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The word "sport" has been defined in many ways, by many people, but mostly to cover their own regards towards some aspect of one game or another. Most encyclopedias agree that sport is "an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs, and often engaged in competetively, with some form of physical exertion". Poker fans will adamantly yell at the tops of their lungs that poker is a sport, and that the long hours that they spend in front of the computer, or in front of a table, sitting in a comfy chair defines a sport. Poker, however, is a game, as stated by Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson and many more of the world's best and most widely respected poker stars.

Most of the big money, and now charity and celebrity poker tournaments, many of which are now shown on sports channels, take days to complete. Poker games and tournaments are also shown on regular television channels, and over the Internet, which may be what started the "poker-as-a-sport" arguments. The game itself is a multi-billion dollar industry now, with much thanks to Internet poker rooms. The players may sweat, but that is mostly from nerves or television lighting systems, and the fact that they are in rooms with hundreds of other poker players, many chomping on cigars, with hundreds of fans watching. And most of the sweat seen on poker players faces is there because they may be losing their paychecks before paying the bills.

Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determiner of the outcome (winning or losing). However, the word sport is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors. There are skills to poker, but it is mostly chance, the chance that your cards will match the cards on the table to give you the best possible poker hand.

Okay, many people may be jumping at this, saying that certain aspects of the meaning of what entails a sport imply that Poker most definetley is a sport. Well, it seemed like a sport when I was a dealer for a roaming charity casino in Ottawa a few years back, but the game is not a sport, it is a game, like euchre or bridge, not hockey or football. It may be televised, ever popular on the Internet, casinos and basement weekend games, but to say Poker is a sport is the same as saying Bridge, Euchre and Monopoly are sports.

When Monopoly makes it to the Olympics, I may just jump on the Poker-as-a-sport

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