Acting and poker go hand-in-hand. Acting strong when weak, and vice versa, is poker playing 101. But while anyone can learn how to play poker, not everyone ends up a good actor.
Jennifer Tilly, on the other hand, now there’s a good actor. Phil Hellmuth may have the most WSOP bracelets, but does he have an Oscar nomination? Tilly does, and also has the chops to sit down to play for huge pots on series such as PokerStars’ Big Game on Tour, in which she is currently starring (new episodes are available each Saturday at PokerStars’ YouTube channel).
In the week that the World Series comes back to town, Tilly met with PokerOrg’s Craig Tapscott to talk about everything from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to playing poker with Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu and Nik Airball.
Watch the full video interview above now.
‘One of my leaks is that I always think everybody is bluffing’
“I'm an action junkie,” shares Tilly, “So my favorite game is 6-max, because one of my leaks is that I always think everybody is bluffing, and in 6-max a lot of times they are. You’re forced to bluff because you can't just sit around and wait for hands.”
Tilly has a WSOP bracelet already, picked up in the 2005 Ladies NLH event, but has an eye on another this summer, even if tournaments don’t always scratch her itch.
“Once I discovered high stakes poker — playing in some of the home games, or playing in Ivey's room — then all of a sudden the tournaments just seemed very plodding. Like, you know you have to wait for a hand, but the thing with cash games is, if you bust, you just reach in your pocket and you buy again; you're never out of action.”
That said, Tilly is looking forward to getting back to some tournament play this summer after several years away from the WSOP, working on acting projects.
“I like shootouts,” says Tilly, when the subject of the tournament schedule is raised. “It's the easiest way to cash because if you win your table, it's just like a little sit and go, you're already in the money and that gets your stats up.
“I also like eight-handed. It isn't as great as six-handed but still, it's a start, and heads-up is really good if you want to be doing a lot of bluffing, because heads-up you kind of have to play almost every hand. But the first event I want to play is the $10K mystery bounty tournament. I've never played a mystery bounty tournament before.”
Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Doyle Brunson…
So it seems we’ll see a lot more of Jennifer Tilly at this summer’s WSOP than we have in the recent past. If you want to see more of her right now, just hit the video above for the full hour-long interview with Craig Tapscott.
Tilly goes deep on subjects including:
- Her arrival in Hollywood and her introduction to acting
- The differences in poker styles between her and boyfriend Phil Laak
- Working with Woody Allen and Robert Altman
- Memories of playing with Doyle Brunson
- Her toughest — and favorite — opponents at the poker table
Tilly also shares a memory of playing a videogame her father gave to her in her youth with the name — get this — ‘The World Series of Poker’.
“It took me about eight years to figure out how to get to the final day, and one day I won the gold bracelet in the game — the screen filled up with money and there was a virtual gold bracelet on top.
“I wrote in my book, ‘one day I’m going to go to the World Series of Poker and I’m going to win a real gold bracelet’. And the first year I went to the WSOP, I won a real gold bracelet.”
Spooky, huh? Like something out of a movie.
Is there yet another bracelet coming Tilly's way this summer? She's no stranger to a sequel, and whether at the tables or on the big screen, we'll be watching.
