When you sign up for an online poker site, you are always asked to pick a screen name and an avatar. An avatar is an image or character meant to represent you in the online casino. When you look at the screen it is your chosen avatar that plays your hand. Some days I get sick of playing poker with cartoon sharks, fluffy white puppies and 1930s spy movie characters. But are these annoying images meant to be just that? Annoying?

I guess I’m boring. My avatar kinda looks like me. You know in Yahoo or Facebook where you can create a digital version of yourself by picking hair and eye color, clothing and skin color? Well I try and make the digital me look as much like the real me as possible. I’m all for truth online and don’t see any reason to hide. So I choose “boring” avatars that look like real people.  Am I wrong?

All these strange choices we see in the casinos, from dogs and cats to movie stars and aliens, make me wonder what are people thinking? I’m not a big fan of the whole role playing thing and don’t see the Internet as a place to act out fantasies. A blogger’s job is to research, observe and share not pretend to be an alien from a 1950s B movie while I decide whether I’m going to check or fold.

But I spend a large portion of my time staring at those fanciful avatars and reading those silly screen names and I can’t say it does my poker game any good. I certainly don’t claim to be a great player (still adjusting to online virtual rather than back room real) but I don’t think wondering why people want to portray themselves as hobbits, aliens and wizards is helping much either.

It’s such a distraction for me and I think that may be the point. Your avatar in the gaming world isn’t perhaps the same type of avatar you would use under other social networking circumstances. The poker player’s avatar is not meant to be realistic, it’s meant to confuse, puzzle or intimidate.

Think carefully about which avatar you choose for your online poker play and make sure you go out of your way to distract your opponents from the game. It will help you with your strategic play and help them with their concentration skills. A win win situation then I guess.

So I should be thanking all the hobbits and sharks? Hmmm….