Profession as a Tool

Again, my goal is to tie in a profession with likely skills at the poker table. The game is more alluring to some types than to others, and this is only one aspect of how a player's job might affect how skillfully and with which style they play.

There are several categories that I consider important for classifying poker players. I modeled my study on how the FBI studies serial criminals. The FBI approaches solving serial killing cases by profiling the likely perpetrator. One of the tools that they use to narrow their search is the profession - or lack of one - their unknown subject has.

The FBI uses information from the crime scenes to identify the signature - the part of the crime provides the perpetrator with emotional satisfaction. 22 In creating the Crime Classification Manual, Roy Hazelwood and John Douglas also classified crimes - in particular, serial crimes - as organized or disorganized.

Keep in mind that many of the people that they profile are the most loathsome criminals - we cannot exactly apply the same standards to the vast majority of people that play poker. However, there is precedence for analyzing people according to profession and the technique has proven to be reliable. It helps if you can establish how `good the fit is' when closely correlating a job to how you profile someone or you can make a rather egregious misassumption.

I believe there to be six important categories when evaluating an opponent's profession:

1. What degree of intelligence does it require?
2. What level of education or vocational ability is necessary?
3. Does their job require quick thinking or measured thinking?
4. Do they create their own structure or does the job force it upon them?
5. Does their job reward them for being an independent thinker?
6. What amount of risk do they face in their work?

a person's occupation

some typical jobs

leadership and speaking abilities

classifying poker players

type of intelligence