BY TOM SOMACH

The question of whether poker is a game of skill or a game of chance is not just being debated in the U.S., it’s being debated around the world.

A court in Denmark recently ruled that poker is indeed a game of skill, placing the popular card game on the same legal ground as chess, bridge or even golf, the Copenhagen Post reported.

“Poker is not merely a game of chance, but also requires skill and is therefore legitimate competition,” a municipal court in Lyngby, Denmark ruled, the newspaper reported.

The ruling cleared the president of the Danish Poker Association, Frederik Hostrup, of charges of arranging illegal gambling events, after he was sued by a Danish hotel and restaurant trade organization on behalf of Denmark’s casinos, the newspaper reported.

The ruling goes against a decision made by the Danish Justice Ministry’s legal affairs committee in 2006, that concluded that poker constituted illegal gambling, the newspaper reported.

Hostrup’s attorney, Henrik Hoffmann, told another Danish newspaper, Politiken, that the ruling legitimizes poker, which has become very popular in Denmark in recent years.

“Poker has become a sport of the people,” Hoffman said. “There are between 200,000 and 300,000=A0Danes who play poker at least once a week, and more than half a million who play on a regular basis.”

According to the attorney, poker is about betting wisely, playing smart and getting the other players to think you have different cards than those you actually have in your hands.

“You can win in poker based on being clever enough to hide your strategy, even though you might have a fairly poor hand,” he said.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.