BARGE 2000 No-Limit Hold-em Saturday, August 5, 2000 "It is the best of times, it is the best of times." That's how Charles Dickens would describe BARGE 2000, the tenth occasion of the grand- daddy of all ARG events. BARGE stands for the Big August Rec.Gambling Excursion to Las Vegas. It is three days chock full of gambling and poker-related events at Binion's Horseshoe, where only four months earlier the poker world came to determine who the World Champion would be. Attendees come from all parts of the world, but all are part of a community created by the Internet. Although many people do know each other in "real life", even those who have only participated electronically are welcomed and embraced by those who have attended before. This year, we had two Champions attending. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, who won the Championship event at the World Series of Poker, and Spencer "Zorak" Sun, who won the Tournament of Champions, braved the intense Las Vegas heat to join their fellow Internet companions at the green table. For Spencer, it was only a week after his victory at the Tournament of Champions. The premier BARGE event is the No-Limit Hold-em tournament, held on Saturday, August 5th, 2000. 180 players sat down to decide who would have serious bragging rights for the year, take a share in the over $10,000 prize pool, and design the chips for next year's BARGE. No-Limit Hold-em is an unforgiving game. Both Jesus and Zorak know this already, but in one of those "only in real life" coincidences, not only did both have pocket nines on their final hand, they both lost to pocket aces. There's about 150 people or so who can say they lasted longer than these two champions. This year's Final Table was set after Guy "Grizz" Berentsen was knocked out in 11th place when he took an A-Q offsuit and found his opponent with an A-9 offsuit. If this sounds a bit familiar, you're right. However, unlike T.J. Cloutier who was heartbroken on the river, Grizz got his broken on the flop and the turn when two nines came and Grizz was out. The Final Table consisted of: Seat Name Stack (approx.) Affiliation 1 Brett "Maverick" Roth 38,500 2 Steve "Bozo" Blackstock 16,000 BBB 3 John "JRX" Reed 126,000 4 Don Perry 41,000 5 John "JADC" Cervanyk 6,000 6 Patti Beadles 23,000 ADB / NorCal 7 Scott "Scottro" Harker 111,000 Virgin 8 Bob Herlien 14,000 9 Walter Hunt 7,000 SoCal 10 Jeff Bartoszewicz 48,500 The affiliations are listed because of "last-longer" bets between Northern and Southern California, and a three-way between the Virgins, the ADB'ers, and the BBB'ers. With the blinds at 3,000/6,000, it doesn't take much to realize that four participants were in immediate trouble. On the hand before JADC is about to be blinded off, Bob Herlien pushes his 14,000 all-in with pocket 3's. JRX has Ks Ts and calls. Bob flops a set and JRX a four-flush, but the turn and river are bricks (3s Tc 8s Qc 7c) and Bob survives to get some needed breathing room. On the very next hand, John Cervanyk is all-in for the big blind. In the small blind, Don Perry calls with 9h 6s, JADC having Jc 4c. Don flops a nine, JADC picks up a backdoor flush draw on the turn, but the river pairs Don's undercard (Tc 9d As 3c 6d), and John is out in 10th place. As the sole surviving SoCal member, Walter Hunt hovered on the brink a few times before making it to the final table. Under the gun, Walter goes all-in for 7,000 with pocket tens. Maverick calls, as does Bob. They check down the board (4s 2h 2s Ac Jd) hoping to put away Walter. Maverick's Kh Qd doesn't do it, but Bob's Js 3d sends Walter away quaking. The entire NorCal contingent cheers for winning their last-longer. The next hand Don Perry raises all-in for 15,500. Jeff Bartoszewicz (pronounced "bar-tuh-SHEV-itz") calls with Kh Tc. Don has pocket 4's, but Jeff catches a ten (6d Qh 8c Th 8s) and Don is gone. Two hands later, Patti Beadles goes all-in with Qh Js. Bozo has an easy call with Ks Kh. The flop comes 7s Ac As. Patti needs two running jacks or queens to win, or running sevens to tie. A seven comes on the turn, but the river deals an ace to ice Patti. Pick up your well-earned NorCal winnings, leave your ADB money with the Virgins and the BBB'ers, thank you! In ten hands, we've lost four people. The action slows down considerably, with someone raising and everyone else folding to him. We reach the break, and the blinds go up to 5,000/10,000. The stacks now look like this: Seat Name Stack (exact) Affiliation 1 Brett "Maverick" Roth 38,000 2 Steve "Bozo" Blackstock 30,000 BBB 3 John "JRX" Reed 141,000 7 Scott "Scottro" Harker 93,000 Virgin 8 Bob Herlien 33,000 10 Jeff Bartoszewicz 119,000 Before the first hand is dealt, the players all agree to equalize the 4th, 5th, and 6th place prizes to $599 with any leftover going to the dealer toke pool. Already down one big blind and in it again, Bob makes his move, calling Scottro's raise to 45,000 with As Jh. Scottro has a measly 8h 4d, but he flops a 5d 6s 7c for a straight and Bob is in trouble. The turn is a 4h, so Bob can now split with an 8, but a 5h on the river sends Bob back to the shower from whence he presumably came (Bob was dressed in a bathrobe). Also short-stacked, Maverick raises all-in for 23,000 with a Qc Th. Jeff is willing to play sherrif with a Kc 9h. The board comes 7d Kh 2h As Ad and Jeff has outdrawn Maverick, sending him to Boot Hill in 5th place. Bozo is now the remaining short stack, and knows that everyone is gunning for him. In the big blind, Bozo calls Scottro's raise with his last 15,000. Scottro has As Js and is the favorite against Bozo's Ts 8h. But Bozo flops trip tens and Scottro doesn't catch up (4s Td Tc Kh 7s). Exactly one orbit later, Jeff tries to take out Bozo. This time Bozo has an Ah 3h and Jeff has As 5c. Bozo again catches a miracle flop, 2c 4c 5d for a straight and although Jeff picks up a flush draw with the Ac on the turn, the river is a Ts and Bozo survives again. The next hand, Scottro picks up Ac 7c and raises all-in to try to pick on Bozo in the small blind. However, Scottro forgets to "check six", and Jeff re-raises all-in with Ah Kh. The flop is 2h Qs 3c and after the 4h turns, Scottro can win with a five or a non-heart seven. The river is a seven, but it's the 7h, giving Jeff a heart flush. Scottro finishes in 4th place, and the BBB has won the last-longer bet. Two hands later, Bozo's luck runs out. This time he's ahead with an As 7d against Jeff's 6s 5s, but the board is 3d 9d Qs 6d Th, and Bozo is out in third place. What follows next can only be described as agonizing yet amazing. The small blind either folds or makes a raise and the big blind folds. There were only three flops in the final 39 hands. But after 16 hands, JRX steals his way back from a 2:1 chip deficit to being equal to Jeff. He proposes an even split with one final hand to determine the TOC qualification, but Jeff wants to play on. It takes 23 hands after this to finally determine the winner, but a knowledgeable spectator says to me (and this is echoed by Chris "Jesus" Ferguson at the banquet) that both players are making too-large raises pre-flop. If either of them were to be re-raised, they would find themselves pot-committed and almost have to call. At last the end comes. Jeff makes it 50,000 and JRX reraises all-in. Jeff calls with Kh 7h, and JRX has As Qc. The flop is 6s 4d Kc pairing Jeff. JRX can win with an ace or go runner-runner for Broadway, but the final cards are the 9d and 8d, and Jeff Bartoszewicz is the winner. Final Results 1st Jeff Bartoszewicz $3,129 2nd John "JRX" Reed $2,086 3rd Stephen "Bozo" Blackstock $1,252 4th Scott "Scottro" Harker $599 5th Bret "Maverick" Roth $599 6th Robert Herlien $599 7th Patti Beadles $599 8th Don "trythat" Perry $261 9th Walter Hunt $261 10th John "JADC" Cervanyk $208 11th Guy "Grizz" Berentsen $208 12th Nick Christenson $156 13th Nolan "DarkSide" Dalla $156 14th Bruce "BigBoy" Kramer $156 15th George Wattman $105 16th Shmuel Goshen $105 17th Lee Crocker $105 18th Bill Chen $105 (C) 2000 Jeff Okamoto. All Rights Reserved.