Your explanation is invalid. Of course we can associate poker players with gambling.
There are millions of poker players around the world that gamble on their game. While this can be true for other sports, it is a very specific fact about poker. Sure you can know how to play poker and still not gamble on it, but that's definitely not the case here. If you think about it, poker is mathematically just a different game of probability. You have a certain set of odds as to whether you will win or lose.
Interesting. Just take a minute and try to answer this question: The odds of winning in poker are better than in purely luck based games or worse? And the answer is, it is better for some people and worse for others. Skilled poker players obviously have better odds than inexperienced ones.
Sure thing, there are freaks using poker as pure gambling. They are going all in all the time, irritating everyone around, and sometimes they succeed. But most of the time they don't finish in the paid places.
Obviously skilled ones will not end up with a problem, they will most of the time end up winning but in the end it is still gambling and even the worst gambler could end up getting lucky here and there. This is why I believe that you should never consider gambling as a profession, doesn't matter what kind of situation you are in, doesn't matter what you are trying to do, if you want to make money from gambling then you should stay away from it.
I believe that the best way to enjoy gambling is to consider the money you deposited as gone, then start trying to have fun with that money because you just spent some money and you want some fun in return of that money. That makes more sense right?