“A sport should not rely on any element of “luck” specifically integrated into the sport.”
This is one of the five criteria for an activity to meet the definition of ‘sport’ – according to the umbrella organisation for all Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations, the GAISF (Global Association of International Sports Federations, previously known as SportAccord).
As far as ‘sport’ goes, the buck stops with them.
But, their definition of sport is not limited to competitions requiring physical exertion. They also regard mind games, like Chess and Bridge, as sports – ‘mind sports’.
In poker, players with greater skill (including in being able to read and deceive other players and who play with greater consideration of the odds), do better in the long run. Indeed, poker has been acknowledged by courts in America[1] as being a game of skill.
But this still does not elevate poker to the level of ‘sport’, because the turn of the cards can strongly influence who wins and who loses a given hand. Thus, the influence of chance is so significant that poker is an activity where the “element of “luck” (is) specifically integrated into the sport.” Therefore, it can never be accepted as a sport.
Then along came Match Poker to turn all of this on its head.
‘MATCH POKER’
Match Poker is a way of playing poker specifically designed to offer poker as an official world sport.
To meet the definition of “sport”, Match Poker was designed so that a large part of the luck inherent in poker was removed. This was achieved by ensuring that:
- The hand dealt to everyone at your table has been dealt thousands of times before – with the same cards on the flop, turn and river.
- Everyone’s result on the hand is then compared to the results of every player who previously held the same cards as them.
To illustrate how this works, when playing Match Poker, receiving a bad beat from the unfortunate turn of a card is unlikely to affect your score negatively. This is because everyone in the same position on other tables was dealt the same “bad beat” cards – so even if you lost all your chips, you probably did not perform badly relative to them.
The above image shows how identical tables can have different results – which can be attributed to players’ different skill levels.
Match Poker competitions have been played internationally several times over the past decade, between countries all over the world. These have been run by the International Federation of Match Poker (IFMP), and are discussed in depth in this article.
The result is that Match Poker has now been provisionally accepted by the GAISF as the 7th world mind sport – alongside Chess, Bridge, Draughts, Go, Xiangqi and Mah Jong – sports which, combined, represent more than a billion players. Match Poker is a sport.
A SPORT… ONLINE?
The idea sounds absurd. When people think of sport, they think of games like football or tennis. It goes without saying that people have to be in the same place as each other in order to play a sport. This is not true for Match Poker.
In a mind sport, the competitive aspect is not between players’ physicality, dexterity, or finesse. When the competitive aspect is between minds – prizing intelligence, quick-thinking, insight and strategy above all else – the sport does not need to be played in a single location.
Cards can be virtual, and the location can be online – where people access a simulated poker table from internet-connected devices. And, since the game is played digitally, copious amounts of data can be recorded, analysed and interpreted.
In an online environment, a player doesn’t just compare their play to other players in the same position as them at a handful of other tables – they can compare their play to every single person in the database – that’s everyone who has played that hand configuration before!
This means that a player can find out that they played a particular hand better than 92% of players on Earth, or perhaps that they received the 253rd-best result out of 42,593 people who have played that hand before!
After playing enough hands, and with a sophisticated-enough algorithm, every player will be able to see not just how they played a bunch of hands compared to the world, but how they are as a player compared to the whole world.
All of these elements are exactly what a brand-new, revolutionary app, called Match Poker Online™ brings to the world. Currently in development, the app will do everything mentioned above.
In online play, the same hands are dealt asynchronously to players. Match PokerOnline then applies a statistical algorithm to the results of play of each hand to more accurately rank players. This algorithm should be better able to take into account the changing meta-game present in professional poker, providing the best possible official source of player rankings.
Additionally, the app will allow you to re-watch any hand you have played, compiling all the data available on that hand and people who have played it in the past, and will tell you if and when your actions align with those of the best players in the world. [Read more about the app’s hand-analyser tool here]. Every call, raise or fold you make will be compared against the actions made by the best 25%, 10% or 1% of players in the world and the app will tell you where you diverged from them.
No learning tool like this currently exists – where a player can get instant feedback on every decision they make. And, in Match Poker Online, if you improve your play you can expect your world ranking to increase too – leading to you maybe representing your Country in international sporting contests – and, potentially, the Olympic games! [Read our article on how Match Poker may one day become an Olympic sport!].
Maybe you’re not ‘worldwide’ material. But perhaps you could rank highly just in your hometown or in your suburb, in your job, or amongst your mates. After all, Match Poker is a sport – why shouldn’t it be run the same as netball, or football, or all other popular sports around the world?
When you combine this with sit ‘n’ go tournaments, puzzles for learning, and a whole array of additional features to be introduced after launch, Match Poker Online is shaping up to be one hell of an app!
If you want to be the first to play this revolutionary new form of poker in just the palm of your hand, make sure to fill in this online form so we can email you when the beta launches!
[1] Washington Post article – 2010. In United States v. DiCristina, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein ruled earlier this month that poker is a game of skill and therefore not a violation of the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA). Judge rules that poker is a game of skill. Poker pro says: Duh.