Wil Wheaton, so familiar to us from Star Trek/The Next Generation  as Westley Crusher and films such as Stand By Me, is a fascinating celebrity to watch playing poker, perhaps because he is so uncelebritylike.

His extensive involvement in online projects such as his blog WilWheaton.net, CardSquad.com, and SuicideGirls.com, playing regularly on PokerStars, and his 2 published books make him accessible in ways other poker-playing stars are not. Poker players can identify with his enthusiasm for the game, which seems to have a touch of magnificent obsession.
Pokermagazine writer Jason Kirk had an opportunity to talk with Wheaton on his poker-playing life.

Jason Kirk: How did you get started on your poker journey?

Wil Wheaton: I'd probably have to go all the way back to probably middle school, playing five-card draw. I was in about 6th grade, maybe 7th grade. We probably got started because we saw it in a movie. I didn't start playing for money until high school, and then it was those stupid dealer's choice games more suited to getting drunk than pushing money around the table.

So I was a casual poker player, and a fan of the game. I was a big fan of the World Series Of Poker from the old days when ESPN ran it in the middle of the night, but I'd never played much holdem. Then I read Poker Nation by Andy Bellin. Something about the way Andy put those stories together intrigued me. Shortly after reading Poker Nation, I happened onto Jim McManus' Positively Fifth Street. That sealed the deal for me. The literature surrounding the game is what converted me from casual fan to complete geek, the way Roger Kahn's Boys of Summer turned me from a casual baseball fan into that annoying guy with the scorecard and binoculars.

So I started playing in LA home games. I still sucked, I was still lousy, but I knew a little bit about the game. I still thought a hand like K-7 was a powerhouse, though!

JK: How did you get involved with the World Poker Tour Hollywood Home Game?

WW: I wrote a story about a poker game I played in LA, called "Lying in Odessa." That story got picked up around

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JK: You played in last year's World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio. Tell me about that experience, both how you got there and what it was like.

WW: Even though I finished 3rd in the Hollywood Home Game, I got a seat in the WPT Championship because the first and second place finishers couldn't play. I was really nervous, so I called Lee and hoped he could talk to me. Lee and I sat at the Aladdin and played for hours. He gave me private lessons and a lot of advice on how to play these players I was going up against the next day. At the tournament I got the perfect combination of good luck and good cards. Halfway through Day 2, I was 2nd in chips.

The pot of the tournament for me came when a player two seats ahead of me pushed all in. I looked down at Q-Q and I tried to think through the situation. I remembered that this guy had been tilted by Erick Lindgren. He was a young guy, obviously nervous, and Erick sensed it and put him off his game by attacking him. So I called with my Q-Q, not realizing he had me covered -- I should've just pushed all-in. It was folded around to 7s, who insta-called. He had K-K, the young player had T-T -- so I was fucked, until the Q came on the flop. That was a $250,000 pot.

This would begin my lifelong love-hate relationship with K-K. Everyone who reads my blog knows the story - my kings were cracked by A-Q, and then cracked again by Annie Duke's A-K when she hit her ace on the river. I went from 7th place to out in 3 hands.

JK: Tell me about how you got involved with PokerStars.

WW: From my experience at the WPT Championship, I met some representatives of major online poker sites. About two months later I got an email from one of them saying, "We'd like you to play for us." I wrote back and said, "I'd love to but I have to talk to someone first." I called Lee -- I told him, "You're my friend, my mentor, my master, and I want to give you the right of first refusal." I fully expected him to say, "Thanks, good luck and have a good time." But two days later (PokerStars director of marketing) Dan Goldman called, he'd talked to Lee and some

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JK: PokerStars sent you to the WSOP this year and you wrote some excellent posts about the experience on your blog. Looking back now, with the benefit of hindsight, how do you feel you played?

WW: I played like a pussy. I was worried about embarrassing PokerStars by playing poorly, and I was worried about making donkey moves. So I played too conservatively. This was a very different structure than the WPT Championship. The WPT was very deep-stacked - we started with $50,000 in chips. At the WSOP we started with only $10,000. Also the levels were only 1 hour long, as compared to 90 minutes at Bellagio. So it was a very different structure, and I didn't adjust for it properly. Andy Bloch says he would rather bust right away than have to play against the big stacks on Day Two. I approach multi-table tournaments that way now - the calls I make are never marginal. They're either really bad, or really excellent. You have to be willing to die in order to live. At the WSOP, I didn't get the best cards. I was cold-decked for several levels and then I lost a big part of my stack to Paul Darden when he trapped me with a set of Jacks. I hope I get to play again this year - I feel more confident, and I'm more familiar with the structure.

JK: What's the one thing from the WSOP experience that's stuck with you the most?

WW: The enormity of the entire thing. It was so huge, and so crowded, the size of it is intimidating. There's something about the luck of the table draw. If 5,000 people enter the tournament, odds are you won't draw a pro at your table. And if you do...you're fucked -- at least, if you're me and Paul Darden is the pro.

JK: What would you do differently at the WSOP if you had the chance to go back right now?

WW: There's a hand from the WSOP that I remember. There were two limpers ahead of me. and I raised 5 BB in the cutoff with K-K. The small blind called, and all the limpers folded. The flop came 8-5-x rainbow -- a good-looking flop. The small blind checked. I thought about checking behind, but I wanted to know where I was. I bet just under the pot, and the small blind insta-calls. Right away I put him on a pair of 8s, based on the little information I had on him and his immediate call. I don't want to go broke with the Kings. The turn was a blank. He checked the turn, and I checked behind him. On the river he checked again and I checked behind. He showed 2-2. It was the worst play in the world for this guy to call the bet he called with an underpair. I don't know if I would play it differently now, without a solid read on this guy. I'm pretty sure I played it right, but I wonder if I wasn't intimidated by the size of everything and how K-K had been to me.

JK: There was a quote from Thomas "Thunder" Keller in the Arizona Republic right before the WSOP started up. A reporter asked him if he knew you were playing in the tournament -- he described you as "Wil Wheaton from Star Trek: The Next Generation." Keller laughed and said he hoped you were at his table. Have you seen anything to suggest that any bigger-name players still think of you this way?

WW: I haven't, but I hope I'm always thought of this way. I may not have the bankroll of a James Woods or Tobey Maguire, or the tournament resume of a Jennifer Tilly, but I'm confident in my abilities as a player, especially in larger field of players. If I can get a pro to think I'm terrible that really works to my advantage. Good players often give you credit for a bigger hand than you have. If they decide you're tight, they're not going to play anything other than premium hands against you.

JK: Of all the poker people you've met, who has been the most help to your game?

WW: Lee Jones and Phil Gordon. Someone wrote a comment on my blog suggesting I should be on Celebrity Poker Showdown, and someone else forwarded that on to Phil, who wrote me and said he was a fan. Apparently he tried to get the producers to put me on the show but they said I wasn't a big enough celebrity. Keep in mind, this was the same week that they had Carrot Top on the show. I think it was the week after the episode called "Homeless Bums We Picked Up On Fremont Street!"

I was a little saddened by that, but hey, it's their show. I finally met Phil at the WPT Championship. He brought it up to me, told me about how he tried to get me on the show. We had dinner together and talked for a while. I like Phil, he's always been incredibly gracious and nice to me. I think he's a really good guy. I spent a lot of time talking with him at the WPT Championship, and I also spent time with him at the WSOP. He gave me a copy of the Little Green Book of Poker before it was released. It's a fantastic book -- I highly recommend it.

JK: Who's been the most help to your mindset as a poker player?

WW: That's a really difficult question. It's a complicated answer because from a cash game standpoint, Lee's fundamentals are untouchable. From a tourney standpoint, Dan Harrington's fundamentals have made all the difference. I can't discount Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, Theory of Poker, Small Stakes Holdem -- it's hard to pick a single person because all of those things have come together to give me confidence, to help me make good decisions more often than bad decisions.

I guess I'd have to say Greg Raymer. He was the first person to say to me, "This is a game of decisions. If you're results oriented you'll be miserable. If you can concentrate on your decisions, you'll feel good about your play no matter what."

JK: You've already alluded to your history with pocket Kings in no-limit holdem. What goes through your mind today when you look down and find them?

WW: "Oh no, not again." (laughs)
I've also learned not to talk to the poker gods. Of all the gods in the world -- a lot of gods derive their power from being acknowledged -- the poker gods are the fundamental opposite. They're kind of like Fight Club: You don't talk about them.

At the same time, when I'm playing with people who know me and my history with Kings, I'm really happy to go broke with them because it creates a good story.

JK: The semi-private WilWheaton.Net weekly tournaments on PokerStars have been a pretty big hit since they started. Someone called them the "world's biggest home game." Did you expect such a response when you held the first one?

WW: No. Sort of like Benny Binion in 1972, I hoped someday my tournament would have 50 participants.

JK: What do you think has made them so successful?

WW: I think people enjoy the company. I know that's why I like to play. It's the hardest $10 tourney I've ever played in. If I wanted to play in an easier field, the $22 180-man sit-and-go's on PokerStars are way softer. With the Thursday and Friday games, if I can make it into the money I'm thrilled -- I get giddy like a schoolgirl. And my hourly return if I make the money is about $2. I made more than that in a $.01/.02 blogger no-limit side game last week!

I think the reason they're so popular is, I don't think of myself as a celebrity, but I know people enjoy playing with someone from Team PokerStars, and also with all the bloggers who play as well. I remember the first time I sat down at a table with CJ (from Up For Poker), and Iggy (from Guinness and Poker), and I don't remember if you were there or not - there were like 4 people out of 9 that scared the shit out of me. And it was awesome! I remember thinking, if I could put a bad beat on G-Rob (from Up For Poker) that would be awesome.

JK: Thanks for your time, Wil.