From: "Bill Chen" Subject: BARGE highlights. R00ling PL game with Phil Hellmuth and Mike Laing. So instead of posting a whole trip report (which I know I won't get around to) I'll post some highlights. The first highlight was watching Jerrod win the NL tourney at the Mirage. Jerrod will probably want to post about it, but I was really impressed. This is Jerrod's biggest tourney win to date, so we should expect more to come. Also the Bill side bets worked out rather well. For the Norcal squad, we won 5 out of 6 side bets. Nobody won the quick bounties so everyone gets their money back for those. Kudos goes to: Spencer Sun in the HOP, who finished 3rd, won the individual last longer pool, and outlasted both Eastcal and Socal. Connie Kellers in the TOC, who signed up at the last minute and finished 3rd, outlasting the Socal by a mile, and also outlasting Tom Sims of Eastcal. Peter Secor and Joan Hadley in the TOC, who chopped up the individual pool. Peter again capably represented Norcal, and Joan actually outlasted Peter after they made the deal. Bob Herlien in the NLHE, who outlasted Eastcal and put in a good effort before falling to Russ Fox. Mark Trombley who outlasted Norcaler Andrew Prock for the individual pool. And yes, congrats to Russ Fox, our only blemish in our perfect record who won the whole NLHE event. So I think I have 4 players I have yet to pay. I will get organized and email you guys later., The next highlight was paricipating with the ADVers. Beth did a great job of organizing us this year again, and becuase of Russ winning, we won all out last longer bets. For the Calcutta, Beth and Scottro were able to get 27 different quality players, and we doubled up our pool money. I also got to spend a lot of time with Heldar (David Heller) who deserves credit doing all out computer work. Oh yeah another highlight was getting to play bridge with Andy Latto, Russ Fox, and Jerrod Ankenman. A few interesting hands--one of them Andy opened 1H, Jerrod overcalled 2N showing at least 5 clubs and 5 diamonds, and Russ Fox is sitting there with AQJxxxxx of clubs, yes he has the other clubs! Of course the last highlight was r00ling Phil Hellmuth and Mike Laing in the short-handed 5-10 PL game. I actually posted to RGP but somehow it was under "Michael Shuster," in response to foldem's post about BARGE tidbits. Still sick and hungover from BARGE, so this will be short. It's Sunday and I've up a few thousand from Chinese Poker and other action and Phil starts a 5-10 PL game with Mike Laing. Unlike the others, I think "Hey where to you get a chance to practice short-handed PL with Phil at stakes I can afford? So I sit down with $800. Mike Laing is raising most hands, and raises the small blind. Hey, I can call with A9. Flop 965, he bets the pot, $60, I call. Turn is a 5, he checks, I bet the pot, he calls. Turn is a 7, check-check and I take the pot. Beth who was watching the hand said he showed j6 to the players behind him. Anyway Phil starts needling him about if he had bluffed the river he would ahve taken it. So it's 4-handed for a while, we push chips around, and then Mike laing makes it $20 to go one off the button (also UTG becaue it's 4 handed). I smooth call wioth jacks. I flop the overpair and get to raise when he bets out on the flop of t9x. He goes all-in with a ten and my hand holds up. So Laing leaves and the other player didn't want to play 3-handed, so I play HU with Phil for what seemed like only 20 minutes. There's no showdown for a while, and it seemed like I was giving up many hands in the BB and deciding to play on the button mostly. So one of the hands I raise with is KJ to around $25, Phil defends. Flop is KT9, Phil bets $50, I decide to call and see what happens. Turn is an 8, Phil checks, I decide to semibluff by betting the pot , Phil calls after some though. River is a 7, he checks and I immediately bet the pot. Phil folds and shows T9, if he had pushed back with all his chips I had decided to call, but Phil's plan was to bet the river if something like a 3 or 2 came and make a pot-sized bet. Now I notice a crowd of people watching... Actually the reason I knew this was because Phil was on his way to the airport at the same time I was the next day and we shared a limo ride, fortunate his limo was already there since I just made my flight. Yes, Phil stayed at Binions too like the rest of us. We got a chance to talk about some of the hands and besides having a wealth of poker knowledge he's a geat guy to talk to. I enjoyed his talk, and am glad he was on our Norcal team! It was very cool of him to offer to share his limo. So anyway Laing comes back and buys more chips, we play 3-0handed for a while, all of us straddling on the button so it's really 5-10-20 PL. Then Phil raises in the SB to $70, Mike laing reraises the pot, (that's Phil's $70 + $160 more for those keeping score) and I say "now would be a nice time to get aces." We were all doing lots of table talk, but nobody can outtalk Laing. So I raise the pot, enough to put Laing in for his last $330. Phil calls, having only $60 left. And Laing says "He's got queens, I know it!" He offeres to Phil "If you stake me on this call, and he doesn't ahve pocket queens, I'll kiss your a**." Phil says "Well I don't really want my a** kissed." Anyway Mike talks for around a couple of minutes, now the crowd has grown to around a dozen. He finally calls, and says he has KJ, Phil has QT and yes, I have AA. Nothing bad happens and I win, up around $2000 and a r00ling story! Bill