I dont put much stock on the appearance of their avatars their sex or otherwize women are as often male as female in RL. Thought if someone sits down with all expencivest gear in the shop , it tells me that they probably have played enough games for 10000 pokerpoints and are probably a brake even player or better.

As for emoticons i dont use them much exept sometimes i will use the "Bring it on " while bluffing. I have also thought about using the "LOSER" in 1v1 matches to try and tick them off , but so far it just something i thought off.

I dont know but i may have played 1 game where my avatar made a diffrence. I was playing a VERY agressive dude and on a hand where i had AK suited i called to the river and called on the river knowing i was beaten just to see what he was betting with , he had pocket 9s . The flop had QJ on it.
It was well worth it to see hes hand even thought it cost 1/3 of my stack , i won one hand to make me even with him and not long after put him down to 1000 chips. Then i told him he was way to agressive.

Hes responce was "I dont take lessons from someone in a fuking wetsuit(my choise of dress for the avatar)". I just shut my hole knowing my avatar offended him and with the 2 losses probably had put him on tilt. I just folded my hands to hes all ins or 300 raises (blinds where 40) until i got K 10 suited , on the flop i hit the king with straith draw on my 10. He bet very big on the flop i called . he checked and called my bets on both turn and river putting him all in. I won he had 9-3 (9 was paired)

So i dont know,if my avatar can make people underestimate me so much i shall perhaps put on the paper boat hat they got in the shop also.