From: "Len Granowetter" <lengrano@mak.com>
Subject: Len's BARGE trip report (long)


OK.. Usual disclaimers about this being long, but there's quite a bit of
poker content here, mostly about the HOP tournament.  Also, I'll put my
thanks to Mike and Chuck right up here at the top.  Well done!  And thanks
to the Binions staff for being such great hosts.

This was my fourth (I think) BARGE, and definitely the most fun for me.  One
year some college friends were also in Vegas for the weekend, so I split
time between hanging out with them and participating in BARGE, and left
feeling like I hadn't spent enough time doing either.  Last year, I ended up
significantly behind for the trip, which itself made things somewhat less
fun, but the worst part about it was that I ended up spending too much time
over at the Bellagio trying to get even, rather than hanging out with
BARGErs.  This year, I had lots of fun, met lots of people, made lots of
money, and finally felt that I managed my BARGE time well.

Left work at 5pm Wednesday, took the 'T' (subway) to the airport, and had an
uneventful non-stop Delta flight from Boston to Vegas.  Got in at 10:30 or
so.  No checked baggage, but hung out at baggage claim by the end of the row
of slot machines between carousels 5 and 6 for about 5 minutes in case there
were any BARGErs around.  (A couple of people had mentioned in posts that
this would be a good place to round up groups of BARGErs, but I think next
year this should be made more official that there is a well-known spot to
meet BARGErs at the airport).  Anyway, spotting none, I took a $5 shuttle to
Binions.  Got there at around midnight, too tired to play (and lists were
long anyway), so said hi to a few people then went to bed before 1.

Still on east coast time, and pumped about being here, I woke up before 8am
and knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.  A quick donut from that
place down Fremont street, and back to the Binions' poker room, which was
about as empty as it would get all weekend, but there were still a couple of
games going.  I jumped into a $15-30 hold-em game with Bwana, Quick, Tom G.
Gary Brown, and one or two others.  Bwana and Tom at least had been up all
night, and instituted a "no being perky" rule.  I don't normally even get up
for work till 8:30 or 9:00, so me being too much of a morning person
shouldn't be anybody's worry. :)  Scott was getting drawn out on time after
time, which apparently had been happening all night.  Biggest pot I saw in
the three hours I was there was about $800.  5 bets preflop six ways, Quick
rivers a full house with QJo and wins.  By the way, as much crap as Quick
gets from this group, I think he plays pretty darn well when he wants to
(not that hand. :) )  I was at his table in the NLHE tourney for a while,
and in a couple of pot-limit games, and he played really solidly.  I have
new respect for Quick as a good player who just likes to have a good time at
the table.

At one point I flopped the nut flush with KQs, but someone else flopped aces
and sixes, and filled up on the turn or river.  But I flopped two pair
myself a couple of times, and got up at 11:30 with $120 profit.  Time to
grab a quick lunch before the HOP tournament at noon.  It was really pretty
cool that Binions comped us the breakfast/lunch buffet each day.  Kindof a
sucky buffet, but I'd have probably paid for it at least once.  See, there
is such thing as a free lunch. :)

I actually took notes during the tournament, which I've never really done.
Not quite as detailed as the "I folded by 13th big blind at 3:09pm" style
used in Paul Pudaite's trip reports of yore (I'm convinced that he used to
hire a court stenographer to sit with him during tournaments), but at least
summaries of key hands.  By the way, kinda cool that BARGE is old enough to
have a "yore", huh?

Anyway, I got some good cards early on.  I started with three pairs in six
hands in 5-card-stud.  9s and 8s picked up the blinds and maybe one bet.  4s
turned into a set on third street (rolled up!), and won there as everyone
folded to my open pair.  In draw, I didn't play a hand till the last hand of
the round, where I started with a pair of aces, didn't improve, but won.  In
lowball, I was dealt one pat 86, and drew two others.  In the second stud
round, I picked up one pot with a bluff, making another guy fold a better
ace than me on the end with a decent sized pot out there.  In the second
draw round, I drew one to a flush and hit and won a nice pot against two big
pair.  At the end of the second draw round, I was up to T4200, but dropped
down to T3500 at the break.  A very decent stack, though I think Ken Tarvin
and Max Roman had bigger stacks at my table.  (We started with T1000).

The tournament director didn't seem to get the idea behind filling an empty
seat by pulling a person from another table that was in the same position
*relative to the blinds* as the empty seat.  They were pulling people from
the same absolute seat position as the empty seat.  Mike Maurer got screwed
this way being moved to my table into the big blind just after paying the
blind at his last table.  He protested a bit, correctly explaining how they
were supposed to be doing it, but eventually gave up.  That tournament
director (can't remember his name) was a *really* nice guy, and really gets
what BARGE is about, but there were a couple of simple things he screwed up
like this.  The two other things he screwed up involved the hand-for-hand
play right before consolidating the final table.  The tournament was paying
nine places, but we didn't start playing hand for hand until there were nine
people left.  He kept explaining why the hand-for-hand thing was necessary:
"There's a money difference between 8th and 9th place, so we have to play
hand for hand so that we know who goes out in 9th place before consolidating
tables."  But there's also a money difference (a larger difference in fact)
between 9th and 10th place (10th paid zero).  Yet he insisted incorrectly
that we didn't need to go hand for hand to find out who 10th place was,
because the remaining 9 all get money.  This shouldn't be all that confusing
to an experienced tournament director.  Someone please correct me if I'm the
one that's confused here.  The other (lesser) problem is that during the
hand-for-hand play, he wouldn't let one table deal until the other table's
hand was over.  This is overkill, and slows down the game more than is
necessary.  All you really need to do is make sure that beginnings of hands
alternate between the two tables.  You only need to wait if dealing
immediately would violate that rule.  You just need to keep track of which
table's hand was dealt first when there are two hands going on
simultaneously (so you can record bustouts playing at exactly the same
speed, you should be able to go hand-for-hand without either table ever
having to wait before dealing.  (Did someone say pipelining?)  Of course,
the waiting for hands did make for more drama, so it wasn't all bad.
Luckily, we only had to endure it for one spot, instead of the correct two.
:)

Anyway, back to the tournament, where I have T3500 at the break before
no-limit began (we started with T1000).  In the no-limit draw round, I get
dealt 7643 of clubs and the ace of hearts.  John Reeves to my right raises
to 400, and I call.  I catch the K of clubs to make a flush.  John also
draws one.  He comes out betting 600, and I raise him all-in for 500 more.
He calls and wins with a better king-high flush!  Aiyah!  Down under T1500
now.


We're now in the 75-75-150 no-limit lowball round.  I get dealt
43-Joker-A-Jack.  Max Roman raises to 400 and I call in SB.  I draw a 10,
and check.  Max checks after his draw and I win with my smooth 10.  Back up
to 1800.  I win one more pot this round with a rough 9 - up to T2500.  By
the way, in this one lowball round, I picked up 2 pat flushes and two sets
of trips.

Back to draw: I start with trip 3s.  Ron Hummel raises to 800, I jam for
another 1800, he folds.  Later, I start with a pair of aces.  KidZee goes
all in for 275 in early position.  Ron Hummel raises 400, but looked very
non-confident.  I was convinced I had the best hand, so I made it 1000.  He
calls and draws one.  I draw three.  We both check and I win and bust
Zimmers.  Up to T4800 and onto 100-100-200 no-limit lowball.

I raise with a pat 7 and take the blinds.  A few hands later, I get dealt a
draw to an 86, and raise 700.  Andy Hughes calls me.  Andy drew one, as did
I.  Unfortunately, I drew a king.  Andy checked.  Now, I had not yet made a
post-draw bluff this tournament, and felt this was a good time for one for
several reasons.  1) Obviously, Andy did not have a great hand since he
checked.  2) There are a lot of hands that beat me that Andy might fold (a
queen, a jack, a ten, etc).  3) Just showing the hand down was very likely
to lose.  4) The pot was big enough to warrant taking a shot at.  5) I had a
bunch of chips now, so getting called and losing would not be crippling.  6)
Andy had been playing fairly conservatively.  I hadn't seen him call with a
weak hand.  Anyway, I bet 1200, and Andy called me *with a better king
high*!  Basically, he just had a read on me.  Maybe it took me too long to
think through reasons 1-6 above (though I thought I did it all in a split
second), but something about my demeanor convinced him that I had paired.
I'm still kind of amazed that he called, because even if he knows I'm
bluffing, there are lots of bluffing hands that he can't beat.  Anyway,
great read, good call, Andy.  In hindsight, a great play would have been for
him to raise rather than call if he thought I'd bricked, since I'd have
thrown away a lot of the bluffing hands that had him beat (like a queen,
jack or ten.)  I'm now down to 3K - still not terrible at this point.

In the 200-200-400 high draw round, Bill Chen is dealt the joker which is
accidently flipped up by the dealer.  It's still his card, but everyone
knows he has it.  He ends up with a straight and busts Tom Hummel and Jim
Bullard in a huge three-way pot (trips and kings-up).  I get no hands for
quite a while.  Fold, fold, fold.....  Lots of people busting out
everything.  Fold, fold, fold...

Eventually, we're down to 13 people!  And I am the shortest stack with about
1400 after the blinds.  I can't just coast into the money (9 spots).  Blinds
are 300-300-600.  I'm standing up looking at the action at the other table
every 30 seconds keeping track of how short stacked the other players are,
and how quickly the blinds will come around to them.  I jam and steal once,
and have 2600.  A few hands later, I raise to 1200 with a 7 draw.  Abdul
calls.  I make my 7 and double through.  Now I have some chips, and finally
I am in a position where if all of the shorter stacks than me bust before
me, I make the money.  A couple of more steals with decent hands (no need to
steal with just any marginal hand anymore) and I am at 7K when we take a
5-minute bathroom break.  Soon, the 10th player busts, and we're all in the
money.  JRX busts at 5:25 in 9th, and we consolidate to one table.

This is the first time I've made the final table in a BARGE tournament.
Although it was only a $40-50 tournament, having 50 or 100 people standing
around watching the final table made it feel *really* exciting to be
playing.  And this was the *least* significant tournament at BARGE!  It was
clearly more people than have ever watched me play poker before.  What a
rush each hand, thinking, hey, I've got a chance to win this thing!  That's
what's amazing about BARGE tournaments.  I mean, I had twice as much money
in my *pocket* as first place in this tournament was worth, but with the
crowds hanging on every card, it felt like I was playing for a million
bucks.  The WSOP jackets for the final table was a great touch, but a bad
beat for me: I didn't try the jacket on till Sunday when I was leaving, and
I realized that it was manufactured incorrectly.  The sleeve was basically
sewn shut (actually just very twisted.)  I went and asked if I could get a
different one, but the "person with the key to the storeroom" was not there
till Monday, and I was leaving Sunday night.

Back at the final table, a couple of more people bust while I keep folding.
When there are 6 people left, a short stack goes all-in with not very many
chips.  I have J942A or something like that.  I call, and he stands pat.  I
need to decide whether to draw one or two now.  I decide that he would go
all-in and stand pat with lots of weak pat hands while short stacked, and
that a smooth 9 would probably win.  No need to gamble and try for a monster
by drawing two.  In retrospect, I think it's not even as hard a decision as
I thought at the time.  I drew one, made a 96, and beat his pat 10.

A few hands later one of the big stacks raises an amount equal to most of my
stack.  I have a very rough 9, and what I figure is a tough decision.
There's a decent chance I'm ahead with my pat 9, or will be after he draws.
If so, I can double up and be in a good position to get into the top few
places in the tournament.  On the other hand, two other players have short
stacks, and I should be able to outlast at least one of them, and possibly
both without taking this risk now, and move up a couple of places.  I
remember thinking that whoever it was had not been taking advantage of his
big stack by aggressively raising often, so I didn't think it was a pure
steal attempt without a decent hand.  If I call, I'd have to stand pat,
since I'd only be drawing to improve my 98 to an 87.  In the end, I decided
to fold and wait for a better opportunity to double through.  Don't know
what the raiser had (didn't even write down who it was).

A couple of hands later, I *did* get a better opportunity.  I have 9K.  At
this point I think we're at 1000-1000-2000.  Steve Landrum who has the big
stack (30 or 35 thousand) raises to 7K.  Dave McVay calls all-in for about
3K.  I look down and see 732AQ.  I check with the tournament director to
make sure that if Dave and I both bust on this hand, he gets 6th and I get
5th since he has fewer chips.  He says yes, and I call.  If I win this hand,
I'm probably in 3rd place in chips, and close to 2nd.  But I draw one and
catch a 3 giving me a pair.  Steve draws 1 and bets the rest of my stack
(only about 2K), with the pot being close to 20K.  I call, figuring that if
he paired, there was a decent chance he's worse than a pair of threes.  If,
say, I had paired 7s, I'd have folded and saved the 2K.  At this point, I'm
not sure calling was correct with the 3s.  For one thing, Steve has got to
figure that I'm probably gonna call with just about anything for my last 2K,
because most people would.  So if he really did have a hand worse than a
pair of threes, would he really have bet, even though it would only cost him
another 2K to get me all in?  I'm not sure.  Given that he bet, I doubt my
call is +EV in terms of tournament chips.  There was certainly less than a
10% chance for me to win the whole pot, since Dave is still in the hand too,
eligible for like 9K.  Is calling +EV in terms of actual prize money?  Not
sure either.  Either way, my chances of finishing higher than 5th after I
caught the pair were pretty slim.  Anyway, Steve caught good for a rough 7,
and won the hand.  Well, at least I know I had the best hand going into the
draw.  Fifth place paid $261.

Man, I can't believe I've written this much, and I'm only up to Thursday
afternoon.  Don't worry, my notes for the rest of the trip were much less
detailed. :)

At some point during the tournament, Beth read my badge, and said "Oh,
you're Len G!"  I said "yeah, but I'm probably not the one you're looking
for." :)  I'd noticed on the tournament sign-up list that there was another
Len at BARGE, and his last name (Greenberg?) was the next name
alphabetically behind mine.  What are the odds?  I met Len the next day.
What a nice guy. :)  Pretty much the first thing he said was "I know you've
been coming here for years, and this is my first BARGE, so I just want to
make sure I'm not stepping on your toes by using the name LenG on the poker
signup lists, etc."  I use my initals (LMG), so it was not an issue, but
pretty classy of him to ask!  Anyway, Beth watched me play for a while
towards the end, and after I busted out, she said she was gonna try to buy
me in the Calcutta.  So I figured that put me in a pretty select group of
about 176 people. :)

Feeling totally drained from lasting as far as I did in the HOP tournament,
I decided I was not going to enter the Mirage tournament that night.  I did
go over to the buffet, and had a interesting conversation with Deadhead over
dinner.  Don't think I'd ever even talked to him before.  Another cool thing
about BARGE is that you can walk into any of the buffets or whatever, grab
an empty seat next to someone you've never met, and invariably end up
thinking "what a nice guy."  By the way, thanks to BarryT & Betty for the
ride over to the Mirage!

I hung out and watched the start of the Mirage tournament, and found that
there was a long list for any of the games that looked interesting.  So I
walked over to the Bellagio, and got into a $15-30 hold-em game.  Met a very
social non-BARGEr named Bobby.  Apparently, he's the nephew of Nathan,
founder of the original Nathan's hot dog place in Coney Island.  Turns out
that three of the 8 players at the table, including me, plus the dealer,
were all from Brooklyn originally.  And BarryT and Lou Krieger weren't even
there. :)  At one point there was a hair on the table on top of one of the
board cards.  Bobby says "Boy, this room's tough.  Even the cards have
hair."  No interesting hands, really.  I cash out at 10:00 up $96 and head
back to the Mirage.  I figure a bunch of BARGErs have probably busted out by
now and will be in ring games there.

I get into a $20-40 stud game (which is up in the high limit area these
days, apparently).  Great game.  Some guy who looks like a pimp is to my
right playing every hand.  He's got a really loud red shirt on, and kind of
a pimp hat tilted perfectly.  I'm having a tough time staying awake at the
table, since I'd been up since like 7am, and I'm still on east coast time.
Some guy named Sam A. (I think) was in the game.  He was young, with very
long curly black hair, and seemed to know a lot of BARGErs.  Anyone know who
this guy is?  He looked really familiar, but it may just be from playing
against him in years past.  The only real notable hand I was in, I won a
$550 pot with 3 kings against aces up.  As it got past 1am, the game
dwindled down to shorthanded, which I like.  At around 2am it was heads up
with me and some local with long gray hair.  Someone said his name was Rick
something.  We didn't play heads-up for long, just pushed a few chips back
and forth mostly, till I quit.  There's something cool about playing
heads-up with some seasoned local in the Mirage high limit area though.
Kind of an ego boost when other locals don't come flocking to the game or
anything. Anyway, I cashed out at about 2am, up $441, cabbed back to
Binions, grabbed a quick grilled cheese sandwich, and went to bed.

I'd signed up for BARGE pretty late, and didn't make it into the TOC-style
tournament.  I was 22 names down on the wait list, so I figured I'd stop by
the poker room on the off-chance I'd get in.  Zimmers not around, come back
at noon.  Meanwhile, I go to the free buffet.  Lots of wait-listers waiting
around before the start of the tournament, some got in, but I was too far
down on the list.  I was mostly bummed because I'd done so well in the HOP
tournament, and wanted to get two more chances at the BAAP award.  Oh, well.
Meanwhile, Chuck pulled me and another HOP final tabler aside to inform us
that the dealer toke pool from yesterday was pretty low.  I guess I thought
that toke money had been pre-pulled from the entry fees for that, and so did
the other guy.  Chuck very tactfully and nicely explained that that was just
supposed to be an add-on to the toke pool.  So we both immediately went over
to the tournament director and kicked some money in.

Matt Matros (sp?) had also missed the wait-list cut, and the two of us
shared a cab over to the Bellagio.  Matt, it turns out, is a fellow Mets
fan, and he pointed out that they were listed as a +210 dog against the Big
Unit today.  He had bet on them.  I considered doing the same, but didn't.
I've never actually placed a bet at a sports book.  I should have - the Mets
won 6-1.

I bought into the $30-60 stud game at the Bellagio.  Pretty good game.
There was a fish named Abraham (ooh, kinda like on Diff'rent Strokes) two
seats to my right.  Also, a solid player to my left was clearly on tilt,
after being beaten by Abraham a few times.  It was amazing watching his play
deteriorate after the first hour or so.  Notable hands:  I start with split
aces and raise.  3 callers.  I check (planning to raise) on 4th.  A guy
bets, a Jh8h raises, and I make it three bets.  Jh8h caps it.  Still three
ways.  I just check & call on 5th, not having improved.  I make open 7s on
6th, and the third guy makes open queens.  No third heart for the other guy.
I bet and get 2 callers.  River is checked around and aces-up holds up.
Ding!  Another hand, I start with (A7) 4, all hearts, and call two bets
cold.  Hearts and aces are live.  I catch an ace on 4th and check raise.
Catch a heart on 5th and bet.  On 6th I make my flush, and an opponent makes
a straight.  I get three bets on 6th, and one more on the river.  Ding!  I
took an unimproved pair of kings too far into a hand with Abraham, but
otherwise played well.  Up $1000 in under 4 hours!  At this point, it's
4:30.  Dave Raymer offered me a ride back to Binions if I waited till 5:00
(thanks Dave), but I took a cab back, hoping to get in a quick nap before
the Calcutta.  Didn't actually sleep, but at least it was a break.  (I must
be getting old.) :)

I have to agree with the people who've been complaining about the lack of
food at the Calcutta.  My guess is that many people hope to fill up enough
on hors d'ourves there, that they won't actually need a separate dinner.
Especially with the tournament running right into the Calcutta time, and
team chorse starting immediately afterwards.  Sucks to pay for the Calcutta
and have no food left when you get there.  As usual, I don't actually bid on
anyone, but still like to go, have a couple of beers and hang out and talk
to other BARGErs. Watched the ADB Chinese poker tournament for a while in
the back.  Bingo seemed to be having a jolly old time, despite barely
knowing the rules.  I think at one point the no consulting with more than 8
people on a hand rule might have been broken.

Talked to Brian Goetz for quite a while, just like at last year's Calcutta.
What a nice guy. :)  I think I ruined his day by posing the following
interesting math/cards problem to him, which he was still thinking about the
next day. :)  I suggested he bring it up at the math.weenies meeting Sunday,
which he did.  Some of them had heard it before.  Here's the problem:  A
magician asks an audience member to pick 5 cards from a deck and hand them
to an accomplice.  The accomplice reads four of the five, after which the
magician can announce what the first card must be.  How is this done?
Basically, the question is how can you communicate the identity of a card to
someone by choosing which four out of five cards to read off, and by
choosing the order in which you read them.  No tricks like voice inflecting,
whether you say "club five" versus "five of clubs" etc.  And the solution
doesn't need to involve memorizing complicated tables, etc.

At this point in the trip, I was up about $2000 for the trip!  So I figure
it's a good time to test the waters of pot-limit holdem.  I haven't played
much pot limit at all.  Just a couple of hours last year, really.  They call
down two games at once.  I'm not on the list, but there aren't quite enough
players to fill both games - open seating.  There are a total of 4 empty
seats, and I choose one at the table *without* Paul Phillips, Melissa
Hayden, and Patri.  My table has Quick, Kim, Mike Maurer, Jazbo, Tiger,
Brian Goetz, and Brec.  Warren comes over after a few minutes, and wants a
seat at this game, but the floorman wants to balance the games, and sends
him over to the other game.  Warren complains loudly that he was on the list
and should get a choice of games over me.  Sorry, once the floor calls open
seating and I sit down, I'm in.  If he was locked out of a seat altogether,
I most certainly would have given the seat to him, but there were two seats
open in the other game.  About 10 minutes later, both games were full.  Lee
Jones came by looking for a seat.  Someone jokingly suggested he go over to
the other game and tell Warren that the brush had made a mistake, and that
Warren's seat really belongs to Lee. :)

I suck at pot-limit.  Actually, I learned a HUGE amount about pot-limit this
trip.  By the end of the trip, I don't think I sucked quite so bad.  But I
played several hands very poorly in this game Friday night, and lost about
$650.  Big pairs just plain aren't that good.  I've read Super System, and
knew this on an abstract, book-learning level.  But now I think I know it on
a been-there done-that level.  I have KK.  Brian Goetz raises to 20 in early
position, and I just call.  (First of all, the best thing to do with KK is
to try to win the pot before the flop, and I didn't try to do that).  The
flop comes J95, and Brian bets 100.  I raise all-in for another 200 or so,
and Brian beats me like a rented mule, with a set of 9s.  I guess he wasn't
too distracted by my damn math problem. :)  True to form, the big pair
either wins a small pot or loses a large pot.  Later, I have AA and raise to
20.  (At least I was aggressive pre-flop this time).  I bet $55 at a J96
flop, and get two callers.  The turn is a 9, a guy bets $125 ahead of me,
and I fold this time.  Turns out he only had a jack, and I was ahead.  Ugh.
I am certainly being outplayed here.  The last hand of the night for me, I
have KK again.  I raise 20, and Warren calls.  (He finally got into this
game).  I bet 60 with an overpair on the flop.  782 or something.  Warren
come out betting 60 on the turn, which was a 10.  I smelled a rat with the
small bet, but called anyway, and then called 100 on the river.  Warren had
96s for a straight.  Outplayed again.  Up about $1300 for the trip now.

Regardless of my loss, it was a fun game.  Quick kept running back and forth
between playing in this game, and playing his shift in team chorse.  Andy B.
came over for a while and played Kim's chips.  Brecher unleashed some
hideous puns.  Kim kept trying to order Quick several drinks at a time.
Etc, etc.  I think the highlight of the game for me was noticing that Tiger
was wearing three separate items of clothing that said the word "ass".  What
a rooler.  A shirt, a pin, and a cap.

Saturday was tourney time.  Wake up call at 9, down to the buffet for a
quick breakfast, and in the poker room for an amazingly on-time start for a
180-person tourney.  Kudos to the tournament staff there.  Monty and I
chopped a big pot early when we both had QJ for the nuts on a board of
KTx9x.  About 1/2 hour in, I get 78s in diamonds, and the flop has the 5 and
6 of diamonds.  I bet 800 with my open-ended straight flush draw and win.
After maybe an hour and a half, Joan Schmengie comes to the table, with her
bag-full of chocolate fishes.  Nice touch.  She was giving them out pretty
liberally, but I managed to get an extra couple by showing her a hand after
she folded to me.

Joan is on my right, we're both in late position, and she raises to 300
(double the BB) on a hand where I have deuces.  I call.  The flop is A94.
She checks, I figure I can take the pot, so I bet 700.  She check-raises
with a lot of chips and I have to muck.  I'm down to 2600 from a high of
3600.  Later, I have TT in middle position.  Joan raises to 400.  I call,
and so does Meeeee.  On the small flop, it's checked to me, and I move
all-in for about 2K.  Both fold.  I think Joan might have had jacks or
queens, because she was unhappy to have been folding.  I steal a couple of
blinds with A9s and AJ.  Later, I limp with KQ in middle position.  It's
heads-up with Steve Pierce on the BB.  Flop is nothing interesting and is
checked.  Turn is a king, I bet 800 and win.  I have T4300 at the break.

I try to steal in the SB with KJ, but am called by Shmuel Goshen in the BB.
Flop (T84 with 2 clubs) is checked.  6 of clubs comes on the turn, Shmuel
goes all-in and I fold.  I'm kinda playing like a little girl here.  We're
in the 300-600 round now, and I still have around 3500, but hold steady by
stealing once in each of two orbits with QQ and AQo.  Eventually, in the
500-1000 round, I'm pretty much blinded off.  When I have about 1500 left, I
go all in with an ace as the blinds are coming to me, and lose uneventfully.
I lasted over 4 hours without ever having doubled through.  I think I
finished in about 45th place.  My peak stack size was only T4300.  Not
nearly as fun a tourney for me as the HOP the other day. :)

This is the first year that I watched a lot of the final table action in the
BARGE tournaments.  It's really pretty fun to watch.  Especially if you have
rooting interest.  I didn't own anyone in the Calcutta, but I was in several
lasts-longer bets on the Boston team (BBB or whatever).  Andy Latto must
have done about 45 laps around the tournament area counting people's stack
sizes, trying to figure out who that was left in the tourney was part of our
last-longers, etc.  When it was down to 18 people, the Boston team had only
1 player left - Bozo.  Our three opponent teams (ADBs, ADVs, VV) each had
two or three representatives left (pretty impressive!).  Scottro (VV) had a
huge stack, as did one of each of the other teams.  Bozo was pretty
short-stacked, but ended up playing his stack masterfully, and reached third
place!  We won all of our lasts-longer bets for a total profit of $27 apiece
including the $10 loss for the intra-group personal lasts-longer bet.

Aside: At one point when there were two tables left, I commented to Andy
Latto that only in a BARGE tournament, could JRX have just the third longest
beard at his table!

Couple of comments on the final table play:  Bear in mind that it's *much*
easier to analyze these plays from the sidelines than in the heat of battle,
especially in hindsight.  I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who
plays well enough to make the final table at a BARGE tourney.  Anyway, I
think Scottro's all-in raise when there were 4 players left was a big
mistake.  Blinds were 5K and 10K.  Scottro had like 120,000 and raised
all-in with A7s.  With a short stack still in the game (Bozo), I don't think
there was any reason to do this.  Just raise double or triple the BB, and
dump if you get reraised.  There wasn't a lot of playing-back going on by
the other big stacks (twice in 31 hands, both by JRX with "real" hands).  So
Scottro could have folded to a reraise pretty easily, and still been left
with 10x the BB.  As it was, he was risking being snapped off by a big stack
holding premium cards, which of course, is exactly what Jeff B. had (AKs).
This play allowed Bozo to take 3rd place instead of 4th (and gave the VV vs.
BBB lasts-longer wager to us! :) )  The other play I was surprised on, was
when Bozo raised all-in for 55K after Jeff B had already raised to 30K.
Jeff had about 250K left after his raise, and needed to call 25K more.  It
looked like he was gonna fold here!  He had 56 suited.  The pot was laying
him like 3.5:1, but more importantly, it was a chance to bust the 3rd place
player and end up with 3/4 of the chips, without even risking giving up the
chip lead.  Jeff ended up making the right play and calling, but I didn't
even think there was anything to think about here.  Anyway, great tournament
by all final table players.  Congrats, Jeff.

At one point when the tourney was down to 2 tables, I jumped into a $15-30
holdem game for about 1/2 hour, but it was the tightest, least-action game
I'd seen all weekend.  Watching the tournament was much more fun. :)

For some reason, I never go to the banquet.  One of these times I'm gonna
go.  I think I thought it was a lot longer than it actually is, and never
wanted to give up that much prime playing time to a non-poker event. :)  But
each year, it sounds really fun, especially this year with Jesus speaking.
Maybe next year.  Instead, I bought into a pot-limit 1/2 Omaha high, 1/2
Omaha 8-Or-Better game.  I know, after my miserable pot-limit performance
last night, what am I thinking?  But I wanted to stay at Binions and
experience the Saturday night BARGE mayhem, rather than be anti-social and
go over to Mirage or Bellagio.  But I also wanted to be in a game that
interested me.  And the mid-limit holdem games, like I said, were pretty
dead at this point.  Pretty scary line-up with Paul Phillps and Melissa
Hayden in the game, but what the hell?  Other players in the game included
Salim, Andy Latto, Shyam, one local, and Kim (who came after me I think).
Andy B came in later too.  Patri played one or two hands before the banquet,
and returned afterwards.  Anyway, I bought in for only $300.

Early on, in Omaha high, I have 5678 (not suited), and call 15 preflop.  The
flop is 347, with 2 hearts.  I have the nuts with redraws for the 5 and 6,
but no heart draw.  Paul bets 60, Melissa calls, I go all-in for 225.  Local
cold calls, Paul calls, Melissa folds.  Turn is an ace, river is a blank.  I
split with Paul, who had no real redraws (back door spades).  The local did
not have the straight but had the nut flush draw.  Ding!

The most interesting hand of the night was probably this one:  I'm dealt
AAKK double suited in Omaha-hi.  Pretty fine hand, huh.  Melissa raises to
20 pre-flop.  I make it 60 and she calls.  Flop is Q23, three suits.  I bet
130, she puts me all-in for 215 more.  At this point, what the hell can she
have that I can be ahead of here?  She raised preflop then called a reraise,
and now she's raising me on the flop.  And she is a real solid player.
She's got to have a set.  Regardless, I get married to my hand since it was
so strong pre-flop, and call.  I spike an ace on the turn, though, and take
down this $800 pot against Melissa's set of queens.  I didn't really feel
good about it though, since I thought I made a really poor play and should
have dumped it.  I called in large part because I had been playing very
tight when faced with a big bet, and thought there was some chance she was
trying to take advantage of this.  But looking back, while this would have
been a decent argument if Paul Phillips was the raiser, Melissa was just
playing very solidly, and was very unlikely to have made this play without a
set on this flop.  If there was a flush draw or good straight draw out, it's
a different story, because she could be raising with a hand like two pair
and a strong draw.  I certainly thought her most likely hand was a set, but
didn't really realize how unlikely it was that she was holding anything
else.  I remember thinking "OK, there's probably about a 25% chance I'm
ahead, here, and coupled with my chances of outdrawing her, I should
probably call."  25% was a gross overestimate, though.

In retrospect, my call wasn't quite as bad as I thought.  I have two aces
and two kings as outs, plus one back door flush draw, and a back door
straight draw.  The pot is offering me 605:215 odds.  Since it's Omaha, I've
seen 7 cards, plus I am assuming that two of Melissa's cards are queens.
Based on this, my odds against winning are about 3:1.  So my call was wrong
since the pot is offering me less than 3:1, but not by much.

By the way, Melissa had several hands like this where she got a lot of money
in the pot as a large favorite, but came out on the short end.  But like a
true champion, she never let the bad beats affect her play.

OK, so now I have $800 on the table (up $500 in the game).  Over the next
several hours, I play tight, make no mistakes that I know of, and get a lot
of chips in with really big hands a couple of times.  (A nut-nut wheel, a
nut flush and nut low with Ace-three of hearts).  I won another big hand in
Omaha high when I started with TT98 or something, and flopped a T.  Filled
up on 4th street, and Andy B called all-in on my second pot-sized bet ($300
or so).  On that hand, Andy unfortunately said that he thought it was 8 or
better at the beginning of the hand.  There was no low on the board at the
end, and Andy had a low full-house, so it's not like he put a lot of money
in on the strength of a made low hand.  But a low full house was not nearly
as good a hand in omaha high as it would have been in 8 or better, where a
guy with a pair of tens in his hand isn't likely to even be in the hand.
Another guilt-ridden win for me.

In the end, I think I played really well the last 4 or 5 hours, and cashed
out at 2am up $1350 in the game.  I folded some pretty big hands and draws
early enough to not get hurt, or to get quartered in 8 or better.  I saw a
lot of hands cheap, because many hands (especially in 8 or better) were
unraised pre-flop.  A couple of people (notably Shyam), were in my opinion
folding way too many hands for $5 pre-flop.  In pot limit, I think that any
hand with a nut-draw like a suited ace is worth seeing a flop for the BB.
Besides the play of each individual hand, I think I played the game itself
very well.  Knowing that I'm weak at making decisions for lots of chips when
facing a big raise, I tried to avoid that situation by not raising pre-flop
with some pretty strong hands, knowing that building a pot early makes
mistakes later in the hand more costly.  I played very tightly, but managed
to have not quite so tight of an image because when the aggressive players
like Paul and Patri had folded pre-flop, I'd be a lot more aggressive with
weaker hands, knowing that I had more control over the pot size, and had
more of a chance of being able to outplay people.  At one point I showed
down a weaker than normal hand that I'd bet on the flop, and Paul commented
that he was very surprised to see me with that hand.  That's because if he
were in the pot, I'd never have played it.

An interesting hand I was not involved in: Patri and Paul each had more than
$2500 on the table.  At least one of them had around $4000 I think.  And
after a couple of hours, they finally went to war one hand on the flop or
turn.  Everyone else was out, and the two of them traded pot-sized raises a
couple of times (all within about one second) - "Pot. Okay I raise pot.
Okay I raise pot.  Okay, I raise pot" until one of them just threw their
whole wad in there and said "let's just go all-in", and the other
immediately followed.  Patri was even more "bouncing off the wall" giddy
than usual, changing the position of his legs under his ass on the chair
pretty much continuously, and later reliving the "Pot. Pot. Pot. Pot."
volley over and over again after the hand was over.  Paul had two pair and
some good draws.  Patri had some different good draws that were slightly
better, but a worse hand currently.  Someone asked if they wanted to deal
multiple turns and / or rivers, but Paul liked his chances and said, "I'm
prepared to accept my variance.  Just deal."  The river gave Patri a low
(not a good one), Paul won the high, and they each took their chips back.
But there were many possible river cards that would have given each player a
scoop.  Kinda cool to be playing at a table where there's a $6000 pot. :)

I had a great time in this game, and learned a lot.  Pot-limit is really
cool, in part because it requires much different tactics than limit, and
less obvious hand selection and valuations.  Can't wait to play it again
next year!  It really *is* hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer
terror.  I'd never thrown $400 in the pot on the turn of a card before.
Kinda scary, but quite a rush!

Aside: At one point during the game, (about 10pm) I realized that I hadn't
eaten dinner.  So I wandered out to the pizza place on Fremont street.  Wow,
there were a *ton* of people out there for the Fremont Street experience
show, etc.  It felt like New Year's Eve.  I was kind of amazed how oblivious
we all are to what's going on right outside the door.

Anyway, another reason I had so much fun in the pot-limit game was just
being involved in the absolute circus atmosphere that was the Binions poker
room Saturday night.  Somehow in previous years I was always over at the
Bellagio or Mirage during the Chowaha-fests at our host casino.  I'd heard
about the pandemonium before, but nothing prepared me for actually being
there.  Consider that our pot-limit game, with Patri and Paul was probably
the most quiet, sane game in the house!  Chow-aha looked like a blast.  The
chip castles were incredible.  I got up at least once per half hour to check
them all out and watch a few hands of chow-aha.  At one point, Kevin Un (I
think) had a huge castle with two parallel towers.  He suspended some
plastic straws across the gap between the towers, then balances a rack of
*green* chips on the straws.  His castle must have been worth over $4000 at
that point.  I went over 1/2 hour later, and the greens were gone, though.
Everyone was running around from table to table, about 20 people were
spectating the Chow-aha game where Jesus was playing.  Waitresses couldn't
keep up with drink orders.  The non-poker locals were floored by the level
of noise and excitement in the poker room.  The dealers were loving it,
since they were each lugging around slot-cups full of tokes.  One dealer
must have had $600 in tokes with him when he came to our table.  There must
have been 6 people playing other people's chips at any given time somewhere
in the room.  (At one point, Tom Weiderman was playing Andy B's chips in our
pot-limit game, when he explained that he'd never played any pot-limit
anything ever!  Patri couldn't stop laughing.)  At one point I saw a bunch
of chips airborne flying across the room.  I don't think anyone who's never
been there could possibly understand the pandemonium that goes on here.  All
I could think of was that if the WWF was poker instead of wrestling, this is
what it would look like.  I was just waiting for Hulk Hogan to burst through
the door weilding a "steel chair". :)

When I got up from the pot-limit game late Saturday night, I was up about
$2500 for the trip!  My flight back home wasn't till Sunday night at 11:40.
But I knew that whatever poker playing I did on Sunday was going to be
anticlimactic compared to the pot-limit game the night before, and the fun
last night.  So I wasn't planning on playing much on Sunday.  I figured I'd
check out some of the new casinos that I haven't seen yet.  So I was psyched
to get a message on my cell phone from a college friend (Jen), who lives in
Phoenix, but was in Vegas for a couple of days with her boyfriend.  I gave
her a call at her hotel (Monte Carlo), and made up to meet them at 12:30 for
lunch.

I had about an hour to kill before I had to go meet them, so I jumped into a
short-handed $10-20 holdem game with Matt Matros and a couple of locals.
Fun game, and fun trying to confuse Matt as much as possible. :)  I didn't
have to show a hand down for the first 20 minutes or so, but had won several
pots.  Finally, there's a hand where I raised a couple of times, and Matt
calls me down.  I finally need to show Matt a hand.  "Just the nuts,"  I
say.  Ding. :)  After an hour, I'm up less than $10, and cash out.  I'm
about to take a cab over to the Monte Carlo, when Fich and Jazbo offer me a
ride over to the Bellagio.  I take them up on it (thanks Fich!), and then
take the tram to the Monte Carlo.  BTW, Fich's license plate is LIGAFF.
>From the couple of times I've met him, I'm not terribly surprised. :)

I spent the day with Jen and her boyfriend, touring the Venetian and the
Paris, playing $5 blackjack and craps.  Down $50 after most of the
afternoon.  We ate dinner at the Brew pub at the Monte Carlo (pretty good),
and then I had about 2 hours to kill before I needed to go to the airport.
So I trammed back to the Bellagio, and got into a $15-30 stud game.
Unfortunately, I dropped $500 in about an hour in that game.  Twice I
started with an ace-high 3-flush and hit an ace on 4th, only to not make a
second pair and lose to kings up or queens up.  And then at the end, I
started with (8K) 8 and hit kings up on 4th, only to lose to pocket aces,
which made a second pair on the river.  Oh, well, not a great way to end the
trip, but still quite profitable.  Andy Latto gave me a ride to the airport,
stopping at the Monte Carlo to pick up my bag.  Thanks Andy!  The red-eye
flight got into Boston at 7:30am, and after stopping at home for an hour
nap, it was back to work.

Can't wait for next year...

							-Len
----------
           |\  /| . . |  /          Len Granowetter
           | \/ |  _  | (           MaK Technologies
           |    | /-\ |  \          (617) 876-8085 Ext. 121
       T E C H N O L O G I E S      lengrano@mak.com