The Bat Cave

At the moment, this page is mostly for my own reference. I’m not going to announce that it even exists yet. However, if you happen to find your way here, I do plan to flesh out all these names. Why I named these players, where I see them, and why I used the nickname. Stay tuned.

Animal

Classification: Maniac
Locations: Palace semi-regular, Caesars Palace tournament crusher
Games: PLO, 8/16 and 15/30 LHE
Nickname Origin: It’s just such an obvious name for a maniac. He plays like a total animal. There isn’t much rhyme or reason to it. He raises an absurd amount of hand preflop and does very little folding. His postflop game is a bit more subdued, but he doesn’t come to the casino to fold. Drinking is usually a big part of his table persona.
Status: Active

Aquaman

Classification: Long-time friend, tight-aggressive (TAG)
Locations: All Star Lanes regular, Palace blue mooner
Games: 4/8 LHE
Nickname Origin: Aquaman spends more time on the water fishing, crabbing, and shrimping than anyone I know. He plays a decent amount of poker during the fall and winter, but during spring and summer, he’s basically MIA. The character of Aquaman is actually very friendly to sea creatures and this Aquaman is more interested is all about capturing them for profit and personal consumption. I guess he’s more of an evil or alternate universe Aquaman. I gave this nickname before giving names was something I did. I basically never see him in a poker room anymore, but every once in a while he’ll venture into Palace. We used to play together multiple times a week, but nowadays it might not happen multiple times a year.
Status: Active

Big Baby

Classification: super loose mega punter/calling station
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16, PLO, 15/30
Nickname Origin: I didn’t come up with this and if I did, it would be because the guy was a huge whiner, but even then… Big Baby? No, this is what the guy himself goes by at the casino. And he’s actually a total class act and super nice dude. If everyone carried themselves like he did at the table, the poker world would be a much better place. I feel sort of foul for not protecting his anonymity, especially since he’s a massive producer, but anyone that makes grown adults call them “Big Baby” deserves some sort of punishment. I legit cringe every time I hear a dealer say, “thanks, Big Baby” when they get tipped by him.
Status: Active

Billy Dubz

Classification: adept loose-aggressive (LAG)
Locations: Muckleshoot regular, tournament regular, travels
Games: 3/5 NL, 5/10 NL, 20/40 O8, PLO, all tournaments
Nickname Origin: Billy Dubz is well known for his work in the area helping addicts in recovery. He owns a treatment center and multiple sober living homes. It’s actually really awesome what he does for the Seattle community. You can check out Battlefield Addiction and read all about his work. I truly admire him. As a recovering alcoholic myself, we usually find something to talk about at the tables. Bill W. was one of the founding fathers of Alcoholics Anonymous and this nickname evolved from Bill W. to a more fluid and hip Billy Dubz.
Status: Active

Bingo Man

Classification: loose, passive and stationy, but can be maniacal at times
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16, occasionally bigger
Nickname Origin: This is one created by the player pool at Palace and not by me. It’s common to hear the lower stakes limit hold’em games called bingo games because so many people see the flop every hand and there are lots of loose calls and horrible suckouts. The suggestion is that luck, more so than skill, is the predominant factor in winning in these small stakes games (it’s not). Bingo Man has definitely shown down more than his fair share of “bingos” and happily owns this moniker bestowed upon him.
Status: Very Active

Blackjack

Classification: loose, aggressive, sticky
Locations: Palace Reg, but branches out to Fortune and Muckleshoot sometimes
Games: 4/8 but… he randomly pops into games as big as 20/40 and PLO
Nickname Origin: Not my best work. It’s simply a play on his actual name. If he ever started playing in the same games as me on a regular basis, I would consider an upgrade.
Status: Very Active

Black Turtle

Classification: A little loose and aggressive
Locations: Palace, Vegas
Games: 4/8, 8/16, 15/30, tournaments
Nickname Origin: This nickname was pre-existing within a circle of friends, some of which live in Las Vegas now. I was told that the Black Turtle slowly accumulates chips and sneaks up on you. I was also told by Black Turtle himself that he’s never had a losing month of poker in his life… because, you know, that’s something he thinks people would actually believe.
Status: He’s pretty inactive. He spends a decent amount of time in Las Vegas, but even when he’s local, he doesn’t seem to play much poker.

The Buffet

Classification: Spewy Maniac
Locations: Palace
Games: 15/30, 8/16
Nickname Origin: This player accidentally named himself. For whatever reason, he really loves giving me, in particular, lots of action, and one day he motioned forward like he was offering up all his chips to me and said, “all you can eat” and I no longer had to think of what I wanted to call him. There are times where I’ve seen The Buffet play relatively decent, but his steam factor is incredibly high and it doesn’t take much to set him off and once he becomes unhinged, it seems like that’s how he really prefers to play. He’s quiet and boring when he’s playing on the tighter side, but he’s bubbling over with personality and laughing a lot when he’s playing like a crazy person.
Status: Non-Regular

Bulletproof

Classification: very loose and aggressive, possibly maniacal
Locations: Fortune, house games, rare Palace appearances
Games: 20/40 LHE, mix games, some PLO
Nickname Origin: This one was created by a group of guys we play house games with. For fun, I decided to run the Donkey Tracker app while screen mirroring my phone screen to the TV in the room, so everyone could see their preflop stats. This guy was running at some pretty extreme numbers, playing by far the most hands out of anyone in the game. Of course, we started giving him shit for his absurdly loose tendencies and that made someone say something about “tapping the glass,” as in the glass of the fish bowl. For those that aren’t poker savvy, “tapping the glass” implies that someone is educating a fish or letting them know about their mistakes. In this case, we determined that this player’s glass was bulletproof and we could say whatever we wanted and he was going to keep playing the same style.
Status: Active

BVR

Classification: Can play LAG and maniacal, but is capable of switching gears to a tighter style
Locations: Palace
Games: 15/30, bigger tournaments
Nickname Origin: Just a play on his real name. I’ve known BVR since the 3rd grade, but he’s not much of a regular in local poker games. I might see him a couple times a year.
Status: Non-Regular

Charlie Hustle

Classification: loose-passive pre, nitty post
Locations: Palace
Games: PLO
Nickname Origin: This guy is a hit and run artist. He brings his wife to the casino with him and uses her as an excuse to leave the game if he happens to win around $500, no matter how short or long he’s been playing. I’ve literally seen him rack up and leave after 20 minutes if he meets his goal. I’ve also seen him make his poor wife wait around for HOURS if he’s losing. He is also a big collector of baseball memorabilia. I came up with a lackluster name for this guy initially, but someone connected the hit and run and baseball themes and suggested Pete Rose’s nickname of Charlie Hustle. I thought it was perfect. Charlie Hustle is one of the more smug and arrogant players I’ve encountered and he’s quickly become one of my least favorite regulars. Someone I legitimately enjoy watching lose.
Status: Active

Chief Wiggum

Classification: mostly loose and passive, but postflop aggression is usually nutted
Locations: Palace
Games: 15/30, 10/20 straddle, 8/16
Nickname Origin: He looks and talks like the the police chief on “The Simpson” I actually have a lot more to say about Chief Wiggum, but he has requested as much anonymity as possible and my knee caps are on the line.
Status: Active

ChowMein

Classification: very adept loose-aggressive that can look like a maniac; a future WSOP bracelet winner
Locations: Muckleshoot, tournament regular, travels
Games: 20/40 O8
Nickname Origin: I’ve been crossing paths with ChowMein at various tournament stops (Pendleton, Muckleshoot, WSOP) for around a decade now and it seems like our poker careers have traveled a somewhat similar trajectory: from trying to break through on a more local level ten years ago to making multiple runs at WSOP final tables over the last few years. We’ve been within a few spots of each other on Washington state’s all-time money list for a while now, but ChowMein leveled up with a 3rd place showing in the $10k buy-in Omaha 8/Better event at the 2018 WSOP. We used to just exchange pleasantries and head nods, but this past year we’ve actually gotten to know each other and keep in contact. I learned that his online poker name used to be ChowMein and decided to use that as his blog nickname because I formerly just referred to him by his real name. There are a handful of players from the Puget Sound area looking to be the state’s next bracelet winner and ChowMein is definitely one of the top contenders.
Status: Active

Cobra

Classification: mostly tight and solid but can be unpredictable
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16
Nickname Origin: Actually, I’m not sure I know. Maybe I’ve asked before, but I don’t remember the answer if I did. He just walked in one day and boarded himself as Cobra. I guess he was a regular at Palace before my time and suddenly he was back again. I have to admit, I thought it was ludicrous that someone could go around calling themselves Cobra, but he owned it and totally grew on me over time. Now I can’t imagine calling him anything else. I actually roomed with him for a good portion of the 2017 World Series of Poker, but unfortunately, as of December 2018, he has been mostly MIA for the last 18 months.
Status: He’s baaaaaack! (as of February 2019)

The Crypt Keeper

Classification: very loose and aggro but adept and dangerous
Locations: Palace, Muckleshoot, travels
Games: PLO, 20/40 O8, big games at WSOP
Nickname Origin: I previously named one of my friends The Crypt Keeper because he was big into investing in crypto currencies, but then I saw this actual Crypt Keeper doppelganger and I knew I had to make a switch – especially since my buddy doesn’t play very much. Yeah, I know… it’s kind of mean, but sometimes it just has to be that way. I also thought it was a fitting name because The Crypt Keeper has a tendency to accumulate a lot of chips and then lock them down – or keep them in the crypt one might say. I’ve only played LO8 with him once and it didn’t leave much of an impression, but I’ve seen him play that game as big as 75/150 in Vegas. In PLO, he plays way too loose and aggressive than is game theory optimal (GTO), but he no doubt has a very good exploitative style. He is constantly in there attacking the loose money and making sure he has a better chance at it than anyone else. I would say he’s probably the toughest PLO player I’ve encountered in the PNW so far.
Status: Active

Curious George

Classification: insanely loose, sometimes aggressive, and makes some of the weirdest bluffs and calls you’ll ever see
Locations: Palace
Games: 15/30, 8/16
Nickname Origin: There are some physical resemblances, particularly the fact that he is hairier than the average person, especially along his arms. Combine that with the fact that he is never folding with any piece of the board on any street for any amount. He is never going to stay awake at night wondering if he folded the best hand.
Status: Inactive. As of December 2018, I haven’t seen him in at least half a year. Not one time. And I didn’t see him before he started coming in late last year, so he might be off gambling entirely.

Dansby Swanson

Classification: Tight, aggressive, a little nitty and predictable
Locations: Palace, Fortune
Games: 20/40, 15/30, 8/16
Nickname Origin: I sort of borrowed this concept and then gave it my own twist. Sgt. Rock is a player at Fortune that has his own blog and this post about his Atlanta Braves concept inspired the nickname here. In fact, he refers to this same player as “Atlanta Braves starting shortstop and leadoff hitter” and I just started calling him Dansby Swanson, the current Braves shortstop, when he started coming into Palace.
Status: Inactive. Dansby was coming into Palace regularly during spring of 2018 but it has been many months since I’ve seen him and he’s not playing at Fortune either.

Daredevil

Classification: Maniac
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16
Nickname Origin: Daredevil seems like a pretty obvious nickname for a maniac. In addition, this player will frequently play entire hands blind, literally betting and raising the whole way and not looking until showdown and the superhero known as Daredevil is actually blind. It all fits.
Status: Inactive. Daredevil used to be a regular non-regular (someone that pops in every now and then) but seems to rarely play these days. He could be perm-barred for all I know (and he’s sure been close many times). I think I’ve only played with him a few times since red chips games became a regular thing at Palace.

The Dark Knight

Classification: Hero. This is me. I play poker for a living and while I think of myself primarily as a cash game player, I do dabble in tournaments and I have had more than my fair share of success in them. You can check out my poker resume here. If I had to classify myself as a player, it sort of depends on what game I’m playing and what the lineup looks like. I prefer to play loose-aggressive and watch for ways to exploit my opponents, but I can also play tight if it is called for. Generally, I think I have a very good feel on how to adjust to the current table dynamics.
Locations: Palace, Fortune, Muckleshoot, travels
Games: LHE: 8/16 up to 40/80; PLO: 1/3/5; O8: up to 20/40; Mix Games: up to 40/80; Tournaments: up to $1500 BI
Nickname Origin: Once upon a time, I thought of myself as an up-and-coming poker beast and humility wasn’t one of my strongest personality traits. I’m borderline embarrassed to link this post (I wrote it almost seven years ago), but this is when I officially became The Dark Knight. Basically, I thought I deserved a poker nickname and when I couldn’t come up with a good one on my own, someone suggested Dark Knight to me because I had been obsessed with all things Batman since Christopher Nolan’s 2008 classic and epic The Dark Knight, plus I could have a dark and brooding demeanor (when I was losing), much like The Caped Crusader. It’s a perfect fit and it has turned into what I had hoped it would when I first thought the concept up. I’m referred to as “Dark Knight,” “DK,” and “Batman” as much – or more – than my real name.
Status: Very active

Donald Duck

Classification: Sort of tight and solid, but on the passive side. Aggression on later streets is the nuts.
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16 and 15/30
Nickname Origin: After coming up with Huey, Dewey, and Louie for a trio of nitty Korean players, I decided to keep this player in the same animated animal species. I was tempted to call him Scrooge McDuck because he’s notably older than the other three, but I don’t think he’s filthy rich and he’s not hobbled, plus their Uncle Donald seemed like a better fit, especially after seeing him throw a classic Donald Duck-like temper tantrum after taking a bad beat. Plus, uh, sometimes it’s hard to understand what he’s saying.
Status: Very active

Dreamcrusher

Classification: sticky, loose maniac that plays well postflop
Locations: Fortune, Palace, Bellagio, Peppermill, WSOP
Games: 15/30 to 40/80 Limit Hold’em
Nickname Origin: Sometimes I don’t even have to come up with these on my own. This is player that comes down from Canada to play in Renton and sometimes in Lakewood, but I’ve also run into her in Nevada on multiple occasions as well. She is capable of raising any hand from any position – even at a full table – and is one of the most relentlessly aggressive LHE players I’ve encountered. I think she’s a bit of a maniac, but I also think that’s a discredit to her ability as she is tough to play against and knows how to navigate after the flop. Still, she has shocked me many times by turning over hands that literally stun me and sometimes she does this in quick succession and it can really hurt. I think she’s made me want to rage quit more than once and that’s an impressive feat considering I play with her only a few times a year. I wanted to give her a name that expressed her tendency to ruin people’s nights and she told me someone called her “Dreamcrusher” once and I was like, “absolutely, yes.”
Status: Active

Ducky

Classification: Loose, aggressive, sticky, splashy
Locations: Palace, Fortune
Games: 8/16, 15/30, 20/40, PLO
Nickname Origin: This one is two fold. This player used his real name to come up with “dinosaur” as his online poker name and I wanted to do something with that and I also wanted to keep him in the duck family since he’s Korean and all my recent nicknames for Korean players have been duck related. I settled on calling him Ducky, named after the tiny dinosaur from the long-running Land Before Time animated franchise. A dinosaur named Ducky? Seems like a good fit. Also, Ducky is said to be “outgoing and positive” (it’s been two decades since I’ve seen one of this movies – I’ll have to take their word for it) and this player is typically upbeat and friendly.
Status: Very active

Elmer

Classification: loose, passive, super sticky, donk bet master
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16, 15/30
Nickname Origin: This one stems from this player’s sticky nature in that he’s so sticky he’s like glue. If you are trying to bluff him, you are just going to torch money. Plus, he has a very happy-go-lucky and even disposition at the poker table whether he’s running uber-hot or getting crushed and when I look at this logo, I see his face. Another perfect fit.
Status: Elmer used to be a top regular at Palace and then he disappeared for many months, without even a single drop in. Interestingly enough, I have seen him twice in the last week (mid-January 2019), so maybe he’s back now.

FanBoy

Classification: Tight-aggressive, straight-forward
Locations: Fortune, Palace, Travels
Games: 15/30 up to 60/120
Nickname Origin: I previously called this player Kung Fu Panda, but after hearing someone else call him FanBoy, I knew I liked that better. Apparently that name stems from this guy wearing a small, portable fan around his neck while he’s playing poker and that’s fine, but when I think of FanBoy, it sounds to me like an overzealous fan of someone or something. There is no one player this guy seems to worship, but I like the derogatory nature of that implication and since this guy is a friend of mine, I want to it to have a more demeaning intent.
Status: Very active

Fang

Classification: loose, aggressive, unpredictable, sometimes maniacal
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16 and 15/30
Nickname Origin: Fang is part of the Shark Tooth Mafia. Have you ever seen someone wearing an animal’s fang as a necklace? That’s what this is all about. I’m not judging or saying there’s anything wrong with it, I’m just creating a nickname gang because imagining these players as part of a crew is kind of hilarious to me. Currently the Shark Tooth Mafia only has two members and right now I would consider Fang to be the evil twin brother of Tusk, a regular at Fortune that might be one of the biggest nits in the greater Puget Sound area.
Status: Active

FBI Guy

Classification: loose, passive, confused
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16 and sometimes 15/30
Nickname Origin: It’s pretty simple. This guy used to work for the FBI. He also has a seasonal home next to Batman somewhere in Montana. Well, Michael Keaton. The most amazing thing about FBI Guy is that this former federal agent is one of the most aloof people I’ve ever played poker with. I remember the first time I played with him, I was sitting on his immediate right and he had his cell phone on the table next to him, basically sitting right in front of me. I didn’t say anything. I wanted to see how long he could completely violate my bubble without noticing. At one point I even put my arms on the table so that my left arm was physically covering part of his phone. Nothing. This was just the tip of the iceberg. FBI Guy regularly acts out of turn and constantly plays like he’s the only person in the game. And he’s not even being rude – he’s a super nice guy – he just has no clue. It’s really quite amazing and it blows my mind to think of him trying to operate in the field and having zero awareness of his surroundings.
Status: Been a while since I’ve seen him. He might be hanging out with the real fake Batman right now.
Update: FBI Guy was spotted this past weekend (February 2019)!

Flea

Classification: loose, aggressive, sticky, bluffy, clueless
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16 and 15/30
Nickname Origin: I have named some of the most annoying players after the tiny insects that burrow into your skin or are constantly biting you. I have a Flea, a Tick, I used to have a Gnat (that player got upgraded), and I’m sure I’ll have a Mosquito one day. Flea is probably one of the most annoying regulars at Palace these days. He basically does all the things at the table you can think of that might irritate you: he takes way too much time with almost every decision, he pump fakes, I’ve seen him angle shoot, I’ve seen him slow roll many times – one of his favorite moves is to shake his head after you call him on the river like he just got picked off and then sort of wait for you to roll your hand and slooooowwwwly turn over what is basically the nuts. He started a 3-handed game with Radio Mike and me and quit us after he won $800 in about 20 minutes. Despicable. Is it his right to do so? Sure. Is it a total chicken shit and shady move? Absolutely. I’d never start a short game with him again. Flea is incredibly obnoxious but he’s also become one of the top producers at Palace and is someone I always want in my game. There are people I play with regularly that are legit pieces of shit and it might sound like I’m describing one here, but, at his core, I think Flea is a good dude that has no idea how much of a douche he acts like at a poker table.
Status: Super active

Flexxx

Classification: hyper LAG, Will Kasouf levels of rambling
Locations: Muckleshoot, Fortune, travels
Games: Tournament regular
Nickname Origin: I actually don’t know where the nickname Flexxx comes from. This is one that everyone knows. He’s one of the most obnoxious people I’ve ever played poker with. He never stops talking trash at the table and he really does make your life difficult as an opponent. Not only does he specialize in speech play, but he makes sure that every single pot goes through him first. It’s a total pain. And I have to say it really works for him. He has had a lot of success in all the bigger tournaments in the Puget Sound area and has arguably been the most consistent winner in them over the last half decade. But then this happened and now, in an unrelated offense, he has gotten himself perm-barred from Muckleshoot. I don’t really know the details on that, but I suspect I won’t be running into him locally now because Muckleshoot was the place I’d usually see him.
Status: No idea if/where he’s playing now

Flipper

Classification: tight-solid or loose-aggressive
Locations: Fortune, travels
Games: 1/3 up to 5/10 no limit Hold’em
Nickname Origin: I used to call Flipper The Atom because I wanted all my poker-playing friends to be named after Justice League members, but I never really liked it and then this past summer something magical happened: for whatever reason, when Flipper met Tormund he said he goes by “Lil Flip,” which is literally something I’ve never heard anyone call him in 5+ years of knowing him. Of course, this led to much ridicule and eventually Tormund equated his laugh to a dolphin and suddenly Flipper was born and it is a perfectly great fit. We used to play together all the time at All Star Lanes, but rarely sit at the same table now because he plays almost all his hours in no limit games and at Fortune.
Status: Active

Frankenstein

Classification: unpredictable LAG; splashy
Locations: Palace, Muckleshoot, some travel
Games: 8/16 to 15/30 LHE; 1/3 to 3/5 NLHE; NLHE tournaments
Nickname Origin: I’ve always thought the guy has given off a bit of a vacant and aloof vibe and seems to have difficulty with multi-tasking, plus he’s a large dude. So… I thought of a big, dumb monster and here we are. He’s not an actual lunkhead but it’s fun to think he is.
Status: Non-regular

Free Throw

Classification: Tight-solid long time pro
Locations: Fortune, travels
Games: 20/40 up to 60/120 LHE
Nickname Origin: He’s actually known in the Puget Sound poker world by another nickname but 90% of his conversations are about shooting free throws. The other 10% are about Eminem. It’s pretty amazing. You think today is finally going to be the day that he won’t talk about shooting free throws and then it happens… and it goes on for the next hour. I’ll admit I’ve egged him on, but once you get him started there’s no stopping the juggernaut. Even when he knows you’re trolling him he still can’t help himself. Shock.
Status: Active

Game Genie

Classification: Loose, passive, weird
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16 and 15/30
Nickname Origin: This guy was a regular when the 15/30 game first started and he seemed to have my number for the longest time. If you’re not familiar with what Game Genie is, it was a cheat cartridge you could attach to your Nintendo games back in the 90s that would allow all sorts of advantages like infinite lives or invincibility. Stuff like that. Well, this guy was walking around on water against and it felt like he was getting his cheat code on. But… reality caught up and now I haven’t seen him in a game in many, many months.
Status: MIA

Gaston

Classification: Mostly tight and solid but can be unpredictable and tricky
Locations: Fortune, Commerce, Bellagio
Games: 20/40 up to 80/160
Nickname Origin: I’ve never played with anyone as self-promoting as Gaston. 95% of the things he says is about how awesome he is. I’m honestly curious if he is even capable of normal human interaction. The first time he sat next to me, he was showing me pictures of his past chip stacks for like 15 minutes straight. I was looking around the table for help like, “is this really happening to me right now?” I’ve seen him pull up the camera roll on his phone and of the 20 or so pictures you can see at one time, every single one of them was of a chip stack. How vain can you be? Gaston is the villain in Disney’s Beauty & The Beast and if you’re familiar at all with those movies, it’s easy to see how I came up with this name. Gaston is also the first person to read my blog – after requesting a nickname, no less – and be pissed about it. Like, bro, you actually asked me to do this. Get over it.
Status: Active

The Godfather

Classification: loose and aggressive, knowledgeable, tilty
Locations: All Star Lanes
Games: 4/8
Nickname Origin: Honestly, I’m not sure how accurate any of the above is. This player got this nickname because, back before and during my All Star Lanes days, he used to wander into poker rooms and do a lot of watching and not a lot of playing. Someone along the way started calling him The Godfather because it was like he was coming in for no other reason than to make sure the dealers were dropping that rake down the hole. Not that he was getting a cut of it. We were just making fun of the fact that he was constantly on the rail and never in a game. I think he plays a bit more nowadays, at higher stakes too, but I still don’t ever play with him.
Status: Active?

Godzilla

Classification: loose and aggressive, sticky, knowledgeable, tricky
Locations: All Star Lanes, Palace, Japan
Games: 4/8, 8/16
Nickname Origin: I wanted to name this player after a tyrannosaurus rex because his arms seem really short compared to the rest of his body and while Godzilla isn’t exactly a T-Rex, I think the name is still plenty applicable. It’s fitting in other ways also, as Godzilla is known for decimating buildings of chip stacks and causing all sorts of havoc on the landscape of a poker table with his sometimes absurdly aggressive style. I wouldn’t say he breathes fire on his opponents, but he’s left many an empty seat, smoking in the wake of his destruction. Godzilla has also been known for long periods of hibernation in between his appearances. I’ve probably been running into (and sometimes away from) Godzilla at poker tables for 10+ years now, as we are both from the Kitsap area.
Status: Hibernating, but the earth has been rumbling with hints of an upcoming sequel.

Green River Gary

Classification: Seems nitty or tight/solid, but I’ve seen him play aggressively
Locations: Muckleshoot
Games: Tournaments
Nickname Origin: The dude has such a resemblance to Gary Ridgway, The Green River Killer (a local serial murder that confessed to 49 homicides committed in the King County area), that I had to double check to make sure Ridgway was still locked up in Walla Walla (he is). This player actually gets comments on his appearance often enough that it seems to annoy him when someone brings it up. It makes you wonder… it is possible that Ridgway has family that still lives in this area, possibly under new names. Maybe this is his brother?
Status: This player is still active… the real Green River Gary is not.

Grumpy

Classification: loose and passive dickwad
Locations: Palace
Games: 4/8 and 8/16
Nickname Origin: I’ve been playing at Palace regularly for over 4+ years now and Grumpy is one of the most unpleasant people I’ve ever played with. His entire table presence is built on a being a whiny asshole. He berates other players and is constantly blaming the dealers for his bad luck. Of course this asshole will make random attempts at being pleasant when he’s running good, but he’s not fooling anyone. I’ve played with plenty of people that are horrible losers but have other redeemable qualities… Grumpy is not one of them. Scum.
Status: Active, but he’s not a high volume player and I basically never play at his table anymore.

His Royal Airness

Classification: all-time maniac
Locations: Palace, Fortune
Games: 8/16, 15/30, 20/40, PLO
Nickname Origin: The name is a play off this guy’s real name but mostly it comes from the fact he has more air in his range than almost anyone I’ve ever played with. This dude has never been a high volume guy, always popping in sporadically over the years, but I’ve still seen him check-raise the river as a bluff substantially more times than the next closest person. There is no play off the table with His Royal Airness and he’s made every game he’s ever sat in an A+ lineup. My first time ever playing PLO, I had 77xx on A7x rainbow vs His Airness early in the session and got all the money in on the flop. He had AA and I rivered a 7 to make quads. It’s such an epic hand in the history of Palace poker because if I got stacked that early in my first PLO session ever, I probably would have quit and I’m not sure I would have ever played again. At the time, I felt the game was too big for me to learn at. I wanted a $3bb game and it ended up being $5 to come in. If I lose that hand and quit playing, there’s a decent chance the game fizzles out after a few weeks. Instead, I’ve been one of two pillars that game has been built around since Day One, over 2.5 years ago… and it’s all because I would never, ever, NEVER consider folding middle set against the bluffiest player to ever live.
Status: I believe he said he was moving, but I’ve still seen him from time to time in 2019.

Harry Caray

Classification: tight and nitty until alcohol turns him into a maniac punter
Locations: Palace
Games: 8/16, 15/30, PLO
Nickname Origin: This guy has been a regular in red chip games over the past year and he’s quite the character so this name was a bit overdue, but I just didn’t have anything special in mind. He disappeared from the table for a bit one night and someone mentioned the play-by-play guy, referencing the fact that when he’s loaded up on booze he never stops rambling and is constantly talking about the action, even though a) it’s inappropriate and b) no one is listening to him. So I started thinking of famous broadcasters to name him after and decided to call him Drunk Harry Caray, but I have since been told I was being redundant because Harry Caray is apparently infamous for going on the air intoxicated.
Status: Active

Hit&Run

Huey, Dewey and Louie

The Human Torch

Humpty Dumpty

The Invisible Man

Iron Man

Jesus

John Stockton

Joker

The King of Pop

Kirby

The Leak

The Legend

Logan

Magica De Spell

The Man

Marlo

Master Splinter
“He’s soft-spoken and generally full of wisdom… in that he’s usually trying to convince you why he’s doing the right poker thing… he’s always teaching… his boring ways.”

Megaphone

Mighty Mouse

Minh Cash

Mister Magoo

Mr. Freeze

Mr. Plow

PussInBoots

The Queen

Radio Mike

Rain Man

The Riddler

Rocksteady

Rosanne

Sandman

Santa Claus

Scarecrow

Scrappy Doo

Sgt. Rock

Shit Man

Slimer

Solomon Grundy

Speed Racer

Super Dave

Taz

The Tick

Tormund

Tusk

Two Face

Uncle Leroy

Villain

Vinny