Boot Camp Poker

Yes, I wish I had a fancy new MacBook Pro (but isn’t an even fancier one right around the corner?).  Anyhow, I’ve cleared out my Black MacBook and there is tons of empty storage on it.  I had Parallels on my MacBook and VM Ware on my iMac, but find myself playing on my laptop - duh.  So, with all this empty space avaiaable, it is time to migrate back from desk to laptop.

First Step.  Delete Parallels (sorry guys).

Second Step.  Install VMWare Fusion.  I headed to their website.   Found the download page.  Logged in (you may have to register) and agreed to the EULA.  Downloaded the newest version (2.0.4) with 12 months of McAfee Antivirus software.

Third Step.  Waited for download to finish.

Fourth Step.  Clicked on “Install VMware Fusion which appeared in the unzipped .dmg.  Agreed to everything they wanted including MacFuse.
Fifth Step.  Waited for Fusion to install.   Read a bit about MacFuse while waiting for 1 minute install to complete.

Sixth Step.  Entered my serial number.  You can get a free demo license for a 30-day trial online, if you haven’t bought it yet.  Note: copy and paste works much much better than trying to figure out if you are seeing a 0 or an O.

Seventh Step.  Open VMware Fusion from applications.   Choose Create Virtual Machine.

Eight Step.  Look through piles of unboxed disorganized discs looking for WinXP.  Found them.  Decided it might make sense just to copy the virtual machine from iMac.  Started transfer.  40 hours pending.  Decided Target Disk mode might be faster.  Saved this post as draft.  Okay that didn’t work not sure why, but Fusion wouldn’t open the copied Win XP Virtual HD.  Okay don’t use the Win XP Pro x64 version on a MacBook.  You aren’t 64bit capable.  Use the disc that doesn’t say “disc 2″.  Getting closer…

Ninth Step.  Found VMware instructions re: copying virtual machines.  Decided to try again.

Tenth Step. Hey! That worked!
Eleventh Step. Now trying to port all my prior hand histories from Pokerstars and Full Tilt to the Fusion side.  Plan is to only play in Fusion - so I receive the benefit of Poker Tracker and stop donking everything away.  Though, I’m not sure if Poker Tracker has a setting that will stop me from playing way above my bankroll.
Twelfth Step. Okay, I was going to say “Alcoholics are sober at this point, and I still don’t have VMware on the MacBook.” but I managed to install it several steps earlier.  Man VMware is easy.

Parallels has released 4.0.  It seems like they are trying to catch up with VM Ware’s fusion.  The changes are listed in these categories:

Easy

• New Interface
• iPhone Access
• Speech Recognition
• OS X Leopard Server
• Scale Win XP Windows
• Share Screenshots between WinXP and Mac OS
• SmartMount mounts devices between Mac OS and Win XP

Fast

• Up to 50% Better Performance
• On-Demand Power
• Blazing Fast 3D Graphics
• 20% Longer Battery Life
• Maximum Video Performance
• 64 bit computing
• Interaction at your speed

Powerful

• Parallels Internet Security by Kaspersky
• Acronis Disk Director
• Acronis True Image Home
• Safe Mode

VM Ware is offering their fusion for only $59.99 right now.   I’ve been using this flawlessly on my iMac.

Our friends at VMWare let us know they are now in Beta for the 2.0 version of their cool virtualization software. Poker fiends rejoice! The beta is free.

Here are the key features:
- multi-display support (now 16 table at Doyle’s Room easily)
- conversion from Parallels, Virtual PC and Boot Camp is now a snap
- better 3D support

Check out the full story here.

The most famous of the poker boot camps are the WPT boot camps. They offer three varieties.

The first is the WPT Boot Camps. These run all year round 5-6 times a year and last two days. They run $1695 at last check and promise workshops, meals and interaction with pros, and a tourney with prizes up to WPT satellite entry ticket.

The second is the WPT Ca$h Camps. The emphasis in these is cash games rather than tournaments. Also about $1695, they run over two days, include all of the same stuff but replace a Cash Challenge vs. a tourney.

The third is the Battle for the season pass. This is a 5 day event in the bahamas, that includes a ton of pros, workshops, tourneys and the big prize is season long entries to WPT events - total value >$100,000. Cost is ~$5000. I want to go.

Check them out here.