Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

Kenny Tran, Scotty, Men the Master, JC Tran, Tuan Le ..etc etc

Am i noticing a trend here ?

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

theres alot of really bad ones u never heard of im sure

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

School of hard knocks is a great teacher.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

Asians tend to be pretty smart and guile + viets love to gamble + some of 2nd generation don't have money so they must suceed?

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

A lot of these guys are great at math and have pure instinct.

Sadly, gambling runs in their blood and many are complete degens. I know a lot of viet gamblers who have lost their homes, families due to divorce and their lives because they can't get away from the blackjack/pai gow tables.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

Immigrants in America tend to be among the best and brightest from their country of origin. It takes a lot of smarts to not only survive in Vietnam, but to be successful enough to get to America. This kind of survival instinct and natural intelligence is a great bonus when it comes to poker.

I should note, too, that Vietnamese tend to naturally excel in other areas of gambling as well. I have routinely seen them finding advantages at blackjack, slots, and video poker, probably without ever having read a book on the games in question. They find machines with errant pays, or figure out how to make money at bankable slots, or find table games where errant procedures can be exploited for a player advantage. Most people are oblivious to these sorts of opportunities when they walk through a casino, but plenty of Vietnamese people figure out edges. This implies there is probably something fundamentally different about the Vietnamese outlook on gambling than the American outlook. In America, we grow up learning "the house always wins" and "gambling is bad." This is probably not the case in Vietnam, where "the house" is just another corporation and, as anyone can tell you, every corporation has its leaks. If you're inclined to be vigilant about these leaks all the time, you will find them where complacent first-worlders don't. The same goes for poker, where every player has a leak, and where the game itself is not bad or good, just a game. They are not plagued by the guilt and disapproval that comes with gambling, and they are not prone to self-defeating psychoses that can subconsciously disrupt the ability of the western gambler to make optimal decisions.

Of all the ethnicities I commonly see in the gambling world, I have to give the most props to the Vietnamese success stories. These are generally self-made people who have come up from a tough background and survived on their personal resources and wits. Some of the toughest live opposition I've encountered has been from Vietnamese players.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

Cause they are lag tards that don't fold many hands.

I'm in Vancouver and they will slurp bowls of noodle soup at the table and I swear one day I am going to jump across and stick the chop sticks in one of there necks!

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

cuz they have to be the greatest! Admit It !

But it's a toss up between Kenny and BarryOG1 for best Vietnamese player ever.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

They all learn from their mothers who are all taught by Barry Greenstein. Win win for everybody.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

Gambling is ingrained in Vietnamese culture. I remember when I was around 5 until 10 years old, Chinese New Year was my favorite time of the year.

The tradition is that adults give kids money to gamble! I bow and politely says Cam On (thank you) to accept the money given in red envelopes and then I'd take off to the streets where there are all kinds of gambling games.

I'd run from stand to stand making bets. Then at New Year's Eve, we'd have a big blackjack game where like 10+ family members from grandma to grandsons and cousins and aunts all play.

Growing up like this I can't help but have an intuition for making bets and understanding odds.

Also, since Vietnamese here are recent immigrants, we are obviously risk takers. Vietnamese in the US are like the cream of the crop from Vietnam born and raised to be the best at gambling.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

No question vietnamese poker players are underrated, unfortunately they're known to be crazy players than good players, I'll stake these players before I stake mediocre players like Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

they have a lot of heart imo, which tends to favor tournaments and putting others to the test constantly(david pham comes to mind)
other players minh ly, liz lieu, chau giang, nam le

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

one you stand them up against all the asians that cant play worth a damn, the percentage of great players is really quite small.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
No question vietnamese poker players are underrated, unfortunately they're known to be crazy players than good players, I'll stake these players before I stake mediocre players like Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak.

[/ QUOTE ]

ummmmm, i agree with you but i'll take laak or the magician. i'll always take a solid player vs. aggressive players capable of going broke at anytime.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
They all learn from their mothers who are all taught by Barry Greenstein. Win win for everybody.

[/ QUOTE ]
I had to join just to say how funny this is. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
Gambling is ingrained in Vietnamese culture. I remember when I was around 5 until 10 years old, Chinese New Year was my favorite time of the year.

The tradition is that adults give kids money to gamble! I bow and politely says Cam On (thank you) to accept the money given in red envelopes and then I'd take off to the streets where there are all kinds of gambling games.

I'd run from stand to stand making bets. Then at New Year's Eve, we'd have a big blackjack game where like 10+ family members from grandma to grandsons and cousins and aunts all play.

Growing up like this I can't help but have an intuition for making bets and understanding odds.

Also, since Vietnamese here are recent immigrants, we are obviously risk takers. Vietnamese in the US are like the cream of the crop from Vietnam born and raised to be the best at gambling.

[/ QUOTE ]

ya.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
one you stand them up against all the asians that cant play worth a damn, the percentage of great players is really quite small.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm inclined to agree. They might tend to be a bit better, but overall I think there are a lot of good Vietnamese gamblers because there are so many Vietnamese gamblers.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

Uhh, have you been to any california casino before? there are literally 200 bad vietnamese players in every one.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

I heard that if there is a family of vietnamese that owns a grocery or laundry or something, they will probobly hoard their money, then when they have enough they'll go on a orgy of spending and gambling.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
I heard that if there is a family of vietnamese that owns a grocery or laundry or something, they will probobly hoard their money, then when they have enough they'll go on a orgy of spending and gambling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Confirmed
$1k booked

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

this thread provided maximum comedy

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

they are? every time i play at commerce the regulars bemoan that fact that there are too many white guys in the game, not vietnamese guys.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
School of hard knocks is a great teacher.

[/ QUOTE ]

actually it really is not

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
this thread provided maximum comedy

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, it was great!

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

I could be wrong but I think you forgot to include Danny Nguyen in your list.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
they are? every time i play at commerce the regulars bemoan that fact that there are too many white guys in the game, not vietnamese guys.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this has a lot to do with where LA casinos are located honestly. They are always located in bad areas with predominantly nonwhite populations. White people are less likely to go to those areas recreationally, so the ones that DO go tend to have either a serious gambling problem or they are there to try to make money and are serious poker players.

People that are local to the area feel comfortable going there because they live there or because it is a hang out for people from their country.

For example, when I play at hollywood park in inglewood (a mainly black area), I regularly see the black players socializing with eachother. They know eachother's names. They lend eachother money. They softplay eachother. It's a social thing for them. White players tend to be less talkative. It's not that they are good players or anything. It's just that they are less likely to be there for social reasons or to play recreationally.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

They learn dem servivo instinct from wok at mcdonalds

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

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They learn dem servivo instinct from wok at mcdonalds

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if you are going to make a post like this, you cannot write "mcdonalds". you must write "macdonooo", otherwise it is just dumb.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

fearless, thats what makes vietnamese poker players great.

We have huge leaks due to our blood for gambling.

Re: Why are vietnamese players so damn good
 

[ QUOTE ]
We have huge leaks due to our blood for gambling.

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I think this applies to asians in general. Agreed ??