Poker: The VRP Technique.

The VRP technique is so called because it allows sales people to cross the threshold into your personal space, without the risk of you slamming the door in their face. VRP starts from the idea that a person must first create the situation whereby another person is prepared to listen and pay attention to them, once you have managed to attract another person's full attention then you will be in a much more favourable position to sell them goods or services, or indeed, gain their favour.

In other words; if you want somebody to do you a favour, begin by asking them do you a small favour first. This phenomenon exploits the natural tendency of people to be more inclined to do you a big favour, if they have already done you a small favour- as they now have more of a vested interest in you.

No need to be VRP:
For example, if you want your neighbour to help you to move house, he will be more sympathetic to your cause if you begin by asking him to help move your sofa. Once he has accepted to help move your sofa, you can then move on to ask for help with other items of furniture, before even having registered what he has been roped into, he will already be trying to load the boxes that you have yet to load yourself (hopefully!).

The Culpability Technique:
Now, there is also the inverse of the above process, which is when all you want is a little favour and where, in order to obtain it, you begin by asking for a bigger favour. "Tell me, Bob, will you give up your weekend to help me pack and load all my furniture from my enormous villa, complete with King Sze bed? No? Well, could you at least help me to move this table?"

This is known as the Technique of Culpability, you are expecting to be rebutted for the large items, but you do this in order to achieve a positive response to your smaller request; because they said no the first time, this sets up your ‘victim' with a feeling of culpability.

Now, you must surely be asking yourself; "what has all this got to do with poker?"

The VRP Technique applied to poker:
Congratulations, you are at the final table! Ten players are in the process of losing their chips and requesting drinks. They are equally trying to verify the amount by which everybody is moving up the paying places on the control screen, and this screen is informing them that only 9 players are currently in winning positions and that the majority of the prize fund will go to the players finishing in first and second place.

If you have a medium stack, then this is the perfect time to make the following suggestion; "Hey, what would you all say if we compensate the 10th player as well? Or we could just reimburse the buy-in?" Often, the other players will be in agreement, the necessary money is already covered in the winner places pots. It will not cost you anything and the other players will remember you as the player who proposed a good deal for somebody more vulnerable than themselves....always a winner.

Broker yourself some advantage deals:
A little later in the game there remains only six or seven players, you still have a medium stack, perhaps even a little eroded? As you were the guy who made the generous offer earlier in the game (i.e. donating a small prize to the 10th player), now when you begin talking about a deal the other players will pay attention to you. They have already accepted a little deal earlier on, now it is time to try for a bigger deal. This is the age-old technique of ‘foot-in-the-door' and your opponents will be more psychologically inclined to share a proportion of their winnings, because they have already accepted the parting of a small percentage already.

Because we all understand that prize pools are shared relatively in accordance to the players' final positions, you will probably be able to gain more of an advantage with a deal. Of course you need to be sure of finishing in second place with the first position still hanging in the balance.

The technique of culpabilisation can work as well, but always use with prudence: if you begin by making a ridiculous request in the hope of ensuring that at least one opponent remains in the last stages who has definitely got a positive view of you, but know that this will rarely work in poker. Make a stupid request and the other players will remember, maybe even work against you as a team to get rid. It is much more beneficial to use the old VRP technique, begin by requesting a small, and honest, sum in order to put the other players in a favourable mind-set, from that you can move on to greater things. And if you benefit from some really good hands that shoot you up the classification tables, use the technique of ‘fist-in-mouth', keep quiet and do not try to make any more deals.

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