Watch out the Russians are coming.... Plus, how your poker moniker can help you win.
TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE It had to happen. Russia is now completely bitten by the poker bug, with hordes of Muscovites joining the online millions who play globally every evening. Moscow has just hosted an extremely successful Russian Poker Championship run by and ruled over by two young female gaming experts in their late twenties. Inexperienced? Not a bit of it. With eight years of casino work behind them and a load of money and help from Mansion Poker these glamorous women ran the tournament with a KGB-like rod of iron, even introducing their own unique penalty system for rule breakers. If you break a rule for the first time the ladies show you a yellow card (sound familiar?) and if you break a rule the second time you get the red card and are banned from the tournament for a twenty minute probation period. The only red card issued during the entire program was to the home-grown talented professional Valery Ilikan (who won no less than two of the events in the eleven day tournament). Ilikan offered no complaint and obeyed his female hosts like a whipped pup. There’s pots of money in Moscow these days, so be warned: The “Russians are coming!” to a PC near you.
WHAT’S IN A NAME? Poker players throughout history have tried to intimidate one another with their hard earned nicknames. Most of them in the old days used the principle of “word of mouth PR” to get their personality toted around the card games of their local haunts. Lavish logos like Frank “The Hatchet” Muldoon and Lanky “The Driller” Holmes were carved into card tables in the frontier towns of Dodge and Deadwood with the direct intent of making any newcomer nervous about even considering deck marking. Bad debts were frequently paid for by the giving and receiving of bullets, often deposited in the head or the back. Wild Bill Hickok, before his own infamous death during the notorious “Deadman’s Hand” card game, is rumoured to have shot an opponent directly through an Ace of Spades and into the offender’s left lung with the passing remark, “If you wanna mark the cards, lemmee help you out!”
NAMES WITH A HEALTH WARNING These days the intimidation, at least outside of the United States, tends to be aimed at psychologically disabling opposing players. Hence labels like Gus “The Great Dane” Hansen, Mike “The Mouth” Matuso, Johnny “Orient Express” Chan and Phil “Poison” Ivey. All these names carry their own health warning with the old Muhammad Ali strategy of having your opponent half way to defeat before he even steps into a contest with you. So if your name is Sid Limpwongler, you might want to consider a replacement for tournaments at least.
