With the Winter Olympics almost here, we will take this opportunity to renew our call to add no limit Texas holdem to the list of Olympic events. It is not that we are trying to support the notion that Texas Holdem is an athletic sport or that poker pros and poker stars are the type of athletes the ancient Greeks would have appreciated. What we are pointing out is that no limit Texas holdem is a competitive event, and on par with other Olympic events in terms of its lack of a physical component.
First of all, there are very few poker pros who will suggest that advanced strategy and gamesmanship are not part of playing poker hands. I think we can agree the poker stars employ more strategy in Texas Holdem then your average Olympic archer does when trying to shoot a piece of wood into a haystack. That is one of many accepted Olympic sports where the “athlete” vigorously fails to break a sweat. One could also make the argument that reaching for the peanut bowl between poker hands also involves more muscles then pulling the string back on a bow, and letting go.
Then there are sports like the bobsled and the luge. The “athletes” who are part of those competitions are simply just passengers. Being a member of a bobsled crew is like being part of the Olympic rollercoaster team. Once they discover that fat people go down hills faster on a sled (a fact I learned watching South Park) Greg Raymer may make the cut. Wouldn’t it be better to have poker stars doing what they do best instead of playing athlete on a glorified toboggan?
The Olympics lost their athletic street cred when they introduced gold medal trampolineing. So as long as they are including any silly little activity, slapping an Olympic sticker on it, and calling it a medal worthy sport, why not let the poker pros do their things at the Olympics and let them compete for a gold “no limit Texas holdem” medal. Having the world’s biggest poker stars/poker pros at the games would also solve some of the Olympics ratings problems (at least the winter Olympics problems). Poker draws more viewers than Hockey and quite possibly basketball. The addition of poker would make advertisers feel more confident about purchasing air time. Let’s face it, do more people turn on their television to watch the biathlon or do they tune in to watch the poker stars play drama filled poker hands against each other?
Finally, in 2000 IOC gave Chess a shot as an Olympic sport so why not no limit Texas holdem? Is there anything more boring and less athletic then chess? Certainly not watching people play high pressure poker hands. While I am sure it takes a robust body to support the massive sense of pretentiousness that seems to be part of the personality of most chess players, you can’t call that an Olympic sport and maintain a ban on poker pros, at least not with a straight face. So the time is right to make poker (specifically the popular no limit Texas holdem version) an official Olympic sport.
