From: "Mike McBride" Subject: [BARGE] Trip Report WARNING.SELF-SERVING DRIVEL TO FOLLOW BUT DOES CONTAIN SOME POKER CONTENT!!!!! (Pouring first single malt scotch) It's 11:53pm on Sunday, August 4, 2002 Denver time. I have just walked in from the drive back from Barge 2002 and I am exhausted!!!! I have a large glass of single malt scotch in hand and I am ready to begin my Barge 2002 trip report. Howler arrives with Howler-wife, Adrich and Bahnzo in tow. We arrive Binions at 2000, that's pronounced twenty-hundred or 8:00pm for you non-military types. First bad beat of the trip: phone in the room doesn't work so no wake up call for Howler after drinking mucho until 2:00am the night before TOC and would really like a wake up call so he does not miss the TOC. Second bad beat of trip: no alarm clock in Howler's room to set so he is sure he does not miss TOC. Howler pisses off Howler-wife by calling Binions engineering to fix phone and waking her out of veeeerrrry deep sleep. Howler veeeerrry pissed because Binions engineering a no-show until 0800 next morning after Howler plays "TURKEY in the OVEN" all night by turning on the light every hour until dawn to make sure he gets up in time for the TOC. Howler-wife is very pissed too, for same reason, she played the side dish!! Wednesday Breakfast at Binions with Russ Fox. Great time!! I arrive at the TOC just happy to be amongst my favorite poker people and looking forward to winning a last longer bet I made with myself during the baking period the night before (see TURKEY in the OVEN in previous paragraph for context). I start the TOC at a very tough table and by the first break I am down to my last 600 in chips. I tell Howler-wife I will bust soon and to wait for me. Howler-wife knows me and can see that I am frustrated and ready to chuck my last T600 chips in out of frustration, pulls me aside and says, "You are tensing up, you need to relax, you can make a come back, just play your game". I get back to the table a lot more relaxed and ready to make a run at getting my chips back. After a few close calls, I make it back to even in the Omaha round, nice assist Howler-wife!! You east coast Barger's are very good Stud players and I must say that I, regrettably, am not. I find stud to be intimidating at worst, annoying at best, but I had dedicated some of the year between Barge 2001 and Barge 2002 to trying to at least understand your game. I, by no means call my self a stud player, at best I wanted I am a stud survivor. Crunch and I had a short, but to the point discussion at our table this year about this very topic. Stud is probably the most important game in the TOC. If you can't play stud at least well enough to survive the rounds then, YOU ARE TOAST!!. Crunch, a wealth of wisdom as always.thanks. Surviving the stud rounds by trying to play only the best starting hands and getting lucky with some draws got me to a point where I reached the final table of nine. I reached the final table being the shortest stack and feeling just happy to have made a hundred dollars. Without enough chips to survive the blind increases, I bust out 9th by pushing all in with a hand only a mother could love. All in all, a very cool improvement from Barge 2001 and has me thinking maybe I can play this stud game after all (just kidding!!) C-HORSE was a blast. I got to play the Crazy Pineapple round and had a ball!! Congrats to Scottro's team for a great win. The Rocky Mountain Oyster's (RMO) are gunning for you guys next year!! (Scotch please. Thank you) Thursday Thursday was a very good day. Me, Howler-wife, Hoss and Hoss's wife go to the Gamblers General Store as is the tradition every time I am in Vegas. I picked up some purple chips for my home set and a new setup and then we proceed to spend an hour just reading a laughing at the signs they have in the store. If you have never been to the GGS go, it is a neat place. Next stop: IN and OUT Burger, NUFF SAID!! We proceed down the road to the Mirage because I have the idea I will try to win my way into the NLH tourney that night by winning a satellite. Well, as luck would have it, I proceed to drinks a bit and felt that my money was better left in my pocket. We trip it over to Caesar's and take in the animated fountain show. We play a little Video poker and end up back at the Mirage. Hoss and Hoss's wife go to the show at Treasure Island, a must see according to them. Howler-wife goes with them to eat dinner while I stay to watch the tourney I am now REALLY too late to enter. I am sitting in the Keno room watching to see if my numbers hit when who walks by but Norm McDonald of Saturday Night Live fame. I hear him say to his friend that he busted really early in the tourney and I'm thinking "was it to a Barger?, probably". Moments pass like hours until the first break, I catch up with Scottro and hear the Norm McDonald bust out story first hand. Way to go Scottro and Crunch. Watch a little of the 40-80 game and decided to leave. We go back to the Nugget to get some sleep. Friday I decided early after talking to Len that I would go play the NLH tourney at the Orleans that night. Howler-wife and I arrive at the Orleans about 2:00pm and play Video Poker until the tourney is ready to start. (Howler-wife by the way r00led the VP this year. She had more Quads than Arnold Swartzinegger) The tourney starts and the very first had I am dealt is pocket jacks. I hate pocket jacks but I figure a small raise is in order. I get two callers to my left. The flop comes with no help but only 10 high. I bet, I get raised then the third guy re-raises and I call, then the original raiser tries to re-raise (by now I know for sure he is drunk) but he shorts the pot badly and in the process string bets it as well. All hell breaks loose at the table. Floor men are called over to help sort out the mess. The dealer, I think he was German, barley speaks English and he is trying to explain to the Korean gentleman to my left, who speaks poor English himself, what he did wrong. LA LA LA LA.. After much time passes, the Korean gentleman gets to call the raise and not re-raise the pot as he wanted, he is very steamed about this. The turn comes a rag, I check, and the Korean gentleman slams all his chips into the middle of the pot proclaiming, "I raise all-in!!!" The guy between the Korean gentleman and me looks up and we both smile. He mucks his hand and I fold my jacks face up saying, nice hand. ( I later found out that the other guy had mucked AK). The Korean gentleman shows pocket rockets. We get four hands in during this round because of the time it took to fix the string raise issue which I think the rest of us believe was miss handled by the dealer. The Korean gentleman is amassing chips like they are going out of style. He had Rockets three times; Kings twice and I chopped the blinds with him when we both went all in with AK in the first hour of the tourney. Time passes and I am now short stacked. The action is folded to another Barge who raises. I have him on a steal cause surly he could not have another legitimate hand, right. I look down and see AdJd. I look at him and then my stack and I say "I'm all-in". He happily calls with AQ. The flop comes with an Ace, which only makes it worse. I find myself a railbird again at a NLH tourney. I start to wonder what I am doing wrong. I wander around the Orleans waiting for Howler-wife to get out of the Tower of Power jazz concert that Fred Lawful took her to so she would not be bored while I played in the tourney (according to Howler-wife, the show was AWESOME!!). I wander back into the poker room to see the seating of the final table and I think we had three Barger's place in the money, congrats to those of you who did. I find Kevin-Un and Len talking poker and Len mentions to Kevin that he has been finishing just out of the money over and over again recently and he doesn't know what he is doing wrong. Kevin thinks for a moment and says probably the most useful thing I have ever heard about tournament play, he asked Len "You know the point in the tournament when you first realize you are short stacked?" Len says " Yes." Kevin says, "You are now an hour too late to do anything about it." This sets me to thinking and it makes a lot of sense. To paraphrase Kevin: You need to make some moves early to get enough chips to allow you to last through the tough times when the cards aren't coming your way. This way, your only hope is not just a desperation all-in when you are short stacked, you have options. You will bust out early sometimes, but early risk taking will be rewarded late in the tourney when you are fighting for a final table spot. (If I missed anything Kevin please feel free to elaborate). We make our way back to the Nugget and I put Howler-wife to bed. I walk over to Binions and am seated in an 4-8 Omaha H/L full kill game. I play for about 45 minutes, cash out 2 1/2 racks call it a night. Tomorrow is the Barge NLH event and I want at least four hours of sleep for this one. (more scotch... ah, that's the stuff) Saturday Three hands into the NLH, the action is folded to the small blind who calls me in the Big blind and I check with 66. The flop comes As 6d 3c. The small blind makes a big raise and I come back over the top of him all-in and he calls. We turn over our cards and he has Ac4c. The turn and river brings no help for him and I double through and bust out the first person in the tourney. For the next 15-20 minutes we discuss the play of the hand and I feel that I made the right move by pushing all in. I can now wait for the cards as I really have no desire to give it all back real soon. I figure I can wait a few more rounds before I have to make any moves. I play pretty tight, I steal a few blinds and am able to maintain a good stack. The next pivotal hand for me was the hand I played against last years champion, Russ Fox. When I fist sit down at this table I think to myself, "oh my, am I in trouble." I play very few hands until I find AA in mid-late position. I push all-in and Russ calls me. I think O.K. we are either gonna push or my Aces won't hold up. We turn over our cards and Russ has AK. My aces hold up and I win a coveted purple chip from a man I truly respect. I continue to play pretty tight not getting into any confrontations unless I have the values to at least give myself a chance. We break tables and I find the next pivotal hand of the tourney for me. I am sitting in the Big Blind, Mary raises pretty big from late position. I have her on a steal so I call with my AQ. The flop comes A Q rag. I check, Mary bets big and I re-raise her all-in. She folds. I got lucky and won a big pot from a very good player. The table breaks. The next final hand that basically put me at the final table was a big suckout on my part. I am in late position and the action is folded to me. I look down and see KdTd. I figure that the table has been pretty tight, I' m short stacked, I'm gonna try for a steal. I raise all-in and I get not one but TWO all-in calls. I'm not really sure what happened but I definitely had the worst of it. To my recollection the first all-in had JJ and the second had 99. Gee Howler are you behind or what!!. I'm thinking," Give me a king, Give me a King" the flop comes with a ten so I have a pair of tens, I at least have the nines beat. I'm still saying," give me a King". The turn card is another ten, but I don't see it, I'm still thinking King. The final card brings no more help and I think I have busted out or really crippled my stack. My friend, Dave Lawful yells," You just tripled through!!" I sit down in my chair thinking," why did you raise all-in into this field with that crap" The Final table was a blast. Congrats to everyone who made it through this tough field. I basically stayed out of everyones way as much as possible. I was hoping the only person I would need to bust out would be the last person. It finally gets down to two after a guy I really had fun playing with busts out, Gavin Smith. Gavin you are truly one of a kind and it was a pleasure to play at your table, twice! I find myself heads up with Andrew Prock a pro who I knew has me completely out classed. I figure I'm just happy to have made it this far so I might as well gamble with him because I probably have little chance of beating him with skill. We play a few hands and exchange binds. The last two deciding hands were kinda strange. Andrew is the big stack and I raise all-in with J7, he calls with T5. I spike a 7 to capture a little over half of the chips. The very next hand, Andrew raises all-in and I call with T5 and I see that he has J7. I spike a ten to win the tourney. I am completely in shock . I think I played well but I did get lucky when I needed to. I learned that in a tournament, you need to give yourself a chance to get lucky. Play tight and don't give away chips unnecessarily that way when you do get lucky and catch some cards, your double through will be that much bigger. That night I witnessed the greatest MUST DRINK CHORSEL game I have every seen. Queens are wild on the last hand of each round, you r00lers!!. Bingo, the quarters were awesome. Nolan, the pennies were classic. Arty, take care of that eye. You all are a great bunch to people. Thanks to Chuck, Mike and Peter for a great job organizing. Thanks to Binions as the host, they really went all out for us this year. And thanks to all my old and new Barge friends. Please take care and have a safe year until we meet again at Barge 2003. Goodnight and God Bless