From: John Harkness Subject: notes for a trip report Running Bad/Playing Bad In Vegas for two weeks, trying to find my "A" game. It shows up every now and then and I play like my opponents' cards are face up. Then I get into depressed grinder mode and plough racks back into the local poker economy. Tournaments: Pre-BARGE tournament at the Strat -- this was a fun event, especially because it's the first time I've come anywhere near the money in any event involving Limit Hold'em. When three handed, I decide to bluff at the pot with 2-6 off. small blind calls. Flop comes low and ragged, SB checks, I bet. SB calls. Turn comes low and I bet. SB folds. (She's nailed it -- I tried to steal with rags. doesn't realize that though this is true, the board has completely missed my hand). I think to myself, "So this is what Barbara Enright feels like all the time." How tough are BARGE events? This is a three table tournament that lasts 4.5 hours! I think I deserve a TOC qualification for that alone. HoP Tournament -- play well despite the fact that I've never played high draw or five card stud. Do well in lowball, which I have played. Make horrible error when player on my right draws one and goes all in against my ten. Should have called, would have nearly doubled through, but can't pull the trigger. Bust out when my pat seven runs into Sable, who draws one to a wheel. TOC style event -- play absolutely horribly, so badly that I'm kind of watching myself make plays and thinking "Damn! how can I make a play like that. That's awful." Bust out first or second. TEAM HORSE -- Nice work, Foldem -- going to four tables and adding Crazy Pineapple meant that there was a lot less dead time. Major leap forward for Team Canada -- we didn't bust out. Will probably rename team for next year -- insufficient Canadians, especially as Calgary's Rick Mombourquette plays for the Schmengies. I play the stud round at a very tough table -- Crunch two to my right, Tiger 123 at the far end of the table, and that maniac Dave Tahajian. Lee Jones, for some reason, is playing his team's stud round. Crunch trying to explain to Lee that "Hold'em is a game of high cards, Stud is a game of live cards." By third round of Tahajian acting like a chimp on crack, Lee starts to get that deer in the headlights look. The single most interesting table I saw in any BARGE event was in this one -- the Razz round on table 17 was Quick in Seat One, Andy Bloch in two, Michael Wiesenberg in three, X in seat four, Ed Hill in Seat Five, Nolan Dalla in six, and Patti Beadles in Seat Seven. NLHE event. wonderful moment at the Calcutta when the bidding on me sort of hangs at $90 -- I'm going to be the only former champion in the history of this event to go for less than I went for before I won the tournament. Someone pops me and the Bladders pick me up for $130 -- the cheapest of any ex-champion. Brecher -- paired with Steve Smith -- went for $300, Scott Byron and Melissa Hayden for $280. Proud to note that despite my low price and the fact that I never had any chips or any cards, I outlasted EVERY past winner of the NLHE event, as well as Ferguson, Sun (well, almost everyone lasted longer than Spencer), Byron, and a number of other notables. Very tight tournament with the longer levels -- I think I was involved in five flopped hands during the 3.5 hours I played. Busted out with Canadian Rockets -- went all in with QQ, got called by Mike Chow, who had JJ, spiked one on the flop, and IGHN. Jeff Bartoszewicz wins the event with an all-in call with K7H -- oddly enough, the hand that Russell Rosenbloom raised all in with at the end of BARGE 99 and lost. Side action -- Drop two racks and change playing 4-8 Omaha 8 with Jazzbo, Tiger, Nolan, and a couple of other BARGE rOOlerz. Nolan is a lucky player. A powerful, winning force surrounds him. He's actually jumping over to the 4-8 HORSE game every now and then, winning chips, and bringing them back to our game. I see something in this game I've NEVER seen in an Omaha game. Big pot develops. At the River, there's Jazzbo (on my right), and a tourist in seat ten. I've flopped two pair that never developped, and there's a pair of fours on board at the river, which counterfeit my two pair. Jazzbo checks, I check, the tourist bets, and Jazzbo folds. I think about it, think, what the heck, I want to see his cards, and call. TOURIST MUCKS. In a $150 pot. in OMAHA! KidZee has his $20 straight Lowbahh game running at the same time. With a Kill. Zimmers, Quick, Warren Sander, and Michael Wiesenberg are teaching new players some of the finer points of Lowbah to new players. Here, fishie. I wouldn't play in that game with someone else's money. Anyway, Sunday comes and I'm going to have breakfast and check out and figure out how to last the 12 hours before my plane leaves on the $200 I have left in my bankroll. I'm playing quarter deuces wild at the Four Queens and catch a straight Royal, no wild! Woohoo!~ Good beat for John! I'm sitting in the insane boredom of a rocky 1-5 Stud game at Binion's when they call "Seat open, 4-8 HORSEL, table 17." Well, Okay then! Back to semi-real poker. Game has been going since just after the symposium, 10 pm the night before. Different players, but same table. Hold'em round is declared a must straddle, made four bets when it gets to me, I decide to slowplay my Presto, it comes back capped. Miscellaneous board, but have runner-runner possibities. Call. Five on the turn. checked around to me I bet, paid off, Big pot. Many benefits to playing Hold'em must straddle. Need beer units, though. I am rOOling in this game. Jaeger asks on several occasions, "So, John, what game do you suck at?" Too bad he didn't see me in TOC style event. The answer, at times, is ALL OF THEM. At one point in Stud 8 round, I showdown nine-low thinking we're still in the RAZZ sectiont. Check a very rough eight in the Lowbah round when JP checks to me. 'You checked?" Well it's a rough eight. "John, you don't think JP would have bet an eight?" DOH! MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT -- Omaha 8 round. Flop comes AKQd. Hmmm.. I know I have JT red. Indeed, I have JTT red. the only question is which jack? YES! JTd Flopped Royal! Check. ClarkO bets. "I call, case low gets there. Misc low diamond on the turn. ClarkO bets. "I call, in case low gets there. Something on the river. "No low, I check" ClarkO, apparently unsuspecting, Bets! Raise! Much admiration expressed for my play of this most difficult hand. Multiple toke units for dealer. I've got to figure out a way to have some good beats at the Start of BARGE. Place bring-in bounty on razorfish in seat ten. Dealers collect many pictures of Kennedy. Brought a rack to the table, cash four racks. Actually sold a couple during the game. Kevin says to me "Now we know what it means when you're down to the felt -- you only have hundreds on the table." I wish. Other stuff. EXTREMELY cool of Ferguson not just to play in the tournaments, but to stay around for four hours of Chow-A-Ha, which I was railbirding. Fun part for BARGE railbirds. Watching the locals look at the mountains of chips on the table (Kevin Un bought in for $1500, going for sheer mass in his chip castle, Jesus for a grand, and Steve BIA, doing some kind of strange, DNA helix construction, just kept calling for racks. Lee might be right -- should limit the buy in) and then seeing the three flops come down. Then poker locals pausing dead and saying "Is that Ferguson?" Rooling decision by Chuck and KidZee to get us back to Binion's, where they spread our games and enjoy our company, and where the local rocks are so easily tilted by three or four BARGErs at one table. Great to see everyone again, and thanks to the many people who were sympathetic over a certain tardiness in deliver of the chips. I was also very encouraged by the very favourable response to the design ideas I showed around. Once the chips are ready to go into production, I'll post a notice to the list and to RGP, and we'll get an ordering system set in place. I think I'll be taking a sabbatical from the game. Six or seven months. Try to figure out where my A game goes when it goes, and see if I can get it to hang around for longer periods of time. Regards, John "Dead Money" Harkness