Trying to Grind on a Mac?
I love everything about my 12" MacBook. It makes my life so much easier. All of my important photos, videos, documents, bookmarks, and passwords are consolidated in one place, synced to my iPhone immediately, and backed up in iCloud so I never have to worry.
The Intel Core M processor is efficient enough that my Mac doesn't need fans. As a result, the battery seems to last much, much longer. The retina display is stunningly crisp, all the apps are very intuitive, and it's so lightweight I just toss it in my backpack and forget it's even there. It's awesome.
The only problem is that I need a few Windows programs for poker...
PokerCruncher is great but some of my students prefer Flopzilla.
CardRunners EV goes hand in hand with this type of analysis.
ICM Trainer is crucial for teaching my MTT students short stack play.
PokerSnowie is great for teaching my cash students game theory.
Americas Cardroom has a Mac client but the bugs are so bad it's essentially useless.
Bovada is no longer supported on newer Macs.
Recently, I've been searching for a solution...
Boot Camp is a free app that allows you to run Windows on a Mac. The problem is that you have to restart your computer every time you want to switch between Windows and OS X. Simultaneously running both types of programs is essential.
VirtualBox is a free app that allows you to run Windows in a virtual machine. The problem is that most graphics cards can't handle this kind of software. It's too slow.
WineBottler is great but it doesn't run the programs I listed above.
CrossOver has the same issues.
VMware Fusion 8 has everything you need but it's mostly for professional use.
Parallels Desktop 11 has everything you need and it's very user-friendly.
Last weekend, I spent an hour and a half downloading Parallels and installing Windows 10. The process is very simple and well worth the time. Simply go over to parallels.com and buy the software.
Download the software, open the DMG file, and click "Get Windows 10 from Microsoft."
Click "Buy Windows 10 Home."
It will take you to microsoftstore.com where you can buy Windows 10.
Download the software and drag the image file into Parallels Wizard.
Follow the prompts and let Parallels Wizard do the rest. If you get stuck just click the purple question mark at the bottom of the page. The tutorials are extremely helpful and the end result looks like this.
There you go. You can have all your favorite programs running simultaneously on the same computer. Even better, you have access to the Windows 10 Start Menu from your Mac dock! Combine this with the brand new Microsoft Edge Browser working in unison with Cortana (Siri on steroids) and all your problems are solved.
Parallels Desktop 11 + Windows 10 Home: $200.
Time saved and frustration prevented: priceless.
