From: "Tim McGarvey" Subject: Timmy's Trip Report, or How Timmy fell in the well ObDisclaimer: This is long, and contains much that is, and much that is not, related to poker. If you don't like such posts, please just don't read it :) And now to the main event.... Timmy's Barge2K Trip Report Saturday, July 29 Leave Baltimore with only minimal airline-related hassles, and arrive in Vegas at 12:00 local time. Can’t check in yet, and the poker games look dreadful, so head over to the pit for some BJ. –20 Units. 10/7 DB Triple Play VP yields a –800 coin loss. Check in at about 4:00, check the BARGE mailing list, then decide to take a nap. Sunday, July 30th 11 hours later, I awake feeling refreshed. It’s really damn early, so I kill some time noodling around on the computer, then cab over to the Mirage for some 6-12 Holdem. Play for approximately 12 hours, earn a modest profit. I enter the 7:00 pm stud tournament. No real hands of note, I don’t get many big pairs, but during the early rounds I get to play several flush draws, three of which get there. I’m in decent chip position when we break down to the final two tables, but from there I catch no cards at all. I make the final table, but they only pay 5 places. I bust out 8th. Jupiler is co-chip leader when I bust out, but he takes Aces up against the other big stack who has queens or kings (I think) Unfortunately, the best hand fails to hold up, and Jupiler is now hurting. He’s (I think) next to bust out, and I catch a ride back to the Shoe with Jup. Monday, July 31st. Back to the Mirage today, for more 6-12 Holdem. I experience absolutely hideous luck in this game, dropping slightly more than 3 bills in about 30 minutes. When my name comes up for a 10-20 stud seat I jump at it, just for a change of pace. Win back the 300 plus a little bit more. Not too much in the way of notable hands though. I don’t feel like entering the Mirage tournament tonight, so I head over to the Bellagio to see what the action looks like over there. Lists are relatively long, no seats open. I r00l the video poker bar for a free drink, win $3 at a bartop machine, and eventually cab back to the Horseshoe for some sleep. Tuesday, August 1 Once again, back to the mirage. More 6-12 Holdem, get up when my name is called for the 10-20. Up about 180 in the 6-12 game. Then when I go to the 10-20, I realize that the must move game has degenerated down to three people – I’ll make it four. Ruh roh – I don’t have a whole lot of experience in short-handed holdem, especially not against aggressive players. But this should be educational. Luckily, I fall into the rhythm of the game pretty quickly, and develop a good read on the other players. I’m able to avoid really troublesome situations, and am (I think) projecting a solid, aggressive, image. I’m dealt 10-10 under the gun, and raise. Called by the button and the big blind. Flop comes T87 rainbow, giving me top set, and enough draws that I don’t think I’ll be hurting for action. Bet, raise from button, BB folds, I three-bet, call. Turn comes an offsuit deuce or something similarly innocuous. Bet and a call. River comes a 7, and I put in three bets after the button raises me. Turns out he had 79 for bottom pair and a straight draw, about where I put him. Glad the straight didn’t come J I take down a few other nice pots, but begin to realize that while I believe I’m playing well, the other players have more short-handed experience and are probably better short-handed players. When the tournament starts we lose one more players, and I cash out. Up $520 on the session. Nice day so far. I play the NLHE tournament at the Mirage, and bust out fairly quickly on an AK vs. TT showdown. My AK catches nothing…REBUY. Just before the end of the rebuy period, I’m down to about T425 (out of a T500 rebuy) and am catching nothing in the way of cards. I decide I will not rebuy or take the addon, and might not even want to hang around past the break if I can’t get any chips. Last hand, someone goes all in ahead of me, and I realize I have a bigger stack than him. Can’t go all in on this one no matter what!! Aiyah! I fold my KJ, which I probably would have played otherwise. Forced to play well… Every other player at my table takes the add-on, and those who are below T500 rebuy as well. I decline to do either… so it’ll be my T425 and the next smallest stack is about T1150… guess I’ll need to double up a few times. After the break, I finally catch a few lucky breaks. My big blind is either called or raised by only one bet, and I see a flop with 79s. Flop two sevens, and call an all-in bet by the other player – he have AA, he go home now. Nice of him to let me get there for free/cheap. Shortly thereafter I have KK in late position and call an all-in preflop bet from early position. He has 99 (same guy who didn’t raises his aces earlier) and fails to improve. I’m not up to about T2500. At the next break, I’ve run my stack up to T4400. Then I get over-aggressive with 88, and the big blinds AA takes 1800 of that away. I never should have called his reraise at that point. Ah well, the point is to learn from our mistakes, I suppose. After this, I catch absolutely no cards, and find myself VERY short-stacked when we’re down to about 14 players. They’re paying 9 places, and I have to go all-in with 11 left. I lose that hand, and bust out (AGAIN) just a place or two out of the money. Back at the Horseshoe, I relax and catch up with some early arrivals. I meet up with Pain and Bullbert, and we head over to the BJ pit to find a cheap game and kill some time, but most games are five-dollar. We do find one two-dollar shoe game, and play that for a shoe, until we decide to seek greener pastures elsewhere. ObDisclaimer: I am not a serious blackjack player. I do however, know how to keep a simple count, and generally hope to achieve a break-even game with my play. That’s why I like to play in Vegas, because I can’t get single or even double-deck games in AC. And I’m simply not interested in putting in the effort to count a shoe game. So when we wind up in the Golden Gate in search of Shrimp Cocktails and maybe some Blackjack, I’m gratified to find a double-deck BJ game with marginally decent penetration. Play that spreading from 1 unit to 2 hands of 6 units with no heat for an hour or two, and leave a small winner. Eat 3 shrimp cocktails, and we head back to the Shoe. Wednesday, August 2. Today, the BARGErs start arriving in more than token numbers. Great to see everyone again, and to meet some new faces. Of course there are far too many people to mention everyone, but it was a real pleasure to put some faces to a few familiar names I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet yet. I play some 4-8 Omaha/8 in the Horseshoe poker room (my first live-action poker at the Shoe this week!) and cash out up about $80 when it’s time to head over to the Smoker. The Fiore had cancelled on us at the last minute, but Bruce was able to get us set up with a private room at the Palm in the Forum Shops. WTG Bruce! It was nice to try a different restaurant this year, and I was glad to have finally been to The Palm. As always, the company was excellent, as was the food. I even managed to find a bottle of a Louis Jadot Beaujolais on the wine list at a good price (what can I say, I have eclectic tastes in wine) which I truly enjoyed. All in all, a wonderful experience, as always. After dinner, Bruce Kramer gave me an Epi 2 to smoke… what more can you say about Bruce. Bruce, you rock! I already owe you about a dozen cigars, and I’m sure I’ll wind up mooching a few more … one of these days I’ll have to take you out to dinner to make up, in some small part, for all the cigars you’ve given me. After the smoker we head over to the Bellagio to check out the sports book and play some poker. I check the score on the Arizona / Atlanta game. I had bet Schilling and under 7.5, and both came in. Ding! At the poker room I take a seat in a 15-30 stud game. After a few rounds of stealing the occasional blind, losing the occasional bring in, etc. I’m dealt hidden 99 and here comes the upcard… 9! Ding! I limp for 5, and it’s raised and reraised behind me by a Q and K upcard. I fire back 45 and we’re off to the races. My 9s don’t improve, but drag a $300 pot anyway. Ding! Play a few more hands, and I start trying to categorize any mistakes I’ve seen players make. And then I realize, I haven’t seen any obvious mistakes. Look to the left, don’t see any fish. Look to the right, don’t see any fish. Look in the mirror.. oops! Racks please! This game is too tough for me… if I want to play stud, I can do it in AC where there are bad players in the game. There’s a mostly BARGE 8-16 game going, but the list for it is long, and I’m getting tired. I catch a cab back to the shoe and get caught up by a crowd going to shoot craps. Loose $116 on a $200 wash – ouch!! Time for bed. Poker Celebrity Sighting: Doyle Brunson is sitting in a 4-handed 1500-3000 game in the back corner as I walk by. I refrain from saying hello J Thursday, August 3 – Sunday, August 6 I had promised myself this trip that I was going to play serious poker from the time I arrived until the buffet Thursday night. After that, it was all fun and games. Past Barges I have often been torn between playing in good games and playing with friends – this year I didn’t want that to happen. So I flew in a week ahead of time and played seriously for four days. Having gotten that out of my system – well the rest of the weekend I expected to lose some money, have a ton of fun, and generally r00l it up. And in keeping with drinking a bit, having tons of fun, meeting lots of new people and renewing friendships from BARGEs past, well, there wasn’t a lot of time to take notes. So, instead of sticking with my day by day trip report at this stage, I will have to just post some thoughts about important events. Craps Tour: The craps tour was much fun, if not very profitable. Peter, can you finally stop saying you want to go to the Gold Spike now? J R00ling beat from the Lady Luck when we walk in and tell the boss that if they’ll drop the limit on an empty table, we’ll fill it for them—and they actually do! And we do! I lose track of the crowd when we stop back at the horseshoe, but eventually find them again at Main Street Station. At this point, things start to get a little cloudy…. I remember that as we came back to the ‘Shoe a second time, someone wanted to start a Chowaha game…. Which, given the level of sobriety (or lack thereof) I was already exhibiting, might not have been the best idea for me. But what the heck, in for a penny, in for a pound. They don’t call me a drunken bastard for nothing!! I don’t remember much of the game, except flopping quad sixes with my pocket pair—Ding!!! My next clear memory is waking up and having NO money. Check the bankroll – nope, not there. Check the wallet – nothing but dustbunnies. This bodes poorly… go down to my safe deposit box, and find that I’d opened it at 5:00 AM the night before. Now at this point, I’m afraid to open the box. But when I do, I find – all the money from the wallet, just about everything I’d have expected to find in the bankroll. Apparently I just didn’t trust myself with money, which, I have to think, is probably a good idea. As I walk back to the poker room, BARGErs begin regaling me with tales of my falling out of my chair at the poker table, being dead on the street, etc. (No, I was not the dead guy on Fremont street. That’s the last time I’m saying it. And whoever that may have been, they didn’t deserve the jokes either. I won’t say I didn’t find them funny, too—but I think we could have taken that a little more seriously. End of sermon.) Team HORSE: Much better format this year – it really allowed for more play, and the extra space allowed for more socializing too! I played Crazy Pineapple for the ADB Contenders, and we r00led. At the end of the 15-30 round we had such a big lead on the next stack that we essentially decided not to play anything but a monster hand the 20-40 round. Made a $110 profit for each member of the team. R00ling!!! Kudos to Foldem for organizing this so well. Mississippi Stud: This game rocks!! For those who were not in on all of the explanations, Mississippi stud was played as follows: it’s pot-limit stud, with 4th and 5th streets dealt without a betting round between them, and 7th street dealt face up. We played with a 50 cent ante and a $1 bring-in, with a $5 kill. Now I won’t pretend to be a pot-limit expert, and I didn’t want this to be a big game. But the $5 kill really helped the game. There was no action without it. Those in the game would probably accuse me of playing too tight, and to an extent they’re probably right. I didn’t have enough confidence in my ability to get off a hand to play hands like K87 or one-gap straight draws with a two-flush for $5 or $10 bucks on 3rd street, knowing I’d get two cards before having to act again. And those were basically the only hands I was being dealt. I did have a few big pairs, and some flush draws. The hand that busted me out of the game, I had about $180 on the table and am dealt A(AK) just to the left of the kill. I pop it to 20, and Quick comes over the top for 75 or so with a Q showing. Patri calls him, and I reraise all-in, hoping to play heads up against Quick. But alas, everyone calls me. In fact, Quick might have reraised all-in after I did as well. Quick had split Queens I believe, and Patri had split 7s with a K, and maybe a two-flush. Patri makes three pair (kings up) and takes the pot against my unimproved Aces. I go home now. Plenty of other hands in which I made mistakes – I just won’t go into those right now. Much more fun to just talk about the ones I got sucked out on. Once again – this game rocked! Took me a while to get into the swing of things, and I was getting dealt some truly wretched starting hands. But I would love to play it again. Kudos to Max and Patri for getting this spread. 15-30 Holdem Game: Me: It was the best game I've ever seen. Listener: Really? How much are you stuck? Me: About two dimes. Okay, I actually was only into the table for 1200 when I started pulling back. And if not for a few misplays (lighting $120 on fire in one hand with Aces would be a good example) I would have been very close to even. As it was, I lost $240. To Lee, I hope you know we were only joking when we screamed "GO AWAY" when you came over to take your seat in the game. JK, you're lucky I wasn't drinking anything when you made that well comment - I'd have spit it all over the table I laughed so hard. And to the seven fish (who I started naming as if they were Dwarves) at the table, you guys are welcome in my game any time. Just as an editorial example, let's examine the lineup. There was Sleepy, the old guy who'd been playing for 36-hours straight. Every now and then he'd fall asleep at the table, you'd shake him awake and say "Your action, sir" and without looking at his cards he'd raise. Then there was Raisey. He gave so much action that JK would three-bet him and get called cold by 4 people. Two calling stations, one classic weak-tight player who wouldn't bet without the nuts... the list goes on. Good game. Binion’s: Okay, the smoke sucked. But everything else they did for us was Awesome! They just seem to understand what we’re about, in a way that other poker rooms probably won’t. I can’t say enough about how well we were treated there. Thanks to all who played a part in getting this set up. Tournaments: I didn’t play in them this year, and so can’t really comment much. Congratulations to all the winners. BARGE Experience: You are still allowed to have fun in Las Vegas. And boy did I. This is already too long, and I won’t make it longer by trying to list everyone who made my trip better. But thanks to all of you, and to Binion’s for having us. This is, hands down, the most fun I have in a casino all year long. Thanks especially to Mike, Chuck, and everyone else who helped make BARGE happen this year. It isn’t really possible for me to tell you all how much I appreciate your work, so I won’t try, beyond saying, thank you. BARGE is the nuts. Timmy