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Screen Names and Icons in Online Poker

An interesting fact of online poker is that you have the ability to select your own icon and screen name to represent you on your particular poker site. Online poker is marked by the absence of physical tells, so any information that you can gain on your opponents to get an edge in the online game is extremely helpful. For this reason, you may want to examine the issue of screen names and icons more closely.

Icons in Online Poker
The icon, or avatar, is the graphic symbol on a poker site that represents you at the poker table. What kind of avatar you will have will depend on the online poker site you have chosen. On some sites, like PokerStars, you choose your own avatar by downloading a picture into your account. On others, like Full Tilt Poker, you have a selection of avatars to choose from. On PartyPoker, your avatar is determined by where you sit at the table, and some sites have no avatars after all, just a screen name and a chip count.

What can be gleaned from an avatar also varies. Players with an avatar representing their favorite sports team are often very competitive and in many cases like to gamble it up. An avatar with a picture of the player's children may represent a more thoughtful player, a more conservative player or both. Just as with live play, your initial impressions should be tempered by your actual observations, but an icon can sometimes give you a place to start.

Screen Names in Online Poker
The best way to benefit from an opponent's screen name is simply to remember it so you can take advantage of tendencies you have learned in the past when you face this player. The site will help you do this by allowing you to add the player to your buddy list and keep on-screen notes on the player. You may be able to gain other information based on a screen name but it is not always reliable. A player named GusHansenRocks may be a very loose, aggressive player who likes to bluff or he may just wish he were. A player nicknamed ICallEverything is probably not a calling station and is more likely simply exhibiting a variation of the strong-means-weak tell, trying to broadcast the exact opposite of the truth. As with icons, you should only use screen name information as a baseline, and make your determinations about a player based on the actual play of hands.

Your Own Icon and Screen Name
The value of creating an icon and screen name designed to confuse or deceive opponents is limited, especially after you have played with a lot of the same players. Even after that deception value is gone you will be stuck with the handle or avatar. Therefore it is probably better to create an icon and screen name you will be comfortable with, one that instills confidence and makes you happy to see it on the site. Hopefully this will help you focus and play skilled poker, which is what it's really all about.