After I heard concerning the Feb. 10 passing of John Cernuto, at age 81, I used to be bummed to see one other poker legend biting the mud. I additionally realized that I had all the time considered him purely as ‘Miami’ John and could be hard-pressed to give you his final title off the highest of my head.
In fact, that bought me desirous about poker nicknames, who has them, how they bought them, and why they’re necessary. Within the case of Cernuto – who held the document for event cashes with almost 600 – I’m undecided how a lot the man needed to do with Miami, having been born in New Jersey. (He did develop up in Miami and labored as an air site visitors controller earlier than transferring to Las Vegas for poker.)
He instructed Card Participant that his nickname originated by way of a younger woman, with whom he had been partying at Sam’s City, paging him within the Stardust poker site. Pre-cellphone, it came visiting the loudspeaker thusly: “Line 1 cellphone name for Miami John Child Doll.”
As he put it to our author, “I dropped the Child Doll.”
Apparently, I’m in good firm having not remembered the final title of the person who used his nickname when he entered Amarillo Slim’s Tremendous Bowl of Poker in 1988. ‘Miami’ John aced the event, reportedly shedding solely two pots, marking his first of many massive wins.
“It was like magic,” he mentioned. “So I saved the title. I didn’t need to tempt destiny.”
It looks like each old fashioned poker participant value his salt had a nickname. Some for good cause – Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow and Phil ‘Poker Brat’ Hellmuth each earned their monikers by way of explosive conduct on the desk.
Some as a result of they caught themselves with the handles taking part in on-line poker – Durrr, OMG Clay Aiken, and good2cu had been on-line identifiers for teenaged Tom Dwan, Phil Galfond, and Andrew Robl, respectively.
Although Thomas Preston, higher referred to as Amarillo Slim, would finally grow to be notorious for doing the fallacious factor – late in life, he confronted a cost of indecency – he did have the correct rationalization for his nickname.
“I’m so skinny that I appear like the advance man for a famine,” he mentioned.
My recollection is that the nice author Nik Cohn penned that time period to explain his title character within the compelling ebook King Loss of life. Ever the angle-shooter, Slim probably nicked it from Nik.
I all the time dug Isabelle ‘No Mercy’ Mercier, John ‘Luckbox’ Juanda, and Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Laak.
Laak scored his nickname for a trademark tendency to put on shades and conceal his face below a hoodie. Norm Macdonald tried to popularize ‘Unabombshell’ for Phil’s shapely girlfriend Jennifer Tilly, nevertheless it by no means caught.
Making a nickname stick is hard. I as soon as tried it by way of a narrative I did for the previous UK journal Poker Participant. I had an entire raft of nicknames to placed on gamers – my favourite was Leo ‘Spanish Fly’ Margets – and ran them previous Norman ‘Chatty’ Chad, hoping for his blessing. Taking part in alongside, the WSOP commentator trashed all of them and refused to assist me popularize them. It made for a enjoyable article.
As for myself, I can’t say that I personally have a poker nickname (although I did play on FullTilt as Stung2; Stung, with no quantity, was coined/taken by my brother and designed to make folks consider Stu Ungar).
However I do have one thing of a on line casino benefit play nickname.
Following my temporary stint taking part in with the grasp AP James Grosjean (it was a gambit in Oklahoma, the place the on line casino used playing cards as an alternative of cube for the taking part in of craps), one among his companions, Bobby “Bullet” Sanchez, took to calling me ‘Kappy.’ The nickname caught and Grosjean named one among his top-secret performs after me.
I don’t know what the play is, however that’s okay. On the subject of nicknames, we take what we are able to get and embrace them.
Michael Kaplan is a journalist based mostly in New York Metropolis. He’s the writer of 5 books (“The Benefit Gamers” out quickly) and has labored for publications that embrace Wired, GQ and the New York Put up. He has written extensively on know-how, playing, and enterprise — with a specific curiosity in spots the place all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Solar and Phil Ivey is at present in growth as a characteristic movie.
