You have a great attitude about it for sure!!

There will always be a next time and I'm sure you will be there.

Can't wait to read your full story :)

Posted by: applesauce at April 23, 2005 05:10 PM

You're showing all sorts of good attitude about the tourney, Wil. It's a pleasure to read your take on things, and im looking forawrd to your full trip report.

BTW: Who are you covering the final table for?

Best wishes

~~(__)8>

Posted by: MouseBeast at April 23, 2005 05:15 PM

Hey Wil. I have been reading your blog for quite some time now. What really surprized me, was the poker stories you had posted. I am a huge NL Holdem fan, and to find out you were not only interested, but a student of the game was really cool. I was very exicited for your opportunity in the WPT championship. For someone like me, that would be a once in a lifetime experience, and I found myself typing in your URl several times over the past few days.
Sorry to hear that King Kong got you knocked out of the tourney. Bad breaks and bad beats are part of the game. Would really like to see you join Pokerstars. I play there often, and would love the opportunity to play against you, or even talk nl holdem poker. Good luck to you.

Posted by: Marty B. at April 23, 2005 05:20 PM

No, not just for you.

Break a leg tonight!

Posted by: Cookie at April 23, 2005 05:24 PM

Apple stores will be giving away free products, including powerbooks on April 29th from 6PM to midnight as part of the Tiger release. You might want to check it out at your local Apple store...you just might score a new powerbook. Although, in my opinion, Apple should just give you a new powerbook...one that won't be a lemon!

Posted by: =^) at April 23, 2005 06:04 PM

I've never heard of anyone having worse luck with their Mac than you are. What are you doing to it Wil?

Posted by: Orbhead at April 23, 2005 06:07 PM

Your iBook crashed, I crashed my car.

The universe is obviously plotting against us.

Good to hear you had a fantabulous time, though!

P.S.
Car's FUBAR, but I'm fine, in case anyone was wondering.

P.P.S.
I should learn how to play poker.

Posted by: MtDewAddict at April 23, 2005 06:21 PM

Man... love reading all your posts, not just the poker ones. Can't wait for the extended WPT entries.

Sucks about your laptop. I thought Apples had a good reliablility record... but five times with two machines... what's inside those things... Gateways??? LMAO

As I posted in your photoblog a couple days back:
"This is why I've always stuck with reliable Windows PC's and laptops. They never crash like your Apple seems to prone to do.

Until I boot them up, of course."

Kick ass tonight, @ ACME!

Posted by: EdwoodCA at April 23, 2005 06:26 PM

Hey, lookie there, inside the top ten!

What a rollercoaster ride reading through the comments on the last post. Excitement, heartbreak, wow!

I'm ecstatic to hear that your game has improved, maybe that will lead to more great poker dramas, I think we all would enjoy that.

Too bad for the iBook, go Powerbook, and if the Apple Geeks can't hook you up, then maybe I'll get a RIO instead of iPod Photo to replace my mini.

Can't wait to hear the full story...

- Gabe

Posted by: Gabe at April 23, 2005 07:11 PM

Wherever you take the iBook to get it fixed DON'T take it to CompUSA! They're the WORST for customer service!

Posted by: Governor Rocknar at April 23, 2005 07:24 PM

Holdem is becoming so big that I think it's time you write a sketch or two for ACME about it.

Oh... FreeBSD runs great on my Dell Inspiron.

I'm just sayin...

/former HARD-CORE Mac geek

--AJ @ Radio d'Egg

Posted by: AJ at April 23, 2005 07:36 PM

It won't help you feel any better about the beats, but I got knocked out of a tournament yesterday when my KK ran up against someone's 67clubs. He check-raised me all-in with an open-ended straight flush draw (Ad 5c 8c flop) and caught running sevens to make trips.

"... if I liked poker before, I am madly, passionately, stupidly in love with it now."

That's awesome, man. Seriously you should get the Windows machine and hit the virtual felt. Just be sure to get a screen that's at least 1600x800 so you can fit four tables on at once. You'll regret it if you don't.

Good luck with the show tonight; we'll check you out next week.

Posted by: StudioGlyphic at April 23, 2005 08:11 PM

Wil:
Do I sense a novel in the works? Vegas, poker, egomaniacal players, excitement, intrigue..........it COULD make a great fictional story. You certainly have the talent for it. Think about it!

:)

Scott

Posted by: Scott T at April 23, 2005 08:16 PM

The best computer I ever owned was my original 12" Aluminum PowerBook with a SuperDrive. It was light, fast, and as rugged as an iBook. I traded it last year for my current 15" 1.5 GHz PowerBook, also with a SuperDrive. A few months ago I suddenly noticed I had half the amount of RAM I was supposed to. When I opened it and swapped the DIMMs I found it still thought the lower slot was empty. The dealer replaced the motherboard for free because it was still under warranty. Other than that, I've been very happy with this powerbook.

Posted by: mike3k at April 23, 2005 08:16 PM

Wil:
Do I sense a novel in the works? Vegas, poker, egomaniacal players, excitement, intrigue..........it COULD make a great fictional story. You certainly have the talent for it. Think about it!

:)

Scott

Posted by: Scott T at April 23, 2005 08:16 PM

I am very much looking forward to reading the whole story about your experience at the WPT. I'd say that it looks like you came out of it in good shape. Just watch out that your love for poker doesn't lead you to The Dark Side....except for getting a laptop that works, that is.

Posted by: Dave Westbay at April 23, 2005 08:30 PM

So we have a poker addict on our hands now...very interesting. Well, The Sisterhood would like to propose a challenge to you Wil. I have been playing poker since I was 8 years old, and Maddy (shewhokicksass) has been playing since she was 3. If you ever have the time and inclination to come out to Pennsylvania, stop in Somerset County. You'd be guarenteed at least 2 good games of poker.

Also, good luck with ACME!

Love and Hugs from the Sisterhood of Shes (PA Division),

Analee Harriman (shewhobeatsass)
Madeline Kimmel (shewhokicksass)
Angela Stevanus (shewhowhupsass)
Wendy Harriman (shewhoistooyoungtostayuplate)

Posted by: shewhobeatsass at April 23, 2005 08:56 PM

Wil, what you ought to do is get one of the Dark Side laptops, then dual-boot it with Linux. That way, it'll only be half evil. :-) Boot to Windows to play poker, then boot to Linux to do your real work.

I need to get back on WCP on Xbox Live while I'm still laid up after my knee surgery...I've been spending too much time playing Halo 2. At least I suck less at poker than I do at Halo; I don't always win WCP sit'n'go tournaments, but I finish in the money more often than not.

One of these days, I expect to see you finishing in the money at the WSOP...

Posted by: Erbo at April 23, 2005 09:55 PM

Man, that sucks about the iBook. I hate to hear that... I'm writing this on a 5 year-old iBook (the one that looks like a multi-colored toilet lid) that gets used daily but has never had any problems. However, my real workhorse is a 7 year-old G3 PowerBook with Office 98 and OS 8.6. Maybe instead of a Windoze machine, you should go retro and buy something old and reliable?!? (Of course, that would probably rule out the new poker games...)

Posted by: Gushie at April 23, 2005 10:56 PM

Eh, the dark side's not *that* dark. I'm a lifelong Mac girl, married to a Windows base kernel dev (moving to the virtual machine-hypervisor at the end of the month). I've learned to live with pc's as a necessary evil. ;)

You could have a Win/Linux box if you really wanted to. If you're willling to hack it, there's a free software virtual machine setup, Xen.

MS support for Linux virtual machines is coming.

I can't wait for your poker stories (even better if they make for a book!)

Posted by: naiah christine earhart at April 23, 2005 11:05 PM

re: ibooks... my wife's iBook tends to kick it a few weeks before yours does every time... this last time we had it back 3 days before it fried itself... HDD was ruined from all the bloody logic board issues. I called Apple tech and told them I was just about to cry because of all the pain and suffering, and they told me they would give me a massive discount on a 12" Powerbook (my current 15" has never even hiccuped) because of all my troubles. So I get a Powerbook for about the cost of an iSight, and my wife's computer is faster than mine :(



Which is to say: don't go to the dark side. What I told the Apple support guys was: "This thing is dying so often, it's like my Dell Inspiron all over again." Really. You have no idea what pain is till you go down that road.



(I know poker like a fish knows sunbathing, so I'm in the smile-and-nod mode for the rest of your post. But it sounds great!)

Posted by: mrandrews at April 23, 2005 11:18 PM

Wil,

I've started watching "Celebrity Poker Showdown" semi-obsessively (it follows "The West Wing" reruns on Bravo Monday through Thursday), and this makes me wonder...when are you gonna get yourself on there? I'm sure you could find a kick-ass charity to play for...and you're definitely good enough...if they can get some of the D-list celebs they get, they'll definitely be open to a B-lister like you...

On the plus side, I can finally understand the "AKo" stuff that you put in these things...for the longest time, i thought it was gobbledygook...I guess those hours spent with Dave Foley, Jason Alexander and Allison Janney have paid off.

Kick some ass tomorrow, Wil!

-Chris

Posted by: Chris the Tiki Guy at April 23, 2005 11:36 PM

Oh, and Wil, I apologize for all the ellipses; I've been drinking a bit, I've had drama at work, and I'm kind of addicted to them.

-Chris

Posted by: Chris the Tiki Guy at April 23, 2005 11:37 PM

Wil-


FYI, you share this obsession with my spouse, the lovely and talented Mr. James Ernest. He recently finished writing on his second poker book (the first with Phil Foglio and Mike Selinker, the second just with Mike). The first one, "Dealer's Choice", covers nickel-ante games. The second is about Hold'em, and will be coming out from Eagle Games eventually.


Our offer to hook you up with any Cheapass Games you need still stands . . . : )

Posted by: robespierrette at April 24, 2005 12:41 AM

Wil-


FYI, you share this obsession with my spouse, the lovely and talented Mr. James Ernest. He recently finished writing on his second poker book (the first with Phil Foglio and Mike Selinker, the second just with Mike). The first one, "Dealer's Choice", covers nickel-ante games. The second is about Hold'em, and will be coming out from Eagle Games eventually.


Our offer to hook you up with any Cheapass Games you need still stands . . . : )

Posted by: robespierrette at April 24, 2005 12:42 AM

Oops. Sorry for the double post. Not sure how that happened. . .
BTW, are you keeping the text ads going? We're cooking up a few more.

Posted by: robespierrette at April 24, 2005 12:49 AM

Wil, sorry to hear about your computer problems. I'm curious to you do regular file maintenance (repair permissions, etc). Corrupt library cache or screwed up permissions could be your problem. I suggest the shareware program - Cocktail - I run it once a month on my Macs and never have a problem.
Another thing to check could be a bad or loose RAM module. just a couple thoughts..

BTW in case you don't know.. you can play poker online with pokerroom.com their online games work fine across all platforms.

Posted by: bgiese at April 24, 2005 01:39 AM

wil,
great to hear you had so much fun playing with the great guys out there :) i dont know much about poker, but i can imagine it must have been thrilling :)

have lots of fun with your last day in vegas today :)

Posted by: releaze at April 24, 2005 02:28 AM

Sorry about the losing, but hey, at least you had fun!

If you choose to go with a non-Mac laptop, I suggest you go HP. They're absolutely awesome. We've got an HP MediaCenter and it's one of the best prebuilt computers we've ever owned. My dad bought one of the laptops just a few months ago in preparation for his trip overseas, and he likes it so much he's using it instead of a desktop. Their service people are pretty nice, too.

Posted by: Daini-chan at April 24, 2005 02:57 AM

It is now officially your fault that my parents have to put up with endless poker talk from me at dinner times, because, thanks to your talking about poker, I took it upon myself to learn how to play properly. I think I'm doing pretty well so far. And you play at UltimateBet? Heh, that's where I play. I'll have to try to catch you on there sometime.

Posted by: Zkid at April 24, 2005 03:42 AM

Longtime lurker (since 2001), first time poster (uh... I think). Anyway, don't go over to the Dark Side. I promise a Power Book will make you happy. I'm only a month into my Mac conversion on my new, apple.com refurbished PowerBook G4, after years on PC, and I'm never going back. Can't say what's up with the iBook other than presumably a streak of bad luck, but I do know that as promised by friends, I'm already starting to curse my PC at work now that I come home to play on the pretty PowerBook.

Don't do it! Go PowerBook. They work. Promise.

Posted by: Kareny at April 24, 2005 06:36 AM

Hey wil...

It's great to see you've taken something positive out of those horrible beats. From what I've heard and read, you played really well, got your money in the pot when you were ahead, and just got unlucky.

Three things knock you out of a tourney: Bad play, bad timing and bad luck. The first one is depressing, the second one is disappointing, the third one is just poker. If there were no luck, Phil Hellmuth would win every time! (Or so he says.)

Remember, we all want you in Vegas on June 4th to play in our WPBT event. I hope Chris has been bothering you about it! Just go here for details. You'll have a seat no matter what.

Posted by: CJ at April 24, 2005 09:11 AM

Glad you had so much fun with the poker tourney.
I don't know so much about poker, only played a handful of games and needed a 'cheat sheet' everytime. Having everyone fall for a bluff sure is fun though ;)

I read 'Just A Geek' last week, you write really well, I enjoyed reading it and have recommended it to my friends.

Looking forward to more books in the future.

Lea

Posted by: Mouse-Girl at April 24, 2005 10:00 AM

I recently bought a brill new laptop. Might be worth a look.

Click here for a pic and details of my laptop

Posted by: Noel Burke at April 24, 2005 10:11 AM

Wil, you have such a great attitude. Keep on playing and better luck next time.

Posted by: warcrygirl at April 24, 2005 01:52 PM

Will, you probably know this already but trackback is gone again on this post.

I just posted a cool pic of me at work, It makes me look like an extra from the film "Outbreak"!

Posted by: Noel Burke at April 24, 2005 03:30 PM

Although I love Apple's products, the development tools I use for school and work only run under Windows. So,I use an IBM Thinkpad T42. Weighs in at about 4.5 lbs, 5 hour battery stock, nice video, CD burner, three years parts & labor. It goes wherever I go and has effectively replaced my desktop PC as a development box. A close relative managed a legal department for many years that used Thinkpads exclusively and reports a

Posted by: Dave at April 24, 2005 04:54 PM

#@$%#$ less-than signs. Should read: ... and reports a < one percent failure rate. You won't get that from Dell.

Posted by: Dave at April 24, 2005 04:55 PM

Sorry to hear about your computer problems. If you get another Mac, go for it, but just stay away from those darn Apple stores. I went to one and I've never been more bored in my life. I'd definately wait for Tiger's release though...

Posted by: ChairoNoMe at April 24, 2005 05:53 PM

Hey Wil, sorry you didn't get into the money at the tournament, but I'm glad you still had a good time. I am look forward to hearing your reading this week at the Acme.

Posted by: Chuck at April 24, 2005 07:36 PM

I'm young, but I play poker alot. (Maybe we can play sometime. If your in the area. Which I highly doubt will ever happen.)
It's hard to lose but I guess you just have to suffer with it. I guess you win some you lose some. (But everyone wants to win dammit) I hate that saying. It's true but I hate it anyway. Oh well. At least you had fun doing what you were doing. Sorry you didn't go all the way and win the tournament. (You probably would have.) Anyway hugs from me.
Laney
P.S.
Hope you get that new computer. And sorry to hear about the computer problems.

Posted by: Laney at April 24, 2005 08:02 PM

Wil,

If you decide you want a ThinkPad, say so in a response to this post and I will email you. I work for IBM and I can get you a great deal on one. The employee discount is substantial and PCMag loves the new T43s.

Posted by: Ruger at April 24, 2005 09:12 PM

I agree - I as a fellow iBook user would almost be willing to lend you MY iBook

It has to be a software issue - something installed isn't agreeing with the system. Has to be.

Hell if you'd like, you're welcome to use my refurbished Power Macintosh 7500 AV upgraded to 350 Mhtz G4 - it has the RCA audio and video inports and with an Apple 14" Trinitron, it makes a nice TV receiver. Runs OS9. Just had a 4 gig HD put in by CompUSA (FINALLY!)

You're welcome to use it if you'd like, Wil.

Posted by: Governor Rocknar at April 24, 2005 11:03 PM

Wil,

Terribly sorry to hear about your iBook as a user for the last decade I must say your experience falls into that 1% category, I sincerely hope Apple helps you out. Please let me know what happens with it, your fellow Apple users want to make sure you get it worked out.

Posted by: BoldyGoingNowhere at April 24, 2005 11:05 PM

Hey, for the record to any damned body who reads, my blog The Dark Side, and my typekey name, have NO intentional connection to the dark side Wil W. is referring to. Criminy, lord forbid. I use the term as in "Dark Side of the moon," or human nature. That said, (I feel better,) - Wil, I didn't originally read the poker entries all that closely, responding more as a Dad and Stepdad to the entries about family, then tonight I did and was glad... your Kerouac shows. And that is a compliment, one of the highest I feel I can bestow. Your beat nature shows in the poker grit.

Masterpiece that it was, though, let's hope you don't have a "Big Sur" in you. The family-related entries are too good to lose them to the kind of desolation one would need to do what Jack did in that harrowing novel.

Posted by: Dark Side Steve at April 25, 2005 12:29 AM

hi wil,

i can't wait to read the full story! its gonna be wicked cool, i can feel it!!!!

hope the show went well!

take care
rach

Posted by: rach at April 25, 2005 01:15 AM

hey Wil...try Pokerpages.com...great games, free and cash.

Posted by: Aethera21 at April 25, 2005 07:38 AM

I can empathize with your getting busted with K's... I recently lost a hand having pocket J's. Bet conservatively on the pre-flop; pushed all in once a jack showed on the flop. Lost to the guy next to me that had pocket queens and the Q that showed on the River. Still hurts!

As to the next notebook for you, if you choose not to go Apple, I've had great luck with the T-series from IBM - you're Geeky enough to appreciate them :) I've upgraded the WiFi card, RAM, HD, and Bluetooth module, all without having to send it into the shop... It's pretty killer. And if tweaking HW isn't your thing, I also recomment Sony - they were my favorite until I discovered the ThinkPad.

Also, if you do blog offline and go WinXP, Etco has a Windows version and I can recomment SharpMT (since I write it!). There's also Zempt and w.Bloggar - all of which work with MT and/or TypePad.

Posted by: Randy at April 25, 2005 08:23 AM

I've had many problems with my G5 Mac, and the Apple "genius" was no help at all. These guys don't really know what they are doing. I finally had to take my G5 to MacMall, and they at least figured out the problem and got it fixed.

Apple is starting to really piss people off!

Posted by: Kroeme at April 25, 2005 08:30 AM

Your stories about the Odessa poker room were really good. They inspired me to start learning about Texas Hold 'em for real. Poker has become my number 1 hobby. I took some time off to play Warcraft, but I am over that now.

Your poker stories are always lots of fun to read about. That and your audition stories are my favorites.

I think you should keep writing about poker for two reasons. First, the stories kick ass. Second, the more people who get into it, the more likely poker is to stick around.

Those of us who play online fear a legislative apocalypse. The more people who play and are passionate about the game, the more likely the game will survive into the future.

I think it would be an absolute blast to play in a private online table with you and some of your other readers.

-D

Posted by: Darksun the despairing at April 25, 2005 12:35 PM

Your stories about the Odessa poker room were really good. They inspired me to start learning about Texas Hold 'em for real. Poker has become my number one hobby. I took some time off to play Warcraft, but I am over that now.

Your poker stories are always lots of fun to read about. That and your audition stories are my favorites.

I think you should keep writing about poker for two reasons. First, the stories kick ass. Second, the more people who get into it, the more likely poker is to stick around.

Those of us who play online fear a legislative apocalypse. The more people who play and are passionate about the game, the more likely the game will survive into the future.

I think it would be an absolute blast to play in a private online table with you and some of your other readers.

-D

Posted by: Darksun the despairing at April 25, 2005 12:37 PM

I have a 3 year old PowerBook G4 and I have never had any problems with it.

Anyway, you could try booting up from your install CD or DVD and running disk utility on your startup disk. That will at least tell you if it's a problem with your harddrive, and that might be able to fix it.

I have a friend with an iBook G4 (over 2 years old, I believe) and I think he's had 2 logic board problems, so Apple should really be fixing that for free.

If you need any assistance, feel free to e-mail me at: natrino@mac.com

Great blog, I've been reading for quite some time.

Posted by: Natrino at April 25, 2005 12:44 PM

Wil -

If you want a Powerbook, get a Powerbook. Get Virtual PC for it and I doubt you'll have any problems running your poker software in emulation. I'm running Virtual PC on my 600mhz iBook and the EmpirePoker front end works fine.

Love the blog, will be following it more regularly when I get back from my own Vegas trip.

James

Posted by: Tokyo_James at April 25, 2005 03:32 PM

I've heard that Virtual PC can open your computer up to the typical Windows viruses and whatnot and that can ruin your whole harddrive.

Personally, I don't think Virtual PC is worth it.

Posted by: Natrino at April 26, 2005 12:12 PM

I would recommend a Sony FS. Great laptop. Join the Dark Side. It's so much more fun over here.

Posted by: LordJim at April 26, 2005 05:33 PM

Kevin Smith's blog mentions him using UltimateBet on his Apple; he has some PC emulation software, I think.

Posted by: Wayne at April 26, 2005 07:46 PM

I'm working right now on a Titanium Powerbook G4, it has been pretty darn good to me for 3 years now. I need to up my memory a bit more, but I haven't crashed yet (with the exception of when my 2 year old pulled it off the couch and ruined the power cord/CD-Rom and the wrath of the Apple God that is my husband came upon us all).

Posted by: Amy Andrews at April 27, 2005 09:10 AM

i love that feeling when you're suddenly on your game and it's like poker gods are just filling you with tight aggressive skillz.

btw, sorry about your kitty. i'm gonna go hug my cats, now.

Posted by: rmd at April 27, 2005 05:39 PM

Will,

The way you use your laptop, a PowerBook would be a much better choice. They're a lot more rugged. I had an iBook and loved it, but they are just not as rugged. My last trip to Brazil my Powerbook came through with flying colors. Being 900 meters down in a dirty, humid, hot, emerald mine takes its toll on the body, I want a computer that just works (Microsoft should be legally barred from using that phrase to talk about Longhorn at least until it's released!) and I don't have to worry about a virus attack nuking 4,600 photos! (Although I did install XP Service Pack 2 on the mine owner's Portugese laptop for him, my brain almost exploded!)

Anyway, have you checked out Yellow Dog Linux? They might be able to sell you a PowerBook with YDL installed (not sure they sell PowerBooks, but they are THE Linux-on-Mac folks). But, I have to tell you, Tiger is the killer OS I've been waiting for. Still, for a Linux geek like you YDL might be the ticket specifically for its Mac support. And Powerbooks run Virtual PC pretty good.

Posted by: eric at April 30, 2005 09:06 PM

Will,

The way you use your laptop, a PowerBook would be a much better choice. They're a lot more rugged. I had an iBook and loved it, but they are just not as rugged. My last trip to Brazil my Powerbook came through with flying colors. Being 900 meters down in a dirty, humid, hot, emerald mine takes its toll on the body, I want a computer that just works (Microsoft should be legally barred from using that phrase to talk about Longhorn at least until it's released!) and I don't have to worry about a virus attack nuking 4,600 photos! (Although I did install XP Service Pack 2 on the mine owner's Portugese laptop for him, my brain almost exploded!)

Anyway, have you checked out Yellow Dog Linux? They might be able to sell you a PowerBook with YDL installed (not sure they sell PowerBooks, but they are THE Linux-on-Mac folks). But, I have to tell you, Tiger is the killer OS I've been waiting for. Still, for a Linux geek like you YDL might be the ticket specifically for its Mac support. And Powerbooks run Virtual PC pretty good.

Posted by: eric at April 30, 2005 09:07 PM