Let\’s get this out of the way up front. Now that I\’m joining the Pokerati team (Do I get a jersey? Is number 17 available?), you\’re going to see me writing about the \”sport\” of poker.
Then the comments will start. \”Poker\’s not a sport!\” \”Are chess and Monopoly sports, too?\” \”Next you\’ll be telling us that sitting on the couch watching poker is a sport!\”
I make my living with words, and I take them very seriously. No, poker is not a sport. To me (and many dictionaries), a sport requires two components: physical activity and competition. Poker is a competition without physical activity, so it\’s not a sport. The same goes for carpentry, which is a physical activity without competition — again, not a sport.
But I\’ll continue to call poker a sport, because the metaphor works.
Click the \”more\” button to find out why. Or you can click \”Comments\” to just go ahead and call me an idiot.
To the player at the table, poker is not a sport. But to those of us in the media, we cover it like one. As a tournament reporter, the closest analogy to my job description is that of a sports reporter. We report on the individual players (Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, etc.), the scores (chip counts), the million-dollar victors and the ten-thousand-dollar losers.
Fans watch poker like a sport. Some have their favorite players, fanatically following the progress of Phil Ivey or Daniel Negreanu. (Or even Allen \”Chainsaw\” Kessler.) Other, more casual fans, only tune in to ESPN for the biggest game of them all, the WSOP Main Event. But they still watch it in much the same way that they watch the Olympics. (More on that next week.) Others don\’t even care about the players or the big prizes, because they\’re more interested in the play itself. \”How did this player correctly lay down middle set after a rainbow flop?\”
When I refer to poker as a \”sport\” (and I will), I\’m referring to high-profile, high-stakes tournaments that are usually televised — the WSOP, the WPT, the EPT, and a few select others. You can flame me in the comments, but I\’ll continue to call poker a sport, if only metaphorically.
For those who don\’t know me, my name is BJ Nemeth, and I\’m a longtime poker tournament reporter. I won\’t bore you with my resume, but I\’ve been doing it for more than four years, and most people agree that I\’m pretty good at my job. I\’m currently the lead reporter for the World Poker Tour, which is a pretty sweet gig (lots of travel, nice casinos, and they let me freelance here at Pokerati on the side).
Now that I\’m officially on the team, I\’ll be writing actual Pokerati posts, instead of post-length comments. Expect me to offer well-researched commentary on the big news stories (the UB/Absolute scandal, the WSOP final table delay, and Tiffany Michelle\’s UB decision) along with industry analysis on everything from Bluff vs. Card Player to the WPT vs. the EPT.
Metaphorically, poker is a sport. Deal with it, and commence comments.
