Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 11:19:34 -0700 (PDT) From: David Aronson Subject: [BARGE] Barge 2004 Trip Report -- Long Dedicated to Mike Zimmers: here it is as promised. Long, for those who couldn't make it this year. Almost no poker content. More golf than poker. Sorry for missing names. Sorry for not proofreading. If someone wants to post it to RGP, that would be cool. If you know some more names where I've missed people or made mistakes, please let me know and I will add them in and re-post for posterity. Wed, July 28, 2004: Travel paragraphs: We've got an 11am flight, so Caryl lets me get in my normal 9 holes of golf at 5:45am. She calls on the 8th hole to tell me that I have to stop and get some turkey for Sam's (our 11 year old) lunch. So we are going to be running late. Then packing takes longer than expected. So Caryl is panicked already. But there is no traffic on the way to O'Hare, so we make it with plenty of time to spare. We breeze through check-in and security and have doughnuts and coffee before getting on our plane which then actually leaves on time. Everything is great until we encounter Alamo/National. There is a line to get on the bus with about 120 people in it. Then three busses come to take us all to the Alamo rental palace. Caryl jumps off the bus to get in line, and there are maybe 20 people in front of us. But there are only 2 people giving out cars. Soon this number actually drops to 0. A few minutes later, though, they've got 4 people working. In just about an hour, we've got a car and head out. We've been planning to go straight to Joker's Wild in Henderson so Caryl could play some 50 cents cheap bastard craps. But when we get in the car she decides to forgo that and pick up some snacks for the room and check in. Wonderful! We are already going to skip a -EV situation. We drive around a bit and find a Super K-Mart on Charleston. We buy some chips and dips. Some bananas. Some pretzels. Some coke. Some diet coke. Then Caryl decides that I need a bathing suit; that she needs two more bathing suits. And that I need a belt. And she needs some exercise equipment for the room. $70.00 later, we're done. No chance we could have lost that much at craps. We then drive over to the Golden Nugget (GN) to check in. It is 2:30. They don't have our room reservation for Saturday night. They want to charge us $120, even though we got the sOOper special $79.00 for Friday. Finally they send us to the 24 Karat Club. But they've never heard of BARGE. Caryl gets the supervisor to come over and she takes care of things and we get the good rate. Unfortunately, some big macher is still in our room and has a 3pm checkout time, so we can't get in. We decide to go to Binion's to get our badges. We walk across the street and into the casino. We haven't posted anything to RGP in years. We haven't even read RGP. There is no more IRC poker. We don't go to marge or sarge or atlarge or margo or fargo or whatever. But we stroll into a break during the VP tournament and there are half a dozen friends that we haven't seen for a year, and its like they are part of our family. We say hi to Peter (Fold'em) Secor, Chuck Weinstock, Steven Markowitz, Andy Bloch -- I don't remember exactly who was there but I do remember thinking that this is why I come to BARGE. I hang around the poker room a while Caryl tries to get our room. She does, and we head up for some exercise. After a good workout, it is time for the non-smoking smoker dinner at the N9NE. We get there early, but so does Chuck and Steve "Crunch" Daniels and his friend Ninette. Ninette is somewhat passionate when it comes to American politics even though she is from Canada. Fortunately the discussion is kept friendly despite the polarity of the positions. Tiger 123 also came and chatted for a while before dinner. Caryl and I sat with David Orr, Crunch and Ninette, Gavin and his Mom and his girlfriend, Andy Bloch, Michael Muarer and Connie Keller and Warren Sander. Warren has a BAAG in his wallet. Actually, he has two -- one that requires a microfiche reader, and the other he lets us make notes from. Ninette orders the tomato salad which is priced around $6.50. It arrives as 4 slices of tomato on a white plate with salad dressing on the side. That's it. Well, Ninette told them where they could put their tomato salad (back in the kitchen). I heard that David Orr won the tourney today so I ask him about the last hand. He says he started with 7/6/4. I look at him a bit odd, and he says "Oh, this was razz. But it does sound like a bad Hold'em dream: I've got the nuts, but I've got 3 hole cards" The rest of the food was better, the talk about the possible looming demise of poker and more is good, Fich and Goldie wander over and chat, Tiger comes over and gives Ninette a brief intro to Scotch, and a good time is had by all. Thanks Goldie for setting it up and dealing with the list headaches. After dinner we seek out our 50 cent craps game and crush it for a win of $1.25. Then its back to the GN. On the way to our room we walk through the poker room. There is an older gentleman in charge, and he says, "I remember you from last year when I worked at Binion's. You are part of BARGE, the nicest group of poker players anywhere". Thur July 29, 2004: More exercise, then try the library for internet access. They've started a signup policy, so we do. Then we decide to use our buffet comps at the GN for breakfast. I get in line and Caryl goes off for BJ. I'm daydreaming in line when someone comes up and says "Hey Dave, how's it going"? It looks like Fold'em, but it isn't. Wait, I know that voice. Gadz, its Bill who I play badminton with in Chicago. What a planet. We have breakfast with Bill and his wife and then its time for the TOC. I play my usual bad poker, raising with a flush into a full house -- not getting extra bets with winning hi Omaha hands, that kind of thing. Chic is going great, and so is Connie K. Sabyl gets moved to our table and takes a few bad beats. When she's almost out of chips, I'm forced to try to take the rest. The cards go my way, and I bust out this year's best ARGE player. Plus I get a neat bustout towel -- thanks Sabyl! After a few more fishy plays, I bust out during the Omaha round. I've got something like As4s9T. A ten flops, but my opponent has a ten also. Then a five turns, and he makes two pair. No low and so long to meeee. But it was fun. After going to the library to check e-mail, we decide to go to the Pokerstars hospitality suite to see what is going on and to get directions to the golf course. We got the directions, some grapes, veggies, a hat or two, and Marc "the Occupant" Gilutin as a passenger to the Rio buffet. Heading back to the GN we also pick up Al "Big Al" Weber as a passenger when I mistake him for Tiger and ask him if he is eating with the group tonight also. On the way over to the Rio buffet we find out what the occupant occupies, and Marc also gives Caryl and I a nice Bicycle Casino visor. I drop off Caryl, Marc and Al and park. Then I head to the buffet. I find where the line ends. About a mile later I find where the line starts. Only 6 bucks to skip this line? Must be the best 6 bucks ever spent! Dinner was good but the conversation was better. We sat with Kevin Un, Big Al, Tony "Karma" Goldstein, David Orr, and ????. Kevin was doing a lot of the talking. At one point I wanted to get some more food, and I asked him to pause until I got back. He says, "You want to hear what I have to say? That's going in my trip report for sure!". Along with dinner, I also got a neat pair of full-tilt sunglasses from Kim. Maybe they will help at the NL tourney. I am continually impressed by this group. First, someone volunteers to put up the $400 reservation fee so that everyone can enjoy the event. Then everyone turns around and puts up their own $6 so that the volunteer isn't out $400. Cool. After dinner we drove Marc and Al back to Binion's. We hung around the poker room a while, then went back to our room for a nap before the craps crawl. Unfortunately, our 11:30 wakeup call failed to wake us up sufficiently, so we missed it. Friday, July 30 Death March Re-defined I grab a couple of breakfast items from the $70.00 grocery box and head over to Binion's to meet the gang at 4:22 am. People eventually make it over, and it looks like everyone got some sleep. We have starting times of 5:14 and 5:21am at the public golf course up the road -- the Las Vegas Golf Course. We split up into three cars and head over to the course. Its dark. Its 5:10 and its dark. We pay. Its 5:20 and its dark. But its light enough to see about 30 locals standing around waiting to play. The March has never taken place early at a public course where we are in effect cutting in front of the people who play there multiple times a week. The schmucks at the pro shop have given us tee times that were open because nobody else wanted to play in the dark. I know about early morning golf, as I play 4 days a week at my public course in Chicago. Speed is the key. I also know BARGE golf. Speed is NOT the key. Drinking. Schmoozing the cart girl. Gambooling. Hitting the ball 20 yards sideways. These are the keys to BARGE golf. The first foursome goes off at 5:30 -- Buckshot, North Shore Mike, Scott Burrington and ... That leaves me, Ken QB, Gerry Peterson and Dave Tahajian to act as a buffer between group 1 and a mob of angry locals. Poker locals can throw cards -- golf locals are much better armed. I figure we're dead by the 5th hole. The first group hits some decent tee shots off of #1, a short par 4, and we follow with a good shot by me and 3 shots that added together don't go 100 yards. We hack our way down the fairway, and sure enough, the first group isn't off the green by the time we are ready to hit up. We wait for them. We wait for them on the second tee. We wait for them in the second fairway. Crap, we are going to wait for them the whole round. While we are waiting for them on the third tee (a short par 3), two foursomes of locals come barreling at us in their golf carts. Fortunately, they veer around us and head off to other holes to enjoy their morning golf. Our lives have been spared. QB hits his famous 98 yard tee shot that goes 130 yards, just misses a car in the left turn lane, heads over to Jack in the Box for a burger, and takes off down the road for Parumph. What the ball wanted to do in Parumph is its own business. The 5th hole is a long 198 yard par 3. We wait for the green to clear and take our usual 20 whacks to all get on the green. We finish putting, only to discover that 4 guys with their own death wish are on the next tee. They have cut right in front of us! I ask them, "What's up?". The guy says, "Don't worry, we hit it 220 yards. As soon as we're out there, you can hit". To which I reply, "What, over your heads?" They don't say anything back, so I assume that means it is ok to fire away. When they are out at their drives, I borrow a Top Flight from Dave T. He suggests a low 2 iron with a hook into their heads. I didn't want to kill them on purpose, so I hit a driver instead. I'm sure they heard it off the tee, but it went so far over them that they probably didn't see it land. Things went smoothly from their until the 14th hole, a short par 5. We are on the tee when a group drives up behind us and asks to play through. I tell them that we have been right behind the guys in front of us the whole round, that they are really slow, and suggest that they skip the hole. They respond with "they are on the green already -- how is that keeping up?". I can't see the group in front of us because there is a hill in the way. I don't want to die, but I don't want to let them go through because I know what is in front of us. So I say something like, "what can I tell you -- we've been waiting all day". And we hit. We finally get down the fairway a few hundred yards, only to find that our fellow BARGEr's have failed to reach the green yet. If it wasn't for gun control laws, the guys behind us would have been in trouble. We finish in a BARGE record of 4 hours and 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the locals expected to play in 3 hours and 15 minutes. Golf summary: Nobody died. Everyone had fun except the locals. Lets go somewhere else next year. Buckshot said he posted an 81, barely edging my 82. Thanks to North Shore Mike for setting up the tee times. Caryl started playing low limit stud online. Chuck/Peter were gracious enough to let her into the stud shoot-out as a late entrant. Thanks! After I took a short rest in the room, I went to see how she was doing. She wasn't doing well. She busted out fairly early, losing with good hands to better hands. But she found Amy, Ploink's girlfriend to chat with, along with ????. So although she lost in the tourney she won in the new friends category. This is good. We did the library/internet e-mail thing. Then we tried to go to the Outback for lunch. We have gift certificates which we brought from home, but they were in our room when I got on the highway and Caryl said, "don't you remember I told you we need to get the gift certificates?". So we end up going to eat at the snack bar at Binion's. On the way there Crunch declines an invitation to join us, but Big Al doesn't. Al had the corned beef, which bore a very slight resemblance the corned beef sandwiches of previous years. After a delightful lunch, Al gave Caryl and introduction to deuces wild VP machines. Thanks Al! Shortly thereafter it was time for the symposium. I've always been a traditionalist and favored individual bidding rather than syndicates. But Caryl wanted to get in, and Sabyl was recruiting, so we joined the Bladders. This also ended up being good because we probably couldn't have afforded anyone with our limited bankroll. Thanks Sabyl! We had fun during the bidding trying to figure out optimal strategies and tracking the amounts bid. Also, the food was good and I can use all the food I can get. Some people may want to do away with this event, but I'm not one of them. As I'm walking around trying to buy 50% back of Caryl from I don't know who, Patti asks me if we'd like to join her for some geocaching that night. Patti is still alive at the stud final two tables, and we arrange to meet around 9:30 pm at the poker room. We went back to the GN to rest up for later. Caryl was saying that she was tired and didn't want to go geocaching. I told her about the whip over/under line. She said she would come. After a short nap we are back at the poker room at 9:25, but Patti has busted already and is nowhere to be found. We hang around a while and watch Peter "taki" Caldes bust someone to get down to a single table. We are just about to leave when Patti comes down and asks if we are ready to go. Perfect! And Fich is going to join us also. We are heading out the back door as we are discussing the seating arrangements due to Keith and I both being rather tall. Keith suggest we fold ourselves into a Mobius and both get into the front seat. Some guy was following us says, "This has got to be BARGE weekend -- when else would you hear the word 'Mobius' in Las Vegas?" The first cache that Patti has picked out from the caching internet site is right next to a bank. We spend 15 minutes trying to find it but we fail. However, no police came, so that was good. The next cache is in a desert wash between two housing projects. The moon is full, its 80 degrees, its a beautiful time to be out for a walk. Fich navigates to the appropriate spot, I lie down and poke my head into some spider webs, and Patti says "its over there". Great. She pulls away some rocks and we find the container. Caryl and I have the nick of "The4OfUs" because we have two kids. Fich comments on how nice it was of Caryl and I to think of Patti and him (and he? he and Patti? him and Patti?) when we made up the nick. We find a third cache further down the wash and then head back to town for karaoke. Thanks Patti and Fich, we had a good time. Peter, I believe, decided to get a group together and head to the Las Vegas Club for some late night karaoke fun. Caryl and I were going to go, so when Patti and Fich said they wanted to go also, it was perfect. We walked in, sat down, and ordered some drinks. I had my usual coke, and Caryl had her usual drink. Attendees: Me, Caryl, Patti, Fich, Fold'em, Nolan, Sweet Tone, Randy, Amy, Claude Carlson?, .etc. We were all wondering how the waitress was going to figure out who owed how much when Nolan said he'd take care of it. Thanks Nolan! We sat, chatted and drank while some people who could sing and some people who couldn't got up on stage. Towards 1:00am the BARGE group was called upon to sing. The people among us who thought they could did Bohemian Rhapsody, and they were good! Claude? wants to sing some country song about Texas that nobody knows, but Patti outshouts him with song that even people who can't sing (like me) could sing, plus our son is playing it at his piano lessons -- Great Balls of Fire. Caryl and I go up for my first-ever karaoke. I have no idea what it sounded like, being on stage and all, but it was a blast. And it closed the place down. Lose a few bucks at Pai Gow and then back to the room for sleep in preparation for NL tomorrow. Saturday, July 31 We ate a quick breakfast at the 4 queens and made it to Binion's just in time for the start of the 10,000 buy-in grand daddy of all BARGE tournaments (ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit), the No Limit Hold-em event. I sit down and take names: 1. Steve BIA Nissman 2. Me 3. Tim Shawalter 4. Mike OZ Ozborn 5. Cliff "Deadhead" Mathews 6. Steve Pierce 7. empty 8. Mad Mary 9. Steve Ididnotgethislastname 10. Empty except for a baggie full of blue chips The tourney starts with a single $25.00 blind, so there doesn't seem to be a need for much action at the start. Things start nicely at the table. Players are chatting, telling stories. Making a $75 raise and getting the pot. I get queens and win the blind. Jacks and win the blind. Gregg Pappas comes late and takes seat 7. He likes to talk, which keeps things lively. The baggie in seat 10 gets company when Chris "Jesus" Ferguson sits down. Cool! My first time to play with a world champion. I remember a few people from IRC -- sagerbot, gfw, sweettone, deadhead, meeee (that was me), davetall, etc., but somehow I've blocked out Jesus. (Note: Poker hands may not be exact. If suits aren't mentioned, they aren't important) A bit later BIA raises, Greg re-raises, and BIA calls. Flop is Q 6 6. Greg says "I bet in case my kicker hits" and throws in some money. BIA calls. Turn is an 8. Same statement and betting. River is a J. Greg bets, BIA calls. Greg has JJ, BIA has QQ. Greg is crippled, and will be out shortly. A while down the road and I've got the $25 blind. All fold to Jesus, who makes it $50. BIA folds, and I announce "I'm calling blind -- this is definitely going in the trip report". Flop is A K 6. I look at my cards and Find K 8. I check, Jesus bets $50, I call. Turn is an 8. I try to trap the world champion by checking again, but he doesn't fall for it and checks also. River is a blank. I bet a few hundred, Jesus folds. I won a hand from a guy with multiple bracelets! I won the hand, but I failed to learn anything from it. After Greg busted, things got pretty quite. I tried to get some talk going by asking about bad beat stories. All I got were a few comments, then everyone went back to playing poker. The most exciting thing that happened was a countdown to when the blinds were going up. I was going to be the small blind next. It got folded around to Steve on my right, and before he could spit out "I Rai", I threw the dealer my cards and he started the shuffle in time for me to pay the lower amount. I tipped the dealer a buck. Two hours into the event and my doom looms when my mind heads south. I've got T1600 and raise 300 with 77. Steve Pierce calls. I put him on Ax. Flop is all hearts, Ah 8h 2h. Steve checks. In a flash I think: oh, maybe he doesn't have an ace. Or maybe he will fold if I bet. Here's a t500 chip I can throw in. No, here's a better idea -- lets throw in both t500 chips, then he'll fold for sure. But of course he's got an ace and doesn't fold and I'm virtually done because I didn't even know how many chips Steve had. Perhaps I should have learned from Jesus how to lose only a few chips when you lose a hand. At least Caryl got knocked out when her good hands (KK) ended up against better hands. Unfortunately for her, it was early in the tourney. Sorry Caryl. Hanging around the tourney area I talked to Greg GFW Wholetz and Bill Turner, both of whom I haven't seen since last year. We watched Ming Lee play some hands in the Binion's tourney. Things weren't going well for him. Then a few guys came by saying they had comps for the GN buffet, and asking if anyone would like to join them. Caryl didn't want to go, but I did, so I did. There were 6 of us: Dave Orr, Grizz, Me, Deadhead, and ???. The people with the comps insisted on pitching in for the people who didn't have comps -- thanks guys! Dave started a conversation of how he felt he didn't have to eat as much at the buffet when it was comped, seeing as how he didn't have to beat the buffet game. After that there was economics talk about markets being able to properly adjust to the smoking/non-smoking issue, and whether smoking was an "externality". It was all quite interesting. Later there was the symposium, which has been discussed in other reports. My table wasn't big on desserts, so I got to eat 3 pieces of pie. Thanks! After dinner we stuck around to watch the roshambo'ing. They couldn't get it started because the had 11 entries, and finding a 12the was proving tough. So it the spirit of BARGE a few of us bought quarters of an entry and staked Andy Latto into the running. That didn't go to well. We went to watch the feature match with Jesus Vs. ???, and by the time it was over so was Andy. We then headed down to watch the final table of the NL. One of our horses almost came in 2nd except Frank Nut-Z Brabec's presto beat Gavin's JJ. So he/we got 3rd instead, almost breaking even in the calcutta. Frank seemed to be giving Gavin a headache, but in the end Gavin found a hand when Frank bluffed all in. End of tourney. Still one more thing to do. Scotch tasting. We were late, but Tiger was his gracious self, settling Caryl and I in at the table and expounding on the creative process of the brew. Then expounding on the tasting process. I tried not to take in more than .5 ml at a time, but it was still too much for me. I was supposed to be able to taste peat, or apples, or the difference between red and blue, but I couldn't. I guess I'll have to stick to coke. But Caryl really enjoyed it. Thanks Tiger! Caryl wanted to play some stud but couldn't get into a game. So instead its back to the GN for sleep. Sunday, Aug 1st -- Getaway day Our plane is at noon. We wake up and pack, and Caryl finds out our plane is at 11. Oops, better hurry. Pack faster. Get the car, get some gas, return the car, jump on the bus. Make it through baggage check in with time to spare. Check the video board and find out that all American flights are delayed two hours due to a computer failure earlier in the morning. Oops. So we take the tram to the terminal and find a place to get some breakfast. We are waiting in line when we hear, "Hello fellow BARGEr's". John Moser, who we had never met before, recognized us. It turns out he is on our flight to Chicago on his way back home. We all sit down to a looong breakfast. After the food we talk about life, love, hopes, dreams, the past and the future. You know, the kind of talk that everyone has with total strangers at the airport when your flight is delayed. BARGE -- you've gotta love it. The flight is fine and we get home nice and late to pick up the kids and get them to bed. Thanks to the organizers, Peter and Chuck. Thanks to anyone who has read this far. A big thank you to Paradise Poker and PokerS tars, both of whom agreed to fully sponsor BARGE 2004. An extra big thank you to everyone who attended this, the previous 13, or any of the future BARGE's. C Ya'z David (and Caryl) Aronson