Is Poker A Sport Or Gambling
. The majority of poker players don't think poker is gambling because they are more skilled than the competition and in the long run will profit. The majority of poker players will not become professional and were wrong about the first statement. Making a deposit and Why Is Poker Considered A Sportplaying your favorite Why Is Poker Considered A Sportreal money games. It is still Why Is Poker Considered A Sportnot illegal for players to gamble online, but depending on where you live it may be difficult to find a lot of available options. Some individual states have.
Table Of Contents
Las Vegas is a gambler's paradise because it provides so many unique ways to bet, and hopefully win.
Sports betting is one of the most popular forms of gambling in Vegas, and often times the sportsbooks will be filled with poker players.
That is because there are several skills you pick up in poker that also apply to success in sports betting.
Below you will see five of those skills. Let us know if you think we missed any by telling us in the comments!
Spotting Trends
One of the most key factors that many successful professional poker players will point to is their ability to read people and spot tells.
Tells are slight mannerisms that will often hint at whether a player is strong or weak.
Spotting these kinds of trends is often useful in sports betting as well.
Keeping an eye on key line movements will often show where the big money is going on a line, and doing homework like looking up % of individual bets compared to % of money placed is essential to being a successful sports bettor.
Being Aggressive
Poker players know when it's time to pump the breaks, and when it is time to press the gas. This also applies in sports betting.
No two betting lines are created equal.
You may have no strong feelings on one spread, while others you will be willing to place your mortgage on it.
In poker, it's key to sometimes 'save up and take a shot' at a big tournament, and the same can be said for betting.
If everything lines up for you on a particular game, don't be afraid to place a large bet on that, rather than spreading smaller bets to cover your bases.
Having said all of that, the next trend is one of upmost importance.
Bankroll Management
The #1 reason why many poker players go broke is due to poor bankroll management.
Players will often play in bigger tournaments and cash games when they are starting out, and it can often lead to funds draining away quickly.
The same can be said in sports betting.
If you have a budget of $1,000, you probably shouldn't be spending $500 on the opening weekend of the NFL season.
In fact, you shouldn't be spending any more than $50 at a time, and in this case, it would be wiser to spread your bets around, to cut down on the inevitable variance of sports betting.
Dealing with Variance
In poker, you can often do everything right, get your money in good, and you will still lose.
It is impossible to avoid getting unlucky here and there, and it can often come in waves.
That is called variance, and being able to understand what it is, and cope with that, is another key component of being a professional poker player. Again, the same applies in sports betting.
There is an insane amount of variance in sports and sports betting, and that was perfectly on display this year in the NFL.
The Eagles managed to cover their spread over the Redskins after returning a bad lateral for a touchdown against the Redskins on the final play of the game.
The same situation happened in the 49ers Falcons game, though that final touchdown flipped to the over 49 points on the game.
If you aren't prepared to be on the wrong side of those fluke coin flips once in a while, sports betting and poker probably isn't for you.
Thrill of Competition
Competition. It's the reason why sports, and poker, are so popular.
Sports fandom presents the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows, with a roller coaster of emotions along the way that is unlike any experience.
Now with the ability to place bets on any sporting event, you can immediately have a dog in the fight, and a team to pull for.
Poker also provides incredible competition, as only one player is truly happy at the tournament: the winner. Sports betting and poker will always be linked due to this common bond.
Oddschecker provides an odds comparison service so you can see all the odds, offers, and promotions from every single sportsbook in one place. They also provide free picks and analysis across every single sport. This means that at Oddschecker, you will always be able to see the best NFL odds and picks the market has to offer.
Offers available in New Jersey only. 21+
A while back, a buddy and I had a friendly argument over whether poker should be considered a sport or a game. I have been a professional poker player and poker author for years but, until now, have never given the subject much thought. After some research and contemplation, here is my argument in favor of poker players being athletes.
Is poker a sport or a game? Poker is a sport because it is played for entertainment, is competitive, and almost always requires both physical and mental prowess in order to consistently play and win at the highest levels. Online multi-tabling players are required to have acute hand-eye coordination and both live and online players need physical endurance to play long sessions.
Still not convinced? Let’s break down the definition of a sport into individual elements and see if each can be applied to poker.
Why Poker Is a Sport and Its Players Are Athletes
The Oxford Dictionary defines a sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”
Put another way, a sport is defined as a competitive activity done for entertainment that requires both physical ability and skill in order to excel.
Let’s start with the easy stuff and work our way
1. Poker Requires Skill
This is an important distinction that a large portion of the population doesn’t get. There is a reason that the same poker players win again and again over the long term.
Making Profitable Decisions Requires Skill
In poker, everything you do requires a decision. There are multiple of these small decisions in every poker hand you decide to play. In fact, deciding to play a hand is one of the biggest decisions.
Every action you take in poker takes the skill to realize whether it has a positive expectation and will win money over the long term. This is the part that most people have trouble grasping. Is that short term luck can see a winning decision lose money and a losing decision make money.
But if you play hundreds of instances of the winning decision you will almost certainly profit. Whereas, the more iterations of a bad decision you make, the likelihood of being a net loser increases as well.
A Basketball Gambling Analogy
Take basketball for example. If a point guard makes a difficult pass across the lane during a breakaway, sometimes the pass will succeed and end in a lay-up. Other times the ball will be stolen by an opponent or go out of bounds.
No matter what happens, the player has made a calculated “gamble” based on the situation at hand. At the root of his decision on whether to pass or not was what action would score the most points in the long run. If the risk of passing was too great, then perhaps he might take the slightly more difficult 16 foot shot.
The experience and knowledge gained through practice and experience allow a basketball player to make better and better decisions throughout an entire game. Playing poker is exactly the same thing. Experience, knowledge, and practice allow a poker player to make more profitable decisions while avoiding losing ones as much as possible.
This is how
2. Poker Is Played for Entertainment
This one is easy. Anyone who has played poker for a matter of minutes understands how entertaining it is. The first time that you get all-in versus another player and hit that miracle river card, you will probably be hooked.
For many people, the fun part of poker comes in deciphering the many puzzles which must be solved. What hands could my opponent have? Is he bluffing? Can I pull off a bluff? Those are but a few of the thousands of possible decisions points that could happen at any time during a poker hand.
What If the Definition of “Entertainment” Only Means Fun to Watch?
Even if you get a bit nit-picky with the definition of a sport, poker does really well by this iteration of the word “entertainment” as well. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) continues to get good rating year in and year out. People love to watch the game because they want to be the people winning that huge amount of money.
I think that’s the reason people watch a lot of sports on TV. They like to see a pro golfer win because they aspire to be a champion golfer themselves. Or they love to watch the 3-point contest in the NBA because they want to be a great shooter (or think they already are one).
I would call this phenomenon entertainment by proxy, due to the vicarious enjoyment achieved by watching a sport. Put simply, it’s fun to watch because it’s fun to imagine being the one doing it.
3. Poker Is Competitive
Competitiveness is another area that poker obviously qualifies as a sport. In fact, the entire definition of poker is built around being competitive. At the root of the game is having one poker hand compete against another poker hand to find out which one is the winner.
Beyond the obvious, the best poker players in the world are not the ones who are geniuses at playing their cards well. The biggest winners are the players who most efficiently recognize what their opponents are doing and build a winner counter-strategy.
In other words, being good at competitiveness is what defines who the best players are.
4. Poker Requires Physical Ability
I am sure I will get plenty of push-back on this one. But please, hear me out.
At face value, it seems like little physical ability would be needed to sit at a poker table for hours upon hours playing a mentally challenging “game”. However, if you reread what I just said, you will gain a clue as to what I am talking about here.
Poker Is Physically Demanding
In order for a poker player to make money, they must put in the hours “grinding” at the table. They also have to play at the times when the weaker competition is at the tables, whether it fits into their ideal schedule or not. These sometimes marathon sessions are both mentally and physically draining. The fact is, that the better shape a player is in, the better he or she will perform.
Case-in-point. Take a look at the average age on the World Series of Poker final table every year. It’s really rare to see any player above 30, much less 40 make it all the way to the end. Why is this? Are younger people just smarter? No way.
Younger people just happen to be in better physical shape more often and thus have the mental and physical fortitude to play 7 or 8 twelve hour days straight. Those in poor physical condition tend to eventually break down mentally as well and make a huge mistake that costs them their tournament life.
Online Poker Takes Physical Dexterity
Let’s not forget about online poker players. There’s more to the game than just sitting in front of a computer and clicking buttons with a couple of fingers.
In order to succeed as an online player, it is almost imperative that you play multiple tables in order to maximize your hourly win-rate. This requires acute hand-eye coordination and physical dexterity, as well as a strong mind-body connection in order to minimize errors while playing 600, 1000, sometimes 1500 hands an hour or more.
Over the long term, players with better physical fitness will simply outperform others with similar abilities. In fact, I had a section in my book back in 2012 about the importance of a workout regimen for poker players.
I believe that, as parody becomes more prevalent between the top pros, the players will look for an edge anywhere they can get it. Don’t be surprised if the WSOP final table is mostly made up of players with 6-packs by 2030.
Some Well-Known Sports Require Little or No Physical Exertion
Is Poker A Sport Or Gambling Games
If you have ever watched American baseball then you have seen some of the seemingly out of shape players involved in every game. In fact, there was a former major league ballplayer who was asked by a reporter, “you don’t look like an athlete.” The player responded, “I’m not an athlete, I’m a baseball player”.
Yet, do you ever seen anyone asking the question, “is baseball a sport?” Of course not, since there are some physical elements to the game.
What about golf? Sure, it takes physical ability to hit the ball. Even so, I have seen so pretty large men win plenty of pro golf tournaments. Think Craig Stadler or John Daly. It’s because they have great hand-eye coordination and timing, like good online poker players.
I’m sure if you take a moment, you can think of a few other sports where there are players or positions where great physical ability is not manditory.
But Poker Can’t Be a Sport Because It Has Gambling?!?!
I would argue that all sports have elements of gambling or just flat out bald-faced gambling.
We already discussed how decisions made during a game is akin to poker decisions. That’s not what I am talking about here. I am referring to any sport that has leagues where there is a buy-in.
Most Sports Require Up-Front Costs
We have already established that sports are games of skill. What I think is the biggest travesty of how people view poker is that they are okay with people putting up hundreds, or thousands, of hard-earned cash each year to play in golf tournaments, bowling tournaments, billiards tournaments, football/soccer leagues, etc. while they turn their nose up at people who buy into poker tournaments.
Is Poker A Sport Or Gambling
Aren’t you really just placing a bet on yourself no matter what sport you are putting your money into to play? Isn’t there a prize for winning these leagues or tournaments, no matter the sport? I think you can see where I am going with this.
What About Other Casino Games?
If the game is played against the house or doesn’t have a way of being beaten, no matter how skilled someone is, then it is not a sport. If the game is played against other players and skill is involved and not just luck, it is a sport.
Why Does All This Even Matter?
There is a negative connotation in poker due to the gambling elements found within the sport. People believe that just because you usually play it in a casino, and it is played with cards, it must be gambling
My hope is that this article will help shed some light on the true nature of poker. That it is a fun, skill-based sport, that deserves to be in the light of day and not looked down upon.
Related Questions
Is online poker illegal? The legality of online poker all depends on where you reside. In the United States, it is legal to play in all states except for Kentucky and Washington State. Please be sure to do some research on the legality in your local jurisdiction before playing.
Where is the best place to practice poker? The best place to practice poker is either at home with family or friends, or on a poker site that has play money. For US players and a few other countries, Ignition Poker is a great option. For the rest of the world, I recommend 888 Poker as a fun place to play.
Is Poker A Sport Or Gambling Losses
What is the World Series of Poker? The World Series of Poker, or WSOP is a live poker tournament series that occurs annually from late May to the middle of July. Currently, the event is held at the Rio in Las Vegas, Nevada. Anyone who can afford the buy-in can play in the events.