Known for his roles as Wesley Crusher in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Gordie Lachance in the film "Stand By Me", Wil Wheaton also drew attention for poker posts on his blog - attention that eventually led to private lessons with Lee Jones, a spot on the roster at PokerStars and a seat in the 2005 WSOP. In our chat with Wheaton, he explains why hes not a celebrity player, who he hates playing with and why Wesley Crusher deserves a little more respect.
What were your early experiences playing poker like?
"I started playing in high school - the stupid dealers choice games where half the deck is wild, and I still managed to lose. But, my buddies and I never played holdem; we always played the silly dealers choice games that lent themselves to drinking a lot of beer. As we got older and split off, the game fell apart."
How did you get back into it?
"About 1999, I saw the World Series documentary on Discovery Channel that Steve Lipscombe did, and I picked up Poker Nation in an airport bookstore. And, this perfect storm happened, where I finished that book, saw the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel the next night, and then while walking through a local bookstore, picked up Jim McManuss Positively Fifth Street. This would have been about 2001. McManus put me at the final table, put me in Binions, put me on Fremont Street and made me feel like I was there. It was so compelling and exciting to me that I got my friends back together and said, Were gonna play no-limit texas holdem now. Back then, poker as a national pastime hadnt happened yet. It was hard to find poker chips, and none of us really knew what we were doing. We started playing, and I got completely hooked on it."
And poker just grew in popularity along with your own interest?
"I couldnt tell you exactly which came first. It felt like I was having a great time playing this particular form of poker, and it feels coincidental to me that as my interest grew, so did the rest of the nations. I was on the leading edge of that bell curve just by coincidence."
Youve had such a varied career - do you consider yourself a celebrity player, or is poker just one more thing youre doing?
"Its just another thing that I do. I dont think of myself as a celebrity at all. When I think of celebrities, I think of people who cant go to the movies because people bug them, who cant take their kids out for dinner because people are constantly coming up to them. That time is over for me. I definitely had that experience as a kid, but I dont really have it anymore. These days, Im best known for my writing and the work I do online. Thats a different kind of notoriety."
Youre really lauded on the internet as a hero to geeks everywhere - do you have a lot of gamers and Star Trek fans showing up to cheer you on?
"Actually, no. When people show up, its generally to give me a bunch of crap. Every week on PokerStars, the tournament leader board player gets to play a heads-up match against a member of Team PokerStars, and I usually have to turn observer chat off. All these people show up to just sit there and be lame. Whats kind of cool is we used poker kind of frequently on Next Generation. Theres the officers poker game, where Riker, Data, Troi and Worf would get together to play poker all the time. And, the only time Wesley ever gets to play in that game, its seven-card stud. Wesley has a pair showing, and you know he has a set. Theyre on fifth street, and Wesley makes a bet. Riker comes way over the top of him, showing three spades on his board. Wesley thinks about it and thinks about it and folds. Riker of course is on a stone bluff and gets beaten by somebody else. I just saw this episode the other night - I hadnt seen it since it first aired - and I didnt know that Riker had three spades out there. And, Im thinking, thats a perfectly legitimate fold. Depending on how the betting action goes, if youre playing against somebody with three cards to a flush out there while you have a set, and theyre going to make you play for a lot of your chips, that could be a great lay-down."
So, youre backing Wesley up years later?
"Years later, I think it was kind of a tight fold, but I dont think it was the complete pussy move that people have referred to it as for so long."
Do people chat you up a lot about Star Trek and Stand by Me when theyre at your table?
"Most of the people I talk to talk about my blog or a little about Star Trek. Whats kind of weird to me is how many people really love Stand by Me and tell me that. They talk about how much it means to them, and thats really, really cool. Ive noticed something about that movie as well. Its a movie that changes with time. When kids see it, its a fantastic adventure story. When youre an adult, its about friendship and this time in your life when everything seems uncomplicated, right before high school where everything becomes very complicated. Im just really fortunate to be part of a movie that means so many things to so many people. I love it that people want to talk to me about it when we play together. Sometimes people try to put me on tilt by giving me a bad time about it, but nobodys going to say something I havent heard before."
Does your acting experience help you much at the table?
"As an actor, to create believable characters and situations, I have to emotionally connect to and feel whatever my character is supposed to be experiencing. When I go and play in Vegas, where nobody ever wants to fold, its really easy to just decide what my cards are before I even see them. I just play it like, If I actually had this hand, what would I do? So, as an actor, I love playing against other actors because other actors tend to overdo it - they act a little too much. The people that I dont like to play against are magicians. I have friends that are magicians, and when its their turn to deal - no joke - we just put the button in front of them and someone else handles the cards."
Have you had some sort of bad experience with a magician in the past?
"One of my real good friends is a magician and actually knew he was being cheated because he saw some guy false-shuffling. He knew he was being cheated because of his experience as a magician. So, we have all these rules, like, If youre a member of the Magic Castle, you may not handle the cards. Ill still play against him; I just wont let him shuffle."
What poker-related projects are you working on these days?
"I host a tournament every Tuesday night at PokerStars. Its at 8:30 EST, and its listed in the lobby under Tourneys, Private. Just look for WWDN, which is for WilWheaton.net, and the password is always monkey. Im also a member of this World Poker Bloggers Tour, and right now were running a bunch of different tournaments to send a bunch of bloggers to the World Series this year. Im also working on a work of fiction that combines a lot of the experiences Ive had over the last few years, along with some experiences that have been related to my by my friends. Its the obligatory Las Vegas, poker, gambling, strippers, hookers, lost-weekend story. Just cause its fun to write."
What about non-poker stuff?
"I worked two days on a great little indie Bollywood film called Americanizing Shelley. But Im also in contention to host a show thats kind of like a sci-fi Talk Soup. I have the unique distinction of being one of the biggest sci-fi fans in the world who also happens to work in the genre. Its like being a kid who grew up being a big fan of the L.A. Dodgers getting to play for them when he goes pro."
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