Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 20:01:02 -0700 (PDT) From: David Aronson To: barge@barge.org Subject: [BARGE] Meeee and Peg Barge 2003 trip report From Meeee (David Aronson) and Peg (Caryl Aronson): I used to know how to write a pretty good trip report. Don't count on this one, though. Also, if there is a designated poster-to-rgp, could just one person post it there? I can take volunteer e-mails if needed. Sometime prior to BARGE 2003. Sign Peg (Caryl) and I up for WRGPT. Sometime later, Peg busts out. But Peg then says, "lets go to BARGE so I can play in the NLHE tournament". DING! (#1). Make reservations on United. United goes bankrupt, but still flies and our miles are still good -- DING! (#2) Wednesday afternoon. Limo to airport. Bad Beat (bb) #1, get stuck in traffic jam at 2:00pm. But wait, we left the house in plenty of time, and traffic starts moving. Never mind the bb. Get to airport in plenty of time, 5 minutes to check the bag, 5 minutes to get through security, plane leaves on time. Arrive, get car while waiting for luggage, get luggage, bus to Dollar Rent A Car waiting for us when we get out, get car. Got into and out of McCarren in 20 minutes. Perfect trip to LV, DING! (#3) Drive (with a slight detour) to Jokers Wild casino in Henderson. Their 25 cent craps table has skyrocketed to 50 cents -- bb #1. But it is still the lowest limit within miles, and we win $31 in an hour. Never mind the bb, and DING! (#4). Check in at Nugget. "Sorry, we don't have a king size non smoking room" -- bb #1. We can change rooms tomorrow. When we can't decide between two beds in a non-smoking room or one bed in a smoking room, she says "wait, let me check something. OK, I've got a king non-smoking in DNR -- let me check with the boss and see if I can give it to you". One phone call later and we've got a room. Never mind the bb, and DING! (#5). 21'st floor with a great view. Thursday: Golf at Badlands. Played with Gerry and Kevan. Somebody said they'd pay for Ploink to play and he joined us. Although a fine golfer, he was too tired to continue after the ninth hole. So in the first group, Ploink dropped out at nine and North Shore Mike passed out after 14. This enabled us to complete the round in under 4.5 hours. We sat around and had a drink (thanks for buying, Kevan -- DING (#6). By the time we got back, it was debateable whether or not to make a run for the Orleans noon NLHE tournament. PEG should really get in a practice tourney before the main event. So we go upstairs to get the vallet ticket, come back down, wait 5 minutes for the vallet, and make a mad dash to the Orleans. We made it right at noon, but *saddenz*, the tourney was full - bb #1. We ate lunch, played pai gow (came out even). Drove back to Jokers Wild for more craps. Lost $10. Back to hotel for short nap. Over to Mirage Buffet. No line. No waiting. We don't need no stinkin' line pass - DING! (#7). Met up with Oz, then some others joined us later. Andrew Prok, Ming Lee (where'd you go the rest of the trip?), Warren Sanders? and a couple others who's names I've spaced out. Thanks to Oz for entertaining Caryl with some poker stories. Go to the Plaza for Pai Gow, lose $20, go to Binion's for Craps Crawl. Binions, El Cortez (too many people, but Pai Gow available), Fitzgeralds. 3:30 am quit, losing only around $40.00 for entire night. Thanks to Peter for organizing and leading. Ate midnight snack at Binions with slow waitress and some constant skreeching coming from the kitchen. Free food, but probably not going back there this trip. Call that one a wash. Good night. Friday. Had left word for Action Bob that golf was possible for Friday morning. Thanks for not going, as golf on 2 hours sleep is not fun for me, and also because of what is soon to transpire. Thanks to Ploink for constructing BAAG, because we know of Sunset Station NLHE tourney ($25 gets T600) for Caryl to practice at. Get there at 10:30 for 11:00 tourney, but it is sold out also (4 table max). But with only one rebuy, they take 8 alternates. We pick up positions 4 and 5 and go have breakfast. 11:25, Caryl is called. 11:30, I'm called and put at Caryl's table. 11:35, Carly busts out and re-buys. 11:40, I double through in the big blind when with one limper and the small blind, my 10-8 sees a flop of A-10-4 with 2 spades. SB checks, I bet, limper folds, small blind calls. A rag on the turn, SB checks, I go all in, SB calls. No spade on the river and my 8's beat his 4s-3s. 11:45, Caryl busts out. 2:15pm, my fifth suckout earns me my first tourney victory since IRC, and $525 -- Large DING (#8), and cancel bb #1 because if we'd have gotten in to the Orleans tourney, there is no way we would have gone to this one. Some poker hands in between, because its is r.g.P: I get all my chips in with the worst of it, as my Ad-5s goes against A-9, but I get 4 diamonds on the board for victory. Later in the Saturday NLHE I do the same thing, catching a 5 on the river to cripple GFW. I pull a miracle 1-outer when I'm all in with JJ vs KK and AJ when the case jack hits at the river. I made one laydown holding K-8 from the bb when it was limped, the flop Q-T-4 was checked, I hit the turn with an 8 (made two hearts, two clubs) and bet, and was raised all-in. My 10-10 takes down 9-9 to double through. Towards the end I have to make a stand and take Q2s one off the button up against the bb's A-10. Catch a queen on the flop. With only 4 players left, seat one goes all in, I've got him well out-chipped and have to call him with AQ. His AJ no good. Heads up I started the first few hands folding my SB. My oponent was only slightly more agressive. But then I switched gears and started raising from the SB. I gained enogh chips with this technique so that by the time I lured my opened in with his AK vs my K-10 soooted, I had him outchipped. Maybe I should have laid it down, but I was not very confident in my heads-up play. (Actually, I'm not confident at a poker table, period). Ten on the end and collect first prize. Lets make a deal: When we were down to 9 players, someone suggested that everyone take $50 and we play for the rest. I was down to 4 chips, and was more than happy to go for it. Everyone except one person was agreeable, so it didn't happen. A few hands later, we were down to 6 people and I was the chip leader, having twice as many chips as the nearest person. We were down to 6, and the same person now suggested a $100 save. The person who first objected now said OK. At first I didn't want to do it (for obvious reasons), but then I thought that they were all (mostly) going to give me $50 when I should have gotten 50 cents, so I said OK. Go visit long lost friend, take hime to lunch (he picks Jokers Wild!). Leave Caryl at craps table while I take him home. Pick up Caryl. Ding (#9), she's won another $12.50. Symposium. Good appetizers. Good Drinks. Buy back half of our action for $20, pick up two teams -- Croson and Galacia, and Marshall and Markawitz. Saturday. Breakfast at 4 Queens coffe shop. I try eating same breakfast as I had on Friday to see if that is why I won the tourney. Can't remember what Peg ate, in case you want to try her formula. Pre NLHE. Deal out 10 rounds of 10 hands at an unused table to review basic strategy with Peg. Guys on rail ask "Is that poker 101"? Peg wants to give up her seat after not having any fun with the locals in the practice event. But I tell her this will be way different, and escort her table, introducing her to Barry Tannenbaum. I explain about it being her first tournament and all. I figure I can't leave her in any better hands. Scott Byron was next to Caryl and was also very nice (as I'm sure everyone else at the table was). NLHE. I do my cripple GFW routine, pick up a few hands with raises, then get moved to Andy Bloch's table where he busts 4 people (but not me, because I get squat). Move tables, pick up AJ sooted and raise. Get raised all-in by the button. I look at my cards, they look back, I call. He says "I was hoping you wouldn't do that". My AJ holds up against his KJ. Finally bust out after a few hours when AQ doesn't improve against Johny D's pocket 7's. Go look for Peg. Hmmm, she's still playing? Gadz, look at all the chips she's got! Ding! (#10). Now its down to 4 tables. Now 3 tables, and she's in the money. She sucks out against Murray, and hold on to make it to the final table. Anybody else want to take the Poker 101 course? Banquet was nice. Especially when they served the whole pig for dessert. I've got to finish this and get it out, otherwise it will sit in my word processor forever. We did poker 201 before the final table, but it didn't help. We also came up with a gag, but only one person got it. When Caryl got her first cards at the final table, she pulled out a pair of sun glasses from her purse and put them on. It was hilarious, but only one person was paying attention and laughed. After a few hands, Caryl got AQ suited and went all in with her 20K stack (blinds were 3k-6k), only to run into Patti's pocket kings. But Caryl was more than thrilled to finish 9th. We've got Dave Marshall from the symposium. He's doing great, but then the cards go dry and he ends up in 7th. But again, DING for us! We watched the end of the tourney, had a late dinner at the Nugget's coffee shop (service was so slow I'm surprised we're not still there), and went to sleep. Two hours into the plane ride home the pilot says that O'Hare airport has been shut down by thunderstorms and we've got enough fuel to circle for half an hour before we have to go to Des Moines. 30 minutes later we hear the pilot talking to ground control, learning that there has been no change in the weather and asking for coordinates to Iowa. Oh well, every trip has to have at least one bad beat. But then 20 seconds later, the pilot announces that the weather is breaking and we have a slot in at O'Hare. Unreal. We see ET at baggage claim and chat. He says it was a great BARGE. We aggree. DING!!!!!!! Can't wait till next barge. The wife can't wait more than I. Thanks to all the organizers -- you know who you are. And to the Binion's and their staff. And Mike Z, please come to BARGE 2004. I promise not to bother you with any nonsense. David (meeee) Aronson