Poker News

Ashley Adams

This is a dangerous article. I’m going to deal with ethnic stereotyping. If you’re not up to it just look at the nice ads and turn the page. It was 10:00 AM Saturday morning. Foxwoods was very crowded… There were four $20/40 tables going, but no seats available. So I watched while I waited - trying to figure out which would be the best game to sit in. Three of the tables had the line ups I had become accustomed to in early morning games - a bunch of older white guys. I knew many of them. Most of them were solid players - a bit on the loose, aggressive and wild side at times - but solid players never the less.

The fourth table looked the most inviting. I spied an young Asian woman I didn’t recognize, an older white lady I knew very well, two young black guys dressed with gold chains and the knit hats that people from Jamaica often wear, and four older white guys whom I recognized and whom I knew to be much like the players at the other tables - somewhat loose and aggressive but overall very strong players who played at Foxwoods much of the time.

Why did I think that table was the “most inviting”? This is the dangerous part. I am going to reveal to you, at great risk to my own self image as an open-minded, accepting, nondiscriminating, unbigoted person, something about the ethic, gender and age stereotyping that I do.

My experience has been that older white guys tend to be more likely than any other demographic group to play solid poker - at stud anyway. I could pretend that I don’t notice this. It would be safer. But I do. Similarly, I’ve noticed that women of all ages and all ethnicity generally play poorly. They tend to be very passive and often tight early but loose later on. They tend to be, generally, very easy to read and not to exert much pressure on other players. Of course there are exceptions. Some women are great. Some men are horrid. But, in general, this guides me toward tables with women. I’ve noticed that most of the black young men I’ve played with are relatively clueless at the table - calling and betting wildly and non-selectively. Middle-aged and older black players, I’ve noticed, tend to be better. So if I tend to be more inclined to sit at a table with young black players than at a table of older white male players.

This doesn’t mean that all people of any particular demographic play a certain way. But, knowing nothing else about whom I’m playing against, just by looking at the ethnic, gender, and age make up of the table, I form a snap judgment about how profitable the game may be. If it’s older, white and male then I instantly presume it will not be as profitable as table made up of younger players, female players and black players…

There, I’ve said it. Ethnic stereotyping. Something I rail against for employment and police purposes. But I do it when I play poker.

Yes, there are many exceptions. And no, I don’t carry this image beyond a first impression, willingly changing my impression as I actually see how someone plays. Still, ethnic stereotyping makes me uncomfortable - even though I routinely do it when I enter a poker room. It’s taken me ten years to admit it to anyone but myself. But I just did admit it to you. My next column will be on the trap that this thinking led me into - and how I escaped.

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