From: Ken Tarvin Subject: Bahnzo's Barge report (part 1) What follows is part 1 of prolly 2 parts.....I've been miserably sick this whole week since returning, so I've written this in bits and pieces. Please take any spelling or grammatical errors with a grain of salt, I was high on Nyquil when I wrote much of this.....part 2 to follow shortly I hope. Whatta kick-ass time! I could end it right there and everyone who attended would know exactly what I mean. Day 1: Wednesday In last year's trip report I stated that I would never drive to LV again and take the 1hour cheap flight from San Diego instead. Well, quite frankly I'm a big pussy....for some reason I harbor an unnatural fear of flying and have yet to overcome it. So instead I make the drive on Wednesday when (I hope) traffic will be less frantic. I'm right, but man it's hot. My in-car thermometer shows 117 at one point (and the "world's largest thermometer" in Baker agrees as I drive past). Nothing like turning off the air-conditioning when it's 117 while driving up some of those long inclines...it's invigorating!!! So anyways, I get to Binion's, check in, goto my room and take a quick nap and a shower before heading down to the poker room. The east side rooms were kinda small, but for $25/night they were clean, quiet, cool and functional. In the poker room I greet some of the people I know and Jerrod and I get into a 4--8 O/8 game that is nothing but locals and us. For some reason I think we're playing Omaha high (don't ask) but luckily I don't have anything worth playing until I discover it's hi/low. I didn't see much to play and cashed out a couple hours later -$20. After a quick trip back to the room I meet up with Michael Hunter who's heading to the Bellagio for some poker action. "Wanna come along?" he says.....Ding! You know it! We head to the Bellagio and Mike parks in the garage there. As we're attempting to find the entrance to the casino we come across a door that appears (to us anyways) to be that which we are searching for. Wrong! We open the door and walk through and find a locked gate in front of us. And the door locks behind us!! Luckily there's an employee in the stairwell who has a key and lets us out. We both sit down at a 4-8 holdem game that is the nuts. I mean, you never really expect to find a "bad" low-limit holdem game, but this one was perfect. Pretty passive with people calling all the way with gutshots and pocket dueces, etc. Almost no raising (except by Mike and I). I was playing pretty well and had garnered some respect at this table as well. Example: I'm allowed to see a free flop on the button with 79o. It's 7 way action and the flop comes 68T. I'm feeling pretty good about this flop until I notice it's all hearts...and my two cards are black. I'm first, and I check to see what's going to happen. It's checked around to the button who puts in a bet. I immediately decide he's stealing and check raise. It's not a huge pot, but I'm in big trouble with that flop so let's win it right now. People drop like flies except one guy who sighs, stares at his cards, sighs some more and finally mucks. The bettor thinks for a second as well and mucks. I flip over my cards as I rake the pot and the guy who was thinking hard gets a disgusted look on his face. He either had a small flush made, or a big heart in his hand. I cashed out of this one a couple hours later +1 1/2 racks. A good start. Mike's playing in a rough 6-12 holdem game that is populated by BARGEr's. He's having fun and not looking to leave, but when I mention I'm just going to grab a cab he immediately suggests I take his car. Whatta cool guy! But I'm not going to take his car and leave him stranded behind. A truly generous offer tho, Mike! Back at Binion's I get into a 4-8 holdem game and spew ~$60 back to a table fulla BARGEr's. While I hate losing, I don't mind doing it to a table full of you guys at all! As I'm standing at the cage waiting to cash out, I'm embraced in hug from behind. Usually this is bad news in a poker room, but when I see it's friend and ADV leader Beth my sphincter muscles relax. We chat a bit and catch up some (I see Beth occasionally in a home game and when she comes down to SD to visit family, so there's not a whole lot of catching up to do), and since I haven't eaten for something like 24+ hrs I get a comp and head up to the buffet. YIKES! BAD BEAT. This food is sub-optimal to say the least. The eggs are hard, the bacon soft and greasy, and the biscuits are rejected pucks from the NHL. I fill up on corn muffins, hit the gift shop for some mylanta, and went to bed. Day 2: Thursday Thursday was the first official day of BARGE, marked by the start of the brand new History of Poker tournament. I did surprisingly well in this one, finishing 12th. Here's how I went out: We're now playing no-limit lowball and Michael Hunter sitting directly to my right opens for a medium sized raise. I look at my cards (7-5-4-4-3-2) and immediately push all-in. Mike's got a lot of chips from the previous draw round, and my raise is not quite double his bet. But it's about 3k more if he wants to call, so I'm hoping that he'll just lay it down. While I'm not trying to limp into the final 9 (and I might have been able to if I'd just not played a hand), the extra 3 or 4k from his opening bet would be a nice cushion going into the final table. Mike thinks for a second, counts his chips, and calls....and draws two! I liked my prospects at this point, but Mike was drawing to a Joker-2-3. I turn over my card from the dealer......and it's a 3, pairing me. I announce this and Mike turns over a 9 to bust me. If I had to go broke, I'm glad my chips went to Mike, he's a good dude and I'm sure my stack helped him go on to win the tournament. Looking back now, if I would've known the final table got those cool WSOP jackets I might've played a little more carefully. But I played really well in this tournament, always making moves with the best of it and getting some good cards too (that always seems to help). I didn't like the 5 stud rounds, I thought they were boring, at least at my first table. Other people told me about 4-5 way action during the stud rounds at their tables, but at mine it was bring-in...high card raise.......fold. I really liked how the limits worked, playing limit rounds for the first third, and then dropping the 5 stud and playing no-limit draw and lowball for the remainder of the tourney. I really hope we do it again next year! After the tourney's over I hitch a ride with Q and ADV Beth to the Mirage for the buffet. I've never been to the buffet here, and when we approach, I can see what surely must be 150-200 people waiting in line. But we're from BARGE, and r00lerz no wait in line!! We walk right up and a lady greets and escorts our group back to the area reserved for fellow r00lerz. As we walk past all those poor, hungry, down-trodden people forced to stand in line, I have to resist the urge to turn around and give them all a "Haaaaa-Ha!" (in a Nelson voice, the bully from The Simpson's tv show). I try to get someone in our group to "come-clean" and tell me they wanna laugh at all the people in line, but no-one will admit to deriving some guilty pleasure from leaping ahead of all the others. But I've received enough for all of us, and wear a big, shit-eating grin as we walk past everyone. The buffet is great, enough said. Best meal I've had yet in Vegas yet. Played a little 3-6 holdem at the Mirage poker room before heading back to the downtown craps tour. Lost about $50 in a typically good Mirage low-limit holdem game. Suckout's happen. Jerrod, Beth and I catch a ride back to the Horseshoe with Kevin Un for the start of the craps tour. Good Kevin Un fact: Kevin is the only person I've met who's actually asked (and received) permission from a hotel desk clerk to steal bathrobes. We caught up with the group at the El Dorado (I think), and then moved en masse to the Lady Luck. It's been mentioned before, but it's worth mentioning again the looks on the faces of the pit as 50+ BARGEr's converged on the craps tables shouting "COCKTAILS!". They seemed a bit overwhelmed by our sudden appearance, and I noticed the pit boss on the phone to someone numerous times during our play. I busted my craps cherry at the Lady by rolling 3 consecutive 7's. Ding! I only cashed out $1 ahead tho, and at the suggestion of someone, I kept a $1 chip as a memento. I'm not sure where we went next, but I do remember eventually Jerrod, Steve Bia, Mike Hunter and myself wound up at the California Club. I'm leaning on the rail with my hands slightly hanging over as the guy at the opposite side of the table throws and the dice bounce up and off the table. The dealer looks as me and sternly warns about keeping my hands off the table. Huh?? 'Scuse me? Of course this dealer's rudeness invokes some sort of craps tilt, and we all switch over to the darkside. We did pretty well I remember, winning most of the bets. Of course when the dice came around to us, we switched back. Cashed a little up and moved on to the Union Plaza I believe. At the Plaza the tables are full and David Schwartz and Steve Bia and I can't get in anywhere. So to pass the time I come up with a bet that involves naming the songs some cheesy lounge band nearby is playing. The first person to come up with the song title receives a dollar from the others. I figure I'm gonna r00l here and quickly get paid when I come up with the first song. Unfortunately the r00ler becomes the r00led as both Steve and Dave run over me. Particularly painful was a 5-6 song medley the band finished their set with. I was definitely on Name That Tune tilt. We ended up the tour at the Main Street Station, which didn't have any craps (maybe they did, but they were either $5 limit, or the tables were full) so instead we hunkered down at the bar and drank some decent lager while investing many coins in -EV video poker. I finished up the nite by sampling some Scotch whiskey with David Schwartz and Mike Hunter. Adam (an Englishman living in Scotland) provided the booze. I was amazed at how much care was given into making Scotch (and I always thought the Scotch were famous for tape). Many thanks to Adam for providing a unique experience! Afterwards David and I went and ate at the Binion's Barf-ett. We were drunk is my only excuse. Part II coming sometime reasonably soon..... From: Ken Tarvin Subject: Bahnzo's Barge Report (Part 2) Day 3: Friday I made $50 on the TOC-style tourney!! Errrr, well I didn't enter so I consider that +$50 ahead. To be honest I'm drawing a bit of a blank on what happened Friday. I don't think I played any live poker at all and just railbirded the TOC tourney until it was time to head over to the Golden Nugget for the symposium. No wait! I remember now....heh. David Schwartz and I hit the Gambler's General Store and the Gambler's Book Club! Ahhh, I love both these places. The Gambler's General Store is just what it sounds like, everything you could want to aid in running your own illegal gambling operation from your home. It's a great place, and I spent over $100 on books and a set of KEM's. Next was the Gambler's Book Club. I only had a vague idea of this place's location, but Dave was game and we drove around a bit. After being sure we'd missed it and driven too far down Charleston, we made an U-turn (Dave and I are both from California, so we're pretty sure U-turn's are legal for CA residents regardless of the local laws) and hit the Arby's for some food. Now it seems almost criminal to pay for a meal when in Las Vegas, but unfortunately we didn't have the foresight to ask the floorman for an Arby's comp before leaving the 'Shoe. As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to eat fast food, you can pick none finer than Arby's. And Dave seemed to agree....whatta guy! I mean, not only is he chauffeuring me around Vegas in search of books, but he's partial to Arby's as well. And anyone who agrees with me must be pretty smart, right? So we eat and then hit the road again in search of our destination. Within minutes the big triangular sign of the Gambler's Book Club pops into view (it's kinda hidden on a side street off Charleston) and Dave guides us into Mecca's parking lot. Howard Schwartz (no relation to Dave, I think) is the owner of the place, and he greets us when we walk in and personally directs us to every book on gambling, gamblers, and Las Vegas that we could ever want. I only wanted to buy one book here, but Howard's got sooooo many hard to find books that again I wound up spending well over $100. I'm still reading all the books I've purchased, but one that stands out so far is "The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson". Whatta great book this is, a wonderful biography of an old time con artist. Make no mistake however, Ti was a cheat, plain and simple. He didn't leave anything to chance, while playing cards, or dice, or making proposition bets Titanic Thompson always tried to make sure he had the best of it going in. I suppose that's why he was so successful. Unfortunately he didn't save anything and died pretty much broke. Oh yeah, back to the store. Like I said Howard has just about everything you could want, and he's a downright nice guy to boot. He told us many stories about A. Alvarez and Tony Holden (both author's of my favorite books on poker), and basically just chatted with us the whole time. Definitely make stopping by his store something you should do when in LV. You won't be disappointed. After spending way too much of my bankroll on books, we headed back to the 'Shoe, and I took a quick nap before heading to the calcutta. The Golden Nugget clearly sticks out like a rose in a manure pile. This place was very classy, and seems out of place located downtown. I headed up to the ballroom where the calcutta was held and met my other syndicate members there. I really didn't have a whole lot to do with picking horses this year, as the strategy meeting on who we were picking was held at the ungodly hour of 10am! I mean, 10am?!? After the craps tour, and drinking, and being out all night? Sorry guys, but I didn't wake up until the crack of noon and even that was too early. One thing that really pissed me off about the GN and the symposium was the price of drinks there. I feel kinda cheated because I paid $20 to be there, and then I still got raped by paying $1.75 for a small fountain soda. I mean, c'mon....I realize you need to charge for drinks, but a $1.75 for a soda?!?!!? Really fucking overboard. And I didn't get to sample any of that fancy food either. Not that I cared about eating goose poop on a cracker, but it would've been nice. Besides that, the symposium went off pretty good this year. I liked the grouping of people to help speed up the process. I can understand how this kinda skews the prices somewhat, but the calcutta last year was way too long for my liking. Once again, David Heller is to be thanked for bringing his laptop to help us keep track of the picks. How did our picks do? Don't ask....... After the calcutta it was time for the Team (C)horse event. While I didn't play in the Team Horse last year, this year's new format seemed to work very well. Unfortunately, Team ADV busted out (but we didn't bust out first at least!). I was really frustrated with my rounds. I play a lot of Stud/8 and was hoping to be able to capitalize on this little played game during my rounds. But I didn't get shit for starters, and the ones I did quickly turned into worthless crap that begged to be folded. At least I didn't lose too much, and actually showed a $3 profit in one round. All in all, a fun event that simply didn't go our way. Oh yeah, and something I haven't seen anyone mention was that cute little fighting song that Team IrcSome's sang before the event. Something about kicking everyone's ass and such. There's just something funny about watching people make fools of themselves :) Just kidding guys! It was pretty funny, tho. After we busted it was close to 2am and the No Limit tourney started at 10am. Time to try and get some shut-eye so I can be rested for what would most certainly be Bahnzo's domination. Day 4: Friday Woke up with plenty of time and headed downstairs for the tourney. I was just kidding about that domination thing above. This is actually the only time during the year that I can play a NL Holdem tournament. Not one of the cardrooms in San Diego has the balls to offer one, so chances of domination are actually pretty slim. My first table didn't seem to rough. There wasn't a lot of passive play however, there was almost no limping in whatsoever. I screwed down really tight and played only big pairs and AK. I actually saw AK a bunch of times in the first couple orbits. And when my raise didn't steal the blinds, they flopped a hand for me. Can't ask for much more than that. A couple hands from this first table: One was when a rare occurrence happened, and someone limped in, I had Ah6h and limped along in late position. The flop contained two hearts and it was checked to me so I put in a small bet. Check Weinstock called me from the blinds, and I think the other(s) dropped. The turn was a blank, Chuck checked, and I checked right along. River was the beautiful heart. Chuck checked again, and I made another smallish bet, hoping that I could at least entice a call. Chuck thought about it for some time, and even appeared as if he was going to come over the top of me. I mean he had his whole stack in his hand looked ready to push it in. He just called, however, and I flipped over the nuts. Good "just call" Chuck. Another hand was similar to this. I was in the big blind and Chuck made it double the blinds to go. I had been accumulating chips and with one person calling Chuck, I looked down at Ah4h. For one bet I called and wanted to see what happened. Of course two hearts came on the flop. Here's where I'm unsure what I should've done, so any comments are most welcome. I checked, and Chuck shoved all in pretty quickly. The caller dropped and I was left with a decision. The flop was pretty ragged I think, and I was suspicious of how quickly Chuck bet that flop. I'm getting about 2:1 on making a flush with two cards to come, and I did have Chuck covered. But it was still early, and not making my flush would've made me pretty short stacked. I dumped my hand. I think it was the right thing to do as it was still early and I had plenty of time to play and accumulate chips. Comments? I busted Connie Keller(s) (sorry, can't remember if there was an "s" at the end of your name Connie) when she pushed her short stack all-in with JJ. It was an easy call when I found myself looking at KK. Connie gave me a big bag of airline peanuts because (as she put it) "You had the nuts." Thanks Connie! I ate some and passed them along. Many a hungry Barger ate breakfast because of you. Ok R00ling suckout story! I'm moved to a new table, and am just holding my own chipwise. I'm not seeing many cards, but I'm not losing many chips either. Oh yeah, for some reason Binion's saw fit to hold a slot tournament right next to the tables which were separated from the rest of the poker room. I mean, 50,000 slot machines in the place and they gotta have this thing right next to us? We dubbed it the "IronGranny Challenge" because apparently a slot tournament consists of pounding on a button for half an hour trying to hit jackpots. I did learn that "C'mon BLUE!" is the rally cry of slot tourney participants. Oh yeah, back to my R00ling suckout....... Paul Phillips is moved to our table. He's a bit short stacked as I remember it, but he's playing pretty aggressive and stealing a lot of blinds. After stealing a couple times in this orbit, on my big blind he raises again. It's really hard to give Paul credit for having a hand after all his raising, and this raise seems even less credible because he's raised it a tad more than usual. I look down and see AhQc and push it all in. Paul thinks for like 1/100th of a second and calls and says "How big are you?" Fuck! I know before he shows me that he's got AK, and sure enough he's got AK of diamonds. Uh, like I'm in some trouble here. The flops goes all my way. I mean it couldn't have been much better. I call for a Queen as the dealer peels off three cards, and sure enough, there's my Queen! And even worse for Paul, the flop is all hearts! I've the Ah in my hand. Paul has two outs now, the two black K's. Sure enough a K comes on the turn, but it's the Kh. R000000ling suckout!! I kinda half-heartedly appologized to Paul after we both busted (His bustout was an even worse beat than the one I layed on him). Sure I sucked out, but hey, they happen and I'm sure Paul knows that better than I. He played the hand great. All his stealing got me to take the bait when he had a real hand and the pocker godz saw fit to reward me for years of good living. Ok.....here's the hand I busted on. It was getting on in the tourney, and it was down to 5 tables. I was starting to feel the effects of the blinds, but I wasn't short-stacked just yet. I was in the SB and the action was folded around to me. I looked down at A8o, not a great hand, but definitly better than average and worth a steal with. Here's where Chris Ferguson's advice would've done me a world of good. I pushed all-in on Don Perry. I didn't need to put all my chips in, I could've easily just raised triple the blinds. But instead I pull a definite boner. Don's got a lot of chips, and even though my all-in is a pretty hefty raise, it's not going to hurt him too badly if he calls. As long as Don's thinking about the call, I'm beginning to think he's not that strong and it might not be a bad idea if he calls. So I needle him a bit with "C'mon Don! Ya gotta lotta chips there. You can afford to call!". After some time he calls, and shows me QTo. I was right, I got the best of it so far, but not by much. I don't remember the flop, turn and river all that much, but I'm pretty sure I spiked an 8 on the flop. Going all in was such a stupid play, as I could've easily pushed him off that flop I think. Instead he's gonna be there until the end. And the end consists of a runner-runner one card straight for Don. IGHN. Sigh. I played pretty good (with the exception of that AQ thing) and to toss it all away with that stupid fucking play was...well stupid. But I improved *a lot* over my finish last year and at least learned something. Next year I will dominate! After busting, I hung around abit and chatted with others who were now on the rail. There was plenty of time until the banquet, so I made the trek to my room and caught a couple hours of nappy time. I awoke, took a shower, put on my most presentable clothes and headed down to meet with some fellow ADV'ers to make our way over to the GN for the banquet. Once again, upon entering the banquet room I was bent over by the GN for a $1.75 soda. "I steek eet een yew!" as Teddy KGB would say. But the food was awesome!! Man I feel sorry for you poor souls that opted for the vegetarian meal. My 1 inch thick slab of prime rib was most tasty indeed! I saw those veggie meals and they looked pretty weak and I really, truly almost felt a pang of guilt enjoying my red meat. I don't have anything against vegetarians who choose to forsake meat because of health reasons, but those of you who are vegetarians because "animals are our friends and we shouldn't eat them" deserved that pile of bland roughage. I was pissed that Don Perry didn't sit with us this year, as last year he admonished me for not eating my vegetables and I was determined to make him proud this year by cleaning my plate. I think Don's so elderly that he must've grown up during the depression when they had to eat bugs and shoes and such (at least thats what my Grandpa told me), which would explain his fetish with my eating everything last year. Even dessert was great. This good ole boy from the country loves his apple pie with ice cream, and I was extremely pleased to be served this as dessert. It was as if someone at the GN had asked me specifically to plan the menu for the banquet. Yum Yum! Afterwards we headed back to Binions and I got a seat in the 4-8 HORSEL game. This game rocked!!! I would prefer to play mixed games more often, just because it gets boring playing holdem for hours on end. I sat in this game until 7am the next morning, and even though I lost $300, it's was the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on. Max, even though he's an evil NoCal, was a lotta fun in this game. Max was drunk like Santa Claus on Dec 26th. I swear he was gonna put out someone's eye with his remote toking! He was adding a ton of action to the game, and sucking out more than his fair share. Unfortunately for me, I had a dry run cards the whole night that didn't allow me to capitalize on this. I mean I didn't see shit worth playing (and played more than a few marginal hands due to boredom I'm sure). I went all in at 7am with a horrid 3 card draw in the lowball round and decided I'd had enough fun for one night. Went up to the buffet (no excuse here this time, except that I was hungry enough to overcome the grease I guess) and hit the sack. Now I had been utilizing the "Do not disturb" sign on my door throughout BARGE, and it had worked like a charm. For some reason however, on Sunday this sign must've read "Please awaken me as often as possible". I mean, first the maid is banging on my door asking me if I need my room cleaned. Uhhh, read the sign please? Then, later on, the maid tried to just barge into my room. I had the chain on the door, but it almost seemed like she didn't care. I actually yelled an obscenity this time. And, if that wasn't enough, sometime later my phone rings with the maid asking me if I wanted my room cleaned. I mean, I appreciate the dedication to service, but c'mon! Wasn't it already obvious that I wanted to left alone so I could sleep? I really should've pushed the checkout clerk about this and tried to scam a free night for being so rudely disturbed. Day 5: Sunday I was up around 5pm or so, and shower and gather my things for the drive home. I'm planning on driving home that night when it's cooler and less traffic is on the road. I head on down to the poker room, planning to play a couple more hours before I have to leave. I sign up for the 4-8 holdem game and take a walk around when I spy some people sitting at the table where the HORSEL game was going last nite. I notice home game budz Gerry and Gillian in this game and ask "Is this still the the HORSEL game?". Gillian says, "Yeah! Seat open!" MEGA DING! I grab a rack and take a seat next to John Harkness. Man this game was so fun, and it was all I could to drag myself away from it after a couple hours. I love playing with all you people and the HORSEL game was simply the best. I actually book a small win this time, and after the lowball round, it's saddnezz when I realize I need to pick up and leave. BARGE 2K is over for me this year. The drive home was pretty pleasant for a change. Traffic was light and I was able to drive 75 all the way home. BARGE WRAPUP Of course, thanks to Mike and Chuck for organizing this every year. I'm ready for next year already. I hope that we can keep the same tournament format as this year for next year's BARGE. I'm not really into the BJ and VP tourneys, but I thought the HOP and TOC tourneys were great, and I'm sure almost every BARGEr would agree with me. Binions was much more appropriate for us than The Orleans was last year. The poker staff at Binions really seemed to go all out for us, and I know the dealers enjoyed us. Binions does seem a little run down, however, and I was disappointed at the coffee shop being closed. I hope Becky gets her head outta her ass and starts running the place correctly but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen anytime soon. There never seemed to be enough cocktail waitresses, and I noticed a lot of soda and cigarette vending machines that had the dollar bill exchangers on them broken. There seems to be some discussion on the BARGE list as to the state of affairs at Binions, and whether it will even be around for next year. I can't comment on that, but it certainly seems as if Becky is running the place into the ground. But Dammit! Barge r00led this year and I can't wait until next year. I suppose ESCARGOT (if that happens) will have to serve as a pacifier until then. As always, BARGE is more about the people than it is about poker. You will never meet a better group of people than RGP'ers, and never have more fun being fleeced in a poker game either. All of you are truly "Da Nutz"!!! -Ken Tarvin ADV Bahnzo