While I still used avatars, I noticed that people who tended to use the cowboy were droolers, so I set mine to the cowboy. Nowadays I leave them turned off.

lol at avatars being intimidating.

Just turn them off if they scare you.

Heck, just turn them off if they don't.

WTF you really sit down at a table play a hand and have a thought process that goes a bit like "Hmm I have a good hand, and normally I'd call... but his avatar is scary I better fold"? Avatars have no affect on your play other than the affect you let them have on yourself.

Gecko beats monkey, but loses to elephant

elephant can't win against a ninja or the vampire

the girl beats a lot, but loses to the dog

surfer guy doesn't win anyone, except the shark

don't choose the cat

penguin ainec

little note; everyone with a shark avatar is a fish - it just makes sense

All i know is the Ninja gives u insane card rushes, and is recommended if u are planning on moving up.

I do suggest however to change it once u start running bad because it wont stop until u are broke.

Pug for Durrrrr like powers obviously.

The ninja one is the only one that doesn't look absolutely ridiculous, I used to always use the racetrack but I couldn't get my HUD to sit nicely with it so disable avatars, and use the midnight background....and forget such distracting nonsense....I think it helps not to see their avatar before you play so you can get such stupid preconceptions out your head like "they have the share therefore they are a fish, they have the ninja therefore they think they are isildur1"

I hate to tell you this but anyone thinking this **** matters is probably the fish.

the little goldfish is clearly the most +EV

I change mine like every day

90% of everyone with a shark avatar is a giant fish; its a fact, I did not know spouting facts makes one a fish

Is that a fact? or is it a BitchiBee fact? You could probably state the same "fact" about every other avatar.

ok no hard figures

but think about the shark avatar; the only people who would use it are people who think they are awesome at poker - thus massive loose and aggressive fish. It is a very ridiculous avatar.

there are no tells from any other avatar on the other hand

You are way overthinking this

no this is important

Do you play with avatars on ftp rek?

I don't play anywhere with avatars showing, it's not important.

Trying doing it for a week, You'll see what I mean by shark avatar=fish

I don't doubt the majority will be fish but so will every other avatar. Please don't tell me you make decisions based on what avatar a player has showing?

Just because I'm asking a question doesn't mean I suck at poker. It's just an interesting thing to talk about, whether you avatar affects SOMETHING along your poker path of hundreds of thousands of hands.

And how ironic, by asking a possibly pointless question on the forums, some said whoever thinks about this is a fish or needs to get better. How is this any different from judging that someone sucks based on their avatar? It's just judging an unknown based on what information you have (however minute).

And I don't make decisions ever purely based on an avatar. But when I table select, and I see two open spots with two identical stacks, I'll be more inclined to sit with position on the shark avatar. Or when I face an complete unknown with a shark avatar, I'll be more inclined to give him a passive fish image (even though I give all unknowns this default).

again, you really should concentrate on getting better. Most (if not all) of what you said above is very, very amateurand something Id hear my roommate say (the guy who cant win at play $)

the shark avatar thing is not just something me and foppy have noticed,

its mentioned in a few dc vids, by wiltontilt and djsensie iirc (I watched those videos a long time ago)

Judgemental yet again. Kinda like how I pre-judge unknown based on their shark avatars, no?

Oh, and ad-hominem called, they'd like their arguments back.

Elephant-they're pretty big so they can step on a ninja.