Jennifer Tilly is best known as an actress, says Annie Nocenti in Stop Smiling, but she is just as proud of her accomplishments as a high-stakes poker player. In 2005, she made a strong showing at the World Series of Poker—just months after learning the game—and has been a fixture on the professional circuit ever since. Growing up, her family played cards every Friday night, she recalls, “but we never played poker. We played hearts and spades.” Her mother, stage actress Patricia Tilly, was “a hippie and a pacifist who felt competition was bad—so much so that I remember letting the insecure kids win because it would make them feel better.” Perhaps in reaction, Tilly developed a strong competitive streak that became ferocious when she took up poker. After her boyfriend declined to invite her into his all-male poker group a few years ago, she started her own game and never looked back. “I became obsessed. Then whenever I was on a film set, I would teach all the actors how to play. Nobody knew how to play except the Teamsters.” Tilly says that when she first started playing poker, she felt guilty taking people’s money. But now it’s about one thing: winning. “If everyone is being nice to me, I know it’s because I am playing bad. People love you when you’re a loser.”
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