[Uberprinny]

Salutations everbody. I was tuning into the baseball game at TSN (The Sports Network) this week and I was surprised to see that they had an ad during the commercials about broadcasting poker tournaments. I was just getting over the fact that was golf was even a sport now this! Can somebody pls explain why this is so? I met up with a family friend the other day for some info and he wasnt much of a help either.

POKER IS GAMBLING! There is no way it is a sport. If thats the case then they should televise games like crazy 8s, old maid, go fish, or even better yet YUGIOH TOURNAMENTS straight from Japan! O.K., o.k. I give the credit that in order to make money the players have to show up just like golf. To me a sport is enjoyed outdoors/indoors and takes an X amount of training hours to built your physique just to become better at it. Baseball, hockey, basketball, etc. NOW THOSE ARE SPORTS!

You can get physically injured at the above mentioned sports but the only injuries that I can come up with in poker are splinter in the nail, paper cut, and psychological distress after losing so much collateral. If someone out there can explain why poker is a sport, please enlighten me because I think TSN is running out of ideas atm.

[Lucid Nightmare]

This day and age allot of things are becoming sports. It is rather odd really, I can think of allot of sports and poker isn't on that list. Furthermore, I am concluding the network that you saw the advertisement on merely needed a network that would air gambling. If you come to think about it really makes sense because allot of the sports networks aren't censoring as much considering other stations censore blood and gore. Plus, having gambling on a public network would be seen by many as advertising/promoting an addiction.

I myself have no interest in poker (gambling), never will either.

[Meeja Isara]

Sports don't require just physical strength and being out on a field. Most people believe this, which is why smaller activities are called games. A sport is a contest of strength, skill, and speed in which players play by a series of rules. Games are sports, just smaller, and they require more of the mind rather than body.

I do believe that poker can be called a sport because of its popularity. Heck, bowling and pool are called sports as well. They require training, skill, strength, timing, etc. Poker is more about luck and is considered gambling, but advertising it shouldn't be bad. You can play poker for fun, you don't have to bet. If they advertised people playing slot machines, then yes that would be a problem. Come on! It's cards for pete sake! And the poker being advertised is either for charity or for the players, which is what happens in Golf. In most sports, the players get paid, win or lose. Poker players have to win in order to earn anything.

But same here, I could care less if poker was on tv or not. But if people want to watch basketball and hockey, then they better be prepared for poker and darts.

--Meeja Isara--

[seph]

they actually have poker on tv quite a bit. the world series of poker has tournaments on all the time and a ton of people watch the main event they have once a year. i dont think it is widely accepted as a sport but it is very popular for people to play and watch and if it gets good ratings of course it is gonna be televised.

[tekore]

In Aoteroa They air poker on t.v but i didn't realise it was a sport. but saying that what is a sport. yeah you could say it a game of strength, skill and speed but then Hand ball doesn't need strength, Golf doesn't include speed, but all take skill. It's said poker is a game of luck where in fact there are many factors that make a winner a winner.

One is being able to count cards to know what the possibilities of getting the card you need or what cards your opposition hold.

Another is being able to bluff and being able to read a persons bluff.

Also you need to be able to psych your opponents out by keeping emotionless and over betting

So you could say its a sport of skills and exercising the mind. Maybe since its competitive its a sport