DOES ETHNICITY PLAYS A ROLL....

In my observation, Asians seem to be a lot more aggressive as a percentage of the playing population and mostly they are not the US-born. Has anybody made the same observation? Any particular reason(s) for this?


I have been debating with myself whether to post this because some may construe this as "profiling" thus making it politically incorrect. I would like to make it clear that it is not my intention and I do not want to alienate my colleagues. Let us not forget that Asians are some of the best players of the game.

"In my observation, Asians seem to be a lot more aggressive as a percentage of the playing population and mostly they are not the US-born."


I'm white and I play against 70% asians. Comparing only those two groups, this imbalance has made one stat shine through. Per-capita, white guys are humongously bigger whiners, nitpickers and dealer abusers. To me, that means Asians are the best players.


Tommy

Gee, I didn't know :>) But do you find them to be more aggressive or more emotional, I mean in betting pattern and not in being derisive or abusive. I already know who is ahead in that category.

I'd agree that they like to gamble. The phrase "asian rock" has absolutely no place in a poker discussion.


As for generalities, I'd have to say that they're about the same as the rest of the world when it comes to quality of play, save for the 50 year old white guys who ruin the game (I agree with Tommy that they might win, but they're total nits).


But still treat them all as individual players. Asian != loose/bad player. Half the koreans I play with are terrible, and the other half are ok. If I treated them as if they played the same, I wouldn't be beating them for as much. Or if I treated a "typical" korean player the same as I treated a "typical" chinese player.


Just remember what they look like and remember them individually. Typical means absolutely nothing in poker.


Also - every single white kid that's about 25 years old thinks he's Mike McD. That's nearly true 100 percent of the time. /images/smile.gif


~D

save for the 50 year old white guys who ruin the game...they're total nits.

I'm going to expose myself to criticism here. Before I start please realise this post is a generalisation based on decades of playing poker in Asia. There are some very, very savvy Asian poker players but...


I've spent years of my life playing in almost exclusively Asian games though generally against one nationality at a time. Living in Korea I'd either play against Koreans or American GIs for example. In Thailand against Thais.


To a large degree their ethnicity/cultural background does play a roll IN THEIR HOME COUNTRIES. I know nothing about how your average Korean or Thai plays in a LA cardroom. I'm assuming they adjust very well on average.


It's important to understand that machismo is a very dominant part of most Asian cultures. Also important to realise is that regional (provincial, hometown) animosity exists to a surprisingly large degree in many Asian countries even to this day. And finally, many Asians have been reared, to various degrees, on the teachings of Confucious.


So if you haven't already figured it out, what does all that mean in a practical sense?


The machismo is pretty self-evident. You raise me mother****er? I raise YOU back. In my experience playing poker in Asia is often just one big game of chicken.


The animosity that can exist between players from different provinces or hometowns is interesting.


Mr Kim over there is a great guy, never mind he's from Cholla-do. Hmmm...Kim just made small trips on the river. Those Cholla folks ARE known to be kind of lucky. Hmmm...that sneaky b**stard Kim just did it again. Screw this, raise, raise, raise...No way I'm gonna let some Kwangju creep intimidate me.


And where does the Confucious angle come in? It's an age/position thing. It's okay to beat the boss out of a whack of money but there comes a time when, judging by his sudden sober demeanor or stiff set of the shoulders you'd better be willing to fold a winner or two.


Anyway, that's my generalisation of playing against Asians ON THEIR TURF. In the past the games were generally very easy to beat as long as you were able to stand the huge down swings that did occur.


These once-very easy games are showing signs of diminishing though. More people learning English in school, more travelling/living in the U.S. The internet. The only thing going for players like myself out here is that 2+2 books aren't translated into other languages. That would be very, very bad for business.


Here comes another huge generalisation. I think the biggest difference between Asians and non-Asians is that your average Asian despises having the worst of it, and if he feels he does he will go to any lengths to change that situation.


Your average, say, American, will go to great lengths to excel in his chosen field, but often stops there and is not too concerned with consistant small losses at the poker table. At least not concerned enough to do something about it.

Asians? Are these folks that live in Asia? Just thought I would ask.


Vince

I am referring to Asians in US. I have played mostly with Vietnamese and Korean and observed that those who migrated to US are generally have more aggressive playing style than US born.


Paul B have some very interesting observations specifically the machismo stuff where there is some truth to it.

More aggressive, less emotional.

we're talking abou poker players here. the whole game has a machismo slant to it (on the surface).

"the whole game has a machismo slant to it ..."


now thats funny.


brad

. . .A) it would be presumptuous of me to assume the "Andy" you're addressing is me;


B) I've never said ethnicity doesn't play a roll, just that most ethnic characterizations are hogwash, based on anecdotal and falsely generalized information; and


C) I like Tommy's definition of "best."