From: JoanSchmengie@aol.com Subject: A View From the Bubble and Other First Time BARGER Highlights :-) *LONG* I overplayed I underslept I discovered casino credit (grin) I "booked" only three wins.... all side bets... 1) the last longer "quickbook" 2) the last longer with my paired Calcutta partner Mitch Firestone and 3) The horse I bought at Calcutta, Don Perry and Len G. Don finished 8th. I had a blast! >From the start this first time BARGER always felt like she belonged. Perhaps it was the combination of being adopted early by the Schmengie's, the support from the mailing list when I inadvertently generated "the bruhahahaha" or perhaps it was the "pre-planned" posting I did.... so that when we met you would automatically smile and say "So, you're AlwaysAware" Though I did make the mistake of saying to one fellow, "yup that's me...the no poker, poker poster" to which he replied "Yeah, I was thinking you must have WAAAAYYYYYY TOO Much time on your hands" still smiling over that (honest) comment. (grin) No worries, I am about to go back into semi-retirement.... until the next ARGE event comes along, I will then once again become a prolific poster so that my name will be familiar to you when we meet... you of course, won't remember why (smile) but when we do meet it will feel like we are old friends.... Upfront disclaimer... I was in Vegas for 8 days with 17 hours of sleep. This is my story (to the best of my remembrance), and I'm sticking to it! ....AND concealed poker content.... i.e. not telling you how (or why) I slow played aces, just that I did. NL LIVE I check out the NL live at the Stratosphere and discover what appears to be Paul Philips in the game. I inquiry what his name is? Yup, Paul. Well, I don't belong in this game but I play anyway :-) Before the night is over I get Paul (whose bank has the entire table covered, btw) to double me through (on my tiny stack) before taking my Canadian Rockets (QQ) up against (someone who has not played a hand in 90 minutes) real rockets (AA).... ouch.! I also watch Paul and his crazy image get him exactly where he wants to be..... with the nuts and playing slow.... when he is bet into (250?) by a decent hand he reraises the guy his stack (another 650?) and the guy "thinks" that Paul is coming over the top of him with a bluff and calls. Ouch. original bettor goes home now....... Paul really does mean what he says about straddles and image..... book it. I play a lot of tournaments. I am always almost there, but not quite.... I guess the "bubble" is the only thing I know. There is a wild player on my right that all the locals seem to know. He makes a play which to me looks like and angle play, but it is probably more of a '"old time get a read on your opponent" play and the dealer is inapt and yada yada yada yada.... I have taken about T1400 from this player (temporarily - I give it all back a few hand later by letting him see the river for free and he fills a gut shot :-( At the break I discuss with the new dealer (very good very experienced) what took place previously. It is then that I learn that this is Oklahoma Johnny Hale.....Johnny would again be on my right at the Mirage tournament the next night.....and we meet again on Sunday back at the Orleans. This time he has his book with him and makes the comment that if he sells a few each day he can stay in the game.... Ok Mr. Hale I'll buy one.... but only cuz I busted ya at the Mirage tournament. He also gives me a seniors commemorative poker chip. Nice to meet ya and looking forward to discovering if that "good old boy, get a read on your opponent move" is in your book ;-) ....... (Also amusing to me is that I get carded AND asked to play in the seniors tournament on the same day - big grin) Dealer Tilt The second to last tournament I play before leaving town I discover that I do indeed tilt.... I begin at a table where the dealer is slower than my grandmother (and she has been dead for 30 years!) Doesn't have a concept of NL. Will not listen to a woman.... any man at the table whether right or wrong he will listen... but not to a woman or atleast not to this woman (perhaps, it is just me.... nah) Major fish who thinks he is a player at this table... I leave a major chip leader when high carded out to... yup you got it..... to THAT DEALER's TABLE! argh,,,.... :-( And we continue to follow each other the entire tournament. He dealt me at least 85% of my hands :-(.... I make a major mistake to Paul Stine and blow off most of my chips. Not to worry, I announce to the table and get busy... I am healthy again, and I am carded again to what is to be the final table (we are down to two). I move there too quickly, if I had meandered I could have missed the blind (as I would not be able to come in between blinds) and I had just paid the blinds at my previous table :-( I am disoriented, I don't understand the bets placed - they are not correct. The dealer (my favorite, of course) can't explain them to me. Finally someone at the table explains them to me something about being all in, yada yada yada.. I am still disoriented and muck a playable hand that would have proved to be the winner and a huge pot goes to Paul Stine. Dammit! I now get A5d (big blind) and push all in after two others already did... one being Paul Stine.,... who has my former money and the money that could have been mine had I played the previous hand.... You know the rest of the story and I know understand the term tilt.... Bullbert (who bought a piece of me at Calcutta) is shaking his head wondering what on earth was I thinking...... Funny as I eat lunch I wonder the same thing....What was I thinking?????? Dealer tilt - no other explanation :-) .... And Paul, I hope you won or at least cashed. HoP Tournament I am really looking forward to the HoP (History of Poker) Tournament. I meant to study up for it. I even got Steve(BIA) N. to give me pointers on the old time games. But the best laid plans of mice and men..... July turns out to be the month from hell and I never get to study the copious note I have taken during that informative telephone conversation. I review the notes moments before the tourney begins. Steve has told me not to bluff - do I listen? Do I ever listen ;-)... After the fact, I see how my bluffs are not really bluffs, but major tells for people at my table like Jazbo and Queue (Mike Wiesenberg) - Mr. Lobah himself :-)... I am down to T175 from a starting stack of T1000. We are entering the 5 card stud phase, my favorite. But in this tournament will be only have two rounds (of 5 stud) and this is already the second. Due to the card gods giving me concealed pairs, "brilliant" play and a chaser by the name of Lou, I am able to get my stack up to T1400. We then switch to 5 card draw, then on to lobah... Steve (BIA) N. is moved to the table just in time to see my most spectacular play of this tourney. I have a monster hand (well, for draw high) and aggressively re-raise. I have T200 remaining in my stack and realize just before the draw that we are playing lobah and my "monster" is a great big dog. I am last to draw and the only thing I can do is stand pat. Checked to me. No free cards, bet! Wisely folded by the first player. Patri calls and turns over 8 high. I look at Patri and say "Shit, Patri how can you call with 8 high when I raised and then stood pat?" Before he can (rightly) justify his call of 200 (cuz I'm all in) I rolled over my hand and say "'I forgot we were on lobah when I raised and had no choice but to bluff it out" The entire table got a good giggle on that one..... and I got a seat on the rail ;-( TOC Tourney The next day is the TOC style tournament and I have played Omaha once in my life at the PreBARGE tourney on Tuesday night. Lou Kreiger tells me that instead of going by "notes" I should go through "situations" he walks me through starting hands and what if's...... Omaha 8 is a game of discipline... a game I might have to take up because I am a chaser.. :-) Not knowing the game is mostly beneficial for me, I can't get myself in trouble with FPS (fancy play syndrome :-). I mostly fold. I get a tiny pot here and there. The table realizes that I am not a "player" and am only in there with monsters :-) I am the big blind and have a pair of sixes doubled suited a 7 and a ?. The flop is 6 7 x. I aggressively tangle with a short stack. By the turn he is perplexed and I say. I am already full (with no pair showing) The table inquires, "full of what, cuz it can't be cards" ..... oooopppss. That "brilliant play" cost me 2K, and that was cheap.... cuz that's all he had in his stack :-) Ok, I'm still a chip leader at the table but my donation has made my opponent dangerous. Later when we are back again on Omaha, Patti Beadles is moved to my table and I find QQxx doubled suited in the sb? I complete and a queen falls on the flop. By the river it is down to headsup with Patti, WITH A PAIR ON THE BOARD :-)... She bets, I hesitate cuz I need to make sure I have the nuts, then raise. This hesitation gives her pause and she says "Only one hand can beat me, I call" Now had she seen my "brilliant" early play she might have raised... but she doesn't know what an "idiot" I am :-)... I scoop the pot... only to give most of it and more (8k-11K too shocked to remember the exact figure) to Scott Byron in Stud when his AK high flush beats my A10 high flush. AND he plays it brilliantly, or should I say he plays me brilliantly!.... he certainly got top dollar by letting me bet it out and commit suicide... I am now crippled and make it no further than the last three tables... don't even remember how or to whom I busted. CHORSE Chorse or as someone else said C-HORSE (like Sea Horse) is played (rotation of games and players one player per game one orbit per game - the games are crazy pineapple, holdem omaha 8, razz, stud and stud eight or better) I have been adopted by the Schmengie's months ago... even though the only game I play well is NL. By the time we actually play, my game assignment has been changed 3 times ;-) and I play the stud portion.... with instructions to fold... still laughing as I type this..... I fold most everything but manage to play some and stay ahead.... until round 3 up against Kevin Un.... who should have known better and folded but chased to the river and caught.... lost about T120 (about $60 real dollars for the team)... The others have equally bad rounds and I no longer feel bad...., Rick LaMombourquette (RLM) is an awesome short stacked player, he is down to the felt and brings us back.. (sidenote in the NL tourney I traveled much of it with him and it seemed that he never got a card, yet he picked his spots and kept himself in the game, busting out in the 30's somewhere... he is an awesome player) We end up with about half of our buy in back... Not bad... certainly a lot less than I would have lost in four hours of live play on my own :-) Mississippi Pot Limit Stud It is 2'AM I belong in bed... I want to do well in the NL tourney that starts at 10 AM.... but OTOH when am I ever gonna get to play Mississippi stud again? For the uninformed (as I was until Friday) Mississippi Stud is played like regular stud up to the third card, then 4th and 5th street are dealt together with no burn in-between - another round of betting, 6th street is up, betting - and 7th street is up, betting. Pot limit played with a 50 cent ante and blinds of 1 and 2 ? $100 pot mandatory $5 straddle.. two wins in a row, mandatory $5 straddle. Early on I suck out on Ming Lee and double through. I think about leaving the game but that would be rude.... A few hands later I think I am "a powerful winning player......" and go up against Ming again.... this time I do not suck out and Ming has his former money, my money and money that I labored for.... He is not shy about getting up and living the table... he just goes.... ;-) Thought a local was playing in this game, turned out it was Maverick... not at all what I pictured...,. hmmm, and the card gods were hitting him hard and he was rooling the table. Upon losing my rebuy (total loss of $300?) I left this game. But it was a blast and if I had a real bankroll, wasn't so tired and knew how to stop chasing I woulda stuck around. Will try to get my home game to play so I can practice up for next year. Life In The Bubble :-( OR NL Tournament I have bantered, I have proclaimed that the victory would be mine. I have come to battle prepared and armed. 212 chocolate fish. You take a beat from me, I offer the ultimate in comfort food..... chocolate :-) I get moved to your table, round of chocolate on me :-) Isn't that how you make friends? Wouldn't Dale Carnegie be proud? I plan to take this nice and slow... plenty of time to make my moves later. The card gods seem to have other plans. I get pocket aces twice early in the tournament. Slow playing them once, medium/fast the second time. I think both received maximum value and more importantly it set a tone that followed me, as we traveled to other tables together.... they just never knew if I had a made hand or was on a draw and they were very very careful if I was in the hand.... :-) They had witnessed others taking the trap, one going broke. Our table is the first to break and breaks early. I move to my new table with about T8000 (we started with T2500), 207 fish and am still the chip leader at my table. Aggressive "Quick" is there, every hand that I can play he is in there already with a raise or all in. I miss one opportunity to take him out.....grrr. I fluctuate from T5500 - 8500. I am patience, perhaps too much so.... but I am also lucky and "tuned in". I get pocket 6's in the big blind as I think about what to do with them the dealer spreads the flop. WHAT! Oh well, a six in on the flop and two diamonds....time to go in with the best of it....I push all-in. I get one potential caller that debates and think and debates some more, agonizes a little more and then pushes behind me. Not really liking this.... must have a flush draw.... yup he has QJd (can't remember if a Q is on the flop or not, but remember thinking how could he play that hand) and yup he makes the flush on the turn. Since I am the BUBBLE GIRL you already know the rest of the story. An eight hits the river pairing the board and I am full :-) The poker gods still smiling down on me.... and the dealer mistake (preflop) has probably made me more money :-) AJ seems to have my name written on it. I have made more money and busted more times this last week with this hand. I get AJo UTG and make it 800 to go when the big blind is 400. The guy to my immediate left pushes all in without hesitation. Folded back around to me. I have him outstacked but do I want to be crippled by playing AJ? I need to know if he has a hand. I need to hear the cadence of his voice. I say to him "So, you really like your hand?" He continues to stare at the muck. I continue to stare at him, smiling sweetly :-) He finally answers. From his voice I surmise that he LIKES his hand..... but I have seen him push with pocket 9's before.... hmmm, gotta respect the "voice" and I muck AJ face up. He can't help but smile and mucks pocket J's face up. Guess I would have been drawing a little thin there (grin) The blinds continue to increase. I continue to stay alive. I get the AA's again when we are down to four tables and I REALLY need them :-)... I get AJ again I am down to 5K... Tony G. (Karma) eyes my stack and raises to 10K.... obviously he wants to get it headsup... I call. Scottro comes over the top and pushes all in.... Karma doesn't want to dance with the big stack and folds. Scott and I both turn over AJo. (smile) Thank you Tony for not realizing that Scott was the big blind (grin) appreciate that 2.5K and thank you Scott for pushing all in and keeping me alive long enough to bust in the bubble (smile). I talked to Karma later and he had a K which would have rivered the hand. Now down to three tables and 25 players. I need to double through a couple of times to make the final table in good shape. Just as I am planning my strategy someone that I respect comes over to me and says fold everything... you can make it to the money if you do. I look around there are plenty of short stacks and confrontation with the bigger stacks are likely. Hmm... I want to win...but then again this is a tough line up and being in the money goes down in BARGE history. I fold everything. We are down to 19 players. I get cards that are playable six handed, I have a big blind coming soon that will leave me with only T500. I look around for "my advisor" and continue my auto fold. I am under the gun with K7s I push all in. The big blind (Don Perry) calls me, he has to for T500 with a pot of T8000 he would be fool not too even if he had J 2. He has K8o. D'oh. An eight comes on the flop and I am on my feet screaming runner runner 7's. Turn is a 7, the river however is not :-( Applause breaks out.... as it becomes clear that I am the bubble girl and they have survived to the final two tables. Looking back I can see my errors. As I see them they are these (the rail was packed so if another has other enlightenment please feel free to kick it in): At the TOC tournament they played hand for hand when it was down to one out of the money. They did not do this on this tournament, and EVERYONE at my table was in FOLD mentality. We did not see a flop for at least one entire orbit and it may even have been two (or more). Every time I had a playable hand I got up to check the stacks at the other tables and there were always flops, turns and or rivers. We were always the smallest number of players at our table and with less people and folding around we went through blinds at a much faster pace (possibly even 2-3 times as fast). With everyone in FOLD mode even though I was the tiny stack I should have taken my chances with playable hands and tried to double through a time or two. The fatal mistake of course was playing the K7s UTG. Knowing that the big blind would have to call, but hoping that his cards sucked and I could more than double through with his blind, T500 call, and the sb. If I had waited until my bb it is possible that FOLD mentality would hold, or that gang mentality would take over and all of them would come after me AND if I had a hand well the pot odds would be phenomenal :-). If I couldn't play my bb I had one more shot as a sb and if I survived it gives me another orbit to hope someone else busts before me. I am a leader, sometimes quietly sometimes not so quiet :-) ... I should have lead... live or die instead of shutting down, hoping for survival in the money....Better to have tried and busted than shut down and live with being the bubble girl. Or at the very least stayed with the fold strategy and not played before I became the big blind.... But to switch at that juncture, was of course the death of me..... This would be a great tournament for me to watch and learn.... but the rail is crowded and I am depressed. I head instead to my room, fire off an email and take a nap. Special thanks to my "backers" Connie and Bullbert who purchased me at the Calcutta.. ack... so close guys.... but thanks for buying me, it really felt great to have five bidders and if I didn't go the bladders as a dark horse I am honored to have gone to people I didn't know PreBARGE but saw my "fearlessness" in other NL tourneys and took a chance.. ;-) One Last Game Of NL Live I play my D- game in the Strat NL Sunday tourney... It goes something like this.. I get AJo (my signature hand ;-) in the small blind and raise. BB calls. The flop is QQJ I bet out 500 on a less than 500 pot? We only started with T1400 in chips no rebuys, early position, second hand of the tournament. BB calls... hmm... call, not an all-in re-raise - interesting. The river is a blank and I decide to lose the caller and push all in. She follows me, not liking this. She turns over KK. rut roh. The river however is an A. Major suckout. She is depressed. Someone tries to explain to her that she should have pushed all in on my bet of 500 and chased me out... she does not believe I would go.... I would have.... and if she is going to end up all in anyway, she might as well be the aggressor and try to get me out. Anyway, I am almost doubled through (I was short 50 cuz I was the bb previously) and still manage to bust out within the first hour :-) I go to the live NL game..... gee think I will play better there (smile)? I get no cards... I get pushed around on my attempts... I pay off hands "I know" better..... I get AA and end up all in after several re-raises... We both turn over AA's and he asks if I want to chop, he hates to have that kind of money in when one of us can get a flush. I don't care either way... the card gods are no longer smiling on me and would probably end up the loser... we chop, the dealer plays it out for fun... turns out I would have gotten the flush and the pot... oh, well... don't really care.. I post about this on rgp and one response gets me to thinking. NutNoPair talks about the element of putting fear in your opponent. I realize that I am "compassionate" and not "fearless" in NL live. Two of these guys look like they are playing with their last two grants... I don't really want to be the one that sends them to the soup kitchen.... I didn't even realize I felt this way....until I read Jonathan's response to my post... clearly, I didn't belong in that game for several reasons.... Leaving Las Vegas My plane connects through Minneapolis. I trudge to my gate with laptop, garment bag and backpack in tow. I discover my departure gate to be in never never land... no phone...no food...nothing but gate. I trudge back to "civilization" and try to connect to a dataport... Ameritech is the provider and I am having no success... I phone Ameritech for assistant and 8 - I am not kidding 8 phone calls later to various Ameritech personal I am no better off than when I began 1 1/2 hours earlier... The last time I had this much trouble with a company (BellSouth) the stock dropped 20 points.... perhaps Ameritech will be my next short. I head out to get dinner.... line is TOO long.. I head back to never never land and discover my flight is delayed.... I go back in search of dinner..... again, with my garment bag, laptop and backpack still in tow....ack..... now I ask is this Minnesota nice ;-) I guess it could have been worse, I jokingly challenged the Minnesota Nit to a headsup game.... Thankfully he didn't show to relieve me of my remaining grants....but then again no used jag to throw in the pot...so why would he bother (grin). After Glow I am still smiling.... and still exhausted (man am I getting old :-) I didn't get to meet a lot of the people on my "must meet" list, so you all better come back to BARGE 2001 ;-) I didn't get to spend any time with others that I would have like too... too much to do.... but I really enjoyed the people that I seemed to end up with in tournament after tournament....you are my new best friends (grin)....Kudos to those that planned, organized and made it happen... You're the Nuts!........