With the Olympics marching on in Beijing, its natural to have ones eyes open to other countries, their cultures, and how they play their poker and sports. For the large majority of the world, the two are distinctly separate – poker is regarded with the slight disdain of a gambling game, where as sport is typically upstanding and competitive.
However in Russia poker is a sport. The fact that the game has been declared a sport by the government opens doors for many counties to follow suit. While there is little doubt that they will do the exact same in declaring poker a sport. It does give precedent for them to change and alleviate their stance on what is usually regarded as gambling and often illegal.
As a result poker in Russia is booming, with many poker only clubs opening up in Moscow. The stakes aren’t exactly shy either, with one top Russian pro observing a pot limit stud game (rather uncommon in the rest of the world) with an ante of $2000.
With Russia being one of the world’s most influential countries, it will be interesting to see the repercussions of this through out the gambling world.
