Just a short time ago, I was musing in another article about the appropriateness of nicknames, especially when they are applied to professional poker players. The case I was trying to make is that a nickname can be highly indicative about the way in which a person plays poker and can also establish a highly valuable sense of respect - or even fear - in the minds of any player's opponents. This seemed like a pretty rock-solid theory I was working on, especially as it applied to Dan "Action" Harrington.

But then I thought for a moment and my mind immediately went to Bobby Baldwin. Without question one of the great poker players of the past thirty years, Baldwin has more impressive wins and career accomplishments to his name then the vast majority of individuals who ever took up the game of poker as a profession. And yet, there is his less-than-menacing nickname to consider: "The Owl."

Well, perhaps there's not that much in a nickname after all. "A rose by any other name..." goes the poem and I suppose the same holds true for a champion.

It was in 1978 that Bobby Baldwin made history by becoming the youngest person ever to win the main event at the World Series of Poker. He ultimately won three other WSOP titles, all between 1977 and 1979. The scope of Baldwin's gambling skills, amazingly enough, is not limited to the game of poker. He is also a world-class billiards player, as well as an acclaimed author whose writings have shed light on some of the most inscrutable elements of high-level wagering.

To anyone bothering to pay attention, it became clear long ago that Bobby Baldwin knows a lot about gambling. Thus, it was no surprise when he was made an official consultant for the Golden Nugget casino in his beloved Las Vegas. After that, it seemed that every casino boss in town wanted to benefit from the Bobby's vast store of knowledge. He went on to serve as head of the Mirage in their late 1980s and a decade later moved on to be named president of the Bellagio.

There is little question that Bobby "The Owl" Baldwin is one of the most prominent citizens of Las Vegas, one who has pulled off the rarest trick of all: to segue from a hugely successful career as a professional gambler to an equally successful career as an executive.