Poker is a lot of things to a lot of people. For some, it’s hitting the town and going to the casino card room to play for high stakes.
For others, it’s a Friday night around a kitchen table with some mates, some beers and £20 buy-ins for an evening’s entertainment.
The game also calls to mind all kinds of images and pop culture associations, from Vegas glamour and the Rat Pack to cinematic heroes ranging from Doc Holliday to James Bond.
But amidst all these angles and associations –– is poker also a sport?
If we look at how poker is presented at the professional level, it certainly fits the criteria. The game has been covered on sports networks like ESPN and Sky Sports, right alongside what we may consider being more mainstream sports.
These broadcasts have presented glamourous settings and cheering crowds, with commentary and analysis similar to what you’d hear in a given football or golf event. Top pros like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Bryn Kenney have nicknames like “Kid Poker,” “The Poker Brat,” and “Mega Crusher” respectively, and are hyped like boxers.
Beyond general presentation, there is also an organisational aspect to modern poker that is, shall we say, sport-like. While there’s not a concrete, central governing body or exact ranking system for pro players, audiences can get a sense of who’s performing best in any given year –– largely by way of earnings-based rankings. There is a certain structure of tournaments as well, funnelling players ultimately toward a year-end occasion that resembles other major sports championships in some respects.
The World Series Of Poker is a sprawling event (imagine if Wimbledon had 1,000 entrants), but one that culminates in a World Championship competition and the crowning of what is essentially that year’s top player. It starts with numerous online competitions (which any amateur player can enter), and progresses to a live tourney in Vegas each summer. If you described this general structure of competition without using the word “poker,” anyone would think you were referring to a sport.
The main argument against poker as a sport is that it’s a game of strategy rather than physicality or athleticism. This can’t be disputed (even if some poker players will argue that a lengthy tournament or a run at the WSOP takes athlete-level endurance). That said, the strategic elements of poker are perhaps more sport-like than one might initially think. Imagine for instance the mental calculations a centre half has to do with a striker bearing down on him!
Does he allow the number 9 to get the shot off and say a silent prayer hoping the keeper gets to it? Or does he chop him and risk a penalty, hoping to convince the ref the attacker’s taken a dive? That calculation will change according to the scoreline and the amount of time left in the game as well. By no means is this an exact parallel to poker, but it does speak to the idea that high-pressure decision-making akin to what poker players experience is to some extent a part of sports.
Another factor some might hold against poker in the sport argument is that it’s never been in the Olympics. There have been a couple of pushes –– most notably in the early 2000s when poker first became popular as public entertainment.
These pushes have been made to no avail, though the idea of poker in the Olympics may be approaching relevance again. Per CNET, experts are currently divided on the potential for eSports to make their way into Olympic competition. Some see the inclusion of eSports as inevitable, and certainly, this is no more “athletic” activity than poker.
The only difference, really, is that poker has so much inherent variance between styles of game, size of buy-ins, number of players, etc. To that end, the International Federation of Match Poker was set up in 2009 in an attempt to standardise poker as a sport.
The match poker game itself is very similar to Texas Hold’em (the most common poker style) and is played in a team format. So far the IFMP has 50 countries’ poker federations signed up, with the goal of making it into the 2028 Olympic Games (though a push for cricket by the ICC is driving the conversation about new sports for now).
So, is poker a sport? If it’s not now, will it be if and when it is welcomed into the Olympics? There of course are no definitive answers to these questions. Considering all of the above though, it’s certainly understandable why many do want to think of the beloved card game in these terms.
