Poker Forums have become an extremely popular method of both honing skill and meeting other people, albeit in cyberspace. They offer leagues, discussion groups, feedback on both land based and internet poker rooms and all types of related and unrelated items, including commerce.
Presently it could barely be argued that the three most popular forums are Online Poker Tour, Poker Cartel and Poker Analysis. These three forums represent more players between them in a popular online "Forum Challenge" than the other 97 forums represented combined. Their approaches to their niche markets is as different as the people who play on them.
Most players on forums participate in forum games at various site in what are termed "freerolls". This means there is no entry fee charged to enter a tournament, but there is prize money awareded to the top players in some amount that is usually supplied by the poker sites. In this way the poker sites provide some real money that will allow players who have not deposited yet to play at their tables. This prize inducement not only allows players who would normally just play in the "fun" (play money) games, it makes for more players, i.e. more "action" and hopefully will provided incentive for the players to actually deposit and continue to build the sites traffic/business.
Forums provide a service for both their members and their affiliate sites. The larger forums can bring traffic to new and established sites in droves. Poker Cartel recently brought over 1000 of its member to a new site in a months time and Online Poker Forum exceeded that number by 350 according to one poker room manager. Those types of numbers are a big boost to a new poker rooms' business.
Members of forums range from the very involved to the uninvolved. There are those who will spend hours a day communicating with friends/other members "posting" their opinions on various topics displayed on "threads". These "threads" allow for lively discourse, jokes, business connections, poker strategy, new bonus options at different sites and as wide a range of other topics for the membership as the imagination can come up with.
Poker Forums
Are there people for which playing poker is the main source of income?
Yes, there are people who play poker as a main source of income. A professional poker player could be defined as one who does exactly that. Some people make money through poker and then venture out into other areas such as business (starting or owning companies), writing (poker strategy books), etc.
The cardrooms take less than 5%, $1 for every $20, with a maximum of $3, which means the house take is always under 5%. Commercial statistics programs that track a player's own results commonly show the number of winning players between 30 and 40%, but that data will always skew since the results will almost always be from a winning player (devoted enough to keep personal stats, for example.) I don't think the article can or should tread in this territory since it can vary a lot between cardrooms, types of games (Omaha versus Holdem), etc.
Poker is a Sport!
I have been playing poker for over 5 years now and have heard the discussion before on whether or not poker is a sport. Just about anybody can participate in a sport, but the level of physical activity involved goes a long way in determining how good we are in it. Very active sports like football, ice hockey, and baseball are much more difficult for the average person to participate in. Many more people can play a game like golf, but very few are able to play at a really high level. Which brings me to poker. Like many other activities like darts, pool, or chess, poker is more of a fun and pleasurable way to spend time with friends. However when you start moving into the professional levels of these actives it is a much different set of parameters that goes into playing. Just as the average golfer has little chance of beating a Tiger Woods or Ernie Els, the average poker player does not have much of chance sitting with Phil Helmuth, Johnnie Chan, or any of the top-flight poker players. Last of all I would say there is one aspect of poker that moves into the realm of sport and that is tournament play. Sitting and being mentally sharp for multiple hours can be very taxing. It is a test of not only your skills as a poker player but endurance.
Is Poker a Sport?
Largely, it doesn't fit the notion of "physical activity" or "physical skill" - poker is a mental activity. Otherwise, any skilled activity where there is competition between people - two people seeing who can complete a crossword first, Jeopardy!, pub quizzes, etc. - would also have to be called sports.
There is a lot of physical skill in poker. Much more than those other games you mention. The mental aspect is only part of it. Bluffing and otherwise not giving away your hand takes physical skill.
Most of the world considers chess to be a sport. I think the definition of "sport" isn't so hard and fast, there are many qualities that they share, but not all sports share every quality. Judging by recent Olympic standards, the criteria of competition, media and spectator involvement, and monetary dividends seem altogether as important as physical exertion. And poker is actually physically exerting -- this has been measured on players while playing, and try playing for 12-14 hours a day, for several days in a row, see if physical stamina doesn't start to enter the picture.
Well, that's a silly argument for exclusion. The whole issue which people disagree about is how the term "sport" is defined, or rather, whether the current or most widely accepted definition is the best one or the one that should be applied. Most people arguing poker is a sport are doing this by citing evidence that people have other criteria besides physical exertion to determine what is a "sport". In other words, they are contesting the meaning of the word. Simply replying "sports requires exertion" is kind of like arguing that something should be illegal because it is already against the law. (People actually use the logic with the issue of legality of drugs...)
I think that when a non-strenuous game like chess becomes very popular, the players seek to elevate the status of the game by calling it a "sport". This is probably only done because they seek to distinguish their game from others. This usage is not in line with many trusted sources for the word "sport" (see above, here's another). Chess is a sophisticated, classic, and popular game, just like poker.