Vietnamese players

[Toro]

Does anyone agree with me that there seems to be quite a few Vietnamese players in the upper eschelons of professional poker? I'm not positive but it looks like 3 of the final 6 at the Foxwoods WPT are Vietnamese. Pretty impressive.

[Slacker13]

I have noticed this too, also if you look at the back of CP Mag and keep an eye on the tourney results from around the country you will also notice many Vietnamese players in the top ten. I would imagine that Scotty Nguyen has inspired many of those players, he does have a great success story to tell. I thought I had heard somewhere that Scotty was teaching poker to Vietnamese players but i could be incorrect on that.

[Deelah]

I have read that it is Men Nguyen who is giving his landsmen lessons.

[Slacker13]

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I have read that it is Men Nguyen who is giving his landsmen lessons.

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Thanks for the correction, actually after I had thought about it more I was thinking it might be Men.

[Dallara]

I think Vietnamese just like to gamble. Remember the woman's WSOP final table ended up four handed with all four women Vietnamese.

[Toro]

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I think Vietnamese just like to gamble. Remember the woman's WSOP final table ended up four handed with all four women Vietnamese.

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Yes and apparently they are good at it!

[Men the Master]

Vietnamese have very good study ethics. Proof of this is that most of the top students in high school are Vietnamese. They also have a lot of streetsmarts and hustle. Finally, Vietnamese who are in their thirties or older have had a hard life growing up in Vietnam and then having come to the States in difficult conditions. This gives them toughness.

Good study/work ethics. Streetsmarts. Toughness. A great combo for poker. Vietnamese also tend to have a high degree of gusto and enthusiasm for life.

[eMarkM]

That makes sense. Then combine that with the fact that many immigrant groups tend to work in the same occupations when they come to this country. It may be a sterotype, but it's true that a lot of laundry mats are owned by Chinese and a lot of Greeks own restaurants. The immigrant comes here and typically is with his own people in an isolated enclave. He sees what his fellow countrymen have come here and done and have been successful at. So he follows in their footsteps. He gets tutored by the more experienced ones and may even get bankrolled by them to open that business, or in this case play poker professionally. A pretty typical immigrant pattern.

[pshreck]

Dating a Viet girl, I know that gambling is a huge part of their culture... kids learn it at young ages, and are more likely to maybe try it out more seriously at older ages.

In countries outside of the third world.... gambling is for the most part morally questionable, and certainly children are unlikely to be introduced to it at a young age. This is untrue for Vietnam.

[J.R.]

Vince Burgio wrote a piece in pokerpages a bit back about his theory on foreign born poker players. His idea was those whose native language is not english had to rely more heavily on nonverbal cues in attempting to communicate with English speakers when they first came to america until they mastered english, and were therefore more attuned to body language/tells.

[maryfield48]

[ QUOTE ]
Vince Burgio wrote a piece in pokerpages a bit back about his theory on foreign born poker players. His idea was those whose native language is not english had to rely more heavily on nonverbal cues in attempting to communicate with English speakers when they first came to america until they mastered english, and were therefore more attuned to body language/tells.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm. Cross-pollinating this information with something I read in another thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1259952&page=&view=&sb=5& o=&fpart=1&vc=1) today, sounds like moving to Iceland would be ++EV.

[Aceshigh7]

I think the reason there are so many good Vietnamese poker players is because there is because of the large number of legal poker clubs in California. And California has a huge number of Vietnamese.

It's easier to take up the game when there are nice places to play nearby.

[Nagoo81]

I am a Vietnamese-American and I can vouch for most of these comments.

I would like to re-emphasize that Vietnamese people love to gamboool it up and card games are very part of the culture.

[Riverman]

cheating helps.

[zaxx19]

Most of the top High School students are vietnamese?? Uh that be a no in Chicago..Koreans Jews just some crazy smart WASPS mostly.......

[A_C_Slater]

Vietnam used to be a colony of France during their imperialistic days. Poker was invented in France. As recently as WW2 Vietnam was under French control. In fact the elaborate tunnels in Vietnam that were used against the americans had already been there when they were used to defeat the French and gain independence. Could the French soldiers have introduced the game of poker to them during the occupation? Maybe this is why there are so many Vietnamese players that dominant the foreign poker spectrum.

[Killer Mike]

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In fact the elaborate tunnels in Vietnam that were used against the americans had already been there when they were used to defeat the French and gain independence.

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The French getting defeated. There's something new. /images/graemlins/grin.gif