Roshambo World Championship

The 2001 Roshambo World Championship was held last August at BARGE (an annual Las Vegas gathering of rec.gambling.poker participants). Roshambo, also known as "rock-scissors-paper," isn't just a handy dispute-settling tool. For some, it's serious business, or others may argue, a religion.

You needn't show surprise that this "sport" has its own world championship. The event, held in Vegas each year, has a very enthusiastic following, although interest in the United States pales in comparison to some Pacific Rim nations, where Roshambo tournaments are broadcast nationally and substantial prizes (including endorsements) are awarded.

Like poker, Roshambo is oft perceived by the unacquainted to be a game of luck. And, like poker, naysayers may realize otherwise after they've played a "professional" in a race-to-10 match. The fact is, a human being is a poor random-number generator, and when playing rock-scissors-paper, the average player will try to compensate and adjust to previous outcomes. (For example, if you've just lost three throws in a row by choosing "rock," what are the chances you'll select rock a fourth time?) The experienced "roshamboist" will take advantage of your adjustments, much like picking up a tell on another player at the poker table.

It's straightforward to demonstrate that poker is a game of skill. One might, for instance, point out that the same players can be found again and again at the final table of tournaments. Likewise, a group of nutty college buddies called the Tiltboys (see www.tiltboys.com) are considered by many, particularly themselves, to be the ones to beat in Roshambo. For eight years, since the tournament's inception, a Tiltboy has won the RWC. At the fourth Championship, they all turned up wearing T-shirts with the bold challenge, "I'm In Your Head" splashed across the front.

Granted, the Tiltboys take this game perhaps a bit too seriously. They claim to have gambled thousands on Roshambo matches, at stakes far exceeding their weekly home poker game. At one point, they founded and conscripted one another into the Religion of Roshambo (http://www.emf.net/~estephen/roshambo/). While they recognize the deranged nature of their obsession, Tiltboy Bruce Hayek rightfully points out, "Fanaticism is a real asset when it's hill-hill in the semifinals and your opponent is a rational person. He really has no idea what to expect of you at that point."

This year's Roshambo World Championship showed an unfortunately low turnout, possibly having something to do with the $100 buy-in winner-take-all format. Even so, Patti Beadles, Phil Hellmuth, Paul Phillips, and Jeff Shulman each saw fit to shell out a C-note, along with four Tiltboys. Hellmuth was overheard saying, "If there's a world championship of anything at stake, count me in."

The RWC is single-elimination, one-on-one, race-to-10 matches. By some quirk of fate, the four competing Tiltboys each drew a non-Tiltboy opponent in the first round. With this portentous draw, the outcome was almost predictable – that being that all Tiltboys won their first match, and by the second round, it was a Tiltboy-only tournament.

As you might surmise, Roshambo tournaments are rife with verbal sparring, psychological one-upmanship, and opportunities for tells. World Series of Poker World Champion Phil Hellmuth considers himself right at home in such an environment, but met his match in Tiltboy Perry Friedman. Hellmuth drew Friedman (the eventual winner) in the first round, and strode forth confidently to center ring, his 6-foot-6-inch frame towering a good foot above Perry. He assumed his usual table demeanor, threatening to "look into Perry's soul" as he often does with his poker tournament opponents. After a few early ties when both players threw rock, Perry switched to scissors to "cut up" Phil's paper. Perry then disdainfully asked, "Rock, rock, paper?!" in a manner that clearly suggested it was a rookie maneuver. For the remainder of the match, Perry outtalked and out-threw Hellmuth, until, upon reaching a score of 9, he proclaimed, (in fairly accurate Scotty Nguyen style), "If you go rock, it all ova, baby!" Phil couldn't stand down this challenge, and his rock lost to Perry's paper, giving Perry his first-round victory. Perry smiled and confessed to the audience that he actually has no soul.

Perry proceeded to chatter his way through the semifinals, ousting Josh Paley with a score of 10-7. Meanwhile, Lenny Augustine quietly defeated Hayek, and marched resolutely into the final encounter with the already smirking Friedman.

It seemed that Perry's bravado would carry the day, as he quickly leapt to a 7-4 lead over Lenny. But a collective hush fell over the audience of 100-plus spectators as Lenny successfully employed the legendary "scissors gambit" to tie Perry at 7 apiece. At this point, Perry glanced around and commented how quiet things were when he wasn't talking. A fan yelled back, "We never had a chance to notice before!" Perry proceeded to take the next two throws for a 9-7 lead and triple match point. Lennie came firing right back to crawl within one at 9-8 before Perry finally put him away, 10-8, for the victory and the title of World Champion. The crowd rushed the stage to congratulate him, and local cameraman Rudy Tatay videotaped the moment for posterity.

Lest you, the casual reader, scoff at the apparent absurdity of this event, consider this: How many times have you found yourself facing a daunting bet on the river and asking yourself, "Is he bluffing, or isn't he?" That question is not really so different from, "Is he going to throw paper again, or will he switch to rock?" And, just possibly, if you'd had to answer that second question a few times, you might possess the insight to get "into his head" and make the correct read of your opponent at the table.

Prologue: It is worth mentioning that Perry recently added a second championship to his resume when he took down first place in the 2002 World Series of Poker Omaha high-low event. Perry is pleased to have parlayed his World Roshambo Championship prize money, which helped fund his WSOP trip, into a $176,000 first-place prize. He asserts that his Roshambo reading skills were invaluable against Phil Ivey, Dan Heimiller, and the seven other final-table opponents he faced. Indeed, Perry proudly sported his "I'm In Your Head" Roshambo T-shirt at the final table. When asked which championship he prized more, Perry demurely avoided a direct answer, but stated, "A gold bracelet is nice, but the random break of the cards introduces a bit more chance into the equation, so it doesn't seem as pure as Roshambo."