"Better than winning an Oscar" is how, back in June, actress Jennifer Tilly in interviews described the feeling of winning a coveted first-place bracelet in Ladies World Poker Championship No-Limit Hold 'em at the Rio. Though celebrity poker has become trendy, by besting a field of over 600 real-life competitors including many of the top female players in the world, Tilly's victory proved she is no mere dabbler in the game. In talking poker she sounds as obsessed as any professional player recounting favorite games, hands and strategy. But between tournaments, Tilly still manages to squeeze in enough acting that she has two new movies opening this week: Bailey's Billions and Saint Ralph.
LVW: What do you do with your bracelet?
JT: I wear it. It is a beautiful bracelet; it's gold and it has diamonds. I like to stack it with a lot of other gold bracelets. I usually wear it out socially. I don't wear it when I play poker, because I am self-conscious when I am at the tables. I don't want to do anything that will draw attention to myself. But since I won it, every time I've played in a game everyone asks, "Where's your bracelet?" But I think there's nothing that looks more idiotic than somebody wearing a bracelet and making donkey moves. I guess I still feel a bit like an imposter.
LVW: Have you played against Phil "The Unabomber" Laak (a top poker player who Tilly is currently dating) yet?
JT: No we haven't. He plays at higher limit tables. Also, I've learned not to play in the cash games with him because when it is real money he gets so anxious when he thinks I am losing that he can't concentrate on his own game. Several times in one game a guy had to call over the floor man, because he (Phil) was like "Jennifer, you shouldn't be betting that unless you have at least two pairs or better." And, the guy I was playing against was like, "You can't tell her what to do!" Phil knew that, too, he was just really, really nervous for me. In the celebrity tournaments and charity tournaments, we like to play together. But I always have him on my left because he is a loose, aggressive player and I am a tight, conservative player.
LVW: Has being an actress helped your poker game?
JT: Everybody always asks me that. I think actors are not as good at poker. The minute you start acting, you're trained to have an expressive and mobile face so people can read what is going on in your mind and you have to train yourself out of that. I do things like wear sunglasses and I try not to move my hands or shuffle chips. I try to act the same way the entire time. I don't talk to anybody. I become like a stone when I am involved in a game. Television poker is a totally different thing, because then it's a celebrity playing poker and they don't want you to wear sunglasses and they want you to talk—I just did one where I talked incessantly through the entire thing.
LVW: When you are doing television tournaments, which side of you takes over: the competitive side that wants to win or the entertainer who is willing to lose to make a good TV show?
JT: The entertaining side takes over. I'm like Pavlov's dog. I see the cameras and I instantly start trying to think of funny things to say. When I'm doing the television shows I think I'm pretty entertaining.
LVW: Why do you think poker appeals to you so much?
JT: I love poker. The more you learn about poker the more you realize how little you know. It's a very challenging game. I never get bored. My boyfriend and all his friends are really some of the top players in the world and they talk poker 24 hours a day. Phil heard me say that once and he said, "I don't talk about poker 24 hours a day. Sometimes we go see a movie and I don't talk about poker for two hours." The reason Phil and his friends are so good is they play an average of 40 to 80 hours a week. I'm perfectly fine to play a game and then not play again for a week.
LVW: Now that you won a tournament, does Phil take poker advice from you?
JT: (Laughs). Phil and all his friends are brilliantly smart, and hanging with them there has always been the feeling that Jennifer is not a good poker player. I wasn't, though—I learned. But there has always been this tagalong little sister thing and I was like, "I'll show you all, I'm going to study really hard and then I'm going to go to the World Series of Poker and win a gold bracelet. What do you think of that?" But I was really freaked out when I actually won. I had to sit in my room for the three days after that and rethink my image of myself as a not very good poker player. Now, moving around the poker community I feel like people think it was a fluke. So now I have to win another one just to show them. It's good to have goals.