The poker industry has been expanding exponentially in the past few months. Online poker has exploded, new technology and production have led to entertaining and profitable television poker coverage, and Jim McManus’ Positively Fifth Street has climbed up the New York Times bestseller charts. While deciding whether or not to cover this rapidly expanding industry, The Mac Weekly evaluated poker’s eligibility in the sports realm. Here are some of the major arguments for and against poker’s qualifications as a sport:
 

SPORT—Poker is skill-based competition.

The foundation of poker, involves matching your skills against opponents’ and improving your skills through practice and repetition. The goal in most poker games is to accumulate as many “points,” or chips, as possible. In these respects, poker is a pure form of sport.
 

NOT A SPORT—Physical fitness is not a part of poker.

Successful poker does not require any sort of special physical ability. Many of the world’s finest players are overweight and/or elderly. There are no mainstream sports in which this is true.
 

SPORT—Modern tournament poker is physically demanding and draining.

The Championship Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker was a grueling, five-day event that began each day at noon and sometimes ended after 2:00 a.m. The fourth and fifth days each featured more than 16 hours of competition. Tournament players must maintain a high level of focus for long periods of time. The competition is sustained for a longer period of time than virtually any other sport.
 

NOT A SPORT—Players compete despite heart attacks and pregnancy.

At the $2,500 seven card stud event during the 1999 World Series of Poker (WSoP), Ross Lichen suffered a heart attack in the latter stages of the tournament. Lichen remained seated, and played until the field had been narrowed to the eight finalists who would return the next day. Lichen went to the hospital and had to be restrained by hospital staff because he tried to compete the following day.

Top professional player Annie Duke finished 10th in the 2000 WSOP despite the fact that she was eight months pregnant.
 

SPORT—Poker is televised by ESPN and Fox Sports Net.

Buoyed by surprisingly strong ratings, reruns from ESPN’s summer coverage of the 2003 WSoP have been aired all year. Fox Sports Net threw its hat into the ring on Thanksgiving with a six-hour broadcast of the recent Showdown at the Sands tournament.

NOT A SPORT—Poker is televised by the Travel Channel and Bravo.

Coverage by the Travel Channel might be enough to certify anything as illegitimate. Bravo’s new “Celebrity Poker” Showdown is sandwiched between episodes of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”
 

SPORT—Celebrities play poker – and suck at it.

Much like golf, poker is very popular amongst celebrities who have little talent but plenty of desire to play the game. And similar to golf, these celebrities often exhibit laughably bad play. During the premiere of “Celebrity Poker Showdown”, one of actor Willie Garson’s plays was described by analyst (and pro player) Phil Gordon as “the worst call I have ever seen in my life.”
 

NOT A SPORT—Inexperienced and poor players can have great success.

Despite Garson’s horrific play, he was able to defeat Ben Affleck (an active and experienced player) and win the first Showdown. Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP Championship Event, ousting hundreds of seasoned professionals, despite the fact that he had never played in a live tournament previously.
 

SPORT—Poker features professionals and superstars.

Like many of the world’s most popular spectator sports, poker features several superstar players who make the game marketable. Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey and Johnny Chan are among the pseudocelebrities who have helped popularize the game in recent years.
 

NOT A SPORT—Poker can be played successfully while drunk.

Poker superstar Layne “back-to-back” Flack usually downs a twelve-pack of beer or several cocktails while playing – and has won millions while doing it. Flack is probably an exception, however.
 

SPORT—Tournament poker features huge prize payouts, but at the highest level, poker is about the competition.

Like those at the top of other sports, most of the world’s best poker players are multimillionaires. Though they have little financial motivation, these players continue to play in the major tournaments, such as the WSOP, in search of glory and competition. At its heart, poker is about competition, not money. While the money provides many with a reason to play, it is the competition that brings the top players back.
 

CONCLUSION: NOT A SPORT

Anything that can be done effectively while drunk, pregnant or in the midst of a heart attack is a game, not a sport.