator/television sport the way gridiron football, baseball, or basketball has.