Are Montessorians good at gaming? Elementary student and poker champion Tristan Chih proved that Montessorians can excel at it. Tristan, who won the 2024 Japan Open Poker Tour Junior Championship, is a quick-thinking, inquisitive and observant kid. So it’s no surprise that he thrives in games of strategy.
In fact, poker isn’t the only game of strategy that Tristan excels at; he was also the runner-up junior chess champion in Japan twice. (With another MST chessmaster our school had the two top under 10 chess players in the country!)
Tristan’s father Mark says, “From grade 2 he picked up chess and became passionate about it. He won 2nd place in the Japanese Cadet championship for U8 and U10. Last year when Eito won the U10 championship, he was also supposed to compete but caught influenza two days before the tournament and had to cancel.”
How did Tristan become interested in poker? Mark recounted that last “summer he became interested in Texas Hold'em partly because he saw me watching Youtube videos about a Japanese professional player, and started playing against me at home. Once he knew the general strategy and he could handle himself, I brought him to a local poker cafe [no cash involved!] where they allow kids to play with other adults. He showed he could play well so I thought about looking for a kid tournament for him to try. He ended up winning the first tournament he ever played.”
When asked why he prefers poker over chess, Tristan explained that “in poker you have to figure things out with half luck and half strategy. Even if you make a mistake, you can still win. In chess, every mistake is obvious, but in poker, you can bluff your way out of a mistake. Plus, it’s good to learn new things; I’d been playing chess for a long time.”
Tristan also enjoys the mathematics of poker, calculating percentages and probabilities, as well as the psychology of the game. “I have to think about what the other person has, and figure out how cautious or risky they are. And I change how cautious and risky I can be too.”
How does one raise a champion? Tristan “has had interests in board games at an early age, so we play a lot of different board games at home.” Perhaps the secret to raising a winner isn’t necessarily academic. Maybe it’s as simple as to spend time and play games with them. And if a passion is sparked, to find ways to let it burn bright.
–Wind Edward Kim