Match Poker Officially Accepted as GAISF Observer and Could Become an Olympic Sport

The debate over whether or not poker is a sport, may have been given an answer; perhaps not a definitive one, but it comes with official body recognition. The Global Association of International Sports Federations (GIASF) has now recognised the International Federation of Match Poker (IFMP), making match poker a legitimate sport, even approving it to be played at the Olympics if you can find anyone who doesn’t play the game for the filthy lucre the Olympics committee abhor.

So the answer is: yes, poker is a sport. Or at least one kind of poker, since the IFMP only represents Match Poker. 

And what is match poker when its at home exactly? Well...

What Is Match Poker?

Drawing on the idea of duplicate bridge, where every table receives the same set of hands in each chair and players are looking to win the most points of the players with those hands, match poker means every table received the same set of hands, with players in each position competing to win more or lose less than the other players in their seat on other tables.

The IFMP have come up with an app that allows each player to use devices like iPads to easily setup the multiple tables without having to rig hundreds of decks in advance.

This way of doing things completely removes the luck element from the fall of the cards, since the people you’re really competing against are playing the same hand against the sames hands on the same board.

Unfortunately nothing can be done about the chaos induced by the other players at each table and clearly a soft table will give you an edge against your opponents and strange plays can make hands incomparable despite the sameness of the cards. So it is not entirely variance free as a game. But the GAISF see it as having reduced the luck element enough to put their stamp on it.

Further Improvements

With the recognition in place, and the game still young, there’s still room to improve the rules of match poker. 

Some suggestions include narrowing the game down to just heads-up games, to shuffle the players between hands as you would at a ZoomTable, or to reset chip stacks every hand. Not that these come without their own issues, since they essentially remove any serious chance to develop a meta-game.

Do you have any ideas for reducing the luck element in poker? And should match poker be considered the only version to be called a sport? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.