Oh and BTW bridge players are by far the coolest people in the mind game olympics lol. We are the alphas and get to hook up with hot chess girls!

If poker were introduced into it, we bridge players would be put to shame. So I don't mind if it never happens :P

This is why the major wold championships are all knockout matches. Now, if your opponent makes a mistake or makes a good play that you don't, it is not luck if you are rewarded or punished since you are competing only against them.

Obviously pairs and swiss teams have far more variance than long knockout matches.

This is not to imply there is no luck involved, you can still bid an anti percentage slam and make it, or take a better line than the other guys and go down while theirs works.

Poker is classified as a sport in Lithuania, which is what makes it legal at the moment. However, I do not think it should be part of the Olympics.

Lots of misinformation itt.

Chess is recognized as a sport by the international Olympic committee. So is bridge. They are currently the two "mind sports" the olympic committee recognizes.

But neither are currently an event, nor have ever been, yet. There was an attempt to make chess an event in an event in 1924 which failed - not because of the game/sport distinction, but because there was because of problems with distinguishing between amateur and professional players difficulty distinguishing between amateur and professional.

Recognition as a sport is more to do with international presence, and an international body governing it. As noted, chess is recognized as a sport, as is bridge. Also boules, golf (which will be an event in 2016) and orienteering - none have anything to do with physical tests. Not does Dressage, which has always been an event.

The fact that the olympic committee specifically understands the concept of "mind sport" should be a hint.

The International Mind Sports Association recognizes 4 "mind sports" - bridge, chess, draughts and go. It recently recognized duplicate poker as an affiliated sport with the IFP (internal federation of poker) now considered an observer member. The whole reason for hte IMSA is a "stepping stone towards mind-sports being adopted into the olympics."

Post more please!

How do you think they move the ball in golf.. telekinesis?

You are missing the point. Golf is not "physically testing to the limit" as one poster posited. Nor is Dressage. They are tests of skill and ability, not of phsyical strength or athletic ability.

The concept of "sport" at the Olympics has little to do with how we use the term "sport" in general parlance. If you'd read the rest of my post, you will see that chess is already considered a sport by the Olympic International Committee.

They could use the same tables for HU matches that they use for chess, another Olympic sport.

lol

FWIW I don't think that there were many people who realistically believed that Bridge would be an Olympic sport anytime soon.

However, being recognized by the IOC has funding, tax and other advantages (among them, easier entry to schools and other junior programmes) for several National Bridge Organizations which might make the effort (and the obligation to follow IOC doping rules) well worth it.

I was a professional bridge and poker player, although I made most of my money at poker. Bridge professionals nearly always play with partners that pay them. Some of the partners that pay are great players. Mark Lair, one of the best in the world is a pal of mine and lives in Canyon, Texas. He usually plays with Medical Doctors. They may have a team with two paying, two pros. The top pros do usually win the knock out teams, a skill event.

Twenty years back or so, I won a regional team knock out match, with a weak team, fantastic luck..my best card day ever..and fantastic skill. I sat south and all the hands ran to me and I made expert play after expert play. I read the newspaper hands and do hands in books, and all the hands were that way. We won all our matches by a wide margin. I can't even remembera all the hands like I used to, so I wasn't so hot at explaining how I did it.

In a recent team event, we beat Mark Lair's team in our match against him, a real fluke. I'd rather watch that genius play bridge than play bridge myself.

I've written about and appreared on TV with Oswald Jacoby, the smartest man I've ever been around. I played against Charles Goren, John Gerber and all the big pros. Like poker, a draw of bridge is you get to play against the best, most famous players. I'd go broke at bridge tournies because I didn't want to play all the sessions with clients. My mother was an amazing bridge player, still winning in her eighties. We traveled several states playing brige, and bridge players are fun to white line it with.

In the same year, the most famous man in bridge, Oswald Jacoby, and the most famous mas in poker, Johnny Moss bet on me. I lost both times. Jacoby bought me and my partner in a Dallas Calcutta. Johnny Moss had watched me play at a bridge tournament in Oklahoma City. He and I played partners in Odessa at auction bridge before the poker and we lost.

I love photoshop. If there was a contest for best on TwoPlusTwo of all time, the multiple-Bonomo would be at the very top of the list. That one is funny.

Lets have tiddlywinks in the olympics thats definitely a sport.
What about a nose picking contest?

Came here to post this.