RIP Gary Coleman aka My PokerStars Avatar

By Pauly
Las Vegas

If you have played against me on PokerStars, or if you are a regular in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly PLO tournaments, then you know that for my avatar, I proudly display a photo of Gary Coleman when he was portraying Arnold Drummond in the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.


The avatar has gotten plenty of recognition since I originally opened up my PokerStars account months after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP. Most of the responses in the chat box are a variation of his famous catch phrase "Whachatalkinabout Willis?"

I only had one negative reaction to the avatar. I was playing an SNG with a racist who thought that I was the actual person in the avatar. He blitzed the chat box with the n-word. That was the only time I ever ratted someone out to support to get their chat banned.

I learned about the passing of Gary Coleman during a meeting this afternoon. The child former actor once took a job as a security guard -- because he needed the money. He also ran for governor of California in the 2003 recall election... only to lose to the Terminator. To his credit, Coleman came in 8th out of 133 candidates.

Arnold Drummond is nevermore, and I'm going to shed a tear every time I take a seat on PokerStars and see him staring back at me.