From: "Thomas R. Hummel" Subject: [BARGE] Tom's Terrific Trip report - Part 1 (Long) And we're off... ---------------- After waiting an eternity, time for BARGE finally arrived. I woke up at some ungodly hour (at least ungodly if you're not playing poker) and headed out to the airport in Philly. Checkin was a breeze now that they have the electronic checkin kiosks. Literally took 5 minutes and that included checking a bag. Since I was up late packing the night before I managed to sleep through much of the flight. I also had finally gotten the DVD player on my laptop working, so I was able to watch Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" the rest of the time. Met up with Steven Goldman and Tony "Karma" Goldstein at the Vegas airport and Steve gave us a lift back to Bally's (thanks!) where Tony and I had gotten a room. I had decided ahead of time that I would take some time to wind down before finding a poker game, so I took a brief nap (well, layed down anyway) and did a little reading. The History of Poker -------------------- I really love this tournament since I never get to play these games during the regular year. Also, having only played live poker once in the last year, (I have a new 10 month old daughter) I was raring to go. I sat down at my table, which consisted of Mike Mauer, Steve Goldman, Patrick Milligan, Scott Harker, Ken Kubey, and Lou Krieger. I'd say that I always get stuck with tough tables at ARG events, but that seems to be all there are anymore. I started out a little slow, trying to "get my bearing" since I hadn't played poker in awhile, let alone draw or lowball. By the end of the second round I was down to 1025 in chips. During the third round I picked up a nice pot though. It had been opened by Mike with a couple other callers and I called with my Jacks. After the draw I hadn't improved, but all three other players had only drawn one card. The question was, how many were on a draw. Turns out that they all were, except that Mike was on a draw for low. He had split up his Aces during the draw and was left with nothing. Woohoo! Despite that pot, I still managed to dwindle away chips and was down to 900 at the end of the third round. I was starting to get back into a rhythm though. I beat Lou this round when I was dealt Presto (lowball), which I brought in. Lou defended and drew two, but paired. I made a 9 low. 975 at the end of the round. During the fourth round I had another rather sizable pot. Scott raised the opener and three of us drew. I made aces up, but Scott only drew two and bet out, so I just called and asked, "So, you have the trips?". Scott mucked his hand. The dealer started to push me the pot and Scott acted surprised. Turns out that he thought I had already folded. It's said that we make money in poker by our opponents mistakes, but I don't think this is what was meant by that statement. Later in this round I was dealt aces twice. Opened both times and they held up unimproved in the end. Also got to see Lou Krieger make quad aces against Scott in this round. The next two rounds were pretty uneventful and my stack stayed around 2200. At this point Ken was knocked out when he went all-in with his last 25 vs. Lou. Ken had tens that did not improve and Lous Aces made trips. I then got involved in a big hand against Patrick. I was dealt trip Jacks and Patrick made it 300 before it got to me. I raised it up to 700 and he went all-in. He had Queens up and neither of us improved, so he was done and I got a very nice BARGE pin. People were now being eliminated left and right. The 8 seat was eliminated with a missed straight draw and Lou eliminated Peter with AAKxx vs. AAQxx. It wasn't too long after that when our table broke. At my next table I was in the one seat followed by Betty Tanenbaum, Mitch Firestone, Keith Fitchmeyer, ???, John Harkness, and an unplayed stack. Before I was even dealt a hand though, John was eliminated. This table ended up breaking rather quickly and I was moved yet again. I know that I had Andrew Proch and Jupiler at my new table, but that's about all I remember. It was here that I made a lowball play that I was happy with. It was folded to me in the small blind and I had 77J5A. I made it 350 and was called by the BB. Hmm... not what I wanted. I drew two and paired the 7 again. The BB drew one. I bet 600 and the BB flipped up King-high and folded. Woohoo! I was now up to 3475 at the end of the 8th round. Unfortunately, I played almost nothing for the next two rounds. The table was tough, with the pot almost always being raised by the time that it got to me, leaving me little opportunity even for steals. At the end of the 10th round I was down to 3100. I won a couple blinds at this level and then got dealt AA55x. Sabyl raised the pot to 1200 and I came over the top all-in for 3300. She laid it down. I'm not a draw player, but I thought that winning the pot right there was a good idea. Now I'm not sure. If she had me beat, she had me beat. I don't *think* she would make that raise with a draw. If she had a large pair, I have very little fear of her improving to beat me. If I'm lucky, she might improve to two pair and pay me off. I risk her making trips of course. If she has two small pair, then maybe she pays me off after the draw. Then again, there were already a lot of chips in the middle... In any event, I was up to 6000 at the end of the 11th round. I lost one large hand at this round when I made it 1700 and was called by the BB. I paired on my one card draw and the BB made a big bet after the draw. I was now down to 4000 after round 12. My next hand was one that was made out of desperation. I normally pride myself on my patience in tournaments. Even when I get short-stacked, I rarely get overly nervous. Unfortunately, I had a BIG mental lapse here - not to mention VERY bad timing. I had now made it to the bubble. I had a small stack, but enough to go through a couple of orbits. I could have probably tried to outlast the other small stacks. But, when I was dealt A66xx on the button, I tried to make a steal. I went all-in for 2300. Sadly for me, the large stack in the small blind had been dealt a pat flush. D'oh! IGHN. Just call me bubble boy. At least I got a nice BARGE pin out of my 5 hours of play. From: "Thomas Hummel" Subject: [BARGE] Tom's Terrific Trip report - Part II (Long) We left off with our hero having grabbed the coveted title of bubble boy in the HOP tournament. After grabbing a cab back to the strip I stopped in to the Bellagio and got into an 8-16 Hold'em game. I managed to pick up a couple hundred, which made me feel much better about not placing in the HOP. By 1:30am I was pretty tired though, so I decided to call it a night. On the way out I ran into Rebuy, Jaeger and Action Bob in a 4-8 game. Hmm... this should be interesting. Apparently they were out to have a little fun. Playing hands blind and straddles and triple straddles were the norm. Bob wrote a little bit about the game in his trip report, but at the risk of repeating what he already told, I'll mention two hands that I got to watch. I've just started watching the game and after some furious betting on the turn Bob decides that it's time to look at his hand. He looks and as the dealer is getting ready to deal the river he says, "I'm thinking of a card..." The dealer puts out the river and Bob says, "That's it!" and proceeds to bet. The river was not actually the card he was thinking of, since he was hoping for a second 2 on the board to give him trips, but it was even better, giving him a straight with his T2o. One or two hands later, Bob is in another hand (surprise). He is heads up with a player at the other end of the table I believe. Bob is, of course, playing his hand blind. After some betting on the flop the turn is dealt, Bob checks and says, "Let me see if I can check raise." The other player bets and Bob says, "Yep, I can. Raise!" Turns out that Bob had AQ and had turned a Q, which was enough to win the pot. After having now won to big hands in a row, Bob tells the floor person that she no longer needs to keep bringing him racks every five minutes. Apparently he had arranged for constant and regular rebuys :-) Looks like a fun game, but I need some sleep. The next day I drop some money at the 15-30 game, which is a game that probably isn't worth my playing. I'm not usually too worried about the "locals", but when the other 8 people at the table ALL know each other, there are probably some better games out there. After an afternoon of eneventful poker I pick up and head over to the Mirage buffet. I eat WAY too much, but the food is excellent for the most part as is the company. Now it's time for the Mirage tournament. Unfortunately, I didn't keep notes during this tournament and my memory is horrible. What I do remember is, that my starting table included: Rebuy, Action Bob, Barry K., Pete Segal and at least two other BARGErs. I started off a little slow, with the BARGEr in the one seat (I was in the nine seat) coming over the top of me repeatedly. I tightened up my game a little bit so that the next time he tried that, it would cost him, but that never happened. My stack kept growing though, and I was in the right place at the right time against Pete and managed to double through against him. Wish I could remember the hand. I believe that it was an AKs vs. AK with me making my runner-runner flush, but I'm not sure. After our table broke I was placed at a table with several weak players who all had good sized stacks (woohoo!). I managed to knock two of them out and was now really on a roll. When we got down to two tables I made what I think was probably a bad play. I had JJ in late position and a player went all-in from UTG with a very big stack. He was SERIOUSLY over betting the pot. I had played against him at another table and thought he was a pretty bad player. I decided that rather than risking a bustout in an unsure situation, that I was confident enough in my skills to wait for some better spots. In hindsight I should have known that he was on a hand that didn't want callers. This points towards a middle sized pair or something like AK or AQ. While the AK or AQ leaves me as even money, I think that it's worth it to risk being knocked out, even this close to the money, since doubling up makes me either chip leader or very close to it, giving me an excellent shot at the bigger money. After laying down my JJ I picked up AK a couple hands later and got knocked out by 77 after I didn't improve. IGHN, in 14th place. Tourney paid to 9th I believe. Hmmm... that makes two tourneys now where I've placed just out of the money. Congrats to the other BARGErs who made it a bit further than I did and made the money. Thursday morning was the TOC style tournament. I really liked the tournament structures at all of the tournaments this year. They allowed for some play before the blinds/antes got to be too dangerous. Started with 3000 in chips with 5-10-30-60 stud as the first game. Steve, in the 5 seat managed to win *9* out of the 13 hands that we had in the stud round. While I'm sure he is a very skilled player, he was also just getting hit with the deck. Luckily, I managed to win one hand myself when I paired my door card giving me trip Jacks to beat Tony, who I'm pretty sure started with a higher pair. Next was the Omaha round. I had one very nice hand where I started with A245 with the Ace suited. Unfortunately, only the BB called my preflop raise. When the flop was A23 rainbow I bet and he folded. My thought was that either he had a hand and would call or didn't and wouldn't call at any point, so I might as well bet now rather than lose a bet or risk him making a wheel himself. The only cards that could possibly improve his hand to the point where he would call a bet on a later street would probably cost me half the pot. A little while later I lost a big hand when I flopped a straight, bet the whole way and a nameless player (*cough* Andy Hughes *cough*) caught a straight on the river. As far as I could tell, he had no draws other than the inside straight draw, but not being an Omaha player, I could have missed something. >From that point on my stack continued to slowly decline until by the 6th round I was down to 2050 in chips. I managed to win a little back with KK on a board of 235K7 with three diamonds when Steve called me all the way down. In the next round (Omaha) I picked up a nice pot with AAQ4, which held up against Tony (Karma) when neither of us improved on the board. By the end of the 7th round I was up to 3950. Again my stack started to slowly decrease, losing one sizable hand when I missed a flush draw against Lou in the stud round. In my final Hold'em round I had three hands of note. The first was A4o on the button. Folded to me and I raise, both blinds call and I lose to T6s and T8o when yet another ten is flopped. The next hand was my first all-in hand. I was lucky enough to have TT and even luckier when I got 4-way action and the board came out AK7Tx and my set was good enough to take the pot. My last hand was with 77. I reraised an UTG player all-in and lost to his 45s when the board came out 4c5h6c5c3c. The three on the end was just plain cruel, giving me the useless straight. Of course, I was not holding the correct 7 for the straight flush. IGHN :-( For the first time though, I was not close to the money when I was knocked out. Made it a little past the middle of the field I believe. Tune in next time for the 7-stud shootout and... my first royal flush! -Tom.