William, who often goes by "Bill", is a professional poker player with a Ph.D. (no, they are not issuing degrees in poker playing... yet). This alone would qualify him to be someone with a lot of smarts. Chen is also a finance professional and a software engineer. Even more smarts. But then there is the other school often called the “School of Hard Knocks” or “Street Smarts” - which comes from experience in the real world of poker - and Chen has that, too.
Mix both together and it’s a no-brainer that here is a guy who other poker players can come to for advice. And they do. Chen has been a longtime name on the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup, so players can mine Chen’s nuggets of wisdom from there from time to time. Or if you are lucky enough to be in the same room with William, he’ll happily toss you some wise words - that is, unless you are sitting across a poker table from him. Need proof? How about his winning of the $2,500 No Limit Holdem event at the 37th World Series of Poker this year and the first-place $442,511 prize. That’s right, now William can dish out the wisdom with a gold toothpick if wants to. Chen, who also competed in the 2005 World Series of Poker, seems to have blended his two schools of smarts well. So maybe it’s okay to call him “Dr. Bill” at the poker table now?
