From: Chris S Subject: [BARGE] Ploink's Not so short BARGE trip report BARGE 2002 Vignettes Tuesday Arrive at airport, meet with Crunch at airport and cab to 4 Queens. Immediate check in, head over to Binionās, wind up trekking a bunch of people back to my room to play $5 Chinese Poker. Minus $50 later, the group heads over to the geekfest (Programmers BoF session) and I head back to Binionās. 6PM HoP tourney, only good hand I get is making a flush in a draw round when 4-5 people were in. I bust out when I bet all-in on my flush draw into Rich Straussā pat Aces-full. Trapped the nuts again, doh! Decide to drown my sorrows with a plastic football of beer ($7 from 4Queens) which the Binionās waitress later r00lingly refills for me with Heinikin! I go to breakfast with a bunch of r00lers and make $50 on Keno against Bill Chen. He believed just a bit too much in the power of presto. Some hours later, I walk by the half and half PL game. After kibitzing with my (now empty) football in hand, Jerrod ultimately sells me his chips ($150) and I sit down to play. I double my stack in dribs and drabs until the following hand came up; I raise UTG with A(Ax)y and get two callers, including the one local at the table. Flop comes AT2 rainbow and I fire a small bet at the pot. Local calls. River is a blank that makes a flush draw possible. I bet again (~$30 this time) and he calls. River is a 2. I try to figure out how I can get the most money out of this guy so I under bet the pot and push out $50. Imagine my surprise when he raises me all-in! Guess I didnāt need to worry. Unfortunately (for him) his T2 was no g00t. Wednesday Play commenced in the TOC. I resolve to stay out of trouble in the Stud rounds and try to make up for it in the Omaha and HE rounds. At one point I win a nice pot against ĪIceā when I 3-bet him preflop with 66 and flop a set while he turns 2 pair. Unfortunately I forget my earlier resolve and take a brutal bite out of my stack when my two pair on 4th street donāt improve but my opponent makes Aces up on the river. Not too long after my table gets broken and I come into the BB of T600 with only T300 left after posting. I toss my chips in blind and manage to win that pot as well as the next. A few hands later, I pull out the first of many suckouts when I get all-in against Foldem with QQ against his AA. When the turn brings the 4th spade I have built my stack up to levels that will let me survive the last Stud round. I play careful poker, but am able to steal quite frequently at my next few tables and arrive at the final table with an approximately average stack of T30000. Those who were watching know, but I sucked out many times at the final table, including 3 times on Mike Maurer who started up a fine collection of ADB tattoos. Twice I went up against Mike when he had AK, getting an 8 when I had A8s and getting a runner-runner flush when I had T8s and he flopped a king (the money did go in preflop). When it got down to three handed I had a tough time stealing enough to stay alive, as every time Matt would fold on the button Steve Jacobs would raise all-in. Steve may have thought I was playing tight, but in all those times I never had a card above a ten! I showed a few of the junk hands to try and slow Steve down, but he just kept raising. It wasnāt until we were heads up that Steve shoved in once again and I woke up with AK and made the easy call. 5 cards later I was the TOC champion! This recap does not do my opponents justice, all of whom played tough, certainly the toughest final table I have ever participated in. Nolan Dalla was also his usual gentlemanly self, even when I (sort of) sucked out on his AJ that flopped an A when my 44 made a runner-runner wheel (all the money did go in pre-flop). Also thanks go to everyone at my initial table who had to put up with my eternal bitching about stud. ME: ćThis game is dumbä Other Player: ćOh cāmon, this game isnāt that dumbä ME: ćOK youāre right, itās not dumb, itās f**king stupid!ä Also, thanks to Andrew Prock for taking 5 minutes on a decision in the Stud round, had to save me at least T1000. Some other interesting facts of note: at my first table there were 4 instances of a player being rolled up, three times with Aces and one time with 8s! The 4 occasions were split between two players, ĪIceā and Noah (I believe). Ice did manage to lose with his Aces though. Later on we played some craps at Binionās. This was the only öev action I gave to Binionās the entire week. After being at the table for over an hour, including tokes for the dealers, the following situation happens. QB is holding the dice and makes 10 as the point. Immediately a bunch of us get on the hard 10 or Presto bet. Jerrod had been making this bet during the whole session as a 3-way (one for the dealers, one for him, one for the shooter) and tosses out $3 calling out ć3-way hard 10ä. A couple rolls later I notice that Jerrod is not on the hard 10. After we point it out to the pit boss, he REFUSES TO PUT THE BET BACK, informing us that Jerrodās bet was ćhoppingä or only good for one roll. This act, combined with the craps dealersā shameless begging causes us to all pull our bets back and we depart. I, for one, was glad to see the craps tour pass Binionās by. Thursday Once again I wake up just a smidgen too late and donāt get into the BJ tourney that I paid for. Second time in a row. I either have to stop signing up for that tourney or stop going to bed when itās light out the ćnightä before. Paul McMullin won the tourney on a r00ling last hand when he doubled down on Black Jack to just barely beat out Steve Jacobs for the win. WTG Paul! Head over Mirage and enter a satellite for the $220 NLHE event but go out early. JohnnyD picks up the satellite and an additional $10 last longer from me. I enter the tourney anyway and manage to double through Bwana when my 94s in the BB limps in and flops a pair and flush draw which gets there on the turn. Unfortunately I go card dead and bust out with about 5 tables to go. I did get a nice $20 prop bet down against Spencer on the number of RGPers at the final table (he set the line at 4 and I immediately took the over. (The final tally was 6). Unfortunately he wouldnāt take the original $50 that I wanted to bet. Head back over to Binionās where the following conversation takes place; Binionās dealer from TOC walks up to me and says ćI heard you won the tournament yesterday, is that true?ä A bit proudly I reply, ćWhy yes, I did.ä A look of incredulity appears on her face and she exclaims, ćHow did THAT happen?ä Sigh. You know itās bad when even the dealers know how bad you have to suck out to win. Actually she was the dealer at the table when I came in with T900 and had to post T600 of it in the blind, but it does make for an amusing story. Make it onto the craps crawl, which is appropriately named. Get r00led at Fitzgeralds when they change their $1 table to a $5 table seconds after we show up. Unfortunately for me, the tour was not a successful one for me and I think in future years I will go back to my strategy of simply drinking and talking with less gambling. Friday Didnāt play in the Stud shootout (didnāt I say before itās a stupid f**king game?) but did watch the final few tables. Some nice trash talk between John ćIām just a kidä Miller and Don Perry, amusing for all to be sure. Head over to the Calcutta where suddenly Iām somehow the head of a 5-person SoCal syndicate. We buy 7 pairs plus put our own action back into the pool for an investment of $67 a person. I play a little Chinese Poker and lose another $50 before heading over to my room to pick up my setup, clock and dealer button for the Chinese Poker tourney in Spencerās room. Oh yeah, and a bottle each for Gavin and myself. This was my first Chinese Poker tournament and I think I can speak authoritatively on how to win: get good cards. I did have to give up $8 in equity to Chu in order to get some sleep (or so I thought). Head back to Binionās to say goodnight and crow a little bit about my CP win. Just as Iām walking out to my hotel, Tiger stops me ćTime for scotch!ä Well as much as I want to get some sleep before the NLHE tourney, I canāt resist and head upstairs with some others for another wonderful scotch tasting with Tiger. An experience that has to be enjoyed in person, a true unofficial ćeventä for me at BARGE. Thanks to Tiger, Patti and Michael Hunter for sharing their scotch with me, I am truly grateful. Saturday Wake up in plenty of time for the NLHE event and arrive in the poker room dressed to the nines (tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces too). Linda Johnson hands me a very nice LE $5 chip from her Costa Rica tournament (thanks Linda!) and Patrick Milligan hands me my BARGE chips. I find my table after signing up the SoCal last longers and look around in despair. Jerrod, John Harkness, Matt Matros, Nick Christenson and ćActionBobä are at my table (among others)! Although we did propose a nickname change after Bob played far too few hands (due in no small part to Mattās aggression) to ćWeak-tightBobä. All in fun of course. I doubled through Jerrod with QQ vs. TT and managed to pick up chips by being fairly aggressive. It was hard to do too much stealing as whenever Matt didnāt raise, Nick did. I lose a few hands against all-in players and my stack goes from T7000 to about T4100. I had just finished counting down my stack when Nick raised in fairly early position immediately to my right. I looked at my cards and pushed all-in, unfortunately I had miscounted my chips and had less than I thought. Nick did not have to think long to call with AQ and I was out with QJ. It was unfortunate, as I felt I was playing some of my best poker of the week. Nick used my chips well though, and both he and Matt made the money for a tough initial table indeed! Came back upstairs with a few tables to go to discover that 4 of my syndicateās horses were still in with 21 players left! Not a bad showing at all. Unfortunately both Rick Charles and Thomas Hummel busted on the bubble (21st and 20th) but we still had Warren Sanders and Mike McBride. I have to say that Mike played some excellent poker and was not afraid to move his chips, even when relatively short-stacked. WTG Mike and thanks for making the SoCal Syndicate (tm) a profit of $90 each! No banquet for me, but a nice quiet dinner at Tony Romas with a few others to enjoy a decent meal. Came back over to watch some PL and finally play in the 4-8 CHORSEL game. Even with incoming and outgoing tips, I managed to win over $200 in this game, much of it by sucking out on Patti (donāt try that at home kids!) Patti and Spencer did manage to snow me in one lowball round where we wound up heads up. My one card draw to a wheel paired my 5, but I bet into their 3 card draw anyway. I was raised and before I could muck my cards, Spencer showed me 4 of their cards, none higher than a 6. They had never looked at the 5th card, but I mucked anyway with only 3 outs left. Of course the remaining card was a 6. Took my $200 profit and donated most of it to Michael Hunter in the 1-1 PL game. The remainder of the weekend did have the highlight of Bill Chen breaking his craps virginity and also tossing a green chip on Presto right before Jerrod rolled it. Good times. Jerrod finally managed to break a long tourney streak by chopping up the Orleans Sunday night tourney. Patti and I managed to amaze onlookers by making a öev game even worse by having a prop bet on who could lose fastest. We left the match tied at 1-1 when it was decided that the only winner was the Orleans. Thanks to everyone, especially all those who congratulated me after my tourney win. It feels great to win any tournament, but winning an *ARGE event tourney is like no other. Looking forward to more r00ling times at MARGE, ESCARGOT and of course next yearās BARGE! -ADB Ploink