Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 17:06:34 -0700
From: Michael Hunter
Subject: [BARGE] a short trip to BARGE


First of all thank you to Paradise and Poker Stars for sponsering us.
Many many thank yous to Chuck and Peter for making this happen.  Many
kudos to the floor staff at Binion's who got us.

I've been playing a little more poker lately which includes having
spent a nice week in LV during the World Series.  Unfortunately that
kept me from being able to attend all of BARGE.  I wasn't able to show
up until right before the symposium.  I did manage to get in several
poker sessions in the Bay Area before heading south east but, while
profitable, they just don't make up for having missed the first few
days of BARGE.

Travel, etc. was all straightforward.  I got checked into my swank room
at the El Cortez and booked it over to the 'shoe to say hi to a few
people and wander up to the symposium.  I almost immediately remembered
I'd forgotten to bring cards or chips.  Doh.  After casting about for
an unused deck (yea right) I ran downstairs and bought chips and
cards.  Played a couple of freezeouts with various roolerz and made my
way back downstairs to play some poker.

Somewhere during this timeframe Paul showed up and asked about starting
the PL mixed game.  I started a list and sat in a 1-2 NLHE game with a
few other BARGERs.  During this time I watched Lennies all-in vs. Nolan
and Sharon.  One interesting thing happened in the 1-2 game that I
assume has to do with the Internet capped game craze.  A BARGER (Dan
from SD if I remember correctly) opens for $40 in early position.  He
had on the order of 1K and I covered.  I called with a small pair, he
looked uncomfortable.  Flop didn't include my pair, he bet, I folded.
A conversation ensued where he admitted to not being sure how to play
the big stack (ick, forshadowing for me, see PL HOME game).  Later he
opened for about $200 and I folded trash in late position.  I suspect
for somebody who hasn't played deep that not thinking about how to play
a big pair out of position against a late position caller is typical.
Pricing such that you will only get action from Aces is reducing the
value of your Aces and really making your Kings hurt.

Finally the PL mixed game went.  I wanted to play some O and possible
MS/8.  Paul agreed with the MS, I suggested PL HOME.  After some
chortling over the name, dealing with the floor staff, and some
discussion about why the ordering of HOME was wrong we ended up playing
PL HOME.  From the hand play standpoint most of the play was boring.  I
managed to way overplay a pair of aces out of the blind when Tom
Goodwin opened, nutcase Ernie (same as mentioned in other TRs, more
below) raised, and I potted, Tom thought and called, Ernie folded.
Flop was 988 I bet out, Tom called, and I check raised all in on an
irrelevant turn and got showed what I should have expected.  I managed
to lose about 3x what I should have.  It took me most of the rest of
the trip to dig myself back close to even.  Saddenz.  But the real
story from the PL HOME game was Ernie going off on Bret.  Ernie sat
down next to me and we traded civilities.  As it turns out Ernie has
been involved in a peer startup of sorts (both had been bought by the
same company).  He claimed to have quit to play professional poker.  It
also turns out he was drinking and hadn't been to sleep in 42 hours or
some such.  Up to a point he was mostly a rock although it was clear
most of his experience was in HE (I was kicking myself for not trying
to get Tahoe Pitch n' Roll into the mix).  Then an O hand comes down
when he and Bret get all their money into the center with Ernie having
some made hand like aces up and Bret had a Wrapy Flushy Thing(TM).
Bret's hand is good on the river and Ernie goes berserk.  From their on
out we had to listen to Ernie dominate a running set of threats and
whines aimed at Bret and the world.  We saw manic depressive swings
that went from picking up a chair to almost crying over being a busted
poker player.  Included in all of this were comments about Paul's
wealth.  I don't know about most people but I tend to leave personal
issues like somebodies financies or their mates to another forum.  I
guess Paul is probably use to it, but it was grinding on my nerves.
Ultimately we were getting less then 5 hands in during a down and the
game broke.  One of the slightly less gloomy moments during this period
was Bret talking about being shot and how it just numbed the skin or
some such and Fitch leans over the rail and says "So I guess you didn't
get shot in the Mouth?" Unfortunately that didn't produce enought
levity to keep the game going :(

[NOTE: I'm not doing the above game enough (in)justice.  It was
nightmareish.  The amount of ugliness was spilling over into the other
players.  I've been in games where things got ugly, but this one took
the prize.  Maybe somebody else could write a short story based upon
this ugliness.  It would make an interesting study in human dynamics.
Having said that see my comments on the Bellagio 15-30 the next night.
How can the moon be full in a Casino?]

I woke up a little late for the tournament the next morning (having
played in the PL HOME nightmare until about 0400).  I think I missed
one blind and most of two orbits.  Let me preface my following comments
with the note that I don't play many tournaments so the amount of
torture I felt from this was probably exaggerated.  But I felt like I
was squeezing from the very beginning.  I never found a place to get
value in a large pot until I was too short stacked to really pick up
any chips.  I had Spencer on my right for a long time and doubled
through him about 4 times but always when I was in trouble.  I couldn't
ever resteal from him as either I was too short or he was too short.  I
finally was moved to a table with Perry F. and Mike M. and watched the
hand between them that Mike M. got crippled on and then picked up the
pieces of Mike M's stack.  But alas, a couple from the bubble I was
getting 2.5:1 or so with about 1/3 of my stack in teh big blind with
A9o and called Perry's raise to see AK and go home.  Maybe next year.

Much has been said about the Banquet.  I got the veggie dish and it
seemed reasonable but I'd already been consuming martinis for a while
so I'm probably not much of a judge.  Greg's talk was nice although a
little basic (the stop'n'go play being pretty standard, tilt-free poker
being the basic enabler, etc.).  But still, for such a varied audience
I thought it covered nice ground and was well delivered.

I got back to Binion's a littler slower then most having a nice
conversation with very smart bay area types Mike Mauer and David Orr.
It was time well spent and set us up to start a 1-2 blinglaha game.  I
don't really remember much of this time as about the first thing that
happened was the waitress brought me two martinis and a beer back and
then continued for the rest of the night (although I think I spilled
most of the beers on myself or the table).  I suspect this had to do
with Dan Goldman sitting next to me, tipping her prodiguously, and
keeping up a fine rate of drinking.  I disappeared a few times to try
Scotch (Tiger's desert scotch was something to drink as well as several
of the others) and to run back to my room to pick up the bottle of Glen
Breton I promised the scotch lovers to bring.  Somewhere in all of this
I picked up my only big pot (against Nolan) when I called on the flop
with a number two nut low draw and a dry flush draw and when the flushy
deuce (giving me the nut low) came on the river fired, got called
(oops, guess that play doesn't work in some situations), and scooped
(ok, maybe it does).

That game finally broke and I jumped into a 1-2 NLHE game with the
remants only to get my aces trapped by Lennies queens and go busted.
After that I ended up going to breakfast with Steve Day and others.  At
this point most people go to sleep.  But no, since I don't have an
annual trip to LV to see the Dead for a long strange LV trip I choose
to take a ride down to the OG, get a lap dance, walk to the Sahara,
walk back down LV Blvd to Charleston, walk across to Maryland Parkway,
and then down to Fremon or Ogden and then back to the Cortez.
Somewhere in here I did the only smart thing of the whole morning and
bought a Bannana, some gatorade, and a big bottle of water.  Guess my
body needed some electrolytes, eh?

Waking up sometime later I tried the Mexican/Cuban place mentioned by
Steve Day on the list.  I had a nice meal and proceeded to take a taxi
to the Sahara and the monorail to the MGM.  Walking over the the
Ballagio I said hello to zbignew in an 8-16 and got myself into a
15-30.  Immediately I sense tension.  A drunk fish in the middle is
spouting forth and poking people on both sides with his elbows.  The
guy inbetween the fish and I is whineing about how bad the fish smells
(I offer to change, but too late...) and ultimately the floor removes
the fish.  The fish wants to get into the 10-20 NLHE game so I put my
name on that list (unfortunately 3 others beat me to it).  Fortunately
he isn't in the game long before I get into the game.  I hadn't signed
up before the fish because it didn't look like a very good game.  Most
people had less then 1K and the deepest stack was ~4k.  I sit down and
pull my first silly move and buy in to cover all but the deep stack
before thinking about the deep stack being directly on my left.  But
that turns out to not matter as he is a tight player.  Tight player
ends up being Louis from WPPA and we talk marketing slogans on and off
the whole game.  Fish rotate through the game and go busted.  Annie
Duke comes over to wave a 15k check around she had gotten from a friend
who had sat down, played her chips in some game (unclear why she felt
comfortable doing this), and lost them.  Turns out that the guy to my
right is some TV personality who was on one of the celebrity poker
shows so I end up with Annie hanging over my sholder for a while.  I
was still unclear when she left why 15k merited such attention.  But I
suspect I don't know all of the story.  Eric also draws over Antonio
and his attractive girlfriend.  She gives hugs all around except for
me.  What, some beat up fat old guy in tie die and fatigues doesn't get
one?  Finally the fish goes bust along with another fish and they are
placed by Phil Laak who immediately buys to cover by a large margin.
Moments earlier I'd moved in on one of the fish and managed to send my
drink flying into the middle.  I think the rucus lost me a nice call.
Sigh.  Phil, my faux pas, the loss of two fish, and an involutary yawn
send me home on the next time collection.  Thankfully almost repaired
from being outplayed by Tom.

It was a short BARGE for me and I didn't get to see or spend time with
most of the people I would have liked to.  But then BARGE is usually
fairly manic for me.  I'm not a checklist kind of guy and one in the
maelstorm of the moment don't have much choice but to swim along.

Cheers to all and I hope to see ya next year!