Create the Right 'Brand'

"You're much better looking in person than you are in your photo." That's how Bonnie Rattner greeted me when I walked into the Card Player office recently.

After I stopped blushing, this comment alerted me to just how stupid I've been about developing my "brand." Here I am trying to promote my book in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker, and I have a photo in Card Player with me sporting a goatee, which doesn't even look like me anymore. Duh! As you can see from my new photo, I may not have a future as a model, but at least if you run into me, you'll be able to identify me and ask me about my new book, The Poker MBA.

Most good poker players are perceptive and know how to pick up tells based on how another player carries himself. In Caro's Book of Tells, Mike Caro talks a lot about how to develop a read on a player based on how he dresses, how he buys chips, and even how he stacks his chips. My question to you is: What are you doing to brand yourself to give other players a perception about you?

Jesse May took this concept to the extreme, and I imagine he profited from it. In his book, Shut Up and Deal, May describes how he would go to any length to look like the sucker. He shopped at thrift shops and always walked into the poker room at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City dressed for Halloween. " … I'm trying to come on like a major live one by the way I dress and not let on that I'm here to win," May writes. "When they look over and I'm wearing yellow pants and a green double-breasted jacket from the 70s and a green and yellow flowered shirt with dark sunglasses and hair halfway down my back, I really don't look very dangerous." Woody Harrelson's character uses a similar approach in the movie White Men Can't Jump, when he dresses like a dork to hustle basketball games at Muscle Beach in Venice, California.

If you're a hustler, creating a false first impression is the key to getting an opponent to take a "bad bet." Hall-of-fame jockey Gary Stevens loved to gamble with fellow hall-of-famer Bill Hartack. As you can imagine, it could get quite heated when two men with eight Kentucky Derby victories between them would square off in the jockey's room. Gary is ambidextrous; he shoots pool left-handed, but plays ping-pong much better right-handed. Down a couple of hundred bucks from pool to Hartack, Gary decided to take a break and play some ping-pong. He played the first game left-handed to show weakness. Just like any good hustler would do, Gary pretended not to be very good in order to get a favorable bet. When he got Hartack to agree to go double or nothing on the money he owed him, Gary switched to his right hand and prepared to dominate.

"Before the ball hit my paddle," Gary recalls, "he had switched hands, too. He wiped the floor with me! It just goes to show that the easiest person in the world to hustle is a hustler."

When it comes to Gary's profession as a jockey, he takes a decidedly different approach. How he is perceived by the owners, the trainers, and even his horses is critical to his livelihood. From the simplest things like making sure his silks are tailored and tucked in to arriving at the track early, Gary thinks about his "brand" and presents himself like a pro. Perception becomes reality. In part due to his amazing record, and in part due to how he has branded himself, Gary has been able to get great mounts such as Silver Charm, Thunder Gulch, Silverbulletday, and Point Given throughout his illustrious career. As the literary agent for Gary's just published autobiography, The Perfect Ride, I can tell you firsthand that his book should become a part of your library.

Let's get back to you and your poker brand. If you're one of those players who arranges his chips in neat little patterns, where all the colors on the chips are aligned, you are "branding" yourself as a rock and likely won't get any action. If you're indeed a tight player, you'd be better off keeping your chips scattered, talking a big game, and "advertising" by making a big deal whenever you get caught bluffing.

If I see a player wearing a sweatsuit with a bottle of water in front of him, my first thought is that this guy is a pro, and I'm going to be watching his every move. If I see a player wearing a suit with a highball glass in front of him, I'm more inclined to get out of line and try to exploit him.

If you're a professional poker player, don't dress like one, act like one, or talk like one. It's much more profitable to brand yourself as a live one. And if you make it to the World Series, say hello. I'll be the tall, dark, and not particularly handsome guy – without the goatee.

Greg Dinkin is the author of The Poker MBA: Winning In Business No Matter What Cards You're Dealt, which is available through Card Player (see the ad in this issue). Gary Stevens is the author of The Perfect Ride (Citadel Press). Greg is also the co-founder of Venture Literary (www.ventureliterary.com), where he works with writers to find publishers for their books.