Poker Accepted as “Mind Sport”
Today the International Mind sport Association (IMSA) announced that it
has officially recognized poker as a mind sport, or a game of skill.
It has put poker on par with games like Chess and Bridge. IFP
(International Federation of Poker) President embraced “a major
milestone in our campaign to have poker accepted throughout the world
as a game of strategic skill.” One year ago yesterday (April 29th) the
IFP was founded for the purpose of having poker accepted as a “mind
sport.” Poker now has a place at the IMSA’s World Mind Sports Games,
which will be held in 2012 concurrently with the London Olympic Games.
The next step for poker is for the IFP to secure membership to SportAccord (formerly the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF))
to maintain it’s IMSA status. This will not happen until the 2011
SportsAccord conference, however it’s still a positive and necessary
step; one that will entrench poker as a mind game for as long as people
are playing poker. SportsAccord is the organization that manages and
unites all of the recognized sports on a global scale (this includes
soccer (FIFA),Go (IGF), Chess(FIDE). To read more about SportsAccord
click here.
What does this mean for poker? According to Doyle Brunson “The
IFP deserves our thanks and congratulations, I believe that history
will show this was a key moment for poker. All over the world the game
has been faced with governmental controls and other obstacles. Yet it
is obvious it calls for qualities and skills that go far beyond a
capacity just to take a chance.”
Next year IFP
will be launching poker’s first annual world championships, both team
and individual, as well as participation in regular IMSA events. I
wonder what this will mean for all the already major poker tournaments
out there. Will the WSOP still be the defining “Best in the World”
competition for poker, or will the new, internationally recognized IFP
be spearheading a whole new world order as it applies to poker?
