From: Barry Kornspan Subject: BPK's Trip Report (part 1) Preliminary Comments ----------------------- This being my first trip report, and of course, not having kept notes, will be as accurate as my limited memory suffices. That having been said, I want to first and foremost thank Chuck and Mike Z. for an excellent BARGE 2001. I'm sure many trials and tribulations were gone through by these two men, which do not need to be recounted here, as you all know what I'm referring to. Even though I don't know the scope of the effort put in by both of them in making the arrangements for BARGE, it boggles my mind to think that they do this voluntarily out of their love for our passion - poker. Thanks, guys.... I would also like to thank those (BCC, QB, etc...) involved with the chips, coins, dice, pins, and all the other BARGE paraphernalia - they were all great, and make each BARGE unique. This was my 2nd BARGE (4 ATLARGE's), but after having been to BARGE 2000, I was looking forward to this all year based on the fantastic time I had last year. Wednesday 8/1 ---------------- After deciding that I was not going to fly out on a redeye from the East Coast and start the weekend tired, I left on Wednesday at noon on a direct flight from Continental. A nice thing about Continental is that they now allow you to keep the headset (one time $2 fee) and reuse it on future flights for free movies/audio entertainment. Of course, I already had a headset from a previous flight - but was glad to see that policy change anyway. Arrive in LV on time, grab the Alamo bus (why does it have to be the furthest bus stop away?), and get to their rental office. Alamo, known for having some of the cheapest rates for a major renter, now has a "Quick Rent" feature on the 'net which gives you the same features as their Quicksilver members - make a reservation, run your CC in a machine, print out a receipt that has your chosen car on it, and go! Was out of there in 5 minutes flat... Didn't see much new on the Strip since my last visit (Nov 2000), except for the new Bally's sign...and this was a big hooplah? After arriving at Binions, picking up my key (roomed with Tom "LuckyRebuy" Goodwin) and getting my bags away, I went down to the Poker Room. Oh, and before I forget, one good thing about rooming with Tom. You never see him! He gets by on as little sleep as a human being possibly can, while still playing r00ling poker! I've roomed with him 5 or 6 times now, and up to this time, have almost never been asleep in the room at the same time he was! WTG Tom! It was as if I'd never left after last year's BARGE (my first) - got to see a bunch of people I'd met last year, and then again at ATLARGE last year. Being a virgin to the West Coasters last year, a lot of the BARGE experience was putting faces to names. But this year, it was great to be able to greet and be greeted by name by people (Ploink, KidZee, Chuck, Len Greenburg, etc...) that I had only met last year for the first time. It was also great to see my last year's Calcutta partner from Washington, Scott Burrington - just like we never left LV. It was also great to see (and hug) Beth, as well as my friends from Youngstown, OH, Sean "Oscar" McGuinness and Scott "Scottro" Harker, the fearless leader of the BARGE 2000 Virgin Vanguard. Hung out a bit around the room, checking out the action, played a little bit, and then left with Ploink and Scott for the Luxor to play in their 7PM Freezeout before the 10PM Blue Man Group show (which Ploink so kindly arranged for 20 of us - thanks Chris! - more on the show later). We arrived at the Luxor, and 5 of us headed for the Poker Room (3 of us, plus Peter Caldes and Bob Herlien). Upon our arrival, we found out that the 7PM tournament usually doesn't go due to lack of interest (which is probably also a lack of interest on their part as well). Bob and I sat in a ring game in a 1-4-8-8 game for a while with some real wildmen, both booking a small win. When 7PM approached, we went to see if the freezeout would go. As it appeared that it wouldn't (due to no one else signing up), we offered to play 5 handed among ourselves. But, all of a sudden, the ring game breaks because 5 of the players there want to play the freezeout! That was the good news - here's the bad...for $25+$2, we got T300...and started at 15-25 blinds, playing 25-50 with 15 minute rounds that felt like 10 due to the speed of the dealers! Blinds doubled every level....Let's see - T3000 in chips on the table, playing 200-400 NL - can you say "crapshoot"? I get crippled early, and make a short-lived miraculous recovery when I went all in with 66 preflop, see a flop of KJx, and beat a flopped set of J's which improved to a boat when both the turn and river bring 6's for quads! This was a premonition of things to come during the weekend... Of course, we complained bitterly to the card room shift critter to let us play at least 20 minute rounds, but he would have none of it. We all got the feeling that they just wanted to get their ring game going again so they could make their daily wage from it. At least Scott B. won the damn thing for $130, which at least gave us some vindication - WTG Scott! We all vowed that the Luxor would NEVER get any action from a BARGE'r if any of us had anything to say about it, which we accomplished by telling everyone we could. And after the show, we noted that the ring game NEVER did get started again :-) .... After leaving the Luxor after the "tournament", we went were joined by Scott "bwana" Byron, and went to the Mandalay for a great time at a 1-4-8-8 game, which was a lot of fun, even if it wasn't profitable for some.... After meeting up with everyone for the show, we proceeded to have a great time...two items specifically of note: As the group arranger, Ploink was honored during the "pre-show", which consisted of messages being displayed on an electronic marquee signboard. The audience was asked to all say "WE LOVE YOU CHRIS" due to him being such a nice guy - which of course, we all did, and of course, because he is.. Chris, of course, took it all in stride, and laughed right along with us - as he slid under his hat. And later in the show, Ross Poppel was presented with the opportunity to throw some Toblerone candy about 20 feet into the mouth of one of the BM which he did successfully - and then successfully received them masticated (chewed, that is) back into his hand, which brought some laughter from the BARGE'rs around him. A member of the crew was right there to take the remains from Ross, and provide adequate cleaning materials as well. The show was great, although a bit loud. The BMG came out into the lobby after the show for pictures...very cool....thanks again, Chris! Scott and I headed back down to Binion's, where I got into a 1-4-4-8 game with East Coast friends, Rob "Action Bob" Hwang and Steve "Buckshot-B" Benton. This was an extremely interesting game to be in, as I watched ActionBob take two racks out of the game playing blind to the river! In fact, he even bet the river once BLIND and the other player folded! Now that's respect! This was, of course, after he had just gotten off a plane from the East Coast...they never knew what hit 'em, Rob! After a long day, I finally quit at around 2:30am (5:30am EST) for some sleep. And, true to form - Tom wasn't there - surprise, surprise, he showed up around 7:30am (-EV for me, having woken up)...and he was playing in the HOP on Thursday at noon - at least I wasn't. More later... Barry Kornspan (BPK)