The
Players
Your screen name or
"handle," centered in a simple geometric form
or accompanied by a more elaborate image, represents you
at the table. It appears above your seat position after
you double-click on an empty seat. At some sites you're
encouraged to submit your own image - which may be anything
from a cartoon character, emblem, or insignia to a real
life photo of you, your dog, your old sneaker, or your Aunt
Mabel - while at others you assemble a composite avatar
from components, select a pre-assembled one from a list,
or have one arbitrarily assigned to you by the programming.
Seated around the
rest of the table are your opponents, who may be anywhere
in the world. Like you, they're represented by screen names
along with images, avatars, component composites, or whatever
else is used to depict players at the site. By resting your
cursor over a seat, you'll usually see the city or country
declared as that player's place of residence, as well as
the dollar amount of his chip stack. (At some sites, the
amount represented by a player's stack is constantly visible.)
Otherwise, you and your opponents play under the cloak of
anonymity.
