"Steamrolling through BARGE" by Jeff Okamoto Only a few months after capturing 1st place at the Mini-Series of Poker's $5,000 Points Freeroll tournament held at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California, Russ Fox faced a field that included World Series of Poker bracelet holders at the 11th BARGE (Big August Rec.Gambling Excursion) at Binion's Horseshoe Casino and emerged victorious. John Fleming had only 80,000 compared to Russ's over-420,000, and on the final hand his Js-Tc was no match for Russ's As-7s. The board came 5d-Jh-Ac-5s-7d, and Russ's two pair were enough to make him the winner. This year's tournament included World Series bracelet holders Phil Hellmuth, Linda Johnson, and Tom McEvoy. Also in the field was Tournament of Champions winner Spencer Sun, authors Roy Cooke and Lou Krieger, and columnists Brian Alspach, Nolan Dalla, Art Santella, Jeff Shulman, and Michael Wiesenberg. Other notables included Scott Byron, Melissa Hayden, Paul Phillips, and the ever-popular Dave "Quick" Horwitz. The final table was set after Mark Trombley knocked out both Bob Wilson and Gerald "Gerdog" Petersen. Gerald was likely consoled by the fact that he had earlier knocked out Phil Hellmuth and collected the $400 bounty placed on him. Seat Player Stack Affiliation(s) 1 Russ Fox 29,500 ADV, SoCal 2 Peter Caldes (Taki) 57,000 Bladders 3 John Fleming (Panfried) 41,500 4 Mark Trombley 131,500 5 Nathan Hess (Woodstock) 130,500 6 John Murphy (Murphy) 29,000 7 Don Rieck (ADB Bingo) 21,000 ADB 8 Dave Roemer (ADV Dave) 3,500 ADV 9 Bob Herlien (Blues) 71,000 NorCal Blinds: 2,000 / 4,000. Time left: 4 minutes out of 30. As we started, Dave Roemer had the button, so he had a full orbit to wait before he would be forced all-in. John Fleming won the first hand, but on the second, his pre-flop raise was re-raised all-in by Bingo. John quickly called with QQ, and Bingo had an A9 suited. Bingo hit a straight on the turn with the board reading 6d-5d-8c-7d, but John had the queen of diamonds for a flush draw. The nine of clubs came on the river, and the pot was split. Dave Roemer went all-in on the next hand, and got a three-way pot. Peter Caldes and John Fleming checked the board down, with Peter winning the side pot with ace-high, but Dave had pocket fours and took the main pot, tripling up. On the very next hand, Dave got pocket tens and doubled up against Mark Trombley. Russ Fox then made his SoCal rooters nervous when he re-raised Bob Herlien with pocket nines. Bob had KQ suited, but the flop made Russ a set (9s-Kd-6s). A king came on the river (7h-Kc), but that only set Russ afloat on a boat. Dave's luck with pairs ran out when his pocket threes went up against Bob's kings. The board came 6d-2c-2d-7c-Qh and Dave was eliminated in ninth place. The blinds having short-stacked him, Peter raised all-in for 17,500. Nathan Hess tried to play sheriff with pocket eights, but Peter had the bullets and made aces-full on a board of 3h-Kh-As-6c-Kc. With the current round over, the players took a short break. Seat Player Stack 1 Russ Fox 42,000 2 Peter Caldes 41,000 3 John Fleming 27,500 4 Mark Trombley 130,000 5 Nathan Hess 99,000 6 John Murphy 42,000 7 Bingo 54,000 9 Bob Herlien 79,000 With the blinds now at 5,000 and 10,000, John Murphy was crippled when his AQo ran into John Fleming's big blind pocket jacks and the board did not help either. John Murphy was eliminated three hands later when, all-in for 4,500 in the big blind, his 95 suited lost to Nathan's Q4 suited. Bob now had the unfortunate luck to be on the bad end of three hands which eventually eliminated him. First his AT off ran into Peter's pocket queens. Two hands later, his A9 off ran into John Fleming's pocket kings. Finally, he runs into Nathan Hess's pocket queens with KT off when he was all-in for the big blind. Bob took 7th place. Russ took a big chuck out of Mark's stack and became one of the chip leaders when he re-raised all-in out of the big blind and Mark called. Russ had pocket jacks, and Mark could only muster A7 suited. Exactly one orbit later, the same situation occurred, but now Russ had Mark covered. Mark had an AK suited which dominated Russ's AQ off, but the board had double-paired on the turn (3c-Js-Jd-3h), so they were now tied. The river delivered a three-out punch, the queen of spades, and the deadly lady sent Mark to the rail in 6th place (and with 13 points). Russ was now solidly in the chip lead. As the blinds rose to 10,000 and 20,000 the chip position was: Seat Player Stack 1 Russ Fox 205,000 2 Peter Caldes 54,000 3 John Fleming 80,000 5 Nathan Hess 135,000 7 Bingo 39,000 The action settled back down to "raise and take it", with no one inclined to fight back with the blinds so high. Having gone card-dead, Peter Caldes was now being blinded away. His last hurrah came in the big blind with A6 off. In the small blind, Russ had only 95 suited, but a five came on the turn and Peter was eliminated in 5th place. This seemed to energize Russ, as he now went on a tear for the next six hands. He raised four of them, winning the blinds, and got a walk on his big blind hand (he showed Q2 off). Only Nathan was able to make a steal on one hand, and that was after Russ had folded. Under the gun on the seventh hand, Russ again raised to 80,000, but this time was called all-in by Nathan for 75,000. Nathan had Kh-Js, dominating Russ's Jd-9h, but Russ made a straight on the turn (6c-8d-7c-Th). This time there was no miracle nine on the river (3h), and Nathan ended up in 4th place. Now the shortest stack and in the small blind, Bingo jokingly offered a three-way chop. Having been refused, he went all-in for 59,000 with Qs-Th, but Russ had 4s-4h in the big blind and called. The flop came 3h-4c-Qd, and Bingo was drawing very slim (dead to running queens or a queen and a ten or three). The six of spades on the turn nailed the coffin shut, and the two of diamonds on the river was irrelevant. Bingo was out in 3rd place. John now had 80,000 to Russ's 420,000 plus, but was by no means out. If he could twice double up before the blinds ate him away, he would take the chip lead. After a bit of confusion about the button position (Russ had been the big blind and John had had the button on the hand that Bingo went out), they began. However, after only one hand, the blinds doubled again to 20,000 and 40,000, and John could not get the cards he needed. Place Name Prize 1st Russ Fox $4,320 2nd John Fleming $2,280 3rd Don "ADB Bingo" Rieck $1,695 4th Nathan Hess $1,130 5th Peter Caldes $775 6th Mark Trombley $565 7th Bob Herlien $425 8th John Murphy $355 9th Dave Roemer $335