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Silver_nz New Zealand. Jun 05 2010 06:38. Posts 5647

The OCEAN

Some of the greatest scientific minds have attempted to unerstand personality tendancies, Frued thought that people were best grouped by the bodily oriface from which they dervied the greatest pleasure, Jung looked at the positon of the stars at birth, and Victorian maverick scientist John Galton looked at the shape of the skull.
Other scientist pursued different approach: to look at the words people use to describe others, and to find basic groupings from that. It began in the 1930s, by going through the unabridged dictionary, making a list of 18000 words. From amusing to abhorrent, benign to belligerent. The list was narrowed as best they could, later early computer analysis were applied, narrowing the list to 200 key words. Thousands of people were surveyed to rate themselves and others on sub-sets of these adjectives, and increasingly advanced statistical analysis was applied to the information. I the 1990's several independant large-scale studies, some in Chinese and Spanish, showed results, and found that they were identifying the same 5 core dimensions of personality. The Big Five
The groupings are commonly labelled 'Openness' 'Conscientiousness' 'Extroversion' 'Agreeableness' and 'Neuroticism' together they are the holy grail of personality profiling, easily remembered by O.C.E.A.N.
The attributes tend to remain unchanged over a persons life, and have been shown to influence consumer choice, performance in the work place, success in relationships and choice of hobbies.
But, what I am interested in is how it effects their decisions at the poker table. Aiming to get to that key of knowing what they are thinking, which will tell you how they will react if you do a certain action, like overbet bluff when their hand is likely a bluff catcher.

Factors In Terms of Poker

These are my guesses as to how this could be useful at the poker table. Your ideas would be most welcome, dear reader.

Openness- (inventive / curious vs. cautious / conservative). Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience.
I have a rich vocabulary.
I have a vivid imagination.
I have excellent ideas.
I spend time reflecting on things.
I am not interested in abstractions. (reversed)
I do not have a good imagination. (reversed)
I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas. (reversed)

Identifying this factor in a player could tell us about and how straightforwardly they will play their hand. And how adaptable they will be if we put them in tough spots, or how much metagame will effect them. E.g. If they can't even imagine that someone could be 4bet bluffing them, then we might be able to get away with it several hands in a row.

Conscientiousness- (efficient / organized vs. easy-going / careless). A tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behaviour. Inquisitiveness.
I am always prepared.
I am exacting in my work.
I get chores done right away.
I like order.
I pay attention to details.
I leave my belongings around. (reversed)
I make a mess of things. (reversed)
I often forget to put things back in their proper place. (reversed)
I shirk my duties. (reversed)[30]

If we could identify a high level of conscientiousness in a player It could tell us if he will be likely to make big folds? or at least that he will be able to stick to a plan, if we can figure out the plan he has we can know how to play against him.
Low conscientiousness would lead them to not being careful, and I think would make them much more likely to call down to see the cards, because they don't care.

Extraversion- (outgoing / energetic vs. shy / withdrawn). Energy, positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others.
I don't mind being the center of attention.
I feel comfortable around people.
I start conversations.
I talk to a lot of different people at parties.
I am quiet around strangers. (reversed)
I don't like to draw attention to myself. (reversed)
I don't talk a lot. (reversed)
I have little to say. (reversed)

This doesn't seem revelvant to how a person will play a hand of poker?

Agreeableness- (friendly / compassionate vs. competitive / outspoken). A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
I am interested in people.
I feel others’ emotions.
I have a soft heart.
I make people feel at ease.
I sympathize with others’ feelings.
I take time out for others.
I am not interested in other people’s problems. (reversed)
I am not really interested in others. (reversed)
I feel little concern for others. (reversed)
I insult people. (reversed)
I like being isolated. (reversed)

This might influence how they play a hand: those with alot of agreeableness might be more like to be socially pressure, could be asked to check it down in chat for sick angle shooting?
Those who are on the competitive end might be ones to have ego issues, or get blinked by thinking they are 'right'.

Neuroticism- (sensitive / nervous vs. secure / confident). A tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability. Emotional stability.
I am easily disturbed.
I change my mood a lot.
I get irritated easily.
I get stressed out easily.
I get upset easily.
I have frequent mood swings.
I often feel blue.
I worry about things.
I am relaxed most of the time. (reversed)
I seldom feel blue. (reversed)

Those with a high neuroticism score would be easily tiltable. Could make a special effort to make plays with implied tilt-odds. Or tilting comments.

Determining Someones' Types
The usual way is to take a personality test like this one:
http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/
but asking people 30 questions at the poker table might be a bit awkward. What you can do is observe them carefully, and after gathering a how they speak and act, run though the attributes O.C.E.A.N. and see if any stand out as high/low.
It may be that poker players are all fairly uniform personality type. At least the huge tilters probably go bust pretty quickly!

Anyway, This is just a brief overview and seed of ideas, if anyone wan't to discuss how this could be used, or why its totally inapplicable I'd be keen to hear it.
Next week, I might expand on this with a tendencies blog post of the categories I use when thinking about opponents

Fight on my Brothers in War

0 votes

Last edit: 05/06/2010 06:54

JSquids United States. Jun 05 2010 09:37. Posts 1142

ur blogs are really interesting. il say it again.

AKA StarsNStripes@azeroth

Silver_nz New Zealand. Jun 05 2010 09:49. Posts 5647

Cheers J.
Don't suppose you have any thoughts about how this could be useful?

D_smart_S Bulgaria. Jun 05 2010 10:32. Posts 688

i don't know what u r talking about at all, but congrats for the effort.

Zep: When I said I feel obligated to troll, it was a figure of speech

Bejamin1 Canada. Jun 05 2010 15:53. Posts 7042

It's a standard psychology concept. It's just a personality rater. Not very easy to apply it to poker though. Unless you knew what the person was which you can't without giving them the test.

Sorry dude he Jason Bourned me. -Johnny Drama

fenner Australia. Jul 18 2010 09:38. Posts 2188

Now you know my secrets, tilt me motherfuckers.