I just came away from a video of chess grandmasters player chess hustlers in NYC and got me thinking... Are their Go hustlers in urban areas also? Perhaps in Asia? Has anyone seen one around or have any experience with them? I'd be very interested to know.

I saw a go hustler once in Tokyo. He was standing in one of the narrow streets that had no auto traffic, with a go board set up on a card table. He had a problem set up and the wager was to solve the problem playing against him. Often, I heard, having defeated your attempts, he would offer to switch sides. Having defeated you both ways, he might even switch sides again.

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The Adkins Principle:
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Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Time to re-visit Hikaru no Go. 「勝負は これからだぜ。」Hi Bill, did you get an estimate of his Go level ?

They exist in other cities as well; there are xiangqi guys in the streets of Hongkong.

I'm a go hustler. I play lots of poor moves to lead my marks in, and I let them win to build their confidence.

After a few years of this, once they're really confident, I plan to beat them badly.

It's a foolproof plan I tell you, a great long con!

I wish Go was that popular in the states that we would see Go hustlers along the Vegas strip.

When I used to play in Korean clubs (in both NYC and northern Virginia), they all had no problems gambling with each other, but were extremely hesitant to gamble with me. Simple reason was they didn't know me, and feared I could be a hustler. I had no personal desire to play Go for money, but these guys seemed to need money on the game just to make things interesting. So in such situations, I suppose hustlers will always exist.

Playing in Denver in the mid-80s there were several Korean members of the club (Mile high Go Association - very active) and they frequently wanted to play for money. They were usually around 5d and at the time I was 3d-4d. If I refused to play for money, as I always did, they were not so happy. Most played anyway, some did not. I think between themselves they always played for money. At that time I did not know what bangneki was, but I suspect that is what they were playing.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).