Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2004 02:18:34 -0400
From: Barry Kornspan
Subject: [BARGE] Some BARGE memories...long TR  (part 1 of 2)

Some recollections (my memory just ain't so good anymore):

Wednesday:

Arrive early at McCarren (ding). Go to Thrifty to get car, find choice 
of exactly TWO - a PT Cruiser and a Taurus.  Since I'm trying to 
conserve cash (being unemployed at the moment) and having an additional 
10% discount for the Taurus, I managed to angle someone who was looking 
at the Taurus to take it and get out of there pretty quick.  Their 
prices are the cheapest, but I won't ever use them again as you don't 
know if the car you reserved will be there, or for that matter, if ANY 
cars will be there.

Cruise down to Binions to catch the Wednesday Poker Discussion Group, 
led by Howard Burroughs.  This was a unique pleasure which I really 
enjoyed for its content, and was glad to see a good number of BARGErs 
who had also taken up the opportunity.  It was especially interesting to 
hear from Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher about their WPT travels and some 
details about recent events.  Jan and Linda were extremely gracious in 
making VIP tickets available to the group for the WPT final table at the 
Mirage on Sunday for those who were available, which I was definitely 
going to do.

After going to the poker room, I congratulated Greg Raymer, who I had 
met at a few FARGO's in past years.  He is still the very cordial, fun 
and friendly person that I remembered - he'll be a great spokesman for 
poker.  Of course, I had to get my picture with him to match the photo I 
have with Jesus...and when Bruce "bigboy" Kramer asked to wear the WSOP 
bracelet and Greg kindly agreed, I got the same picture as well.  Greg, 
thanks again - I look forward to seeing you at FARGO!!!

After checking in at the GN where I was sharing a room with Steve 
"aces4me" Johnson, I headed back to the Horseshoe to see what was 
happening.  It was still somewhat quiet from a BARGE perspective, but 
had some fun in a 4-8 O8 game with Russ Fox and others.  After grabbing 
some dinner, I ended up back at the Shoe just standing around while 
CHORSE was forming.  As usual, some teams end up missing a player or 
two.  So, what happens?  I'm propositioned (don't take that the wrong 
way) by the Coney Island Whitefish to join their team, as Russ Rosenblum 
seems not to have shown up (as a matter of fact, I don't remember seeing 
Russ all weekend and hope everything's OK).  I happily accept their 
offer, even with the history of playing in CHORSE twice and busting both 
times.  Somehow, I don't think that will happen this year...and I was 
right.  It was great playing CP for the team, and as Betty told me, 
"once a Whitefish, always a Whitefish".  I'm looking forward to next 
year - how bad can a team be with two Barry's on it??  At this point, I 
just crashed.

Thursday

TOC time...and it was fairly uneventful.  My first table wasn't exactly 
the easiest, but then again, what BARGE table is?  Tiger123, Jerrod and 
Buckshot were all to my left.  I manage to bust myself 3 hrs in with a 
bad call in the O8 round, and I'm done.  After busting on the bubble 
last year in this event, I was really hoping to do better.  Oh well, 
there's always next year.  After this fiasco, I decide to move down to 
the Bellagio to check out the ring game action there, taking Tina 
"dilligaf" Gonzalez with me.  After having an extremely enjoyable dinner 
with Tina at the Pink Taco at the Hard Rock, we arrive to find Steve 
"ifsatg" Carbonara and his lovely girlfriend Heather playing 4-8.  Steve 
is in the game for 3 racks at the time, but says it's pretty good 
anyway.  Tina and I both get seats in other games, and eventually get 
transferred to this game.  After we both get moved,  the game gets 
interesting.  There's no shortage of action in this game, with a  couple 
of fish including a Vietnamese local and a woman who I later found out 
was named Lupe (for more info on Lupe, see Linda Geenen's poker blog at 
www.pokerworks.com and the July 28th entry).  Lupe was well dressed with 
a plunging neckline which showed off her large assets including the $700 
she brought to the table.  She played almost every hand, betting bottom 
pair like it was a set.  Once we caught her act, it didn't take long.  
Over the next 5 hours, the four of us managed to take over $900 profit 
out of a 4-8 game, getting Steve ahead by 4 racks,  busting (a-hem) Lupe 
and putting a dent into some of the other fish.  It was a really fun 
time!!  During this time, I also met Linda Geenen of pokerworks.com (if 
you haven't read it, do so - she's a dealer at the Bellagio and tells 
about her daily experiences there.  A class act - I wish we had more 
like her in AC).  After Lupe left, so did we shortly thereafter...

Friday

This was a free day for me, since I don't play Stud.  I started with the 
GN am tournament which I won't play in again - due to the structure and 
the dealers who are probably amoung the worst I've ever seen.  After 
this, it was back to Binions for their afternoon tournament which I get 
to 17th, paying 10.  After our traditional Friday night dinner at 
Makino's (all u can eat sushi, mentioned by Randy in his TR), I move 
back to the Shoe and decide to play in the $125 ($25 more gets you bonus 
chips, with a $50 rebuy = $200) NL tournament.  This was a good 
decision.  After getting to 11 handed (paying 10, good move by the Shoe 
to eliminate hand for hand playing) by sucking out on another BARGEr 
with ATs vs. KK (A on river), I get reseated to Ploink's left, who has a 
mound of chips.  There are 5 or 6 BARGErs at the final table, including 
Ploink, John "panfried" Fleming and George Wattman (a former New 
Jerseyan, now living in that hot bed of poker, Cleveland).  Right off 
the bat, Ploink asks if no one has an objection to taking $100 off the 
top for 11th.  A obnoxious local objects, which of course, has us 
gunning to take him out.  I don't remember too many hands, but I do 
remember two.  First, playing 5 handed, Ploink (who still has a large 
amount of chips) raises all in from the cutoff.  I look down and find 
QQ.  Remembering that I've done stupid things with QQ in past BARGEs in 
NL tournaments, I choose to not to pussy out this time and call all-in.  
Ploink shows 54o (I think, might have been sooted), and I double through 
and become the chip leader.  I manage to get the rest of Ploink's chips 
shortly thereafter on a hand I don't remember.  Chris and I were 
definitely gunning for the local, but just couldn't put him away.  Down 
to four handed, I've got everyone covered and come over the top of the 
local from the BB with Presto after he makes a standard raise.  Of 
course, I brainfarted since he called me with TT and takes about 75% of 
my stack.  I need to watch a bit more big stack play before trying to be 
the bully again...  Bottom line, I end up finishing 3rd for a nice 1K 
payday anyway and hoping that John can put the local away.  Alas, it was 
not to be.

Saturday

BARGE NL...the Cadillac of Poker.  Coming to my first table, I find Russ 
Fox and Scotty Byron (both of whom I'm happy to see).  Then, Russ 
informs the table that one of the missing seats is Erik Seidel.  This 
should be fun.  It was very interesting chatting with Erik, especially 
about Full Tilt (which I had also talked to Andy B. about earlier).  
He's a quiet, intense personality which I really admire.   After getting 
moved to another table with nothing really eventful happening, I end up 
in the 1s with Erik in the 2s.  However, Jerrod happens to be on my 
right in the 10s.  When Jerrod made a standard raise from the button and 
I woke up with KK in the SB, Erik got out of the way for Jerrod with his 
AQ to hit the Q on the flop and the A on the river.  IGHN.  I had really 
hoped to go deeper this year, but the pocker gods just did not smile on 
me this time.

After grabbing something to eat besides the candy in the machines near 
the door, I head back down to the Bellagio for a few hours to play the 
8-16 there.  The highest I've ever played before this was the Pink Game 
(7.50 - 15) in AC or the 5-10 kill game at Foxwoods, so this was going 
to be interesting.  Needless to say, it was a profitable few hours with 
some of the most riduculous play I've ever seen.  And yes, I managed to 
win 2.5 racks in the game.  LenG managed to get into the game as well, 
and also did well.  There was a player in the 10s who we dubbed "action 
boy", as he 3-bet from the SB with J2o and managed to flop the J and 
turn the 2.  The rest of the table was fairly passive and somewhat 
loose.  One memorable hand (or non-hand as it turned out) was me picking 
up 88 UTG, limping, getting 3 other limpers, action boy raising from the 
SB, BB calls.  Everyone else calls EXCEPT for the last limper in the 
cutoff, who managed not to get his very probable call in before the 
dealer burned and put out a very nice 872 rainbow.  One of the other 
players caught it, and you know the rest of the story.  The flop comes 
back, and I flick what was top set after the new flop exposing one 8 
while doing so.  I took a bit of a walk after that one, but calmed down 
and left a bit thereafter for the banquet with a nice profit.

As many others have commented on the banquet, I'll join them in saying 
that Greg did a great job as our speaker.  It was really interesting to 
hear Greg describe the "stop and go play", which I figured out on my own 
in last year's TOC against Gavin when he had a big stack and KJ against 
my half his size stack and AK and all the money goes in preflop versus a 
stop and go.  J on river does me in.  Greg, if you just would have won 
the WSOP 2 years earlier I might have gotten to that TOC final table 
last year.... :-)

After the banquet, I wait for a seat in the 1-2 PLO/PLH $200 max buyin 
with the intention of having fun (1) and winning money (2).  I manage to 
accomplish the first, but not the second.  I spent a very enjoyable 5 
hours with North Shore Mike, Mike "oz" Osbourne, Don Perry, Len G, 
Murray, Dave Orr, Chaz Haynes, Fich and Chic (for a short time, until 
Chaz took $400 from him early on).  My digital camera became a source of 
fun, using it as the BARGE hole card cam.  Think about it - what a 
r00ling angle to take photos of various hole cards, and then show the 
one you want to your opponent after the hand....I took an AVI of Don 
Perry trying to throw white chips into a bucket, which I'll post a link 
to shortly along with some other photos of some other folks.  It was a 
fun time, well worth the $200...  As others have mentioned, Saturday was 
extremely quiet compared to past BARGEs.  No real chip castles, and just 
the noise coming from the PL Binglaha game as far as I could tell.   As 
others have said, everybody's still having fun - just a different kind 
of fun.

Sunday

I started Sunday by going to the Star Trek Experience at the LV Hilton 
with Steve Johnson and Ross Poppel...having seen the original one, I was 
interested to see the new "Borg Invasion".  Bottom line: for $30, you 
get to see both attractions.  The Klingon Encounter is OK, with the 
transporter effect being very interesting followed by the motion 
simulator.  However, the line was very long so we moved right to the 
Borg Invasion.  After waiting a riduculous amount of time, we entered 
the attraction which was a decent 4D experience, much like "A Bug's 
Life" or "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" in Disneyworld.  If you're a 
Trekkie, it's interesting to do once...but don't bother otherwise.

WPT info to follow tomorrow -

Barry "Mr. Raise" Kornspan


Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2004 13:54:12 -0400
From: Barry Kornspan
Subject: [BARGE] Some BARGE memories (2 of 2)

When last I left you, I was heading off to the WPT final table taping at 
the Mirage...

I thought you might like to know a bit about how the WPT final tables 
work, and my experience.

First of all, my sincere thanks to Linda and Jan for making this 
possible for those of us who attended.  We met Jan at 3pm at the Events 
Center where the final table was being held.  There were a number of 
BARGErs there, including Linda "llew" Lewis, Steve "aces4me" Johnson, 
Steve Evans, Paul and Tim Stine and Sheri and Frank "nut-z" Brabec.

First of all, it was a good final table: Scotty Nguyen, John Juanda, Lee 
Watkinson, Eli Elezra, "Minneapolis Jim" Meehan and Gabe "Welcome Back" 
Kotter.

The advantage to VIP seating is that you get to go in and pick your seat 
before anyone other than the player's guests come in.  I sat in the 4th 
row, behind JJ and Gabe who were in the 3 and 4 seats.  We're about 50 
feet from the table, with a LARGE plasma monitor in front of you which 
shows the TV shot. If I wanted even more TV time, I'd sit one more row 
down after seeing the camera angles.  The set seats about 200.  Drinks 
were free, and there was waitress service during the event.

About an hour before we went in (3pm for a 4:00pm start), I saw Scotty 
N. and his wife and entourage just walking around the Mirage, appearing 
to be as cool as a cucumber.  Scotty had a fairly large chip lead 
(double the 2nd place player, 40% of chips in play)  going in, and was 
just enjoying it.

Before play actually started, they filmed crowd shots of each side which 
included cheering, suckouts and amazement.  They could be used at any 
time in post production.  Around 4:30pm, the players were introduced and 
we also saw Jack "shuffle up and deal" McClelland who was trading off 
with Linda for announcing duties.

Mike Sexton and VVP were about 50 feet from the players on their own 
little set.  We couldn't hear a word they were saying.  There was almost 
no interaction between the players and Mike/VVP except for one exchange 
with Gabe while play was not going on.

Levels were 1 hour, and then 30 minutes when it got to headsup.  There 
was a 10 minute break were after every level, and when they needed to 
change tapes (2-3 minutes).

While play was going on, Shauna is up behind one of the seating areas 
recording all the promos that appear during the show.  After each player 
busts, she records a brief spot with them.  And yes, guys...she is as 
attractive in person as she is on TV and looks even younger.  I'm pretty 
sure that her husband, Jimmy Van Patten (VVP's brother), was also in the 
audience.

One of the best parts was during each break when Linda comes to each 
side of the set and asks WPT trivia questions (what event did so and so 
win, what event did so and so make the final table, what event was the 
money brought in by Indians).  I was lucky enough to win one when she 
asked what event Noli Francisco won (Borgata Open).  It's a great 
t-shirt with a air-brushed WPT logo on it...thanks, Linda!

Early play included a lot of limping, which I was surprised at.  Later 
on, it became raise (or re-raise), take it.  Confrontations were a lot 
of coin flips, with some domination situations (AQ vs AK).  Scotty made 
two bad calls of all-in moves that pretty much sealed his fate.  Gabe 
Kaplan was a real chip mover and played a lot of hands.

They encourage you to cheer and react to the player's actions while play 
is going on...but ask you to be quiet when a player is making a 
decision.  This wasn't always honored, but was generally done.  There 
was a lot of competition between the rooters for each of the players, 
especially Eli, Scotty, Lee and Gabe.  There were some signs for Gabe 
which the cameras liked and also some annoying people cheering for Eli 
who just wouldn't quit.

I couldn't stay for the heads up play because of my flight, but did see 
the money brought out (1.1 million for 1st).  It was 2-1 in chips when 
it got to heads up, and was generally thought that it would be over 
quick.  It wasn't - it took another hour to complete play.  Llew was 
nice enough to call me to tell me who won....

I'm looking forward to being on TV, but that won't be until next March 
as the Mirage event will be (I think) the first episode in Season 3.  
And if you ever get the opportunity to go to a WPT event, do it - you 
won't be disappointed!

After making the long walk back to my car, I got to the airport for my 
flight home (redeye).  I was flying First Class, as I was using miles 
and couldn't get a coach seat (not that I wanted one).  Tina Gonzalez 
was on the same flight, but as she put it, "back in steerage".  It was a 
quick flight home, saying goodbye to Tina after getting off the plane, 
and on to some much needed sleep.

On to FARGO in October - hope to see you there!!!

Barry "Mr. Raise" Kornspan