From: Corey Imsdahl Subject: [BARGE] Barge Trip Report Ramblings ahead, proceed at your own risk. Trip from SFO to LAS uneventful. No massive security lines. Arrived Saturday, July 27, a few days before Barge, with Peg in tow. Stayed at the Mirage; I couldn't subject her to the Binnion's Dinge. Enjoyed our time together, didn't play any poker, saw a few other early Bargers. Ate lots, drank lots, slept little. A recurring theme, it would be. HOP Don't rememeber much about poker hands in general other than how I was booted. Harry (Baldwin?) bets a lot, as he has been running over the table, I look down to trip Q's (this is the Draw portion, of course) so I go all in, as does Russ F. I draw two, Russ draw's three and Harry draws one. I don't improve, Russ catches a King and trips up. I have more money so I think I'm still in in it when Harry catches and ace or the joker to fill up his two pair. Oh well, IGHN. TOC The only good stories out of this one involve presto and Ken Kubey. First time, he raises, I smooth call with 55, and someelse smooth calls also, I believe. Ken bets and call to the end and I show the 55 to his big Ace. A few hands later he raises again, I have 55 again and this time I three bet it. We are heads and I here Ken, somewhat under his breath, say no five. The flop is a pair and a rag, Ken bets I call. Turn is the magic 5, Ken bets, I raise and tell him listen to himself when he said no 5. He mucks and I show the table presto for a good laugh, Except for Ken whom, of course, was only mildly amused. 7- Stud I get one of the many (I assume) tables from hell with Sabyl, ActionBob, Frank Brebec, George Wattman, Chuck Weinstock and other top poker players, if not stud players. Needless to say I didn't last all that long, but had a great time learning how to play this - where it belongs- east coast game. NLHE This and omaha are, what I believe, 'my games'. Needless to say then that I was out very quickly when I completely lost my head with JJ. I raised an early caller to t360 (from t60) and made a stupid call when he(sorry I don't know who he was) thought and thought and then went all in. Of course, he shows me KK and IGHN. yuck-puey! Sorry to Randy and DaVoice for my poor showing for their calcutta bucks. Other I must join all the others in thanking Chuck, Peter and Zimmers for their hard work. It was another great BARGE and I too am amazed at how quickly the time goes by. I go to the symposium every year and each time I come out asking my self why. While it did go very fast this year, I still think this is time wasted. Especially on a Friday night. I like the Calcutta idea. I just wish we could figure out a better way to do it. Food was very good again this year, I must say. The banquet was great. The prime rib was good, the speakers were good, the entertainment was great with Karnac. The inside jokes were awesome. The trade off, of course, was time. We usually get out by ten. This year, I think it was nearer to 11:30. Just not enough time for everything, I guess. Played the chorse game with Patti, Crunch, Ploink, Jerrod, Randy, Allnight Adam and Michele. Ah Michele! She, with Jerrod's prodding, played her first straddle and laid a horrendous bad beat on me when her 35 flopped a straight to my trip sevens. This for some reason puts me on tilt for the rest of the evening. Probably, more because I was super tired than anything. You just can't go seven days with only a couple of hours sleep each night. Or at least, I can't. Other poker, I had several good sessions during the trip. Two are worth short mention. The first was sitting in the Mirage 10-20 game and r00ling all the locals for about 40 minutes before I moved to the 5-10 full kill Omaha. The cards just slapped me upside the head and I was laying good beats and bad beats on these poor smucks, They don't know what hit them. I also got a version of the 'these guys are only in town for one f'ing week and I can't get a f'ing hand'. When I got called to the 5-10 game I figured I'd lay the ultimate bad beat on them by getting up and leaving with their $755. It worked. Half the table was cursing me for leaving and the other half was just plain releaved. I don't usually enjoy putting people on tilt, but damn, that was fun. Those caggity old rocks really deserved it. The other session was the final one for me, playing in the 5-10 omaha game and taking a rack of reds off the table. I still don't know how I did it as this table was screwed down tight, Fortunately, they didn't have much clue about playing Omaha. Which was amazing as I know that most of them must play every day. Other non-poker Blue Man Group. Peg and I both liked this show. Well worth the big bucks if you're into something a little different. Bring ear plugs if have or are worried about tinnitus (I do, it sucks) I don't think there are any bad seats in the theatre either. Order of shows I have seen. Mystere, Danny Gans, Blue Man Group, and (not worth it, even free) EFX. Geocaching. For those who don't know about this (somewhat) new sport, it requires a GPS receiver and adventurous attitude. Basically, there is a web page (www.geocaching.com) that gives you the coordinates of caches that people have placed somewhere and you use your GPS to find them. They are all over the world and are great fun to find. There are quite a few around Vegas, so Peg and I went exploring. One was at a dry lake bed outside Pahrump (actually just past the chicken ranch, I was quite surprised that peg wouldn't let me stop for directions. Hah!) Others are placed in around Red Rock and Valley of Fire parks so you get some great scenery. The caches are usually tupperware tubes and have log books and many goodies for the taking. You're suppose to leave something, too. Or you can just log the adventure. Great Fun! Hoover Dam Well, the terrorist have ruined this once great outing. They no longer let you into the dam it self, just the visitor center. This of course costs money now, as does parking. If you just want to see the outside of the dam fine, otherwise, skip this attraction. The trip home was also easy but the lines at McCarren were huge (monday noonish) Fortunately, I used my premier status to get in the five minute line and skip the hour+ disneyland line. The security line was also five hundred deep but proceeded fairly fast. Slept most of the way home as did the rest of the plane load of people, Ah Vegas! Well, that's enough rambling for now. Once again it was a great trip, meeting old friends and making new ones. And now I must spend more time recovering from this awesome time. Corey