X-Ray Vision?!

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1. • Posted by Jason M 2008-03-06 00:10:24
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   • I was watching an old recording of Poker After Dark last night (yeah, it's lame, but I even "relax" to poker). It was the second day of "Cowboy Week".

     Annnnnnnnnyway, they were talking about wearing sunglasses for some reason. I think it was because Chris "The Jesus Statue" Ferguson had them on and somebody was trying (and failing) to get a read off of him. Gabe Kaplan said to Doyle, "You'd never wear sunglasses, right?" Doyle responded that he would not.

     Doyle said (I'm paraphrasing, of course) that sunglasses make it easier to see marks on the cards and that they should be banned from tournaments. I've never heard of or experienced this, much less tried to capitalize on it. Has anybody else heard this? Is it true?

2. • Posted by Pokermom 2008-03-06 00:59:35
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   • Doyle is old and has enough trouble reading the cards as it is, so wearing sunglasses is just not an option for him. So... CLEVER. He can level the playing field by getting them outlawed.

     BRILLIANT! I knew that old dog had some more tricks up his sleeve.

     But seriously, I don't see how they help unless they are polarized or something and there are hidden marks that polarized lenses can pick up.

     -a

3. • Posted by Ethan 2008-03-06 02:32:13
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   • Sunglasses can increase the contrast you see, which could enhance subtle marks and scratches on cards. You can also get ones that only let through certain parts of the visible spectrum, also possibly enhancing marks. So there may be some validity to the claim.

4. • Posted by Jason M 2008-03-06 04:04:57
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   • Hmmmmmm, Ethan. Seems interesting. Maybe I should look into that... :)

     Alexis - good point. If I couldn't see well, I'd definitely go for evening the playing field. Or in his case, tilting in his favor!

5. • Posted by Teresa 2008-03-06 08:38:42
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   • jason, no glasses tomorrow! lol

6. • Posted by Graham 2008-03-06 11:45:53
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   • Let's see... usually they use a blue deck and a red deck, right? So you could rock a set of specs with one blue lens and one red lens making everything not-blue or not-red 'pop'? I'm not convinced, but I'll forward this link to my optometrist friends...

7. • Posted by Craig 2008-03-06 16:43:34
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   • Red and blue lenses. Let me check my junk drawer. I think I have a pair of cardboard 3-D glasses in there somewhere.

     fyi, I've considered wearing my perscription sunglasses, but they're not that dark so you can see my eyes through them, which sorta defeats the purposes. It just makes everything darker (harder to read), so its more of a disadvantage than an advantage.

8. • Posted by Jason M 2008-03-06 18:16:14
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   • I'm pretty sure you can get glasses that are not so dark to the wearer but are nice and dark to the non-wearer. I think I've even seen them marketed as "poker glasses". I would get some of those fa sho.

     Graham: say "hi" to those optometrist fools for me :)

9. • Posted by Graham 2008-03-06 20:40:55
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   • OK, nearly optometrist friend just wrote 800 words on the subject. Here are some interesting nuggets: polarized lenses would help if the light is anywhere other than directly above the table. Tournament organizers who want to negate polarized lenses, place your tables directly below a light source. Red or blue lenses are no good as you'd have to match the wavelengths of the lens and the cards and it would still mess with your eyes in unintended ways. Gray is the best lens color choice as it allows all colors through and increases contrast sensitivity. Your best bet... wait for it... get your eyes checked! Better visual acuity equals better contrast sensitivity.
     But seriously kids, maybe you should take the sunglasses money and spend it on a book. Get your skills down before you start trying to look for marks on the cards...

10. • Posted by Jason M 2008-03-06 20:52:43
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    • Most importantly - did you say "hi" to the t-chew for me or what?! And thank him for the writings. Good info to have :) I still a couple books left to buy, so I'll hold off, get my eyes checked, and then start marking those cards.

11. • Posted by Graham 2008-03-06 22:52:31
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    • Here's the exact text straight from the donkey's mouth or however that arcane saying goes. And, yes, I said 'hi' and 'thanks'... (it's in two parts because whoever started this thing set a 4000 character limit, lame)

      Instead of going over glaucoma cases in class right now, I decided to give you some insight on this sunglasses, blue/red glasses argument because its more fun. :)

      The guy that mentions wearing polarized lenses is on the right track, but it depends on numerous things such as axis of polarization of the glasses, the angle the cards are held/placed on the table. The most important variable would the the positioning of the lighting in the room. Most polarized lenses have an axis that is oriented vertically, so that light reflected off of a horizontal surface (such as a highway) will be canceled out. Light must be reflected off a horizontal surface and at a certain angle for the cancellation to work, which is why if the sun is at 12 o'clock polarizers do not help, but if the sun was at a 45 degree angle in front of you, that is where maximum GLARE would be cut off of the highway.

      If you are a poker player that holds your cards instead of placing them on the table, polarized lenses would not be a benefit for your opponents due to the fact that light can not be reflected off the cards in an appropriate way for polarizers to cancel the glare. However, if your cards are flat on the table and there is no overhead light directly above the table, polarizers worn by your opponent would help cut the glare off the cards and increase the contrast. Remember though, that if the light is slightly behind the person (your trying to read) and they are not casting a shadow on their cards on the table, this is where there will be maximum cancellation of glare if you are wearing polarizers. The best way to combat this is to have an overhead light directly above the table that covers the entire table, this is when polarizers would not be helpful to anyone.

      Sunglasses do in fact increase your contrast sensitivity, so there is a valid argument with this statement. The lighting mentioned above would dictate whether you wear polarizers or not. If there was direct overhead lighting, a regular pair of sunglasses that are not polarized would be most beneficial. The best tint choice would be a tint that has GREY lenses. Grey lenses allow all colors to pass through the sunglasses and do not distort colors at all. An increase of contrast sensitivity would allow you to see slight imperfections in print.

      to be continued...

12. • Posted by Graham 2008-03-06 22:54:00
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    • ...right now

      There was a mention of possibly wearing Red/Blue tint, and I would strongly discourage wearing these tints. They will distort color perception. Say you are wearing red tint glasses, which only allow printed colors red to reach your eye... a red tint over your eyes would NOT allow any blue to reach your eyes, and blue would be perceived as black. This is opposite if you were wearing blue tinted lenses. Now, for complete cancellation to occur the color wavelength of the filters and the color wavelength of the cards must match, which is pretty difficult to achieve.

      Say you wore a red filter over the right eye, and a blue filter over the left eye and there were ideal conditions where there was complete cancellation. Your right eye would only see the red colors and the left eye would only see the blue colors, this essentially makes you monocular for certain conditions, you are using your eyes independently of each other, which can slightly break down your depth perception. If there were any elevations on the cards (a defect), it would be more difficult to perceive these imperfections, so I would discourage wearing of R/B glasses.

      Here is my pitch... gray sunglasses are probably the best option for above, assuming that most casinos have adequate direct overhead lighting on top of their tables (this could require some reconnaissance before sitting down to make sure, or keep your polarizers on deck just in case someone has poor lighting).

      MY recommendation is to have an eye exam and get the best pair of spectacles/contact lenses that give you the best visual acuity (VA). Normal VA is 20/20... most Major League Baseball batters have a VA of 20/12, which is MUCH better vision than the 20/20. Some people with the appropriate correction can get down to 20/10 or even 20/8 vision. 20/8 = detail that normal people can distinguish at 8 feet, you can distinguish at 20 feet. Super sharp vision usually means super sharp contrast sensitivity.

      IF YOU WEAR SPECTACLES, make sure you spend the extra $100 do get an anti-reflective coating. This AR coating allows more light to pass through you glasses and enter your eye... more light to your eyes = better VA.

      So, gray tinted sunglasses with a properly/superiorly corrected visual system would be a benefit. If you go to an optometrist tell them that you want the best VA possible for this reason and they will try to push your visual system beyond 20/20 (Most OD's will do this regardless).

      Hope this helps!

      Thanks again, Tom. If you ever misdiagnose glaucoma, don't blame me. And if it's me that you misdiagnose, I'm gonna be pissed!

13. • Posted by Ethan 2008-03-07 06:02:36
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    • Cool. Tell the your friend thanks for me too. Sorry about the 4000 character limit, I was wondering if we'd ever hit it. Maybe we should increase to 8000. We just didn't want people posting novels ;-)

14. • Posted by Jason M 2008-03-07 21:39:15
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    • Thanks, Graham. Very nice info to have. Learning is fun :D

      Are we really going to have to go to Canada to have Tom check our eyes, or will he do house calls?

      Perhaps star contributors and/or users with premium accounts could be allowed an extended character limit ;)

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