Tilly: One of a kind

LAS VEGAS -- With one hand, Jennifer Tilly can shuffle two stacks of poker chips into one in a nimble click-click-click.

"I learned how to chip shuffle before I learned how to play poker because I felt like these are things all the men do," she says.

Though an actress for more than two decades, Tilly doesn't just look the part when playing poker for keeps -- a world away from some of her movie roles as a ditzy bimbo with a whispery, childlike voice.

She draws on lessons from 10- to 12-hour days at the tables, devouring books on strategy and the guidance of her poker pro boyfriend, Phil "The Unabomber" Laak. (She says he talks poker in his sleep.)

As a woman and a celebrity, Tilly is battling odds of two fronts in a game dominated by men known for their moves, not their movies. But "The Unabombshell," her nickname since pairing with Laak, says one reason she is "obsessed" with poker is that chips trump critics.

"Acting is one of the arts where somebody has to validate you, say, 'Yes, I think you're great, and I'm going to give you this wonderful part,'" she says in a piano bar at the Bellagio hotel/casino.

"With poker, everyone can think you're the worst player in the world. You can still pay your five thousand, pay your 10 thousand and sit down and play. And the person that has the most chips at the end, that's the winner."

A year ago, Tilly earned a gold bracelet and $158,335 by winning the Ladies Event in the World Series of Poker.

After that 2005 victory in a field of 600 that included top female pros, she won the World Poker Tour (WPT) Ladies Night Invitational a few months later in Los Angeles.

No woman has won a WPT open event or the World Series main event, where Tilly went out in the first round last year.

"It's definitely going to happen. Everyone wants to be the first," says Tilly, who'll be back in the World Series main event starting today.

She was eliminated early in this year's Ladies Event, which drew 1,128 players.

Last year's win in the World Series women's event was quite a coup for the Bride of Chucky. In that 1998 movie, she used a book called Voodoo for Dummies to revive a monstrous toy doll. She gave an Oscar-nominated performance as a gangster's moll in Bullets Over Broadway (1994). She has done TV, theater and cartoons. But she mentions Bride of Chucky when asked if she's made the jump from celebrity player to poker player.

"I don't think so," she says. "Because I'm Bride of Chucky, people think like I somehow skipped over the trenches or whatever. ... It's something I have to overcome."

A poker hookup

Tilly, 47, (her sister Meg also is an actress) was born in California and grew up in British Columbia with a mom and stepfather she describes as "hippies" who didn't have TV. "So every Friday night we would sit around and play cards ... spades, hearts, a lot of different games (but not poker)," she says.

She took up poker about 15 years ago while dating a guy who played. She got into games with other Hollywood celebs at the home of agent Norby Walters. Then came TV celebrity poker.

Two years ago at an invitational, she met Laak (pronounced Lock). At 33, he's "The Unabomber" because he wears a hooded sweatshirt and dark glasses at the tables.

"He gave me his phone number, but I lost it," she says.

When they met again months later, Laak played the percentages. When she asked again for his number, he says he told her, "Instead of me giving you my number and having it be, what, 3% that you'll call me, why don't you give me your number and then it's 100% I'll call you?"

She bought it. They now live together in Los Angeles.

Tilly says Laak, who has a degree in mechanical engineering, initially was "puzzled" she made the right poker moves without knowing the mathematical percentages.

"It was horrifying when I met Phil and I found out that poker supposedly is math, because I failed math," says Tilly, recalling "extreme math anxiety" in high school.

Poker is more than math.

"Poker is a very complicated game. That's why people are hooked on it, because it will kick you in the (butt)," Tilly says.

Playing the female card

Top players don't wait for the cards. They can steal pots.

Tilly takes shots at pots.

"Jennifer certainly is one of the more aggressive top women players," says Mike Sexton, a WPT broadcaster. "There are a number of celebrity players who are sensational players, who could be professional players." He cites actors Tobey Maguire and Ben Affleck.

But Sexton says top pros have "uncanny instinct" to know a foe's cards, to "put them on a hand."

He says of Tilly: "She doesn't yet have quite as good a feel as the top-level pro players. But in terms of attacking and betting, she is not afraid to put her chips in the pot."

Tilly has been playing about eight to 12 tournaments a year and will "probably" play more this year, against pros or celebs.

She says she's been "self-sufficient," with winnings covering her poker expenses. She says she doesn't want poker "coming out of my acting money."

At a table full of men, her cash counts just as much as theirs.

"I still think there's a lot of men that don't really want women to be at the poker tables," Tilly says. "If you open any poker magazine or all the websites, everything is advertised by scantily clad women. So a woman in this business is like, 'Do I join the scantily clad women ... or do I try to be more like a man?' I think that's sort of the struggle."

For celebrity poker, she feels an "obligation" to go with the flow. That can mean revealing attire and lots of chatter. "They're trying to make a show," she says.

Against pros, she dresses down, just as they do. "They're not looking at your cleavage," she says.

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