Watch Out For This Rock Paper Scissors Hustler Prowling Brooklyn Bars

"Bryan Bennett, a 32-year old New Jersey IT guy who just quit his job at Apple, says he has been playing Rock Paper Scissors “professionally” for about eight years. When he took home the title of second-place (out of 500) at the 2006 World Rock Paper Scissors Championship in Toronto, the prize was $1,800. A 2006 NYC Times article named Bennett a “member of the New Jersey sports pantheon.” Last Saturday, I saw him hustle $10 in a little over 30 minutes in a Brooklyn bar.

Bennett cited three books written on the topic. But it’s more than theory, he says. “It’s a psychological battle.” Bennett’s got a special knack for predicting what people will “throw” just by looking at them. He says that women throw Scissors 70% of the time. He'll judge how cocky someone is and fake a loss, playing on their ego, and then go in for the kill when they agree to raise the stakes.

Bennett was even tapped by Northeastern University psychology professor Judith Hall to participate in a study on nonverbal communication. He won 84 percent of his matches. “Everyone thinks this is a game of chance,” Professor Hall told the Catholic University of America magazine. “We were quite astonished.”


http://gothamist.com/2014/09/23/rock_pap......tler.php

If you want to make some money, find him and agree to play him for money, but require him to put up slight money odds, in light of his obvious skill - say, his $50 against your $40, with a ten-game minimum. Then use the second hand of your watch to randomize your tosses. For instance, if it's divisible by 3, rock. If one higher than divisible by three, paper. If one lower than divisible by three, scissors. so much for the psychological battle.

There are many many ways to win at RPS. There are even scripts that work amazingly well. But randomizing the bet value will throw everything off if your opponent is playing the odds as if counting cards. There are so many variables. But I'd love to play this guy!