Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 12:45:06 -0700 From: "Monte Christensen" To: Subject: [BARGE] My barge trip report I missed Barge last year while planning my wedding, the first Barge I have missed since I started coming in 1994. =20 At least 2-3 times a year I think about just giving up this software career and moving into the world of a professional poker player. At barge I am usually reminded that my skills are probably good enough to beat a 10-20 up to 20-40 game in Seattle or Ca. but I am a long way from anything else. I figure it is good to at least have goals and dreams! ;-) When I was in college my goal was to be a professional horseplayer. I quickly learned after my best year that $10k in winnings divided by 80h a week of work was not going to scale very well. =20 I originally had planned to go to Barge on Tuesday night and leave on Monday morning. Of course the VP of my division at work decides that his work schedule is more important than my Barge vacation and moves a review that I am in charge of to Thursday from 1-3. Can you believe that I start out with a colossal bad beat right off start? I get to the Seattle airport about 2h early as I want to take no chances on missing any more barge time. Of course my SW flight is 1h late. I head over to the bar and I hit the happy hour prices for 20oz beers for $4.95. I ask the waitress what are the normal prices? I also throw in a do you want to ro-sham-bo for double or nothing on the tip. She wasn't interested and given that I am a total fish at the game she missed out on her chances. I was able to use all of the 3 free drinks from SW airlines on the way down. By the time I hit the airport I am already "in" for about 3 large beers and 3 semi-cold beers on the plane. I arrive at the shoe around 12:15am. I find Oliver and Steve W. who I am staying with and quickly run up to my room to drop off my bag and laptop. I of course head over to the Shoe bar and order another beer. $3 sir! I can remember in the 1980s and early 90s these were .75c. Hell, even the plaza has $1.25 import beers. The shoe is trying to make money off of the bars is a tell tale sign that the end can't be too far away. I later find out that the shoe now has "house vodka"? I was playing BJ at the $10 tables and you honestly can't get Stoli or Absolute. That is crazy. Saving money on the drinks is now how to make $$ at a casino. Most guests would just go play across the street. The GN has everything you would ever want at the $5 tables or .25c slots. Next year I envision drinking beer from the shoe selection of coors light or old English 800 and having a selection of ripple white or red wines! I intended to spend most of my time playing with friends in the 4-8 game and maybe some PL while drinking as much as possible. The 4-8 games are pretty marginal most of the time but the drinks do come fast. Around 5:30 I realize that I am up a whopping $75 and head off to bed. =20 My best advice for anyone attending barge who plans on drinking a lot or even to extreme excess is to drink at least 10 glasses of water before you go to bed. No exceptions. The next advice I give, and I have years of experience of drinking in Nevada, is to get up and first thing go jogging. The wonders of running 4-6m in 100h is like you get a new body every day and can start all over. I get back around 11:30 on Friday morning from my torture run and head down to the tourney. I have no idea how to play Omaha except I think every hand looks good. I am at a table with Steve Landrum who I played with a lot in Ca. from a while back. I end up in a few pots with him, I am sure by mistake. I felt bad about misreading and announcing an Omaha hand and almost getting a low pot that I had no business with. I honestly thought I had the nut low (I did at one point), but didn't on the end. I felt bad about this but I am sure from my poor play that nobody thought I was trying to angle anyone. I did see something during the TOC tournament that you normally don't see at Barge. One barger ridiculing another player about how they played their hand in a non joking manner. I won't mention any names but one of the great things about Barge is everyone is there to have a good time. My main complaint about poker, other than the smoke in Wa. State, is all of the ill mannered people. I have been to 9 years worth of barge events and have only placed 5th one time. I hope I have never complained about others or the dealers ever. Not a big deal just didn't seem to follow the barge spirit. I get a few good 7stud hands. Even a drunk like me knows how to play 444. I lose every HE hand where I tried to push the game a bit much. I was losing so many chips on 3rd bets Omaha hands I felt pressed to make a comeback here. I bust out around 40th or so. I did win a last longer bet for dinner from Oliver though! =20 On Friday night I watch Steve W take 5th in the TOC. That was fun for me to watch. We end up later playing in a 4-8 game until around 3:00 or so. This was actually a pretty good game. For a while they only had one waitress for the entire floor. Tony came over and personally apologized. He called the staff and got 2 more waitresses. That improved the mood quite a bit. After about 10 double drinks Steve went up to bed and I moved over the the 1-2 NL game. I have played NL sparingly but have played it outside of Barge. The game had Kevin Un, Bingo, and Grizz. The game was pretty tame until Gavin showed up around 4:00 or so. I had one hand that I was not sure of at all against Gavin when my AK was unimproved on the flop and he bet $100. I played it safe and threw it away. I was there when the big hand of the night came down. I was thinking there is no way on earth a limit player like myself could lay down the 65 that Bingo did. I would have lost my entire stack there. There probably is a reason that I work as a computer geek I guess. Well played Bingo! The game was very tame after that hand and most pots were pretty small. I end up winning $5, though I can't really remember how. I head to bed around 5:30 (again). I repeat the plan from Friday and get back from running around 12:00. I sit down just in time for my BB. I am right next to Michael Maurer which can't be a good thing. I feel like I should at least try and get more "free" beer than yesterday. I had 6 during the TOC. I keep telling myself this is not a crazy 10-20 or 20-40 game in Seattle. Don't lose all your chips on two high cards early. Of course I see an AJs in middle position. I somehow can't help myself and I raise hoping for a large pot. What am I thinking? The pots gets reraised and I of course sheepishly call, now heads up. I flop nothing but a gutshot broadway and have to fold. There goes 35% of my chips on a hand I have no business even playing. Remember, don't quite the day job. =20 I get moved tables and still get no cards. I end up at a table with QB and Patti and others. I vaguely remember some large bet Patti and I had about the presidential election and whether Microsoft would be broken up. These were all pretty funny for $1m stakes. I think I may have won but there were purely in fun so I laugh internally and order another beer. I was able to give Patti all of my remaining chips when my KJ from the SB doesn't rule here AK from the BB (she of course did quite well with these later on). Well I played poorly for another year. I didn't make my goal of 7 beers, busting out at the 5 mark. =20 The banquet was pretty good. How can you go wrong with 1h of free drinks? I had 3 Long Islands before the banquet. I am probably the only person who had to ask who Howard was? He was what I wanted to be before this damn software job and reality kicked in. Saturday night I watched the tourney and was glad to see Patty play very well and make 2nd. I keep thinking if I wasn't such a total fish I could make that table one day, yeah right! I will certainly lose my chips on AJ or AQ almost every year. For having read every tournament book that Conjelco sells you would think I would improve a little. Maybe I should sell all of these on Ebay? On Sunday I played at the Mirage all day. I cut the beer intake to 10 or so (Over a long day) but increased the losses to $750. After another 2h of sleep I head to the airport. Not being able to sweat out my 12 beers really took its toll on me. I can barely lift my bag into my car as I head home. =20 Overall the only big wins I had were playing craps on the Don't Pass. I played a little at the Mirage $25 table. I love being able to pick up the dice and set them on a seven every roll and yell for a seven. Other players get so mad and even threaten you. Of course when they are doing the same for a hard 8, well that is different. Superstitions die hard I guess. =20 I can't wait for the next Barge. I may try and make it to another ARG event at a casino town. I would hate to pay for all those drinks is a normal casino, just on principle. =20 Thanks to Chuck, Peter, and Nolan. Peter - you showed a lot of class on Saturday night. I didn't know you owned such nice clothes. If you ever come up to Seattle the drinks are on me! Monte ________ Thanks to PokerStars, Paradise Poker, and Quiotix Technologies for their generous sponsorship of BARGE 2003.