From: kubey@summit.engr.sgi.com (Ken Kubey) Subject: QB's 2001 BARGE trip report The story of my sixth BARGE. First, let me say that if I was rude, pushy, mean, or in anyway not my usual nice-guy self when talking with you about the dice, please accept my apology. What a hassle. I still have about 30 pair of the red dice. I'll bring them next year. Wednesday, August 1st --------------------- I am absolutely buzzing in anticipation. Fly down from San Jose. Can't find Paul White, but Monte spots me holding a pair of fives in the baggage area. He has a rental and gives me a ride downtown and lets me drop my bags in his room. I reward him with a comped pair of red dice. I check with the front desk to see if the package of blue dice have arrived. No dice (rim-shot). I'm playing poker all night and have a 6:24 a.m. tee time. Get into a wild 4-8 game and get stuck $70. Insane guy to my right is raising almost every hand and is three-betting with gems like A3o and Q2o. I get a few decent hands, but can't beat this guy more than once. Move over to a BARGEr infested 4-8 horse game. I make a few mistakes and put fish stickers on my badge. I see Fich call a bet in stud with a pair of aces. We suspect the lady betting has three 10's. Wait a second, she's *showing* three 10's. Of course Fich sucks out and busts her. NHS,WP. Thursday, August 2nd -------------------- At about 5:15 a.m., I pick up my chips from the horse game and head upstairs to get my golf shoes and a fresh shirt. I'm worried about waking up Monte, but apparently he was still up gambling as the room was empty. Back down in the poker room, I meet Steve Carbonara and the rest of the golf crew. I think Mike may have been up all night too, but the the rest of the guys got sleep. For shame. We make a pit stop at a 7-11 type place. I realize that I haven't had anything expect about 10 7&7's and a couple of vodka-crans so I buy two Twinkies for $1.29. I swear they used to me 25 cents. The golf round is $65 and includes a cart. Not too bad. Oh, I need to rent a set of clubs. $15? $20? $30? No. Fifty bucks. It's 6:30 a.m., it's 100 degrees, I've been up all night drinking and gambling. I've had Twinkies for breakfast. Okay, take my money you bag of dirt. I let Kevan drive the cart as I was still pretty buzzed. I play okay on the first few holes and actually make a 3 for par on one hole. I hit some really nice shots, but had a pretty bad round. We had a lot of fun. I hate to be a wuss, but if I go on the Death March again, I will have to get some sleep first. We get back to Binion's at noon. I splash some water on my face, get a fresh shirt and rush downstairs for the History of Poker tournament. Bill Chen is on my right, JP Massar is on my left. I play very well. I pull off a couple of snows in lowball and can't resist showing my 888KK. At a break, I wolf down a monsterous tuna sandwich from the snack bar. Key hand... I open for 5K with 86642. Chuck Weinstock calls cold, Fich calls in the blinds. I make a 98. Fich checks, I check, Chuck bets enough to put me all-in (10K). Fich quickly folds. I couldn't see Chuck bluffing against two one card draws. I folded. Chuck said he had a 10. Groan. A round later, I go all-in with a small pair in draw high and get bounced to the rail with 5 tables left. Oh well. Somewhere in hear I played some craps and won some money. I finally check into my own room and take a shower. The blue dice have still not shown up. Patrick gives Ken Z., Arty, and me a ride to the Mirage buffet. I find my new favorite BARGE food: cottage cheese. I see lots of old friends. I also donate $5 to the flower fund for Betty. Reminds me that there are things more important cards. Back down to Binion's. I think I was up for 34 hours before taking a well deserved nap. Craps tour. About 40 of us wander from casino to casino. I stay out of the games for the most part as I don't like to play when people are betting "don't" and screaming for the 7. The "Make 7" shirts are pretty cool though. I finally decide to play, get the dice and make a few passes. Nolan was betting the "don't" and lost $90 in about the time it took you to read this sentence. I bet $1 on the $1 spot on the "Wheel of Fortune" big wheel. Cha-ching. Hit and run baby. Later, I decide to play a little craps on my own. Shooter already has a point. I place the 8 and bet a $5 hard 8. Okay class, anyone know what the next roll was? Yep, a square pair. I walk away moments later up $40. Friday, August 3rd ------------------ I call into work to check on things. I also ask Cindy to call Kardwell to find out about the blue dice. Turns out they shipped them to my home address instead of directly to Binion's. Oh dear. No answer at home. I get Cindy to page Sandi. TOC tournament starts. I gift-wrap a few chips for Bill Chen early, but get them back with interest later. I played very well in the HOP and made the final forty. We are a bit short-handed in an Omaha round and I decide to take a shot at stealing UTG with Ah2h2c6s. If I get called, I have a good drawing hand. Only Buzz in the BB calls. Flop is 9h-7h-9d. Buzz bets. I call on the heart draw. It's Omaha, he could easily have a 9. Turn is another 9. He checks. Hmm... maybe I'm ahead with my tiny boat. I bet 3K, he check-raises. D'oh! I fold. He is nice enough to show me the case 9. He busts me on the next hand and goes on to win the tournament. Way to go! I finally get a hold of Sandi. She finds the package by the front door. Yay! There are blue dice! Yay! Calcutta... Rich Strauss and I walk over talking about the Giants 9-game winning streak. There is plenty of food. In fact, there was still plenty of food at the end! Rich, Jeff Siegal, and I have done a 3-person syndicate for years. Jeff is nowhere to be found, but we are quite sure that he will take 1/3 of our action. We again get a great deal on Reeves and Olsen. They both went pretty deep, but didn't money. We buy Perry and Mark Trombley. I had played with Mark in one of the other tournies and was impressed with his play. We get Max Roman and Dave Roemer. We get Bob Herlien again. Our budget was $450. After buy-backs, we spent $452. Close enough. Jeff joins us half-way through. Kevan and I go for $150. I suppose Kevan's picture in Cardplayer helped jack that up. Team horse. I didn't get on a team this year. It was kinda nice to have a little free time. I played some 4-8 while waiting for Sandi to arrive. Won $80. Sandi arrives. We play some blackjack and some slots and go up the room around 3:00. We turn on the TV for some background noise. There's a movie on and the lead is in a poker game. He beats a jerky guy, gets in a fight, jerky guy accidently dies, chase begins. I fall asleep. Saturday, August 4th -------------------- I have breakfast with Rich. I'm running around the poker room trying to distribute the blue dice that were delivered by Sandi Express. Is that Betty? It is! She's feeling much better. Yay! My table is fairly tough. Early on, I get QQ in late position. Harkness makes a raise. It's funny, but, I don't like my queens. I call to see the flop of K-9-9. John bets. I say "I think that flopped saved me." as I flash my QQ. John confirms my statement as he shows AA. Whew! A neighbor notices my cartoon trivia book and reads several of the questions out-loud for the table. We had some fun talking about old cartoons. I steal some pots and even re-steal a pot. At one point, I threw in a 500 chip with the intent of raising. I didn't say "raise", so it was just a call. Dumb, dumb, dumb. We all get moved to other tables. I'm down to 850 with the blinds at 150 and 300. Jeff Okamoto is the BB, I'm the button. It's folded to me. I have T9o. Jeff respects my play, so I decide to take a shot. I go all-in. Unfortunately, Jeff has a pretty good hand (A9o) and calls. An ace flops. I'm dead to running 10's. The turn isn't a 10 and as I stand up, we hear the cheers from two tables behind as Quick has also busted out. Jeff agreed with me that it was so close that we should call it a tie. I look around for horses. Most are still in. Okay, Perry went out on the 3rd hand, but otherwise, things looked good. Rich and I are walking around watching our horses. Bob is still in there with a bunch of chips. Clark and John are looking good. Oliver is on life support. Can't find Mark or Dave. Finally we spot Mark. He has a good stack. Cool! I get called for a 4-8 game and start playing. Rich comes over every 10 minutes or so with updates. At one point, Mark was all-in with AK against A5. A5 flopped two pair, but the board made a wheel to save Mark. At two tables, I can't stand to miss the hands, so I cash out. Rich and Jeff are in a pot-limit game and now I am giving reports to them. It's all good news. Mark and Bob are near the lead in chips. 15 left. 12 left. 10 left. Final table. I check with Jeff O. to get the chip counts. Wait a second. Dave Roemer made the final table too! He was wearing a baseball cap and dark glasses. Dave only had a few chips. He made a little rally, but then went out in 9th. Key hand... Bob is the last hope for NorCal, Russ Fox is to his left as the last hope for SoCal. Bob raises Russ' blind with KQs, Russ fights back with 99. I wish for a K on the flop and get my wish, but forget to wish against the 9. I don't think Russ lost a big pot after that point. Bob won a pot from Nate Hess and now Mark was the chip leader, Nate was 2nd, and Bob was in 3rd. Things looked great. Murph went out in 8th. Bob ran into some big hands and suddenly was out in 7th. No-limit is so tough. Russ won a couple of hands and was now the chip leader. A big hand develops. Mark has AK, Russ has AQ. At the turn, board is J-J-3-3 for a chop. River is a dreadful Q. Mark played as well as anyone out there. What a tough break. Also a tough break for Jeff and Rich and me. After that Russ was unstoppable. Congratulations Russ! Sandi has a killer dress and I put on my nice clothes and we head over to the banquet. We sit with Adam, Deb, Martin, Rich, Jeff, Jennifer, Corey, and someone that got there late. I thought the food was pretty good. Phil's talk was just riveting. Yeah, he's kinda cocky, but he's a damn sharp poker player and a good speaker too. Steven E. gives me a cool "Get to the Pints" T-shirt. Thanks! I missed the Chowaha game this year. Next year for sure. Sandi, Stephen Mack, and I went to the strip. We started with the new Alladin. I can see why they are in some financial trouble. Tough to complete with Bellagio across the street and Paris next door. Steve is a craps virgin, but wanted to try the game. It didn't go well. I burned through $100 in no time. Steve lost about $70. It was no fun. We found Sandi and decided to check out the band playing upstairs. It was "Shotyme" (Show Time), the same band Sandi and I had seen at Tahoe early in July. We danced a bit and watched at least two brides out there on the floor. We walked through Paris and then across to the Bellagio where I introduced them to my best EV game. Call it Kubey's Flip Flop freeroll. As you exit the Bellagio poker room walk to your right and find the eight nickel Flip Flop slots. If there is an unattended machine, look at the video screen. If it says "Touch Me" or "Touch a clam" do what it says. You are in the bonus round. Often people get into the bonus round and don't know it. The machine won't take any more nickels, so they get up and leave. You get to play their bonus round. Sweet. It's usually worth between 50 cents or a $2. At Binion's, I found one, played the bonus round and left with $8.25. Not bad. We get back to Binion's around 3:00 a.m. Stephen gets into the Chowaha game. Sandi and I have some soup and a burger at the snack bar. Sunday, August 5th ------------------ Peter Secor asks me to play his chips in the 4-8 Omaha game. It's a freeroll for me. I get half the winnings, none of the loss. Okay. First hand I get 5533 and muck. Flop is 8-3-3. No low, lots of bets. Grrrr. Next hand I have A2, flop the low draw with a pair. River A. I call and get shown AA and 23. Later I have A3s6X. Flop the flush draw and a low draw. Flush misses, low gets there, but is no good against A2. Later I have AA8s7 and raise. Heads up. Flop top set. Turn brings a flush and a low. Well, it's still heads up... of course the guy I'm heads up with has 3c2c and check-raises me. I have an emergency low and just waste $16 of Foldem's money. Peter, I owe you. We go to the buffet. Steve and Adrew Prock join us. We decide to go to the Strat tower. In the cab line, we find Lenny and Bruce (no, not Lenny Bruce) and recruit them for the trip. In line to buy tower/ride tickets, Bruce challenges me to Roshambo for the $15 ticket. It's a negative EV bet for me, but I figure I have one chance to beat him. I go scissors. Cha-ching!! High Roller roller coaster is tame. Big Shot is very cool. You almost feel like you are flying. Some of the group did it twice. Next we all go to the Mirage. Sandi, Steve and I play blackjack with a very friendly dealer. Don't ask me why, but I decided to split 33 against a 10. Worse yet, Charles Haynes happened to witness me doing that or I wouldn't have reported it. The dealer hits into a 21. Yuck. At 4:30, we run out to see the pirate show. Take the tram back to the Mirage and then a cab to the Rio. We go to the buffet and eat way too much. Next we go to see Penn and Teller. Good show, but I've seen most of the bits before. The finish with the "Magic Bullet" act. I can't figure out how they do it. I thought maybe the policemen from the audience were shills, but no. We actually met one of the guys in the valet line outside. Jeff and Jen are also at the show and give us a ride back downtown. Steve and I decide to give craps another try. A guy down the end makes a $5 hard 8 for me. I press it to $10 and he hits it again. Just like that, I've got the $100 back from the Alladin loss. We played more blackjack back a Binion's and had a lot of fun. Sandi and I played a Betty Boop slot and had more fun. Monday, August 6th ------------------ We get a 2 p.m. check out and barely make *that*. We cab over to the Orleans. We get the coupon books with the print-outs from the web page someone pointed us to. The only good coupon is a $5 bonus for a $5 jackpot. Sandi wants to play quarter slots, but I know that we should play dollar slots. I put $20 in a slot. We put Sandi's club card in the machine. Won't read. Try my card. Won't read. We ask a change person. They say the system has changed and that we need new cards. By this time, I realize that $1 video poker with a $5 bet will be the easiest and safest way to take advantage of the coupon. We find a $1 video poker machine. I ask Sandi "Did I put a twenty into that other machine?" She nods with fear in her eyes. I fly around the corner just ahead of some old lady who was about to go to that machine. We have dinner and Don Miguel's. Sandi gets the bartender to add extra tequila to our drinks and then makes me finish hers. I'm a little loopy. She drags me to the Fashion Show Mall. It's just a mall. We get sunglasses. We walk to the Barbary Coast to get a shuttle back to the Orleans. Blow some money on Monopoly slots and then go for one more round of blackjack. We get stuck about $40 and then start to make a comeback. We each have $5 bets out and will be ahead if we win this hand. I look at my watch and see that we really need to leave soon. Dealer has a 10 up. Sandi makes an 18. I have a 6 and 7. I get a 9 and tuck it. Sandi and I always cheer when the dealer busts. I figure this might work. The dealer busts. We both say "Yay!" Dealer pays us both even though I have 22. We cash out, cab to the airport, buy a couple of Beanie Babies and fly home. I forgot to mention my nickel slot finds... A 1939 in Good condition and a 1943-S in Good condition. Looking over my trip report from last year, I see that I also found a 1943-S last year. Weird. craps: won blackjack: lost small live poker: lost small wheel: won small slots: lost tournies: lost Looks like I should stick with craps and the big wheel :-) Stuff: chips, T-shirts, dirt, pins, dice, fish, shot glass, caps. Thanks everyone. I had a very good time at BARGE 2001. I know I've left out a lot of names of nice people I talked to or played with. You know who you are. Thanks for making this such a great BARGE. You can have the Mirage and Bellagio. For gambling, I like Binion's Horseshoe. Thanks once again to Mike and Chuck for bringing off a terrific event. Can I sign up for BARGE 2002 now? Ken Kubey kubey@engr.sgi.com (650) 933-3536