Poker is not a sport.
Sports require physical activity. End of story. Case closed.
If only it were that simple. The debate continues about whether poker should be regarded as a sport.
Let’s compare some real sports to poker.
Baseball: Sport. No matter how hard I train and practice I will never be able to hit a home run outta Fenway Park. It just won’t happen. Too much skill, strength and coordination are involved.
Poker: Game. My toughest challenge would be learning how to shuffle the cards.
Ice Hockey: Sport. First you gotta learn to skate. Then you have to learn how to stop. Handling the puck involves a lot of skill and I’m fairly sure a slapshot requires precision and strength.
Poker: Game. I bet it is tough to sit for hours at a time, but I have a feeling I could do it.
Basketball: Sport. I suck at basketball. I played for years and I still suck. I can dribble but not between my legs and mostly with my right hand. My jump-shot is sad, Airball should be my middle name. I’ve been playing since I was little, competitively and for fun, everyone from family and friends to coaches have tried to help and it’s just no use, it’s like there is a force field around the hoop.
Poker: Game. I can learn what a royal flush, a full house and a straight are and which one is better to have. I bet a lot of the people that read this could teach me that, no coach required.
I think you get the point.
The bottom line: If you can gain weight while playing it, it’s not a sport.
2 Comments
May 1, 2008 at 9:07 pm
[...] though football isn’t in the mix, Sheep compares and contrasts the merits of poker versus other, real [...]
June 18, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I believe poker is even less of a sport than Sheep makes it out to be. Lets face it, the players don’t even shuffle the cards. If anything the dealers are more of athletes than the players. While you might have to “read” the other players to tell if they are bluffing, you have all the time in the world. Whether it be trying to fake someone out and break through their defense, steal a base, or make a pass, in any real sport you have to not let your opponents know what you are thinking and read what they are thinking……while doing a physical activity. Further more you only have seconds, if that, to do all this. As far as having to know the values of the cards, in any real sport there just as many or more rules you have to know PLUS all of your teams plays and signals that you have to memorize. The only people who think poker should be a sport are fat, lazy, lethargic slobs who need to feel better about themselves. Calling poker a sport is flat out insulting to any real athlete.
Leave a Reply