Is poker a sport????

[a kennedy]

21-year-old wins World Series of Poker, $8.5 million!!!

LAS VEGAS — Joe Cada's parents weren't happy when he dropped out of college to become a poker pro. Early Tuesday, they were elated (Mom called it "dumbfounded") when at age 21 he became the youngest champion ever in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker and earned the top prize of $8.5 million.

At 4:20 a.m. ET, the winner from Shelby Township, Mich., used a pair of nines to win the hand that eliminated Maryland logger Darvin Moon, an improbable story of his own in a tournament that began in July with 6,494 entrants and came down to one head-to-head showdown.

At one point over the weekend final table that started with nine players, Cada was down to about 2 million chips, scant few by World Series standards.

At the end of play, he had all 195 million chips in the tournament after winning the last 72.5 million that Moon pushed all in. The youngest previous champ had been Peter Eastgate, who won last year at 22.

"I put in a lot of time in poker. Poker has been my life for some time," said Cada. "To win this the first year out, I got real lucky. … I'm very fortunate."

Cada became fascinated with poker at an early age. He had older friends who played. He left community college after a few semesters to pursue it as a profession. Too young as a teen to play at U.S. casinos, where the minimum age is 21, he played online, traveled to Canada to play at 19 and made enough money to enter tournaments in the Bahamas and Costa Rica. He was successful before this, earning enough to buy a house .

This was the first year he was old enough to play in the World Series. Cada's fans here sported canary yellow T-shirts with "Poker Kid" on the back. Among those wearing the shirts was Cada's father Jerry, 53, who was laid off this summer by a firm that designs and makes interior trim components for the auto industry.

Was Dad supportive when Cada went from Macomb Community College to pro poker?

full article: <http://www.usatoday.com/sports/poker/2009-11-09-world-series-final-one_N.htm?poe=HFMostPopular>

I thought he seemed like a good kid......

[wilt the stilt]

1. I find the game "hold em"

to be boring and luck determines almost everything. ther is only one decision in or out.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. That's True Of All The Versions

Isn't it? Reading people is obviously overrated. Otherwise all these internet players and amateurs wouldn't be dominating the WSOP.

I love the movie Rounders, but i no longer believe that the pros are any better at reading people than anyone else. Card counting in poker works just as well as it does in blackjack.

I used a system in a tournament just one time. I finished third, but i dumped at the end because i was tired, my MS was bothering me and i was tired of having to hold back my 53 year old bladder.

And, i had never played in a tournament before. Yet, i finished 3rd. It's all cards, and that's true in all the versions of poker.
GAC

[trumad]

2. If you say yes---then you must say yes to Checkers, Chess....the spelling bee

tiddly winks.... etc.

[madinmaryland]

5. Actually tiddly winks requires a bit of physical dexterity!

From the National Tiddlywinks championship..

[Jack Rabbit]

14. Hey, look what I found on the sport page of a leading newspaper

Please click here.

. . . and while we're on the subject, please click here, too.

[Kingofalldems]

3. I like poker but Hopscotch is more of a sport

[madinmaryland]

4. Poker is a game. nt

[Yavin4]

6. Not A Sport

A sport requires some sort of physical exertion.

[pipi_k]

12. If we glued all the cards together...

and players had to pry them apart, then Poker might be sort of a semi-sport

[Awsi Dooger]

8. I want to see the argument that poker is a sport but golf is not a sport

No doubt it's been attempted, probably on this site, albeit not in the same thread.

The rise of poker is still astonishing to me. Less than a decade ago they were removing poker rooms from casinos, or severely diminishing their size and sticking them in the corner. My poker playing buddies were lamenting the lack of opportunity, that a regular game in Casino X had ended and now another one was in jeopardy.

Then within years I'm seeing notorious Las Vegas bums on reality TV shows based on poker. Hell, they laugh about it themselves. And none of them claim to be athletes. Not unless athleticism requires a buffet stomach and dozens of T shirts with holes in them.

The two beatable casino games are poker and sports. Many guys split time between the two of them. I've never had patience for poker.

[Forkboy]

9. Strip Poker is.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. Go to your room, Forkboy

:spank:

[Forkboy]

11. That's what got me into trouble in the first place.

:)

[Dr. Strange]

16. Son of a bitch!

Once again Forkspawn beats me to the punchline!

[Forkboy]

18. LOL...love that emoticon!

:rofl:

[Jack Rabbit]

13. Yes

It is a game, which is to say a form of competition. Moreover, competition is organized by a world body which enforces a set of uniform rules and insures that the tournament organizers aren't ripping off the players.

[Dinger]

15. I Never Understood Why ESPN Had Old "World Series Of Poker" Shows On

What a fucking joke. Then there's the Travel channel, bravo, and more. Bores me to tears.

[Chan790]

17. What defines a sport?

(I'd say no to the OP question btw!)

If it's physical exertion: Sex is a sport. Bowling isn't. Horses, dogs and racecars are the primary competitors in racing. (Which not to say the jockeys and drivers are not exerting themselves but the car or animal is in fact doing almost all the work.)

If it's skill: Trivial Pursuit is a sport too. So is driving the DC beltway or navigating Manhattan at 5PM on a weeknight.

If it's competition: Then chess is a sport and so is war.

[Ganja Ninja]

19. To me a sport involves physical skill of one kind or another.

Something like Chess or Poker is a competitive game but not a sport.

[Onceuponalife]

20. Is Jack Rabbit admitting chess is not a sport?

So no more chess threads in the sports forum?:evilgrin:

Poker is not a sport....I turned down a poker game on Saturday so I can watch some real sports--Football and hockey.