When you start playing poker online it is a pre-requisite that you give yourself a name that the other poker players can refer to.It may seem like a trivial matter to choose yourself an online poker name, but in actual fact if you choose this detail carefully it can potentially give you a psychological advantage against the other players on your table.

Poker is a game of skill, luck and bluff so if you can gain any type of psychological advantage over other players you should go for it. Now conventional wisdom would suggest that you pick an online poker name that could portray you in a certain way to the other players. For example, a player that decides to call himself “All-In-Bob” would want the other players to think that he was a loose, aggressive player that favours the all-in move. Whereas the reality will likely be that this name has been chosen to give the impression of a loose player, but in fact the players’ natural game is the complete opposite and the name was chosen to try to bamboozle his opponents. Generally speaking, this is the trap that most beginners will fall into.

Remember that players will often play in many poker rooms online and will usually use the same user name in each one. If you are serious about building up a persona as an online poker player you do not want to give your opponents any type of read on you. It is pointless trying to give yourself a macho or dainty poker user name if you are in it for the long haul. Try to go with something as neutral (including gender neutral) as possible so there is no chance of anyone getting any type of read on you as a player at all. After all do you want to be referred to as “MsPokerFairy” for the rest of your online poker playing career?