From: mph@acm.org Subject: BARGE 2K TR This was my fourth and most fun BARGE. Up front I'd like to thank Mike, Chuck, the Shoe poker staff, Andy Latto, Peter Secor, Fitch and the Calcutta crew, and anybody else that helped pull off any part of this event. Its a blast! This is too long. For those of you bored by such things skip to the end and make sure you show up in Vegas next August! Getting There: I decided to drive from NorCal this year. On the way down I played in the Fresno poker room and booked a small win and then stayed a night with my parents in Bakersfield and booked a win in that poker room. A good start to the trip. Major Bad Beat for Others (20 miles of traffic): Sunday evening on my way into Vegas I noticed that northbound traffic (out of Nevada) was stopped from before Baker to Hollaran springs or so. Upon arriving at Primm I sat down in the 1-5 stud game and immediately got my ass kicked. Fortunately a good ass kicking in 1-5 stud consists of $30 so after a few hours I wondered on to Vegas. Thankx Mitch: The HO tourney at the Strat was fun. I was up the whole night previous playing at the Bellagio in a dealer rich (Yumm!) 4-8HE game. I got lucky and played reasonable well early on to have a stack but then lost a pivitol HE hand to Lee Munzer's small pair when I raised from the cutoff seat with KdQd and flopped a gutshot broadway and nut 4-flush and couldn't let it go. Binion's Omaha High game: I haven't heard anybody else mention this game. It was LIVE everytime I watched or sat in it. I wouldn't be surprised if an experts win rate would be double that attainable in a 8-16HE game. Not only did people put in a lot of money preflop on pretty rotty hands but they chased with very little chance of success. The only bad thing about this game is that its more boring then O/8. HOP Tourney: The deck hit me in the face early on. In the first two 5-stud rounds I made trips against hidden pairs. I had played 8-16HE at the Bellagio all night before this one (only leaving the Bellagio at 1130) also so as the day wore on I was getting pretty ragged. The most amazing hand I participated in was an A245Q against Andy Hughes. We get all in before the draw. He stands pat with a rough 8 (8-6 I believe) and I draw one. I discard the queen and turn my hand face up. You can hear the card fall as the deal throws me the bug. Bill, Stephen, and I chopped the 1st-3rd money. TOC Tourney: I never really built much of a stack. I definitely need to improve on my stud. I DID get some sleep before this one. Unfortunately I bust when I try to steal the big blind from the little blind with 72o and when called flop an open ended straight which I couldn't throw away. In hindsight this was a VERY weak play. While the big blind was also a short stack I don't think he was going to lay down that easy and I could of had a full rotation of hands ahead of me to pick from. Symposium: After munching on some food I talk to Patri for a moment who suggests we find a deck of cards. I run over to the shoe and pick up my KEM setup and a deck of cards which end up in a gin game(?). I also decide to buy a rack of Shoe white chips. Patri, Melissa, Max, and I play a $20 freeze out. Max misreads an early hand and lets Melissa double through. Doh! We battle back and ultimately bust Melissa. At the point Melissa busts out the rail wants back into the game so Patri kindly takes back his 58 chips allowing me a $2 profit. The next freezeout includes (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone) Patri, Jeff O., James K., Melissa, Spencer, Scott Byron, and myself. I feel pretty foolish when I raise from the button, the blinds fold and I flop over my hand only to discover that Spencer had already raised from early position. I bust later when they are auctioning me and I jam with something weak (KQo?). Later I deal the game in a mad rush to get it done with and back to the Shoe. NL Tourney: My initial table had Tony Goldstein (Darma) in seat 1, me in seat 2, Dave Tall in seat 3, and Paul Philips in seat 4, and Howard Turner (my calcutta partner) in seat 10. There were others at my table whose names I don't remember. I collected chips early on but when moved to my second table with Paul across from me and Walter Rulia to my left my stack started to dwindle. I was ultimately moved to a table with Mike Chow and Jazbo to my right. Its the 300-600 round and I have about T5200. Mike raises from the cutoff seat and I look down to see 88. I decide to jam back thinking Mike was most likely light and just trying to steal the blinds. After Mike goes into the tank I realize he is stronger then I thought. He finally calls and turns over 99. Board no help. IGHN. Again I probably should have squeezed a little longer. My stack isn't in mortal danger from the blinds yet. Baby PL: I agree with what Lee said. I'd like to see a 1-1 or 1-2 game get down. It doesn't appear that our group will support both a "big" and a "small" baby PL game. I tried to get a 1-2 game on the list after the banquet but failed. Pan: I'd donate to a training session. I have Michael W's book on Pan but everytime I go into Garden City there is a rocking good poker game to sit in and I haven't gotten myself into a Pan game yet. If somebody wants to have a home game in the bay area count me interested. I was in the Lowball training game Ploink mentioned and thought it was loads of fun. Whiskey and craps: I usu. blow a few dollars at craps and bow out but this year during the craps tour I ended up making $200 after being left at the Plaza craps table by the rest of the group. Throwing down a green chip at the bottom of a stack of reds thinking they were all reds while making a 20 minute roll was a pretty sweet mistake. After the craps tour Adam from Scotland let Ken Travin and somebody else whose name entirely escapes me taste several cask strength Scottish malt whiskies. Mega Ding!! In a really good talk later with Charles Haynes I learn there is a place in the Bay Area I can buy cask strength malts over the counter. Smoking: Visiting the Shoe is like licking out an ashtray. Its disgusting. Unfortunately its part of the scene. I'm not sure we as a once a year "convention" can do much about this. As individuals each and every one of us can put our money where our mouth is and choose not to play in poker rooms that don't at least have adequate ventilation. Leavin' Vegas: I had planned on leaving vegas either Sunday or Monday. As it stood I was too tired Sunday to leave so I planned on leaving Monday. Sunday evening I get into a "good" 10-20 game. At various times during the evening we had a player that auto-raised almost every pot. So as the game got short handed I was stuck ;) Finally the game is down to three of us. The Vegas "Laundromat Heiress" and the loose wild but well dressed "broker". Its a good short handed game. The lady decides early that any two cards can win short handed and is telling us about this discovery. The man has a little bit better hand selection but overplays most hands. I'm up a rack and some point and the two decide to cap every pot preflop. That is the pot is $150 on the flop if all three of us are in. I lost several big pots and end up stuck $150 when the guy leaves. At this point its about 0900. One of the dealers suggests we might be able to get some players if we play 2-5PLH. The lady asks what that is and then says she will play it. Ding! A few minutes later we have a game going with Barry T., an old man, and a younger man in it. Barry and I have about 500 on the table, the woman has something like $300 on the table, I don't remember what the old man had, but the younger man hadn't bought in for much more then $100. The first hand (or close to it I get AhQh) and make a bring in raise. The younger man in the big blind calls me. The flop is all hearts. He bets into me. I call. River is a blank. He jams. "I call with the nutz.". He is out of his chair before the river is square on the table. Ding! A few hands later I pick up AcKd and the flop is all clubs. The river is a Ad, and the river is a club. The woman puts her stack in and I call with the nuts again. I play for a half an hour losing one medium sized pot and winning several medium to small sized pots. I end up a rack of red. I ask the Poker supervisor to get me as large an extension on check out as possible. They come through and I leave to get some sleep before my drive back to the bay area. After some sleep I leave the shoe at 1500 and make it back home by 0130. I wasn't sure I should leave the game until Barry got his shot at her stack 'cuz I was afraid the game would break. When I heard her tell Barry that if they continued to play she would go to the cash machine I knew all was well. As it turned out when I went by the poker room at 1500 before leaving Vegas I saw her still in the game with Scott Byron in the seat Barry had the night before. My Bad Beat: I only remember one "hugh pot equity unrealized" event from the whole weekend. I'm in a 10-20 game and get QQ UTG. I get something like 6 callers including the blind. The flop is AQ6. The blind bets, I raise, I get a late position caller and the blind. The turn is a 6. The blind bets, I raise, and the late position player and the blind calls. The river is an A. The blind bets. I waffle and make a crying call, the late position raises, the blind reraises, I muck, and the late position player calls. Blind has A4, late position has A2. Case Ace good sir. They both congratulate themselves over and over until I get sick to my stomach and point out I had QQ and they were drawing to the one Ace in the deck. Someday I need to learn to keep my mouth shut. To all those I've met: I'm already counting the days to being able to play poker again with a really cool group of people. It would be impossible for me to mention all the different people that taught me things about poker by example or in conversation over those few days in Vegas.