From: "Eisenstein, Steven" Subject: [BARGE] Trip Report I don't take notes. I rely on memory so I'll try not to put in to much actual poker and I won't go on forever, though I could because Barge is so much fun that you could talk about it forever. Flew in on National on Saturday morning, got my car from Hertz and went straight to Paris. I had debated long and hard about what hotel to stay in, after my initial decision to boycott Downtown, and finally settled on Paris because I liked the atmosphere and never stayed there before. Checked in and got a suite near the top floor. Then I spent some time lying on the couch in the living room, watching TV and relaxing after the flight. I finally went over to Bellagio where I met Arty Santella. We played for a few hours before heading over to Orleans. This was my one and only trip to the Orleans during my stay in Vegas. While I'm not really crazy about their poker room nothing can beat the cocktail waitresses. We met Randy Collack, Jerrod Ankerman and Russ Fox there and had a mediocre meal in their Italian restaurant. Randy, Arty and I then went over to play in the Stud 8 tournament. I lasted longest of the three of us but still didn't cash and made it an early night. For the rest of the pre-Barge time Arty and I hung out together and I had a great time. He's good company and we had a great meal at Mon Ami Gabi. (Note: you can tell from looking at me that I have a better memory for restaurants in this trip report than for poker hands) We played mostly at Bellagio and Mirage. The games were pretty soft and I took a nice profit out of them. As Barry mentioned in his trip report we walked into Bellagio one night and I got dragged into his 30-60 game. One clueless tourist in the one seat had $2600 in front of him. The stack increased as neither Barry nor I could do anything. Finally, Barry had his rush and I followed with one of biblical proportions to the point where I cashed out with 5 racks after selling chips at the table. Clueless tourist of course, was down to the felt. That's when I found out about the Vegas rule that you have to give your name if you cash out more than $3000. I'm happy to say I gave my name every time I cashed out thereafter. The best part was playing with Barry who is one of the nicest people and greatest theorists in poker today. Finally, Tuesday came, time for the HOP. This was my first trip downtown this year. Before I even got into Binions I spotted Ploink, JP, Jerrod, Andrew Prock and, hmmm, don't remember, sorry, walking out the door. I joined them and went top to Ploink's room to watch them play Chinese Poker. I've never played it so I watched for a while, learned the rules and decided never to play it for money as long as I live. After the game broke I walked over to Binion's poker room and it looked pretty dead so I decided to go over to the Las Vegas Club for my annual put the Las Vegas Club on tilt blackjack trip. I did, had two pit bosses watching me and they called over the shift manager when I cashed out. I don't think they get a lot of back chip action, especially at the $3 table. Finally, when I got back to Binion's there were some Bargers around. I put my name down and quickly got called for a seat at the 10-20 table. As I walked over I saw the available seat was on the left of my buddy Arty. DING!!!! I go over to the table cackling, you are mine Santella, I own you. Just then I hear the terrible pronouncement from some rockish looking local elder statesman that he had the seat change locked up. What? Never. I'll give you $50 for it. Yeah right he said. $50 quickly got cut from the stack and thrown across the table. He opened his mouth, imitated a fish for a few seconds and collapsed back down into his seat. Straddle I yelled as I sat down next to Arty's big blind. Later, at the HOP tourney I held on long enough to make the final table. The highlight though was during the lowball round when I complained to the table that I hadn't seen the joker in an hour. Sure enough, the very next hand I got the joker as my first card. Alright, this is going to be the hand. Second card-9, ugh. Third card-9, hmmmm. Fourth card-9, uh oh. Fifth card-9, sigh. It's raised before it got to me and Ming was already in the hand so no way am I going to snow this one. Put it aside to show the table after the hand to general applause. The next day was the TOC style. I had a lot of chips after the break but lost them to Ploink when everyone folded around to me on the button. I put in a raise with A4s (Holdem round) and Ploink, in the small blind made it 3 bets. I called and the flop was A69, not terrible. The turn was a 4 and we went back and forth a little. A blank on the river and he turned over pocket 6's for a small set. Sigh. As I recall I lost a lot of chips in one other hand as well when I was rolled up aces in stud and Andrew Prock pulled a gutshot broadway on me. Such is life. Oh well, after some action Arty and I head over to the Palm for the smoker. We have a decent meal, not great, and head over to Binion's for CHORSE. My team puts in a somewhat disappointing performance though I am proud to win every round in Razz. The last round I am forced to win two hands with a full house and trips, forcing the laydown each time as we need chips. We finish ahead but owe $8 each due to the last longer type things. Thursday is Blackjack. Nothing exciting, lost in the second round, so I went over to Mirage for the buffet and tournament. While waiting for the buffet I decided to play blackjack. Can't put the Mirage on tilt playing black chips so, gold plays. Did pretty well and had a nice buffet, better company than food. Back in the Mirage tournament I went so card dead I thought I was embalmed. As unlikely as it seems, and I kept careful track, for one full hour I didn't get a card higher than an 8. I busted out and went to play 40-80 stud. Tough game. There were 3 excellent stud players in the game. A couple of Bargers sweated me as I had an interesting hand. The rest of the table was going to war with high cards as I kept accumulating low ones. By the time the hand was over I didn't have a card higher than 4 and I had no aces. That translated into two different full houses, 4's over 3's over 2's and I scooped in a huge pot as they grumbled. After an hour and a half I was up a rack and a half and had a headache from the concentration required so I decided to seek greener pastures. I walked to the back where Andrew Prock was in the 40-80 Holdem game. Good game? I asked. It's fine he said, I'm stuck 2 racks, mostly to Norm here. On Andrew's right was Norm McDonald of Saturday Night Live fame. Ok. I bought in for 2 racks. ($2000) The next morning I thanked Andrew for loaning the chips to Norm for me. It got to the point where he was so scared all I had to do was look at my chips and he would run for cover. I raised with AQ in late position and when he came firing at a board of 2388 on the turn I made it $160. Oh wow, he said as his eyebrows raised and his hand went into the muck. Later, I managed to pull my favorite move in the world on him, the difficult to accomplish and seldom seen bluff call. He bet the river, I knew he had crap but I had under cards to the board. I flat called and he mucked his hand without showing it as I knew he would. Time to cash out. 6 racks please. Friday morning was the stud shootout. Now I'm a stud player and I thought I had an advantage. What I didn't factor in was that I was up against people who really didn't know anything about stud so moves wouldn't work and when I was way ahead they wouldn't know it and would try to catch that miracle card which they always did. When I had gotten it down to 3 handed at the table I had Steve Watanabe on my right. Steve is a good poker player but not a stud player. No offense at all meant but he will admit that himself. Finally came the hand where I could get rid of him. I had an ace up and he raised the bring in. I looked down and found rolled up aces. I flat called. Fourth street was a 10, OK, he's still firing. Fifth street was another ten. I have aces full. He's still firing and his stack is getting shorter and shorter. It's all going in on this hand and I will have one player left with like 4 chips. So what does Mike, the $##%$# dealer give me on 6th street. The case ace. Thanks a lot Mike. He gets to keep the rest of his stack as my action is now killed and when we get heads up the deck hits him over the head after he calls my raises with queens up when I know he had raised with an ace no pair and catches a gutshot wheel on the river when he goes all the way to the river with no pair. After a few hands like that I'm out with second place money for the table. I believe this was the night that Steve Goldman, Russ Rosenblum and I went over to Michael's for dinner. If it wasn't please correct me. We had a terrific dinner. Steve warned me to be ready for the menu prices and at $900 for the three of us I think some warning was certainly in order. After the game I headed back to Bellagio for the 30-60 Holdem game. Russ warned me not to, that I had too much wine but I wouldn't listen. At first it seemed he was right and I struggled but I managed to climb back over the top. Finally, at 2 in the morning, just as I am going to rack up, the hand of the trip happened. I was in late position with presto. There was one raise and five way action when I called. The flop came 45K. The small blind bet out and two people called so I raised, he raised, I raised, he capped. The turn came down another king. Hmmmm. Quads? Small blind bet out. UTG (the original raiser) called and I thought, how interesting. There's only one hand that could still be in after all this action, with that board and which raised pre-flop but didn't participate thereafter. That has got to be big slick which means, yes pocket 4's in the small blind. I raise and it gets capped on the turn and river (a 7) Sure enough, small blind turns over 4's, UTG turns over AK and presto goot. Mega pot takes ten minutes to stuff into racks and I leave to get some sleep. Saturday of course is no limit holdem. I go card dead as I always seem to during this tournament at Barge and go out 52nd or 53rd or something like that. It didn't help that I had Barry T moved to my right and the deck hit him over head, like he needed it with his great play. Every time I found a little something he found little something better. Finally, I needed chips and moved in with QJd on the button and he found aces in the small blind. IGHN. That night of course is the banquet, the highlight of which is Cardnack the Magnificent. Great tribute to Carson and the inside jokes were hilarious. After the banquet I made it over to Binion's and sat down in 10-20 HORSE with Warren Sander, Dave Tahajian, Ming Lee, Mike Chow, Quick for a little while and others. After a while I decided the game was too tight so I straddled Warren's big blind in Holdem. Everyone folded to Warren who popped it and I called finding 87o in the hole, enough to call with. Naturally the flop was 456. When the carnage was done everyone but Warren was laughing about it as I said, "What can I tell you. The Poker Gods reward those who bring action to the table." Sunday, Steve Goldman and I did the champagne brunch at Paris then over to Bellagio where I had my first bad session of the trip in the 30-60 Holdem game. I was rescued by my cousin Steve who took me over to Caesars to see their lounge act who happened to be his neighbor, the piano stylings of Ghalib Ghallab and his Jazz trio. An uneventful redeye home just in time to go to work for 10 hours. Well, that was a lot longer than I intended. Can't wait for next year. Sorry to everyone I didn't mention and sorry to some of the people I did. Oh well, if you can't take a joke....................