Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2003 22:12:07 -0700 From: Marc Gilutin To: Barge Subject: [BARGE] Occupying Las Vegas (Sophomore Year, Day One) 1. Tuesday (Pre-Barge Festivities) The plan, plain and simple- Steve Nissman will join me at the Bike, play for a bit during the afternoon, we'll attend (at least the beginning of) the casino's "Kick Off Legends and Introduce the New Games" party and head off to BARGE. BIA phones me at Table 21....he's gettin jerked around by the body shop that's been working on his car and isn't sure whether it will be roadworthy for The Trek or if we'll have to rent a car. I point out the good news...it's all good....that, either way, we'll be heading to Las Vegas in a few short hours. (We end up with a rented Mitsubishi, which is satisfactory although only a 4-cylinder. We will somehow manage.) Breaking News: Table 21 has been upgraded today from it's normal mandatory seat belts must be worn rule to full-on shoulder harnesses. We are a-ramming and a-jamming. I go from way-too-stuck to a very nice win in no more than an hour. As the day progresses, all my pre-Barge hopes have been realized. The 5 New Green Chip Games we're spreading (Stud, Stud-8, Limit Omaha, Lowbah [!] and Baby NLHE) are all in action by mid-afternoon so I can schmooze more/play less. The last one to go down is the Limit Omaha game. with me winning the first ever hand dealt in $6-12 Limit O at the Bike. Some time during this game, lovely co-host Trish asks if a big pair's a good enough reason to play. I somehow manage to keep my mouth shut....maybe due to her boyfriend sitting next to me. (Yes, Trish...but be sure to read T.J.'s bit about "danglers") Quite a few Poker Pals both on the casino floor and in the Banquet Room.....but most of the real pals are already where I'd like to be...Ve-gas, Ba-by! The party's very nice; good food-good peeps...sounds a bit like BARGE doesn't it?. BIA and I sit thru the first comedian and we're off before we have to sit thru another. We talk pretty much non-stop from the Bike to Las Vegas...mostly to keep each other awake...it's already been a long day for both of us. With a caffeine stop in Barstow and a nicotine stop for BIA in Baker, we get that first view of Primm (Stateline) before too long and I confess to Steve that I'm probably gonna have to go straight to Binion's Pocker Room as soon as I dump my bags. He feels the same way. First thing I see on arrival at the 'Shoe is (of course) a Chinese Pocker game with Bill Chen, Warren, Foldem and my personal CP Idol, Gavin. "Hiya Boys!" I sweat a couple of hands and head over to get my badge from Donna at the cage. There's a $6-12 Hold'em going nearby with Northshore Mike, Ploink, 2 other ADBers and "How's The Game?" Adam (you may know him as "Allknight"). Hi Fives, Low Fives, Handshakes and Hugs...I'm at BARGE, Ba-By! Dan Goldman's there, giving first-hand accounts of Chris Moneymakers recent $10K freezeout matches with Benny Behnen, Sam Grizzle etal. Maybe this guy IS a player. I look forward to meeting him at Legends. I return to sweat some more CP. It's central position in the room.....as well as the extra empty seats at the table....make it a perfect place to hang...and have my first (and second) BARGE cocktails and catch up with old friends as well as "friends I haven't met yet". After awhile, I feel my eyelids starting to fold up, say my goodbyes and am off to my "Thanks-Kelley-for-arranging-the-great-rate" room at the Nugget. Tuesday's highlight? I have misplayed NO tournament hands! (But that will change all too soon) Thanks For Reading, Marc Gilutin ________ Thanks to PokerStars, Paradise Poker, and Quiotix Technologies for their generous sponsorship of BARGE 2003. Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2003 17:41:33 -0700 From: Marc Gilutin To: Barge Subject: [BARGE] Occupying Las Vegas: (Sophomore Year, Day 2) Weds (O8@TheO, PS@ The P, and Team CHORSE@ TheH) First bad beat of the day: there are 15 people in line at StARGEbucks. So I use the time to good advantage, explaining NLHE to a tourist who has noticed some poker-related accessories I'm wearing and has just seen his first pocker on TV. Back at the 'Shoe, NorthShore Mike is still in the $6-12 Hold'em. "Good sign or bad, Buddy", I say. "You're still right where I left you this morning." "Not exactly", he replies. "I was there (pointing to the 4 seat) last night." Now he's in seat 6. [In the middle of a soon-to-be-legendary marathon, he's sober enough to realize he's changed seats......my hero!] A few more greetings and Harkness, Mad Mary aand I am off to the $30 Omaha at the Orleans. Waiting in line at the Nugget valet, I get to meet "How's-the-game-Adam"'s lovely wife Debbie. We've been hearing about each other for two years and now have faces to attach to the stories. We hope Debbie can be an accompanying person at ESCARGOT. Bad Beat #2: My first time driving the rental and I can't get the AC happening (and the Toronto film critic riding shotgun, isn't helping). All I can imagine is BIA and I having to drive across the Mojave Sunday afternoon without AC. YOW!!! Sitting in the O-8 tourney at the O, waiting patiently for any sign of an ace, I am watching Russ Fox's poor Cubbies taking a beating from the Giants. Harkness is the first ARGer to be sent packing and he stops by with a few well-chosen words for the "****-****** who beat my nut straight on the turn with a 6-high flush draw." Not having a lot of experience at the game, I can only nod sympathetically. I make it past the first break but so what? A couple of big draws don't materialize and I'm outta here, ready to find a rentacar place to check my AC. Luckily (I am a lucky driver; a powerful winning force surrounds me) when get in the car, I try a button I hadn't tried earlier and the AC springs to action. Ding! The Palm is on the way home and, not only have I never been there but their poker slots are reviewed favorably on some website or other and I want to get my feet wet. Feet subsequently get wet, but I won't be needing directions to cashier's cage, thank you very much. Back to the 'Shoe in time for the opening of the Pokerstars Hospitality Suite (Thanks, Dan!) I bring along some Kem cards for whatever anyone wants to do with them and manage to coerce Gavin into one ($5) game of cribbage and the hoser skunks me! Sit and chat with some more "friends I haven't met yet" (no notes but I'm sure Paul Stine was among them) Everyone's stomachs are growling so the suite is abandoned as we all head out for pre-CHORSE victuals. ------ The teams are gathering in the Barge pit, the area adjacent to the poker room where we are having all of our official events...and this unofficial one too. Teams of 6 players, with one on each team playing Crazy Pineapple, Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Eight-or-better , with the stud games at one table and the flop games at the other. I am soooo happy to have been warmly welcomed as a sub by Team Presto: Micdog, Patrick Milligan, Russ Fox, /david, and Pizza...and they let me play a game I sort of understand: Omaha 8. I hope they have a spot for me when the 'regulars' return. We pretty much hung in there all night, breaking exactly even (EXACTLY!)...drinking lottsa scotch/rocks (well, I did). If /david hadn't run into a couple of nasty beats near the end, I felt we had a shot at the Trophy. Maybe next year. While the CHORSE tag-team was going on, I was tagging off with BIA in a Chinese Poker game with the usual suspects, showing a small profit while Steve, playing for larger stakes when I wasn't there, showed a better one. I can honestly say I didn't make any obvious mistakes. (Steve, didya HAVE to tell Becky about the redbird I found on the floor....now I'm barred fersure!) A great time was had by all, although the team event could have been a little shorter. Not sure exactly what I did between CHORSE and SLEEP but I don't think it cost me any money. Off to bed.. Thanks for reading! The Occupant ________ Thanks to PokerStars, Paradise Poker, and Quiotix Technologies for their generous sponsorship of BARGE 2003. Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 01:57:29 -0700 From: Marc Gilutin To: Barge Subject: [BARGE] Occupying Las Vegas (Sophomore Year, Day 3) Thursday (the dream, a $.06 bounty, T*TS, and a Guardian Angel) Part I: The Dream It is 7:30 AM and I am wakened by the shrill sound of the smoke alarm in room 321 Actually the noise was not in the hall or my room but in my head.....too many cocktails...not enough chasers. Half way between drunk and hungover, I reach for a bottle of water and some tylenol. Maybe the last two scotches after CHORSE weren't really necessary. After all, I am not on the short list to be "made" as an ADBer. I get up to use the loo and stub my toe on the corner of the bed. "Sonofa....BOING!" .... an idea so powerful that, rather than a light bulb over my head, I have this shooting pain in my foot. I have found it! A way to make my own small contribution to the History of Poker. I shall be the vehicle (ba-by) for...taDA!....."Remote Quick Bets" I will write the script out here..... in bed..... in a stupor, and ask THE ORGANIZERS for permission to make a short announcement pre-HOP.....I then fall back asleep...to dream of T*TS (after all, it is Thursday at BARGE). I wake up quite refreshed, considering.....and there are now 20 suckers in line at stARGEbuck$. I pass them right by, thanks to a tout yesterday by a noted Toronto Film Critic. The real coffee to be had downtown is the Illy cart parked outside the 4Queens. Sonofagun if it isn't Harkness himself the only one in front of me in line.Ding! Thanks, John! A large coffee w/a shot and I'm ready for the HOP. (In retrospect, the HOP was the only official event I felt I played well in. Having moved to California in the late seventies, I had a few years of draw poker under my belt before hold'em and stud got legalized.) Part II: H.O.P. So I find Foldem and tell him my plan. He loves it and after the official pre-tourney announcements have been made, I am given the microphone and try to read my scribbling: "Hi, Poker Pals. While I have never had the honor (or incredible plus EV) of participating in a Quick bet, it is obviously a very important and greatly missed part of BARGE so I am offering, for a limited time only, this opportunity for (drum roll, please) "REMOTE QUICK BETS"! All you have to do to enter is donate two extra dollars to the dealers' toke pool and put your name on the back of one of Nolan's business cards. If you are fortunate enough to be selected, you and I will have a last-longer in today's event. If you win the bet, you get to keep one of these lovely parting gifts from Table 21. If I, somehow, outlast you, you must take the gift home with you, mail it to Quick, and send me a postcard at Table 21 confirming your completion of the deed." Cards are filled out; money paid...and the first ever RQBs are me vs: Bingo Legends of Poker Steering Wheel Cover Nolan Dalla Bike Jackpot Hat Phil G. Bike Jackpot Hat BIA Bike Classic Car Show T-Shirt Good news for Bingo and Phil. Bad news for Nolan and BIA. And very good news for Quick....assuming these guys make good on their debts :-) Meanwhile....back at the pocker table..... I have Andy Bloch on my immediate right so, when we're not in a hand, I am asking about WPT stuff (thanks for your patience, Andy). Does he think Players (capital 'P') are Tivo'ing the show and looking for their opponents' tells? Their own tells? Yes...and Yes.... I ask a few more but back off before the annoyance factor gets too great (I hope) Meanwhile, Perry Friedman's moved to the next table and he and Andy have some kind of last-longer. Perry decides he wants to raise the stakes and puts a bounty on Andy's head....he reaches in his pocket and comes up with.....SIX CENTS! It sits right there by Andy's chips and is eventually won by Griz on my left. Damn! I play good solid pocker in the HOP....only getting out of line once (in lowbah...no-limit....I find A3joker on the button and try a steal. The small blind calls..oops...and the big blind comes over the top....OOPS! I fold now...and eventually get knocked out when Connie improves her aces to beat my two smaller pair. Somewhere during the event a little cartoon has made the rounds..."T*TS meets 4PM in the poker room" Well, last year, I promised to attend and, since the Card Godz have seen fit to bust me out at 3:45....I must keep my promise! I sit and shoot the bull with Timmer at an empty table, waiting for any sign of fellow 'revelers' but there's nothing happening and I don't really know who the organizers are. Eventually a floorman brings a dealer to the table for a new game: $2-4 Hold'em. I'm ready to bolt but he's leading 4 or 5 young tourist-types with beers already in their hands. What the heck. I'll play for awhile. They've got that 'first time playing casino poker' look. So I lock up a seat and look once more for 'revelers'.I ask around and am directed to Bob Ogus and Shelley ("Scotty"?) Louie at the deli. The class trip to Olympic Gardens will take place at 6:30. "I'll be over there...working on my buy-in." I win a little (shoulda won more)and we're off...BobO, "Scotty" and I to my first ever T*TS. ---- Part III: T*TS Taylor, Beth, Jezzy (Oh, Jezzy!) ('Nuf Said) ------ Part IV: Lee & Paul's BPL @ The Mirage Even though he wan't interested in playing there, BobO was nice enough to take Shelley and me to the Mirage (THANKS BOB!!) When we arrive, the Baby Pot Limit game is already going. I introduce myself to Lee Jones and say hi to the rest. Lee tells me they've already rolled me . I am grateful but don't know if I will participate in what looks like the final table of a major tournament. I hang for a bit, watching, go visit the surviving BARGERS in the NLHE and sit down in a soft $5-10 Omaha right next to the BPL. Things do not go particularly well. The game's fairly loose-passive but I can't seem to make any hands. Then I get one big driving hand and an ace on the river gives me 3rd/3rd and the player on my left has 2nd/2nd. Just then, like the Danny Glover character in "Grand Canyon", Kevin Un saunters by and asks me "Did you need a ride?" I felt like the Kevin Kline character in the same scene....THANKS, Un! So we cash out, waited for the big blind to come Bingo's way, and the three of us are off. A few pocker stories later, we pull up to the Nugget. "Anybody hungry?", Kevin asks. Bingo's off to dream up some weird game that might just get played sometime later in the week(laha). I realize just how long it's been since I had anything to eat and Un and I are off to everybody's favorite, the Carson Street Cafe. Well, we eat...and we talk.....and we talk....and we....(actually I'm about a 3-1 dog in this department but I am loving every minute of it.) We talk poker....and life....and just how closely the two are intertwined, and let me tell you a little secret: nobody loves their kids any more than Un...maybe as much...but not more. Our 'midnight snack' started around 1AM; we finished eating by 2 and now it's after 3! A great BARGE moment but I need some sleep. Thanks For Reading! ________ Thanks to PokerStars, Paradise Poker, and Quiotix Technologies for their generous sponsorship of BARGE 2003. Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 15:01:58 -0700 From: Marc Gilutin To: Barge Subject: [BARGE] Occupying Las Vegas (Sophomore Year, Day 4) Day 4. Friday (BobO's Hat, NutZ's Tale, Binion's 'Gets" Us, Wine Angels, CP Excellence, Patti's Scotch, Tiger's Scotch, Gavin's Hat, Bingo's Shirt and Sharon's Tattoo ) Part 1. BobO's Hat I'm a bit early for the TOC so I take a seat in a decent Omaha game. There is a hat on the table the whole time I am there...I'm told it belongs to BobO who is in the coffee shop. (Bob's hat actually played better than average for this table! Maybe tight is the way to go.) Part 2. Nut-Z's Tale I am now playing TOC, my first. On returning from a smoke break, Nut-Z recounts a cellphone conversation he has just overheard. "Yeah, I'm here at Binion's....In the poker room.....the World Series Is Still Going On!" Thanks, Frank! Part 3. Binion's Gets Us Not that much later I soooo misplay a stud hand against Micdog, that my stack is totally crippled going into Omaha . Now I have T200 remaining and go all-in with A-A-5-T(sooted). I tell the table to get ready to start applauding, The dealer, without blinking an eye, grabs the seating card for my spot and starts calling "Seat Open" before the flop hits the board! The table, of course, explodes with laughter and, with no help, I GHN. I pack up my stuff and move on out, returning a couple of minutes later. I come up across from the dealer and, with pen and paper in hand and in my sternest voice, ask the dealer his name. "John", he proudly replies. "J-O-H-N". (Was there really any doubt that Binion's gets us?) ----- Part 4: Wine Angels Now that my TOC is over, I make a date to meet with an old friend, Freddie who lives in Vegas. Since seeing a program (there are shows other than the WPT) on the Travel Channel, I have wanted to visit Aureole at the Mandalay Bay to see the "Wine Angels". (They have a tremendous wine list, with the wine stored in a tall lucite tower in the center of the space. Bottles are accessed by "Wine Angels" who 'climb' the tower on pullies...the same kind used to visit the roof of the Amazon rain forrests.) It's a nice, if expensive, space and we spend a couple of hours catching up on old times.Freddie drops me back at the Nugget, where I grab a couple of unofficial prizes (courtesy of my lamdlords at Table 21) for the second annual Chinese Poker tournament The winner will receive an original 4-color poker setup...(remember Mike Caro's movement to change the world?) I rush over to the poker room, afraid that I am too late to play CP. I am directed to the hospitality suite, where they are miles away from starting (a number of CP players are still in the TOC...it won't start till 9...whew!) Part 5. Chinese Poker We play some practice hands. Dan and Sharon have pretty much never played the game before but last longer than I did last year. I play g00t and am still alive many hours later. Patti shows up (have I remebered to thank PS Dan for the hospitality suite?) having just come from tasting Scotch w/Tiger (Crud! I missed it!) but soooo generously shares her '14-year-old Laphroaig, Signatory bottling' which is 'unusual' to my newbie taste buds but even I can appreciate its quality. (Thanks, Patti!) I play pretty much perfect CP and am lucky enough to get 3rd place (I never had to surrender a hand until we were three handed...and then it was a good decision).The fourth place parting gift now goes to my PCPI ("Personal Chinese Poker Idol") Gavin Smith, who had Scott Byron play his chips early, while he was downstairs R00ling the TOC and who showed up with a drink in each hand and made me laugh when he wasn't telling me I was full of sh*t about a ruling that our hard-working TD, Spencer Sun had to make..... (by the time it was over, all of those remaining agreed that we might be better served if, next year, we figured out a way for the CP tourney to end BEFORE 3AM.!) Somebody takes a pic of the CP winners and I'm off to the poker room. Part 6: Tiger's Scotch (thanks, Kevin!), Gavin's Hat, Bingo's Shirt and Sharon's tattoo There is a zany NLHE game going on in the corner "Hey Marc!" (It's my guardian "UN"gel, Kevin). "I saved you some of this" (it's Tiger's personal stash......the essence of life....15yr old single malt, single barrel (!!) Highland Park. I can't believe my good fortune. First Patti coming up to the Hospitality suite and sharing....and now Kevin...channeling Tiger.....sharing...this is the nutz. I love you guys!!!!!) Not only the scotch. I'm sitting betweeen Scottro and Kevin...watching poker that should be on TV....The Comedy Channel. Scottro, Bingo, Gavin, Kevin...I'm missing a couple of names...sorry. Gavin is now, you'll excuse me for suggesting this is even possible....too drunk to be an ADB. In one hand, Gavin goes all-in, all of his chips...and his hat. Like Bingo would EVER sit by and be outdone! Off comes Don's shirt and it goes right in the pot after all of his chips....I am trying so hard not to spill the greatest booze on the planet but I am laughing soooo hard. (Not a drop was spilled, Tiger!) I'm off to the Pot Limit Binglaha(tm) table where Poker Pal Sharon is r00ling (two drinks at a time and an ADB tattoo!) . I hang for awhile but I am such a wuss! It's only 4:30 and I'm too tired to go on so I bid my farewells and I'm off to bed. (If you haven't sold your computer by now, there's still one more day to come!) Thanks For Reading. Marc Gilutin ________ Thanks to PokerStars, Paradise Poker, and Quiotix Technologies for their generous sponsorship of BARGE 2003. Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2003 23:03:57 -0700 From: Marc Gilutin To: Barge Subject: [BARGE] Occupying Las Vegas: The Sophomore Year (Final Day ) Saturday: Limited No Limit; Pink Poodles; Big-Bet Yahtzee, must-own-bracelet Chowaha. Saturday's always a long day at Barge. Unfortunately it wasn't the NLHE tourney that was the long part...at least not for me. I totally misplay a hand early (I won't bore you with the details...wait. I've already bored you with the details) So I'm out very early...not 'first out, what an idiot' early but certainly 'what do I do now?' early. Let us skip (mercifully) to the cocktail party, so graciously thrown by Paradise Poker, featuring Jill Ann "do you like my little poodle?" Spalding. The party was lovely. As was Jill. So, although I managed to get an autographed picture for Quick, I forgot to get one for myownself. (Send me one, Jill Ann! Everyone knows my address) The banquet was fun; the food was good (I haven't said anything like that since they stopped serving the midnight steak dinner!) Howard Lederer had a lot of good stuff to share, tho I won't get to use it much against the crew at Table 21. Maybe I ought to play some more hold'em. One thing that did catch my attention was Howard talking about Gus Hansen and what a genius he is. He spoke of Big Bet Yahtzee players in Europe and how Gus threw that community (there is one) on it's ear. (Note: I finally got to say hi to Gus in between hands in the $2,000-4,000 game he was playing in with Doyle, Chip, Bobby and the crew at Legends of Poker. He very quickly described the 6 dice/6-column game they play and promised to send me the rules by email....which I'll be glad to share with you as soon as I get it). During Howard's Q&A, the notion was put into formal words that Bill Chen will always get to ask the last question at the banquet. Sign-up lists were passed around for the ensuing mayhem to take place in the poker room. I missed getting into the first seating of the "must-own-plenty-o'-bracelets" Chowaha game by one player ...and nobody ever left. But we had plenty of fun in the second game. Since white chips were scarce, Perry made every attempt to corner the $.50 piece market but they were a little too slippery to stack very high. I only lost forty bucks in the game, which pretty much means I won at least a hundred. The dealers were, once again, the beneficiaries of the leftovers I was giving away/auctioning off. Ding! I have no idea what time I actually went to bed but it probably wasn't early enough, considering the 8AM beat-the-traffic wake-up call to meet BIA for the trip home. I'd like to give some thanks here. I know at least most of these people have already been thanked but they deserve more: Chuck and Peter (and Mike whom I still haven't met) for putting the whole thing together. Jan, for doing a fine job on his first 'solo flight' as a TD Dan and Pokerstars for an idea whose time has come.....a non-smoking refuge at the Shoe where we could chat, play CP, or, in my case, get skunked by Gavin. Paradise for cocktails and poodles, Tiger and Patti for the amazing Scotch (I may be joining the 'society'), Kevin for his wisdom, BobO for getting all the post-banquet games going (and T*TS orientation), Ploink and Jerrod for once again picking winners in the Calcutta (Ding!) Dee Contin at the Nugget for our wonderful rate (Ding!), Kelley O'Hara, Rick Cloward, and Denny Williams at the Bike for the nifty giveaways, BIA for the ride and the great company, and the folks at Binion's for still getting us. Conclusion: Yet to cash in an RGP poker event. When it comes to hotel rooms, I R00L! Playing two events in '03 and finishing 3rd in each.( Tiger Wodds should be so consistent). 3rd in WCC last Feb at the Ramada (Extrememly) Limited 3rd again in BARGE CP event at the PS Hospitality Suite. How many points did *I* get? Best pre-deadline trade of the season? Nolan for Razzo as Binion's spokesman (Ding!) Thanks For Reading. See you all at ESCARGOT! The Occupant ________ Thanks to PokerStars, Paradise Poker, and Quiotix Technologies for their generous sponsorship of BARGE 2003.