Similarities Between Poker and Baseball

While baseball is clearly the American pastime, poker has slowly and surely become a worldwide pastime for many of legal gambling age. Both baseball and poker have huge similarities in excitement levels. Let's take a look at how the two games can be similar.

How can poker be similar to baseball in terms of excitement. Imagine for a moment nine men competing against each other for one of the top prizes in their game. Websites like Pokerlistings and other major poker and media sites are covering all the action and broadcasting on national television. As each hand goes by, action proceeds somewhat slowly with one player making a raise and the other folding. This goes on for minutes, and sometimes even hours.

All of a sudden, there is a raise and a call by an opponent. After the flop cards are dealt, the initial bettor makes a sizable bet, followed by a raise by his opponent. Suddenly, the original bettor goes all-in followed by a quick call. The fans quickly rise to their feet or start to gather around the table to see what their favorite player holds and if their player is behind, what he or she needs to win.

Now fans of the player behind in the hand start screaming out the card that their player needs while the other fans start screaming for their player's hand to hold. The turn card comes, and bam! the behind player caught his needed card. Fans erupt in cheers and high fives as their player is now behind and looking to knock out a player. However, there is still a card to come. The other player has a few outs that can still put him ahead and give him the win. The fans sit cheer on as the dealer gets ready to deal the final card.

We've got your interest now don't we? Sounds very similar to a baseball game where there was little action and all of a sudden a team happens to get ahead with just an inning or two left. A big home run or a big rally can get your team right back into things or even give them the win. Think about all that excitement and put literal Millions of dollars at stake for the winner of the game, and you get an idea of what it is like to play poker at a high level.