5 Poker Name Theories – So Just What Is In A Poker Name?

Whether your a professional Poker player or a beginner, names are a necessity of life. They are part of our identity and without them we would just be a faceless – or should that be nameless – figure wandering aimlessly around the globe. That would be sick, oh noo here we go again! The name you choose to identify you at the online poker tables is also important because it is all your opponents will see when they play against you, but can what you call yourself have a bearing on how your opponents will perceive your skill levels?

Fishy Players

Most of my poker alias’ are derived from my nickname, although my PartyPoker alias is simply the first two letters of my Christian name, middle name and surname, and that does not give much away about me. However, I regularly come up against players whose nickname instantly conjures up images of fishy players, tricky opponents and even gives an insight into how old they are and how experienced at poker they are. Really.

Theory 1 – The Years Of Change

A common theme amongst online poker players is to have a number in their name to differentiate themselves from similar names. “James1988”, “Bob2002”, “Mavis11” are examples of such names. Sometimes these numbers will have no meaning whatsoever, but a significant percentage of these numbers will represent a player’s year of birth, when they created their poker account or when they started to play poker.

A player who you deduce is in their fifties is likely to be a loose-passive player, whilst a player in their late teens will most likely be aggressive and fearless because he (or she obviously) will have never had to worry about having to pay bills so will be willing to get 300 big blinds in on a whim.

The only real exceptions to the numbers rule are “69,” which means your opponent is about 12 years old, and “420” which means your opponent is a connoisseur of specialist herbal smoking material . Make of this what you will.

Theory 2 – Hobbies

Other clues you can pick up are names based on hobbies, cars, motorcycles. “Skydiver21” is likely to be a bit of a nutcase whilst “Philately1935” (go on Google it) is going to be someone who plays AA or KK and that is it. They will, however, almost certainly know the odds and probabilities for every single aspect of the game you are playing in. Also, someone who has chosen “FerrariLover” as their nickname does not have a Ferrari and almost certainly never will. They are most likely a mid-40’s Vauxhall Zafira driving dad of three who dreams of making it big whilst grinding it out at the $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold’em tables, dreaming to “make it big.” Not going to happen mate.

Theory 3 – Warning Signs

On the same tangent are names with poker terms in them. “The Rock” is not a tight player at all, whilst “CrazyLAGGusHansenFan” plays one hand per 350 dealt to them. They are liars. One such poker term related name you should be aware of are those of “cool” phrases that are common on the various poker forums. I’m not going to show my own age – and therefore my how uncool I am – by giving you current examples but things like “Tree Fiddy” and “BingBangBloaw” have been doing the rounds for a while now and the only way you would know about them would be if you frequented forums or discussed poker with like-minded people. As a rule, this player type is better than your average online donk!

Theory 4 – NUMB3R5

Another popular name choice is one that is made up of numbers in place of some of the letters. “H3LL0 TH3R3”is the perfect example, as is “tr1ckyp0k3rp1ay3r.” This type of player is trying to convey they are tricky, complicated characters, meaning they are likely to take some odd-looking lines in hands you are involved in.

Theory 5 – Tell Tale…

Be aware that like everything else in poker these tells, if you can call them that, are player dependent and some players may create a nickname that implies they are a prize donkey when in fact they are a big winner. That said, if every you find “LooseGoose69” at your table feel free to drop me and email to let me know so I can come and help myself to their chips.

So Whats Your Poker Name? What? How the hell did you come up with that? Let us know in the comments below and remember to follow us on Twitter for more poker greatness.