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In this week's INSIDER:

:: Poker News: Talk the Talk & Visit the Poker Glossary!
:: Poker World: What's In A Name?
:: Celebrity News: Celebrity Poker Night
:: Player Spotlight: Meet Easy Bill! 
:: Actor of the Week: Josh Charles
:: Player of the Week: Michael DeLorenzo
:: Girl of the Week: Miss June
:: Hollywood Poker Community News: 2007 Hollywood Poker Girls Announced! 
:: Hollywood Poker Promotions: Win a 2007 Dodge Charger!
:: Words from Vince Van Patten, WPT Host & Commentator
:: The Hollywood Poker Quiz: Win Hollywood Poker Gear!
:: Write to Win a Tournament Ticket!


Poker World: What's In A Name?

According to the players at Hollywood Poker, everything. Your nickname is part of your image - and when it comes to poker, image can count for a lot. A name like “FluffyKitty9”, for instance, probably won’t strike fear in the heart of your opponent. Vulgar names won’t exactly garner you the respect that helps players triumph at the tables either.

Read on to see what Hollywood Poker players have to say about their nicknames:

A Family Tradition

I, like my father and my godfather (Dad's brother), are/were Marine Corps air wing veterans. My Dad and Uncle Bill served during WWII and I during Viet Nam. I am the female in the group, thus the wm-Woman Marine. SemperFi is an abbreviation of Semper Fidelis, the Marine Corps motto, which is Latin and means always faithful.
(My mother loves this nickname.)

~semperfiwm

A Lucky Shot

Desertrex was the name of my favorite horse the ran all the time at Atlantic city race Track (acrc). The best memory I have of ACRC, I was with a friend and bragging how Desertrex always wins. The man behind me started asking all these questions about the horse. I must have spent 5 minutes how the horse is a lock. He smiled and introduced himself... It was the owner of the horse.

I also had to add to my nickname since I use Desertrex at another site. So what better way to honor my favorite hockey player than to attach his number to my name. (Mario Lemieux). It would take a long time to think of a different name if I had to replace it!

~Desertrex66

The Power of Suggestion

My nickname is pretty simple and doesn’t have a huge meaning. It just means what I say below:

Masta (I like to think of myself as the "masta".)
B (The first letter of my name.)

~Masta-B

Intimidation Tactics

Being partial, for reasons too long and personal to post here, to all things Scandinavian, when I signed up all I knew was I wanted a good Viking name. After a few variations did not work, I choose the name Skallagrim because it was accepted and because the greatest of all the Viking "skalds" (same as bards to the Celts, but more violent) was Egil Skallagrimsen (Egil, son of Skallagrim) - whose deeds and words can be found in the 13th century Icelandic story: "Egil's Saga."

A loose translation of "skallagrim" from old norse is "lean and mean."

The 45 means nothing.

~Skallagrim45

Linguistic Wit-Lash

I like for the nicknames on my poker sites to reflect an image or have some significance other than just being a bunch of randomly and hastily chosen letters and numbers. This actually, coming up with a unique name, is the longest part of the registration process on any poker site for me.

On a site I knew mostly Europeans played who play very, tight aggressive as a group - making them all easy to read actually - I was 'GladUCalled' as I would play ONLY the NUTS there or not at all. I'd usually blind out or win. People didn't remember as much as I did the times I blinded out, BUT THEY DID REMEMBER the times I had beaten them and in the Chat box was: GladUCalled. Soon after about a month of getting well-known there I could sit back ONLY PLAYING THE NUTS and occasionally BLUFF as well and hardly EVER get called. So I started not being blinded out so often and at least placing most of the time, if not outright winning. That name had much significance for THAT site.

Earlier on, when signing up for my 2nd site I ever played on I used the name: DyslexicMonk. It is still my Yahoo IM ID to this day. The reason behind this name was strategic also. As I was learning the game of poker on my first site, I fell prone to 'chasing' flushes but ESPECIALLY straights. I wouldn't catch often, but when I did the wins were big and the complaints at the table were many, which I also enjoyed but as yet had not learned how to take advantage of, so I was losing money. DyslexicMonk was to always be there reminding me of how NOT to play. Thelonious Monk wrote a tune called 'Straight No Chaser'. I became NO Straight Chaser, hence the dyslexic part. (I am slightly dyslexic myself so am familiar with word and letter order reversals.) It did help a LOT and I stopped losing money for the first time playing poker with this name.

As for Hollywood Poker . . . I noticed that there were Celebrities here so that using a name such as even a 'dead' celebrity was probably not going to be so original. I also figured there were probably a lot of 'JamesWoods101', 'JamesWoods2000' and such. Irony is I've never seen even an allusion to either here having been here over a year now, but thought I wanted to be more original anyway. I needed a pseudonym that was Hollywood related but was NOT the name of some actual person of fame yet would still be widely recognized as being associated with solely Hollywood.

Then it hit me. As a long time film buff and stayer-late-after-the-movie-is-over-in-the-theatre-CREDIT-reader I remembered some trivia about directors who, for whatever reason - usually over artistic vs financial editing decisions between producers and directors - would no longer wish their name to be associated with the project. They would instead request an 'Alan Smithee' (or some variation of this name) credit rather than using their own name. Alan Smithee would be a GREAT NAME to use at HOLLYWOOD POKER that wouldn't infringe on the rights of true namesakes and yet would have strictly a Hollywood derivation.

Alan Smithee, however was NOT allowed to be used by Hollywood Poker as a registered name. Hollywood Poker also blocked the use of the other variations prevalent in the film industry: Allen Smithee, Allan Smithee, etc. But they missed one, and phonetically it reads true as well: AL N SMITHEE

Once I figured out how to get around this minor road block I HAD to use this name for HOLLYWOOD POKER. It is the name of a 'celebrity' who never WAS a celebrity in fact. Perfect fit I thought. Done deal. So here I am, Al N Smithee.

I also like using it as I often don't wish the final product of HOW I've played here to be associated with my REAL name. Quite apropos, don't you think?

~Al N Smithee

When it comes down to it, what really seems to matter is that you pick a nickname that makes you feel confident so you’ll play your A-game every time you hit the tables.

Want to share the story behind your nickname? E-mail me at hollay@hollywoodpoker.com and you’ll be entered into a draw for a Celebrity Tournament ticket!



Words from Vince Van Patten, WPT Host & Commentator

You've got to realize when it's time to get up and leave the table. When I'm having a good night, I always make that promise to myself. It's easy to get caught up and blow back really fast or worse, go into your own pocket. You're going to have to discipline yourself after a big win. 

~Vince Van Patten

Have a question for Vince? E-mail it to hollay@hollywoodpoker.com.

Player Spotlight: Meet Easy Bill!

I lived in Las Vegas for a few years back in the good old days (pre-Howard-Hughes). Everyone knew you if you were a local, and you knew the locals from the tourists. Players of legend lived in Vegas back then. Even though most are no longer here, I will refrain from mentioning names, except for one guy we all loved, and I'll never forget. God bless him. We all had colorful nicknames back then, and we called this character "Borrowing Bob." He was always broke, never paid anyone back,  yet could hustle up a "buy-in" anytime of the day or night.

Bob loved poker. He played every day, most often on someone else's money, but just seemed to have no grasp of the game. He never booked a win.

One night he came up to me, and said he needed fifty bucks - really bad! There was no food in the house, and his three-year-old little girl (Molly-Blue-Eyes) was very sick, and needed a couple prescriptions from the pharmacy.

I knew he was trying to get to me, and I said, "Bob,  if I loan you fifty, I know you are gonna use the money to get into the $50 buy-in at the Sahara, which I know is gonna start in about 30 minutes."

Bob looked at me with the most sincere expression of hurt I'd ever seen, and said, "Bill,I swears to ya, I need the dough for food, and medicine for Molly-Blue. I already gots the buy-in money for the hold-em game at the Sahara."

How could I turn the guy down?  I gave him the "fifty," and from then till now, the old-timers in Vegas call me "Easy-Bill."

~Easy Bill

Want your chance in the Spotlight? Simply e-mail me at hollay@hollywoodpoker.com. If you’re chosen for the week’s Player Spotlight, you’ll win Hollywood Poker gear and earn a Hollywood Poker Star, which means you'll be one step closer to snagging a seat in a $250 freeroll!

Write to Win

All you have to do is write about anything poker related and send it to hollay@hollywoodpoker.com. I’ll post all articles that qualify in the ‘Center Stage’ section of the Lounge where your fellow players will vote for their favorite article. Aside from the prestige and praise you’ll receive for your rhetorical brilliance, if you win you’ll also score a Hollywood Poker tournament ticket. It gets even better: Every week, one random voter will win Hollywood Poker gear.

See the most recent Write to Win contest in action!

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