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Standing Out in the Poker Crowd[ return to main articles page ]

By: grapsfan
Published on Apr 11th, 2009
I spent last weekend in Tokyo, Japan, having finished a business trip a day early, and was stuck with two days to see what I could see in a country that has always fascinated me. On top of general tourist stuff and drinking a lot of sake, I learned what I could about the culture and society.

One sight struck me harder than any other. My hotel, the Keio Plaza, was hosting a job fair run by Fujitsu. They had a large conference room on the third floor, just off the lobby, with a number of hotel rooms booked to do follow-up interviews. I saw a steady stream of serious young men and women, hundreds of them, obviously just out of college and trying to start careers. They all wore the same black business suits; coat & tie for men, jacket & skirt for women. Being Japanese, almost all had the same hair color, facial features, and build.

I was overwhelmed by the sameness of it all. Each of these applicants was just a face in a throng of competitors, trapped in a societal norm preventing them from making a unique or interesting first impression. How would you stand out in a crowd when your upbringing and heritage discourages doing just that?

Riding the subways around Tokyo, I saw billboards and advertisements for hip, young actors and music groups. The artists staring back at me dressed a certain way, had their hair colored or spiked a certain way…the classic act of defiance; wearing, doing, listening to exactly what your parents hate. These people were definitely not wearing black suits and going to interview for entry-level technology jobs.

The fans of these artists weren’t going to job fairs either. No, sir. They have no interest in working for the oyadama. They are far more interested in expressing themselves…by dressing EXACTLY like the actors or singers on the billboard. I saw a guy get on the Marunouchi Line wearing a black velvet jacket, leather pants, red cowboy boots and hair going off like he just licked a short circuit. I thought, “hey, that’s interesting”…until I saw an ad at the next stop for a concert at Tokyo Dome next month. One of the band’s singers was wearing an identical outfit, down to the semi-bored sneer on his face. Even when they were trying to be different, they were the same. How do you truly define uniqueness?

Online poker places many of the same impositions on those of us looking to find our way out of the dense forest of competitors, be they talent or donkey. You pick a name, but it's in small text on the screen, next to everyone else's small text in an identical font. You can pick a picture avatar to represent you, but again...it's small, and very probably has nothing to do with who you actually are.

The structure of the game you're playing is often stifling - creative play and 4th-level thinking are sub-optimal when the average stack deep in a tournament is 12 big blinds. How can you be yourself when the mathematics of 16-tabling turbo SNGs dictates exactly what you (and everyone else at the table) should do?

If you are making money with A-B-C, mechanical poker at your current level, I don’t blame you if your first instinct is to stay with what works. But you’re also ingraining strategies and habits that will cause you heartache and grief when you look to move up. If it’s obvious what you’re going to do in a certain spot, good players will take advantage. Your robotic strength is now a glaring weakness. You have to learn creativity to make each jump to higher stakes.

Poker as an art form, a means of personal expression, is far better suited to cash games than tournament play. Playing 200 BB deep in a big-bet cash game gives you the implied odds to play any two cards in search of a jackpot flop, or the stack sizes to make bluffs large enough where your opponents have room to fold. Give yourself room to create, and you’ll be surprised at what you come up with.

You can also find a hidden reserve of ingenuity by learning a new game. We all know how to play No Limit Texas Hold’em because there are billions of hands of experience documented in dozens of books, hundreds of educational videos, and thousands of online forum posts. When sitting down at a table off the beaten path, be it Razz, Triple Draw, Stud Hi-Lo or Badugi, you’re forced to figure things out on your own, rather than rely on what you’ve been programmed to do.

Don’t think about No Limit Hold’em…think about poker. Free yourself from any pre-conceived notions. Try the Ted Forrest Experiment, where he claimed to have seen every flop for a year playing Omaha Hi-Lo. You don’t have to do it for a full year, and your bankroll will thank you if you try it at micro-stakes (or even play money).

The differences between break-even, good and the best players are about who can find the strategic gaps in everyone’s play. You have to think outside any pre-defined box to take the most advantage of every opportunity. It may be risky to truly be yourself. But the risk is worth the reward.

Isn’t it easier to be yourself than work hard to pretend to be somebody you’re not?
---

Comments

  1. pokerchief29 pokerchief29 is offline

    WI
    United States

    Posts: 2,609
    Joined: Aug 06

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 1:29am)

    <p>I love plo8.  Are u saying ted seen the flop playing every hand he was dealt in omaha hi/low for a year??</p>
  2. rock3656 rock3656 is offline

    San Diego, CA
    United States

    Posts: 1,989
    Joined: Jul 06

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 4:21am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>the best article ive read from you well written.</p>
     21
  3. duclover duclover is offline

    Woodstock, IL
    United States

    Posts: 1,925
    Joined: Feb 08

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 6:20am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Again... another great article by graps</p>
  4. grapsfan grapsfan is offline Head Curmudgeon

    Rosemount, MN
    United States

    Posts: 7,980
    Joined: Jun 05

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 7:18am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Chief, he was playing limit O8, rather than PLO8...but yeah.  Ted Forrest says he played every single hand dealt to him for a year without folding pre-flop, just to get better at reading board textures and playing flops.</p>
     
    Thread Starter
  5. shaman_21 shaman_21 is offline

    Toronto
    Canada

    Posts: 105
    Joined: May 07

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 7:32am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>I live in Japan and find your observations obtuse and shallow. I find Japan much more individualized and less a cult of personality that either America or Canada. And by cult of personality I broadly refer to it analguously and not in the strictest political sense.</p>
    <p>Japanese may look the same due to race, but the clothes do not make the man. Perhaps your visit was far too short to firmly grasp the nuances and screaming progressiveness of this society.</p>
    <p>I am a westerner living in Japan.</p>
  6. Bangbomb Bangbomb is offline

    Bangalore
    India

    Posts: 8
    Joined: Jan 09

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 7:41am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>shaman 21 u'r rit</p>
  7. GINS FINEST GINS FINEST is offline

    Montreal
    Canada

    Posts: 552
    Joined: Sep 08

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 8:12am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Idk how you comment on japan and not mention the food? They got the best food in the world! the world!</p>
    675 
  8. grapsfan grapsfan is offline Head Curmudgeon

    Rosemount, MN
    United States

    Posts: 7,980
    Joined: Jun 05

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 8:14am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Shaman, I'm certain that my observations were shallow.  I barely talked to anyone other than the people I was working with.  I hope to spend a lot more time there and learn more about the specifics of a country which has always fascinated me.</p>
    <p>If it's so individualized, how come everyone had the exact same suit (again, this is a shallow question...I'm just trying to get an understanding from someone who lives there)?  And I mean, not just the people at the Keio...every suit I saw was black.  Pretty much every tie was black.  Every shirt under the suit was white.  No pinstripes, no cream colors.  Nothing.</p>
     
    Thread Starter
  9. shaman_21 shaman_21 is offline

    Toronto
    Canada

    Posts: 105
    Joined: May 07

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 8:41am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Coloured shirts are very popular. Light shades of pink, blue, green lavender are widely used. As the men get older shirts tend to be white for meetings, conferences or interviews. Younger people though are very prone to mixing the colors, the thickness and design of ties. Shoes are huge personal expressions and hair is a high art over here. Traditionally conservative attire is the norm and politeness is to the extreme. Even the language has it's own polite conjugations of verbs which is the norm when speaking. Expression through style though is a point of pride for both sexes. And when it is not evident in office attire or maybe I should say when it is of a more subtle nature in office attire (aided by a more experienced eye that is used to knowing what to look for) the belts, socks, ties, collars, rings, cufflinks, shoes and other accessories are impeccably chosen and often mighty expensive. And if you cannot see it during the week, the weekend is when the gloves come off and the Japanese dress very tastefully and uniquely.... for the most part ;). There are some wackos.</p>
    <p>As for pinstripes..... who wants to wear pinstripes? LOL</p>
    <p>I did not want to seem to harsh to you. If I did I apologize. The article in and of itself is very good. I just felt I had to say that using the Japanese as in analog to a lack of personal expression was inherently flawed.</p>
    <p>I find the sameness of America and Canada with everyone dressing like a hip hop fan, skater, Wall Mart junkie or Wall Street pinhead to be far more bland than the highly stylish Japanese that I know and see every day.</p>
    <p>Keep up the  articles and by all means... come back to Japan it really is an amazing country. Tokyo as a tourist really needs at least weeks.</p>
  10. GeorgeMorris GeorgeMorris is offline

    Pennock, MN
    United States

    Posts: 660
    Joined: Nov 08

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 8:58am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Saman: Pinstripes are the shit. Reading abotu the differences in nuances reminds me of the scene in American Pyscho where they compare business cards. </p>
  11. Chickenbrad Chickenbrad is offline

    Bend, OR
    United States

    Posts: 360
    Joined: Jan 09

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 9:04am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>love your articles, keep em coming.</p>
  12. WallStreet33 WallStreet33 is offline

    Posts: 119
    Joined: Oct 07

    Apr 14th, 2009 (4/14/2009 1:49pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>I think I get it Graps</p>
    <p>......if only the United States were as fortunate as Japan (for White people, of course!)</p>
    <p>Multi-culturalism sucks!!!</p>
  13. Pastwind Pastwind is offline

    Albi
    France

    Posts: 12
    Joined: Dec 07

    Apr 15th, 2009 (4/15/2009 7:48am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p><a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://www.kinowear.com/blog/what-asia-taught-me-about-casual-style/">www.kinowear.com/.../what-asia-taught-me-about-casual-style</a></p>
  14. aheggem aheggem is offline

    Minneapolis, MN
    United States

    Posts: 518
    Joined: Dec 07

    Apr 15th, 2009 (4/15/2009 5:16pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Good article.</p>
    <p>And lol at "Reading abotu the differences in nuances reminds me of the scene in American Pyscho where they compare business cards." Eggshell white anyone?</p>
     
  15. soccerfreakjj10 soccerfreakjj10 is offline

    Los Altos Hills, CA
    United States

    Posts: 281
    Joined: Dec 07

    May 9th, 2009 (5/9/2009 3:57pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>"Being Japanese, almost all had the same hair color, facial features, and build."</p>
    <p>racist and unnecessary imo. I understand making a comment on how you as a foreigner were unable to recognize subtle physical differences between Japanese people, but commenting on the physical characteristics of Japanese people to emphasize the importance of individuality is just factually inaccurate and misses the point I think you were trying to make of the article. Pervading Japanese culture values community and discourages individuality for reasons that have nothing do with "ha[ving] the same hair color, facial features, and build." You make some good points about this after the "sameness," like, "How would you stand out in a crowd when your upbringing and heritage discourages doing just that?"</p>
    <p>I know you didn't mean it in an offensive way, but I think it detracts from the article.</p>
    <p>Besides my nit-picky comment, the article had great insight into individuality in the poker world, a subject that I consider frequently. An interesting follow-up article could be how being a poker player in general inherently reflects Western individualism and the frontier mindset.</p>
 

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