Home » Poker Articles » Don’t be fooled by appearances

Don’t be fooled by appearances

Appearances appearances. So deceitfully clever. So much thought that goes into something make to appear so random. They play to our most hidden stereotypes and prejudices. After all, you can’t lie to yourself. And they’re one of a poker player’s worst enemies. After all, how tough an opponent could that 55-year-old nice lady with the gray hair really be?

This might be the one area where playing online behind a computer screen works in your favor. Of course, you’ll still pick up on a particular screen name, even if it’s only written to make you think you’re playing against one type of person when you’re really facing another. But there’s just something about the appearance you can’t get past. Tell me the first thought when you hear poker player isn’t of some overweight guy in his 60s wearing a blue windbreaker with a beer in one hand and a cigar hanging out of his mouth? No? Just me?

Truth is, you can’t think this way. You just can’t. And it’s hard. In a real casino setting, much of what you need to do is based on reading people, which means looking at them and observing them. Yeah, there’s a difference between reading the outside and the inside of someone, but unless you’re an absolute pro at it, separating the two isn’t as easy as you might think.

Stereotypes are bad, folks. And in free poker, they won’t just get you dirty looks, they’ll get you broke in a hurry if you’re not careful.

One of the common appearances these days, as the poker playing crowd gets younger and younger, is that grungy, just-rolled-out-of-bed look. A few big steps below casual day at the office. It seems to irritate the older crowd just enough that they spend a little too much time talking about how much it irritates them instead of studying the game or improving their technique and strategy. And who benefits from that in the end? You got it.

And I don’t buy the “this is just how I look” or “I want to be comfortable if I’m playing for hours at a time” explanations, either. Poker players who are there to win money have a reason for everything they do and you see. It’s just like looking at an advertisement. Nothing is haphazard. Remember that.