Is poker a sport?

The WSOP is a phenomenon. As on Monday, the final day of the first round of the main event, the estimates were reaching toward 8,600 players, which would push the first place payoff to around $11.8 million. The top 12 finishers stand to win more than $1 million. But is poker a sport? ESPN has spliced the genes of athletic competition and entertainment so much that the confusion is perfectly understandable.

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"The debate over whether poker is a sport is one that people absolutely like to have," said Jamie Horowitz, ESPN's senior producer for this World Series. "Well, there's no doubt it is a competition. And there's no doubt there is a high degree of skill involved." Yet at the WSOP, given the huge number of players of widely varying skill levels playing in such a compressed period of time, the element of luck is even more apparent. Poker is still a card game, and the cards sometimes have minds of their own.

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Defending champ plays aggressively

Defending champion Joseph Hachem of Australia turned the poker table into his bully pulpit Monday, aggressively raising players he considered out of line and increasing his own stack at the main event in the World Series of Poker. Hachem more than doubled his opening stake to 22,000 chips after six hours of play, knocking out an opponent along the way.

The World Series of Poker entered the fourth and final opening-round day Monday as a field of 2,284 sat down to play Texas Hold'em for a top purse that will exceed $11.5 million. The total number of entrants hit about 8,725 — so many that organizers had to create four starting days of about 2,200 players each. It was the last day for alternates to buy in for $10,000 per seat.

Report Suggests the Emergence of Casual Gaming by 2010

A new study by consulting firm MECN into ‘Casual Gaming and Gambling in the Internet’ has delved into some key topics in the industry skill gaming, online bingo, and fantasy sports. The study includes the results of a survey MECN conducted among more than 60 industry experts who offered their unique insights and assessments.

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The report arrives in the wake of the US prohibition bill, backed by Senator Bob Goodlatte. According to the study, experts estimate the current market size for casual gaming and gambling (skill gaming and online bingo) to be about US $500 million with 8 million registered players playing for cash.

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