How to pick your poker screen name

When you pick your poker screen name, you might be stuck with it for a very long time. So pick something that resonates with you or is funny. It’s pretty simple. Ben Sulsky (smart guy), picked “Prtectyaneck”. I’d originally thought this was a typically aggressive pick to instill fear at the table, but you have to remember that Mr. Sulsky is a very smart man. It’s mainly a cultural reference to the Wu Tang Clan’s 1992 album “Protect your neck”.

Another musical artist referenced, but for different reasons, is Clay Aiken. Phil Galfond plays high stakes poker under the pseudonym “OMGCLAYAIKEN”. Phil has a reputation as one of the more thoughtful players and coaches online and his process for picking a screen name was no different. Per Wikipedia, “he chose “OMGClayAiken” as the antithesis of the “macho” screen names that are prevalent in online poker in hopes that other players would be embarrassed to lose to him.”

Other players have taken after the concept of taking celebrity names and altering them to better suit the poker table. Favorites include: Elon Mucks, Oj Limpson, Ellen Degenerate,Woody Allin and Paul Openfold.

The other road one can go down of course, is the juvenile practice of scraping by the censors of the site you are playing on, with names that may seem legitimate to non-native speakers. This may not guarantee success however.

Then you have names which are funny because they are a little taboo.Bit juvenile again, however they can be deployed in fiendish ways. By example, Jonathan Karmalakis has over $6 million in online winnings. His screen name is XMONSTERxDONGX — making this a very effective sandbag maneuver.

And finally there are the names which become funnier when paired with the appropriate avatar.

Whichever road you decide to go down, choose carefully. You might be stuck with the screen name for a while. Who knows, if its funny someone might write an article about it.