Write to Win: Poker - A Winter Sport

[Hollay]

Great submissions this week!

Vote for your favorite submission and the person who's entry receives the most votes wins a tournament ticket that can be used for the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational or the Hollywood Poker Celebrity Classic.

Also, you could be randomly drawn as the winner of Hollywood Poker gear just for voting.

Next week's topic is posted at the bottom of this post, so just scroll down to see what it is and send your submission to hollay@hollywoodpoker.com. If your entry is chosen as a finalist, you could win a tournament ticket!

Entry #1

Poker could be classified as many things: Challenging, grueling, taxing, fun, rewarding. These things can also be applied to sports, such as soccer, football or basketball. Now, most athletes will say poker isn't a sport, but it can make a player feel the same things traditional sports give to it’s players. Poker is a winter sport, what else can bring the family together around the holidays like gathering up to a poker table near the fire and taking beloved family members’ money; showing uncle Steve the 7,2 off-suit you bluffed him with when he was holding pocket 9's. It's times like this that bring family members out from the snowman building and snow angel making with a nice hot cup of cocoa and a bad beat story you'll be telling for ages.

Ahh - winter is here; let it snow, let it snow.

~Drnick83


Entry #2

Any sarcastic and cliché remarks I have heard about poker being a sport have already been overdone. It would be cliché for me to say that if poker is a sport, then the players would have to be considered athletes. My readers would then expect a cliché comparison like, "Imagine Bruce Jenner sucking down a pack of smokes, and a Reuben with extra kraut, between decathlon events." I want to avoid being cliché and repetitive, so I will let the whole cliché go. Besides, anyone who reads too many clichés could end up with a surreal case of the Mondays on any given Sunday.

As far as using poker to cure things like cabin fever, I guess I could see it: I blow my life savings on poker, reach a point where I am unable to make my mortgage payment, loose my house and poof - no more cabin fever.

Finally, as my name indicates, I live in Minnesota. With regards to winter, I have one request; please kill me.

~MinnesotaRon


Entry #3

My friends and I have been discussing the topic of poker as a sport a lot lately. Many of them say it doesn't qualify because there are no fat guys in jock straps, no mouth guards (although Phil Hellmuth could possibly use one), and very little actual sweat (most of the sweating we do is more along the lines of brain sweat--as in "I'm really sweating this flop"). I say it is a sport because it pits the best players against each other in a battle of intellectual warfare AND there is a lot of cursing and throwing things--just like in any other sport.

I know it certainly beats getting out on a ski slope freezing your *** off while you pay $300-400 a day to do it, all the while risking life and limb to slide down a frozen hill, not to mention standing in line for god knows how long for the opportunity to do so.

With poker, on the other hand, I can sit at my computer in front of the fireplace and win money while flirting with complete strangers on the internet. Most of the time they ignore me, and that's good, because at these tables you can never tell if the blonde with the big knockers is a guy or a girl! Although with names like ROCKHARD it's usually a safe guess that they are not too happy with their current incarnation at the poker table. I usually flirt with those guys just to get them on tilt! They hate it when I compliment them on their boobs.

But back to poker--winning money is definitely the best of it, but getting to play against Celebrities also adds something to the mix and makes it even more fun. I can't wait to have my chance against James Woods. Hey, he's a good poker player - I know. I just wish he wouldn't smirk like that.

Well, that's my post for now. I'll be seeing you at the next WPT event, and in the meantime, here's my wish for your holiday season--
Flop the nuts, check-raise, then go all-in.

Peace on earth, goodwill to all.
~RelentlessRM


Next week's topic: A world without poker.

[Al N Smithee]

But hey, Ron . . . I guess I should have written on this topic, too. But, my fault, I didn't see it this week for some reason. That being said, here is my short opinion on the subject at no risk to winning anything for it.

Any athlete will tell you that to participate in a sport you must first be physically fit for the sport that you are attempting to either excel at or just to play to enjoy. You must have the physical capacity to do the activity. Some are adjusted for assorted fitness levels, The Special Olympics come to mind. But so does shuffleboard - considered a sport by many - that can be enjoyed by even our most doddering senior citizens.

Many sports require physical fitness to the max. These are without question SPORTS and think we'd all agree. Though you may be able to enjoy these sports at any level if you are physically able, any athlete will tell you that to excel at any sport you must also possess a mental agility and toughness as well. Here is where I make my comparison.

Poker, though it can also be enjoyed at many levels - a few of those even profitable - to excel you have to be mentally fit for the challenge. And for the seemingly laid back pace of big tournaments, having to be alert and, on a moment's notice, challenge your brain to the extreme in a potentially stressful situation over and over a ten or twelve hour session can be quite gruelling. Though some deli-eating, beer swilling, 'comfortably physique-d' players seem to weather these events, most up and coming and many of the current cadre of pros do work out and prepare themselves physically as well to meet these challenges.

I do not know were you draw the line between sport and . . . say pastimes (sports are pastimes, but not all pastimes are sports e.g. Knitting). Based on my assertion that being both physically and mentally challenged in a competitive arena would be key ingredients to being a sport, I do think Poker - at a competition level at least - meets both these requirements. Fringe area? Maybe so . . . but anyone got a bassboat, bait, several six-packs and baloney sandwiches to do some 'sport' fishing?

[MinnesotaRon]

at least fishing and shuffleboard require you to get off your butt. So are starring contests sports? How about TV watching contests? Both would require mental stamina and concentration. I dare anyone to go head-to-head against my pot smoking brother in a TV watching, Cheese Nip eating, Mountain Dew drinking contest. so would that then be considered a sport?

Just because something requires long periods of concentration and the ability to sit in one place for a long time, doesn't make it a sport. Ask any Air Traffic Controller on overtime if they think their job is a sport.

Please! Poker is a game, a pastime, even a job, but not a sport.

~MinnesotaRon

[Al N Smithee]

Because the folks I used to fish with, other than the poor guy who had to launch his boat off the trailer, just showed up at the dock and then sat in the boat for the next 6 or so hours. They did have to walk to the boat carrying poles and tackle boxes. The biggest exercise, and it did take some effort, was getting the coolers of iced beer out of the trunks and into the boat.

Now to be fair, there was a lot of arm motion in the casting and hand exercise in reeling . . . and baiting the hook did tax their concentration in a level ever increasing as the level of the coolers decreased. But, as in poker, no one ever worked up a sweat - once the coolers were loaded, that is.

In poker you have to walk into the casino. You do have occasions to get up and walk again from table to table if in a larger tournament, maybe quite a number of times. You may also, if you are lucky, have to carry with you a massive amount of chips. There is a lot of arm motion involved also in collecting chips from the center of the table. Mucking cards can also include actually tossing them back toward the dealer. There, as the reeling involved in fishing, can be a lot of hand motion for stacking, counting, restacking and recounting your chips all day long. However, poker can even include finger exercises in the form of 'chip tricks'. The elbow bending resulting in the consumption of potables is a comparative wash as it occurs in both 'sports'.

Oh, and as far as standing in shuffleboard . . . I've known many seniors who have participated and even won a retirement home tournament from the seats of their wheel chairs.

And as one further extension, I know several chess challengers who may give you an argument that it too, at least at the tournament level, could be considered a sport.

Do I ever think Poker - No Limit Texas Hold'em, in particular - will ever become an olympic event? No, not hardly. But then again, I've also learned never to say never.

[MinnesotaRon]

to just write a reply so that my name appears in the center stage forum heading, to try to gain more votes through name recognition?

[Hollay]

And it's over for another week!

Congratulations to RelentlessRM, who's score a tournament ticket that can be used for the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational OR the Hollywood Poker Celebrity Classic.

Also, congratulations to valjp-s, who's won Hollywood Poker gear for voting :waytogo:

I look forward to seeing you all next week!