This April, the International Federation of Poker will be accepted as an esteemed member of the International Mind Sports Association. This means the game of poker will be recognized as a “sport” by the International Olympic Committee, included amongst other games of skill such as chess or Go. Other mind sports nominees this year include Go Fish, Fifty-Two Pickup, War, and Up the River, Down the River.
The good from this recognition comes in the form of poker being deemed a game of skill by a world-renowned organization, an argument which can be heralded across all the courtroom debates of luck versus skill for legislation purposes. The bad will be the pasty, unkempt, anemic internet players coming out from behind their keyboards thinking they’re going to win Olympic gold for picking off a river bluff, standing up to raise their hands like a true champion, only to find their legs muscles have atrophied from playing sit-and-gos for the past month and their chubby bodies come crashing to the ground like a drunken chip stack.
This doesn’t mean that one day they’ll be testing players for doping if it’s been noticed in World Series of Poker broadcasts they’ve been tossing larger stacks into pots with considerable less effort on their hands and wrists. You also won’t find player doing wind sprints while holding the poker hand rankings card. As ludicrous as it is to even slightly mix or confuse the realm of poker with athleticism, after all the discord brought between American internet players and their elected officials from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, anything that pleads the case in our favor is welcome with open arms.
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It seems as though the lands of Norway are being pillaged and plundered again, and not by the Vikings that founded them.
It seems as though Iowa is the latest state to be joining the bandwagon, and it’s not one made by John Deere.
This Sunday at Carbon Poker, French poker player mesut54000 took down the WSOP Grand Final – $12,500 Seat Guaranteed Tournament. As the name of the tourney suggests, mesut5400 walked away from the virtual felt with a $12,500 package that includes a $10,000 buy in for the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland is getting Senate and Mayoral support for poker tables in their slots casinos.
Michael Phelps isn’t the only Olympic medalist who loves to play poker now since J.R. Celski won a medal in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Celski was the first American to claim a medal in the Winter Games when he placed third in the 1,500 meter short track speed skating race. Celski’s third place finish was good for a bronze medal.
The ninth annual European Poker Awards turned out to be a very special occasion for Vitaly Lunkin since he won the 2009 European Poker Player of the Year award. The Russian player now joins previous winners such as Marcel Luske (2001, 2004), Garry Bush (2002), Dave Colclough (2003), Rob Hollink (2005), Roland De Wolfe (2006), Alexander Kravchenko (2007), and Bertrand Grospellier (2008).
In what seems to be the current trend of the resurfacing poker pro, Paul Wasicka went on to capture the $5,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Circuit Championship Event in Tunica, Mississippi. Wasicka was brought to notoriety in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing second to Jamie “Enjoyable as a Cold Sore” Gold. Staking his claim atop a mountain of 96 other players in the field, it is his first win and notable mention since the 2007 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, in which he beat pro Chad Brown 2-0 in the finals.
