A strategy guide in Street RPS by YANIS: the World RPS Street Champ

[yanis]

As the current world RPS Street Champs, here is some advice on strategy put together by us, TEAM JULIEN. Maybe next year we’ll have more of a challenge… The name of the game is emotion. In street, you need five key touch points in no particular order to own.

1: The ability to induce emotion in your opponent.
2: A good start for the creation of a bank roll.
3: Play big over and over until he/she is broke – or you. (Double or nothing)
4: Always play players with less money than you.
5: Overplay Paper

1: The ability to induce emotion in your opponent.

This is crucial to street strategy. I was lucky to be part of TEAM JULIEN’S manipulative powerhouse to get players to do what we wanted; we were working on all cylinders. Induce emotion by any of the following:

1-   The classic chant of “BE A MAN, BE A MAN”* patented by Captain  Mark Julien of TEAM JULIEN. You need more then 4 chanters.
2-   A verbal contract before the match begins giving yourself “outs” should you lose. (never encountered)
3-   Expressing the importance of giving you a second chance (see #4) to win your money back. However no explanation that your opponent will go broke if you win.

2:  A good start for the creation of a bank roll.

This, my friends is how it begins. You must have an early bank roll to pick apart the small stacks. So play big from the start and you will have a chance at going through with the rest of this strategy. 

3: Always play for all the money your opponent has. This will force a double or nothing bet to make them go broke eventually.

4: Never play against a player that has more money then you. Jack as many small stacks as you can before playing for 50 stacks and so on. Set a minimum and don’t play for small stuff. “Donald Trump doesn’t do business with beggars in the street and neither should you if you want to run them.”-TEAM JULIEN.
 It’s simple anyone can lose 1 match, or two, but the chances of losing 4/5 matches are slim. If you have the stack you can keep playing until you opponent goes broke.

5: A strategy in the street that worked for us all night, until I strayed away from it in the quarter finals was to overplay paper. 90% of players overplay rock, especially on street.

Take these rules as a guideline and ask yourself if the reigning champs would reveal all of their tactics here… These techniques are to merely make next year more challenging for TEAM JULIEN and me. So study up and see you on the street!-

YANIS
World Street RPS Champion
Team Julien

[James Hagherty]

How about point #6. Offer opponents money in return for their stacks.

I got the word from a few people that some of that was going on with "the bald guy".

[M. Julien]

 Rule number one, THERE ARE NO RULES. The street takes care of it's own and you gotta hustle all you can!

[yanis]

More importantly, we put tons of hard work into creating this strategy and I personally put some hard work into writing this strategy up for all to see. I did this with the sole intention of giving others the chance to understand why and how we won.

I would like to personally thank Mr. James Hagherty for attempting to discredit and stain my feeble attempt at adding some content to this fantastic new industry I have learned to love.

Mr. Hagherty please continue trying to tarnish all new newcomers to your wonderful sport, I wish you the worst of luck.

[C. Urbanus]

Uh, It didn't sound too much to me that he was trying to discredit you.

Just stating an observation but it's open to interpretation.

Welcome aboard.  Well played this weekend.

[Master Roshambollah]

Welcome to the Board, Yanis, and my congratulations on winning the Street Championship.

Although my own thoughts on the matter of Street RPS Strategy are probably woefully out of date, you may still gleam some useful insights from my "Street" RPS Strategy topic and subsequent replies.  I find of great interest that your "never play against a player that has more money then you" strategy is very similar to my "Play People with Less Money" approach.

Street RPS has, and will continue to have, a different skill set from Tournament RPS.  They are overlapping sets, but the area shared by both can be quite fertile ground.

I welcome your scholarly insight into the area of Street RPS Strategy.  You may find useful the observations of other top Street RPS players, including Dahmernator (who was the unofficial #2 Street Player last year, and probably the best Street RPS player I personally know) and Geir the Viking (Coach of Team Norway, Geir blends team play with an innovative approach to money management, which put Team Norway among the top 5 moneymakers this year.  Last year, Geir's protege Simen Wang was the Street RPS Champ at the ripe old age of twelve.)

[yanis]

Master Roshambollah,

You honor me with your words and reputation. Your article is heavy and very insightful, I believe I will research your baccarat betting patterns in more detail. I also would like to thank you for pointing me in the direction of team Norway who are extremely nice guys/extremely skillful and helped me near then end to solidify the epic battle vs team shockers Pete. They have my unending respect.

You are also 100% correct in assessing that street style differs from tournament style, however my "in-game play" remained the same during tournament and street which allowed me to reach the final 8. (the overly simplified version I alluded to earlier of overplaying paper)

Thank you for making me feel welcome to your world.

[Cam]

Mate, prior to the top 16 when you were on stage dealing with the street rps I noticed you up there with one of the members from the team that wore orange.

I was over buying a beer to ease the nerves for what was to follow so I missed it but it looked like you had to play them in a set for the cash? Was that because the stacks were so closely matched or what was the deal with that?

[yanis]

Cam,

You are correct, we had a crate of money, they had three stacks, rather then go through simple formalities of counting and winning the 1000$ outright. The team decided that we needed something big to become known in the industry - Captain Julien had the outright ingenious insight to realize that a 1on1 for all the marbles on stage in front of the cameras and the world to see was worth the risk. Especially since I am amazing and was on complete fire. 

Pete from Shocker (the orange team) was a formidable opponent however I read the "Diplomat" and the "Fist full o dollars" perfectly for a glorious victory.

[TripleA]

Congrats Yanis, and Team Julian for a very well executed street victory! I thought this years outcome (coming right down to a single match) was tremendously entertaining and a candidate for match-of-the-year for sure.

As someone who was lurking near the mainstage for your epic match, I will take issue that I suspect the bankrolls for the final match were amazingly equal.

One of the techniques first pioneered by Team Norway, of which I'm sure your Captain Julian was well aware, is that a loose pile of street bucks tends to look like it has more volume than a neat stack. The "box of cash" is a very effective tool for psychological warfare, and can often be employed to sucker groups with *more* money than you to play in an "even" all-in match¹

Just from observing the total volume of the box both before the Team Shocker stack was added and after, if the two rolls weren't identical, they were extremely close.

The other extremely clever piece of gamesmanship I need to compliment you on was that you took the initiative to seek out the only other real competing roll of bucks on the floor. It shows an innate understanding of Sun Tzu, in that you forced the terms, the venue, and the timing of the battle - while ensuring that no other collection of competitors could challenge the combined roll if victorious... a clear demonstration of your "Man Up" strategy forcing the opponents hand.
 
Looking forward to seeing more of you and your team around these parts.

AAA

Note 1: Personally, while I like the "box of cash" approach, I'd avoid the "crumpled pile of loose cash" variant. Mobility is a critical aspect of street and is nigh-impossible with handfuls of crumpled street bucks. Loose dollars lost to the floor do not help you win tournaments. Plus, as was evident in 2006, the society actually will force a team to count and re-stack their winnings if the majority amount is in dispute.