Pokerstars' Loss

I've been meaning to write about this all week, but never found the time, but now I have, so here goes (by the way, trying my pet monkey in a different position this post, what do you think?)

Wil Wheaton has been dropped from Team Pokerstars.

"So What?" you say. He's not a big, successful poker player, why would they want him?

Well, Wil is the reason I'm playing poker. He's the reason the first site I signed up with was Pokerstars. He's also the reason I'm blogging, but thats not the point of this post.

I would think that Wil has been responsible for a substantial number of people signing up with Pokerstars. Even before he was part of Team Pokerstars, he blogged about playing there. He wrote with enthusiasm, excitement, passion. Enough so that I felt I had to try this game, if only to understand what he was writing about. What is a flop anyway, what was this river he was going on about. Where did this gun that he was under come from? So, I downloaded the Pokerstars client, and started on the play money tables. Then, after he joined the team, he started the weekly WWdN tourneys. So, I put some cash in, and played my first tourney. I think I was the 3rd person to bust out. But I'd caught the bug. And I'm still playing today. Mostly on Pokerstars.

Now its the World Series of Poker, and the only person writing on the Pokerstars Blog is Otis. Not that Otis is a bad writer, he's right up there with the best bloggers. But last year Wil added another element to the reporting, gave a different slant.

Whilst Wil was famous outside poker, within it, he, to me, represented us, the ordinary players, not the megastars. He brought us into that world, with its seediness, its bright lights, its characters. Without him on Team Pokerstars, they've lost that connection with the small time player.

I hope Wil keeps playing, and I hope he blogs about it more. Maybe one day he'll join our little ol' Brit Bloggerment tourney, but with an 8 hour time difference, probably not. Anyway, I'll still be reading his blog, whether he writes about his family, his dog, Teen Titans, his favorite book, or Poker. It was the first blog I regularly read, and it's still one of the ones I enjoy the most.

Actually, maybe now he can enjoy his online poker more, as, not being part of Team Pokerstars, maybe he can change his username and become anonymous once more, away from the idiots that hated Wesley Crusher, and turn up at the rail just to rain down abuse, and the people that just hated him for getting to be part of Team Pokerstars.

Anyway, for the best reporting on this years WSOP, drop by the Tao of Poker, and read Pauly's take on things, and learn which pros he's taken a piss next to today!