From: loukrieger@aol.com (LouKrieger) Subject: Lou Krieger's BARGE Trip Report Every year I kill two birds with one stone by cleverly disguising my BARGE Trip Report as a column for Card Player. I did the same thing again this year. Because it's a Card Player column and not a traditional RGP TR, it's longer on impressions than on actual hand-for-hand poker analysis, and written for readers who may never have been to BARGE, so it's short on BARGE jargo. In fact, there's not one "Aiyah," "ni han'" "pocket kings no good, you go home now," in the article, and no r00lspeak, either. It's tough to write in r00lspeak anyway; there's just no way to get the Tahajianesque falsetto in at the right time and place, unless we develop a convention for accenting our writing to indicate a 3-octave vocal leap. Nevertheless, in spite of these concessions to the mass market, some poker content did manage to find it's way in here. And it's about one of those hands that you'd only find at BARGE. My apologies in advance for any em-dashes that show up as unreadable symbols; the document was prepared in Word and simply copied to the NG. I'm off to Costa Rica tonight for a week of poker at the Casino Europa and lots of sight-seeing too. I've never been there, but I'm really looking forward to the trip, and I promise to write about it when I return. Thanks to Mike Zimmers and Chuck Weinstock for all their hard work. Each year, it seems, they do more and more to make BARGE better and better. A special thanks, also, to Peter Secor for the thankless task of organizing the "unofficial" Team C-HORSE tournament. Getting this event up and running, and starting on time (OK, OK, in the state most of us were in, 15 minutes late IS on time!) is a bit like herding cats, and I'm always amazed at Peter's ability to get this thing going regardless of how little sleep he seems to get at BARGE. BARGE 2001 by: Lou Krieger It happens every time. Maybe it's Las Vegas' supercharged aura, or downtown's "glitter gulch" in particular that always has this effect: It's energizing at the beginning, tiring toward the end, and completely enervating when I begin to wend my way home. Maybe it's none of the above. Who knows; there are far too many variables to figure it out with any certainty. BARGE itself may even be the responsible culprit. Perhaps Binion's Horseshoe, the host casino, might be the cause. After all, the average Binion's dealer has the same quirky sense of humor possessed by most BARGErs, and after hosting every BARGE but one, they understand us, they "get" us, and they like us. That Tom McEvoy is the new poker manager at Binion's hurts not one whit either. Tom is a regular participant on RGP, and was the perfect host, right down to being one of the first five players eliminated in each of the tournaments he played. BARGE's gifts are large. There's the unmitigated joy of old friends ¾ many of whom are the brightest and best minds to be found at poker tables anywhere. As fun as they are to compete against, it takes every bit of mental agility to keep up with the pace. I write about BARGE every year, but for those of you that might be new here, the acronym stands for "Big August Recreational Gaming Extravaganza," and it's an annual gathering of poker players who have come to know one another originally through the Internet newsgroup, rec.gambling.poker. If you've been reading my column for a while, you know about BARGE, as well as some of it's regional spin-off gatherings, like Los Angeles' ESCARGOT, Mississippi's MARGE, ATLARGE in Atlantic City, and FARGO -- which isn't held in North Dakota at all, but at Foxwoods in Connecticut. One of BARGE's charms is that there is not nearly enough time to do all that you'd like to, so sleep deprivation seems to hold us all hostage to it's usual manifestations. Toward the end of the three-day stint, we are simultaneously wired and tired, having consumed too much fast food in combination with too much high quality single malt whiskey, played too many games and lost track of the real world that awaits most participants just outside the casino doors -- or at least at the arrival terminal when their departing flights touch firmly down at home. This year's BARGE featured a "History of Poker" tournament comprised of draw and lowball; two games that almost no one plays any more. But I love these events for that very reason. BARGE is not your run of the mill poker tournament by any means -- it is an event-with-a-capital "E" -- and doing unusual things with people whose company you really enjoy is loads of fun. The tournament had played down to a few tables when I picked up a hand I liked -- a one-card draw to a six. To be precise, I was dealt 6-5-4-A-Q. My opponent, who was first to act, stood pat. Players who stand pat could have anything -- from an unbeatable "wheel" to a complete bluff. But much of the time pat hands seem to be more pedestrian than that -- a made nine or an eight is typical -- and the holders don't want to draw a card unless the bets and raises lead them to believe they are up against at least two opponents who are drawing to better hands. Although we were heads-up, it made no difference to me. I had to draw a card, and I didn't mind at all. As the dealer slid a card toward me I was convinced that a deuce or trey would win the pot for me, and that a seven or eight might be a winning hand too. When I saw the deuce in my hand, I was elated, and all-in to boot. But my elation was short lived when my opponent's pat 6-5-3-2-A bested my 6-5-4-2-A. A squeaker to be sure, and although I could not have asked for more than a 6-5-4-2-A to commit all my chips, the suddenness of the end came was shattering. But that was quickly mitigated by a trip from Binion's Horseshoe to the Mirage where all the BARGE attendees met to enjoy the buffet, renew old friendships, and make a few new ones too. The following day brought my favorite BARGE event, the Team C-HORSE championship. C-Horse is alternating rounds of Crazy Pineapple, Hold'em, Omaha-8, Razz, 7-Card Stud, and 7-Stud-8. Eighteen teams took part in this event, with one complete orbit per game. There were six players on each team, and at any given time, two members per team were in play -- one at each of the two tables. My team, the Coney Island Whitefish (if you don't know the derivation of that name, ask anyone who grew up in Brooklyn), finished in the money each of the first three years this event was held, but not this time. We wound up near the bottom of the pack, though I was fortunate to come out ahead for the event by virtue of a few "last-longer" bets and a fortuitous roll of the dice. During a break in the action while we waited for the players at the other table to finish their orbit, fellow columnist Nolan Dalla, not wanting to allow even a minute pass by without being in action, asked Don "Bingo" Rieck if he wanted to shoot some craps. Not at the craps table, mind you, but right there at the poker table. To make a long story short, Nolan lost a few bucks to Bingo -- it's not the money that matters at BARGE as much as the bragging rights -- and Bingo kept woofing about it. So the next time there was a break in the action while we waited for the tables to equalize, I asked Bingo to break out the dice. He did, and I won the money Bingo took from Nolan. Because you are on the rail two-thirds of the time during Team C-HORSE, it's a terrific opportunity to socialize with other players, as well as to sweat your teammates when they're in action. Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time, and this year I witnessed one of the oddest plays I'd ever seen at a poker table. Russ Rosenblum, one of my Whitefish teammates was next to the cut-off seat and raised when it was his turn to act. The cut-off folded, and K-Fish, the player on the button, turned to Russ, saying, "What are you raising with, J-9?" As he said that the small blind folded, and the big blind's hands moved forward in an attempt to prevent the small blind from folding before K-Fish acted. After deliberating for about 30 seconds, K-Fish folded and Russ, thinking both blinds had folded, revealed his bluff to the table, saying, "I had J-5, not J-9. Joan Hadley, the player in the big blind who hadn't really folded at all, then called as Russ muttered, "Uh, oh…I can't like that." The flop was J-9-x. Russ said something about having top pair, and muttered to Joan that he's " … going to bet unless you plan to checkraise me." Hadley raised all-in as soon as Russ bet. But her all-in bet was a small one, and not nearly large enough to force Russ to fold. He called, feeling for all the world as though he was beaten. After all, he had shown his cards to the table. But Hadley had K-9 and lost to Russ' top pair when the turn and river provided no help. Hadley later explained that she was too short-stacked to push Russ off his hand before the flop and had planned to come out betting on the flop, but a Jack fell. "With only 40 chips left," she said, "it was just plain time to get lucky. By check raising all-in at least my team could go home with a story!" It's fitting, I suppose, that the Team C-HORSE Championship is much more about fun, smack talk, and bragging rights than making money, because if this hand belonged anywhere in a series of poker tournaments, it belonged here, late at nigh, with tired, going-on-sheer-adrenaline players, who normally wouldn't do these things but are excused because it's in the spirit of BARGE. The next day was BARGE's flagship event, the no-limit hold'em tournament, and I don't really want to talk about it. I made a small raise under the gun with K-Q suited. It was folded around to the big blind who anguished over his decision before calling. The flop was Q-9-7 of mixed suits and I bet to try and win that hand right there, only to face a raise that put me all in. I would have been severely short stacked had I folded, so I called, hoping he was trying to run me off the pot with something like A-9. Instead, he had called my preflop raise with 9-7, flopped two pair, and I found myself drawing very slim. Only a queen or king on the turn or river could save me, and the rags that fell eliminated me from the tournament. So I treated myself to lunch and joined a rollicking, raucous HORSE game where I got to trade barbs and wise cracks with Nolan Dalla, Peter Secor, and a bunch of other BARGErs whose company makes this event so wonderfully rich in memories that I find myself wishing it would never end. But all things must end, and all I can do now is bide my time until November, when MARGE will bring me to Biloxi, and February in Los Angeles, when it's time for ESCARGOT. And there's always next year too, so mark this on your calendar now: BARGE, the first weekend in August at Binion's. But who looks that far ahead anyhow? # # # Visit my web site at www.loukrieger.com. "Poker For Dummies," is available at major bookstores everywhere, and all of my books are available on line at www.ConJelCo.com and at www.Amazon.com. My newest book, "Gambling For Dummies" will be in your neighborhood bookstore this October.