The Sports Truth

It’s gone from an insider event to mass-marketed hysteria. The skill and endurance involved, along with the cast of characters, are unrivaled. But, the Sports Truth asks in its newest Face-Off:

Is Poker a Sport?

YES

sport noun 1: A source of diversion 2: A physical activity engaged in for pleasure syn play, frolic, fun, recreation.

After consulting with my boy Noah Webster (the pride of West Hartford, Conn.), it appears poker makes the grade on all counts. I am clearly not the only one who thinks so, either. Further down on the same page, the dictionary describes a sportscast as a “broadcast dealing with sporting events.”

If elite-level poker is not a sport, then why is the nation’s premiere sports network, ESPN, pouring resources into televising it each year? If Greg “Fossil Man” Raymer, the 2004 champion (right), doesn’t embody everything great about sports, I’m really not sure what does.

Poker’s critics simply don’t understand the endurance, skill and mental toughness involved. It’s ludicrous to suggest that the high-stakes card game is any different than the Great Outdoor Games, the NBA or Women’s Nine Ball.

Watching hands, remembering every detail.

Playing the opponent as well as the cards.

Deciding when to bluff. Exercising caution one minute and letting it rip the next. Anyone who has played knows the feeling. You have pocket queens and picked up a third on the flop, but are trying not to give away too much. Raise. Check. Pause. The pot is growing and you have your arch-nemesis right where you want him… until he somehow lands a straight on the river.

It hurts. You want to strangle him, and yourself for good measure. The agony, glory and finality are unmatched. No matter how events transpire, you will leave emotionally drained.

Sure, it may not seem like the most physically taxing event, but if David Wells can throw a perfect game half-drunk, who are we to say? Consider that the main event at this year’s World Series of Poker will involve 5,619 participants and extend for nine days, breaking only for sleep. No breathers in this marathon. Some argue that no competition can be called a sport without the players breaking a sweat.

When your title aspirations hinge on every minute decision for hours on end, I am pretty sure profuse sweating will ensue. Every hand could be your last. I would love to see professional golfers, whose sport of choice is universally accepted as such, endure that kind of mental and physical strain.

One of the great things about following sports is getting to know a little bit about the individuals on the front lines. The pro poker circuit delivers in this capacity as well, with a cast of characters you couldn’t dream up.

There’s Phil Ivey, the phenom often called the Tiger Woods of poker. There’s Phil Hellmuth, the petulant whiner likened to John McEnroe. The aging pioneer, Doyle Brunson, might as well be the game’s Jack Nicklaus. As if that weren’t enough, you can throw your allegiance behind competitors such as Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, “Action” Dan Harrington or the Professor, Howard Lederer. It’s a diverse crowd, with no age or gender requirements.

Not only is poker a sport, but it’s the best kind. The World Series is open to anyone with $10,000 and a dream. The recent men to be crowned champion of this glorious event — Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem and Jamie Gold — were complete unknowns a few years ago. What’s a sport without a Cinderella story?

– Michael Stephens

NO

It’s an age-old question, passed down from Galileo to Mao to Stephen Hawking: what is the true definition of a sport? Are uniforms required? Perhaps breaking a sweat is a necessity. Must you go up against some sort of competition? But then how would you account for the dominance of the 1997-2000 Houston Comets, who shot their way to four consecutive WNBA championships? They had no competition. Are you claiming that professional women’s basketball is not a sport?

As the debate rages on, a few things are clear: if you can wear an iPod and/or goofy, swirly-eyed glasses during the activity in question, it’s not a sport. If alcohol is often prominently involved, it’s not a sport. If you remain seated during the duration of the event, only rising to high-five your entourage and give your beer gut some breathing room, it’s not a sport.

Those experiencing an intense REM cycle exert more physical activity in a night than an entire tournament of poker playing. Coming from someone who would wager on computer-simulated video games, take my word for it: don’t gamble on the classification of Texas Hold ‘Em, it’s nothing more than a leisure activity.

Ask anyone who specializes in this pastime and the most common trait you’ll hear required for success is the ability to read other players at the table. Are they bluffing? What cards are they holding? They’re not even playing against the cards, they’re playing against their opponents, so of course it’s a sport, right?

Right, and so is psychology. If analyzing the mindset of another person is some sort of athletic prowess, then Freud must take his place alongside Carl Lewis and Michael Jordan as one of the top athletes in history.

There is also a lot of quick math involved in the poker world. Percentages, odds, algorithms, means, venn diagrams - a solid player must be able to calculate the cards in a hurry. Remember how good Will Hunting was at poker? Does this make him an athlete?

What about Pythagoras? The man could hammer out theorems, but could he nail a jump shot? Or ride the pummel horse? Math skills belong in the classroom, not the athletic arena.

Finally, there is the element of luck. You can memorize the tells of everyone playing, determine the odds of which cards are remaining … and then your adversary could flop a nut straight or swim to victory with a flush on the river and you’d be left with lots of cool vocabulary words, but very little money.

The random drawing of cards can play no role in sports. Leave the outcome up the the physical talent of the participants and tell Johnny Chan (above) to call me when he can throw a spiral.

– Levi Matthews

Posted in Face-Off, Poker