The world of professional poker is populated by colorful characters, and many of them have been branded with cool and sometimes not so cool nicknames. Max Shapiro has written a nice piece for Wsop.com where he takes a look at some of the most famous nicks and their origins. Here's a recap with some additions by us.


Many players' nicknames derive from their birthplaces or places where they used to live:

Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson - Doyle is from Texas, of course, and "Dolly" came about when another old road gambler, Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder mispronounced his first name.

Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston - the Main Event champion from Amarillo, Texas is in his 80's but still as slim as ever. His autobiography is memorably titled "Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People".

Paul "Eskimo" Clark - used to live in Alaska.

Carlos "El Matador" Mortensen - was actually born in Ecuador, but moved to Spain with his parents as a teenager.

Other popular way to get a nickname is through former occupation:

Bryan "Sailor" Roberts - the old partner of Doyle and Slim used to be in the US Navy.

Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari - tried to build a career in magic before turning to poker.

Men "The Master" Nguyen - has tutored lots of Vietnamese players who started calling him their "Master".

Howard "The Professor" Lederer - while he comes from an academic family he never had a university career and is reportedly not so fond of his nickname.

And of course, lots of players are nicknamed for their physical or character traits or playing style:

John "World" Hennigan - has not lived all over the world, but mainly in Las Vegas where he is reportedly ready to bet on "anything in the world".

Phil "The Poker Brat" Hellmuth - the 11-time bracelet winner has made a lucrative brand of himself and many people believe his famous tantrums are just part of the show.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow - he just won't shut up.

David "Devilfish" Ulliott - devil fish (pictured) is a 5,000-pound beast from the deep seas and just as aggressive as its' namesake at the poker tables.

Phil "The Unabomber" Laak - his hooded figure at the table reminded people of the FBI sketches of the infamous letter-bomb man Ted "Unabomber" Kaczynski.

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - long-haired and bearded, isn't he the spitting image of how Jesus was traditionally portrayed in art?

Jack "Treetop" Strauss - the 6-foot-7 (201 cm) world champion presumably could reach to the top of the trees.

Johnny "The Orient Express" Chan - his nickname is hardly ever used anymore, but it was given to him by one of his fellow players back in the 80's when he busted players with lightning speed at a final table in a tournament.

Greg "The Fossilman" Raymer - uses a fossil as card protector.

"Action" Dan Harrington - famous for his tight playing style - though in reality he's capable of many moves and just likes to emphasise the image people have of him as a tight player.

What about our esteemed Coinflip pros?

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies - we lost count of how many times we've been asked about the nickname. Ilari says it's just an invented word for "sleep" that his friends used, like in "I'll take some ziigmund" meaning "I'll take a nap". It's not a common phrase in Finnish, so no one outside Ilari's circle of friends would know what it means.

Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro - because of the vaguely German sounding nickname that he used on online poker sites, it was actually rumoured for a long time that the player is a German living in Finland - which of course Sami isn't. He's now a Finn living in Monaco with his poker winnings earned as LarsLuzak.

Jens "Jeans" Kyllönen - "I don't even remember where I got it from. I guess it just comes from my first name," Jeans says.

Incidentally, if you don't have a poker nickname yet, go here to create yourself one.

Source: WSOP.