We’re starting to get towards the business end of the ANZPT Melbourne Main Event. The big screen is about to tick under 100 players left for the first time, and when players look up and see that milestone, they will know that things are about to get serious.
As tables break and new line ups are formed, they will be confronted with an increasing number of quality players. They’ll also probably have some pretty big stacks. Just wandering the room now, we couldn’t help but notice the dominance of the online brigade. The young guns out to make their mark on the live poker scene. And if they start to get some chips, watch out everyone else.
So who are these online phenoms and what are their names?
Well first we have the group who clearly chose their online names based on their own real life names or initials. Perfectly reasonable, even if a tad boring. But just because Baza88, Lynskey99, brett_threat, Eddy and mjw006 have nitty online usernames, doesn’t mean their game is equally tight.
At the next level up, there’s some creativity behind Knightsgee, Jackovich and WhiteRabbito. A group with names that have a little bit of mystery, and some intrigue to the story of their background.
Finally there a group with usernames that probably raise a few eyebrows. Usernames that are part amusing, part disturbing. A story probably better left untold. We’re talking about the likes of Banana Thief, Tiny_molester, SkunkDen and MON3Y$HOT.
These guys are all still alive in the ANZPT Melbourne Main Event, but the one who has the biggest stack of them all is GooGieMonA.
GooGieMonA probably fits in the intriguing category in terms of username, but Edison Nguyen’s chip stack is currently in a group of its own in the online circles with over 200,000 in chips. And it seems the others agree.
As Nguyen was raking in another big pot, Adrian “Knightsgee” Attenborough wandered past his table and quipped, “Oh, are we all playing for second place now?”
Nguyen often goes under the radar but his record is impressive with live wins at the Aussie Millions and ACOP as well as a final table at last year’s WSOP APAC. And the online kids know exactly how fearsome the GooGieMonA can be.
Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.
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