From: "David S. Heller" Subject: Re: [BARGE] BARGE trip report Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 17:43:22 -0700 The airplane was fine. The rental car (Dollar) was fine. That special card definitely helped. Got to Binion's and got the s00per secrit rate. Hung around for a while, seeing old friends, and then went to Hugo's for dinner with my CHORSE team. Special moment at Hugo's: Waiter: Drinks? Don Perry: I'll have a Scotch - Johnny Walker Red. Waiter: We don't have the Red. We have the Black and the Blue. Don: I don't like the Black. I want the Red. Waiter: We don't *have* the Red, sir. Don: Alright, then bring me [At the Scotch-tasting later, when I told Tiger this story, he thought it was pretty funny. He explained that the Red is here, the Black is here, and the Blue is here!] Special moment at CHORSE: I sit at Goldie's left playing razz. He is dealt the Ks, the worst possible upcard, so he's the bringin. I am under the gun, I have crap above and below, so I muck. Muck, muck, muck, Oz with an ACE showing mucks, muck, muck. That's right. The freakin' bringing just stole the freakin' antes. The dealer called over the floor. Neither one had ever seen anything like this in all his life. No wonder those guys won the CHORSE - some people just GAVE them their money! Here, take my chips. Please. We beat the over, making $8 net profit for the team. But we had some terrible luck at the end. Just wait 'til next year... Thursday I played in the GN convoluted limit then no limit tournament. Played well. Outlasted most of the field. Didn't make the money. Busted out when my AK lost to an AQ when a Q hit the turn. Rio buffet was good, though I still think the Aladdin's is better. Special moment at the Rio: I overheard that locals could buy in cheap and bring friends, so I immediately grabbed my FRIEND Linda Johnson and she bought me in cheap. I sat with Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher (Jan ate NOTHING) and a good time was had by all. Penn & Teller were pretty good. I thought the most amazing trick was Teller making pennies and then FISH appear and disappear, with his sleeves rolled up no less. [Kim, I'd love to have Penn's e-mail because I wanted to compliment him particularly on his 1st Amendment presentation - I have rarely seen such a fine explanation, complete with bursts of fire] Specials moment at Penn & Teller: Marlin Cohen betting someone $10 he couldn't get into one of the boxes onstage without a guard stopping him, then collecting when the guard came rushing out to stop him, then roshambo-ing Kevin Un for a buck from across the room. Friday I hung around, played some poker (2-4 hold'em - bad players, lucky players, what else is new?). Went to the symposium, where our syndicate r00led the event. Unfortunately, our horses did NOT r00l the tournament. Oh, well, we're 4 for 6 now. I can live with it. Saturday was the tournament. I have Gillian on my left, and I keep raising her blind, though I don't think I netted much from this mis-behavior because sometimes she re-raised and sometimes she didn't. We had a disagreement about the percentages of some hands versus others. After I busted out I went up to my room and ran a few numbers and found out she was right as usual. Sadly, when I returned with this news, she had busted out. But I caught up with her later and, as we lawyers say, confessed error. Special tournament moment: I'm in middle position. Blinds $50 - 100. Patrick Milligan makes the standard table raise ($300). I find red kings, so I re-raise about $500 more. Cohen re-raises by $700. Milligan goes all in. I look at them and think AA and AK or KK, and I muck my kings. Cohen calls and turns up AA. Patrick has the black KKs! The aces hold up and Patrick is gone. I told him later "Patrick, I'm sorry. I mucked all your outs." I used this excellent lay-down on my part to suave my hurt feelings after I busted out. A while later, the blinds were getting to be about 1/3 of my stack. I looked at the clock, which showed they were about to increase. I looked at the button which loomed ominously close. I looked at my hand which was AdJd. I instantly shoved in. About 4 seats away, someone (was it Big Al?) who had me covered, called. Then Goldie called, also all-in. Al has AQ, Goldie has Th9h. Naturally, Goldie takes the pot, triples up, and I'm gone. (Al had me covered, and he won our little side pot). Oh, well. I think I made the right move here. Comments or jeers are welcome. I took Rachel's survey, and had a nice conversation with her, and played with her metal puzzles. I got one apart in about 5 seconds, back together in 30; one apart in about 3 minutes, and back together in about 10; one I never did get apart. Then I went up to my room, dressed for combat, and drove up to Red Rock Canyon. It was really nice up there; breezy, felt like 70 degrees, probably 80 with the dry heat y'know. Came back for the banquet. I had ordered the fish. Sea Bass, right? Those stupid intermediate vector bosons at 4 Queens put SHRIMP on it. Who the bleep puts shrimp on fish??? Anyway, I ate the bread and grumbled. Fossilman gave a great talk. I learned a lot by listening, and he gives me hope - he's a lawyer, too. For those who missed it, his opening line was that he had been planning to give a talk on Japanese patent law, but he realized that most of us didn't care about it and now he didn't either. THAT was freakin' funny. Then I played 2-4 chowaha. It was the quietest, tamest chowaha game I've ever seen. I tried to liven it up by betting and raising and calling with crap, but couldn't get anyone else to participate in the madness. After I'd blown off 4/5 of my rack, I settled down to play *serious* chowaha. When I was back up to +$10 AFTER TOKES, MIND YOU, I quit to give someone else a chance to play, and adjourned upstairs to the Scotch. I don't drink, but I am interested in everything. Tiger is a good teacher and I learned a lot. I also really, truly did taste the peat in the second one he gave me. It just tasted like the first one, but after I added water, the peat was so distinct I blurted, "WOW!" Off to bed around 3 am. Up at 8, got my last free breakfast with Rachel and Dave and Dave and Dave, and off to the airport. Security line was huge, but I got to my gate about 3 minutes before boarding, which means I spent as much time at BARGE as I could have. And a good time was had by all. P.S. I still really would like the CHORSE to be Thursday night. I personally think it is the most fun event, being the right BARGE mix of poker, laughter, trash talking, and socializing. But it's tough to get away from Wednesday to Sunday. That extra day of work would make the event easier to attend.