Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 16:20:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Ken Kubey Subject: [BARGE] QB's 2004 BARGE trip report The story of my ninth BARGE. "...where everybody knows your name." Tuesday, July 27th. --------------------- Find a penny on the ground at the San Jose airport. Money-wise, the high point of the trip. Fly in. Cab to Binion's around 11:00 p.m. I have no room for Tuesday night, so I check my bags and get ready to play poker all night. Life is good. Stevan Goldman hands me a 2004 Silver Eagle. Goldie and I are both coin collectors and had discussed the coin before BARGE. Thanks Goldie. It will have a place of honor in my growing collection of BARGE memorabilia. I get into a 4-8 game. I think it was HOSE. Hold'em was involved. Across the table, I see WORLD CHAMPION Greg "Fossilman" Raymer. I've met Greg a couple of times and know him well from the good ol' days on rec.gambling.poker. I've been telling friends that I know Greg, but I wasn't absolutely sure that he knew *me*. I walked over to him with my hand over my badge. He said "Hi Ken." Yay! He does remember me. Goldie took a picture of us. So, I'm now confident that I can say that the guy who won the 2004 WSOP is a friend of mine. How cool. I get dealt QQ and raise. WORLD CHAMPION Greg "Fossilman" Raymer calls the raise. all others fold. The flop is K-J-X. I bet. I expect Greg to raise or fold. Instead he calls. What?? The turn is some small card. I hesitate for a second and bet $8. Greg folds. I thought I heard him say that he was folding queens. I show. I think he actually had AQ, but no matter. I beat WORLD CHAMPION Greg "Fossilman" Raymer in a hand of Texas hold'em. In the $1500 event at the WSOP this year, I beat WORLD CHAMPION Johnny Chan in a hand of no-limit hold'em. I'm doing well against world champions this year. Foreshadowing. In a different 4-8 game, I flop a set of 7's against a calling station. He bets, I call and plan to raise the turn. Turn is the 4th 7. He checks and calls me down with top pair, no kicker. He calls my hand "28 the hard way." Later, someone asks about Chowaha. I start to describe the game and say "It's kinda like hold'em." Fich is standing near us and says something like "Saying Chowaha is like hold'em is about the same as saying that Tylenol is like heroine." Still later, I'm in a game with the famous Israeli woman. She is a real hot-head. She's kinda attractive. There's a guy in the game that is her boyfriend or doormat or something. Anyway, she's up to about $250 after raising on the turn with a straight draw and hitting it on the river. Then this hand comes up... Flop K-Q-7. There's a bet or two. Israeli lady is in. Turn Q. Nice old guy who is a tight-ass caps the betting. I've got him on KQ or KK. River K. He checks. Israeli lady bets. He calls. She turns up QJ for Q's full. He turns up KQ for K's full. Yes, he checked and called with the pure nuts. Israeli lady goes ballistic about the bad beat she has just taken. Yes, she was drawing completely dead on the turn. Three different people at the table tried to explain to her that she did not get rivered. She never understood. She complained about that hand for an hour. She ended up broke. I didn't not envy the guy she left with. Wednesday, July 28th. --------------------- Pretty much all of the games break around 5:00 a.m. I wander over to the Golden Nugget and decide to play some video poker. The only other guy playing hits a Royal for $2000 or so. I drop about $80 playing 5 quarters at a time. Forget this, lets go play craps. There are 5 or 6 people playing. There are some bad rolls and everyone leaves. Ah hell, I'll shoot. I'm down $30 or so and I tell the crew that I'm just trying to get even. I make 3 passes. I count up my chips. $107. I'm up $7. Well, I've got some extra chips to play with now. I hit a $1 parlay hard 10 for $56 and moments later, I leave the table up $100. Yay. The pit boss. Offers me a comp. I wander back to Binion's and get into another game. Dean Waters gets in the game. He's just driven in from Texas. Amazingly, he looks wide awake. The game gets short, so we quit it and go have breakfast at the GN buffet. Except for some cottage cheese that could have been used as building material, everything was good. We both plan to check in around 11:00 a.m. I plan to sleep from 11 to 2:30. Dean follows through. I keep playing poker. I finally check in around 2:00, grab a shower, and come back down for the Video Poker Slot tournament. I miss my one 1-card draw to a royal. Oh well. Talked a bit with Harkness and Sharon. New plan is to sleep from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. to he ready for CHORSE. This plan also fails. I think poker and drinking were involved :-) Team CHORSE. I'm playing Omaha-8 for Team Moosecock. How did I get on the Canadian team? I know someone that lives in Canada. Pretty tough acceptance requirements, eh? I'm also playing in a live Omaha-8 game. My first hand, I get AA2Xs an raise and win half of a big pot. Net $32. I fold the rest of my hands before the blinds. I miss the blind. Action Bob joins the game. I watch a bit of the insanity. Board is A-5-K-4-Q with 3 clubs. Pot is $200+. Bob wins the high with Q4xy. Other guy wins the low with 76xy. Some guy folded K5 at the river for $8. I also witnessed Steve Day winning a $400 pot with top set (two straights possible). Steve proceeded to split the pot with the dealer (Jordan). I found Jordan later. He said that he was tipped more than $400 in 30 minutes. Wow. Back at CHORSE, we do fine through the first two rounds, but then disasters strike at both tables. Asya gets a a set beaten in hold'em. Ron has a winning boat rivered for 1/2 of a huge pot in Pineapple. North Shore gets beaten by Un's rolled down aces in stud. Kevin took a digital photo of his hole cards before showing. It would have been more funny if my team wasn't on the losing end. When I get to play the final round, I had all of my team's chips. 21 (value $10.50). And it's my big blind. I look at 2 cards. 42. Flop is 6-4-2. Lady in seat one can't beat 2 pair, but she has some bad low. I turn up an ace. Scoop! I fold the small blind hand to a raise. I'm left with 32 (value $16). I'm looking for a hand to shove in with, but I'm dealt horrible cards the rest of the way. So we ended up getting back $3 each on our $80 investment. At least we can say that we beat the 3 teams that went completely broke. It's 2:00 a.m. I've been up for 39 hours. I'm hungry. Where to get a nice nutritious meal? McDonald's inside the Plaza. Fine collection of the dregs of humanity over there. Two double cheeseburgers, dollar fries, sleep. Thursday, July 29th. --------------------- Have a sandwich at the snack bar with Patti. We miss the deli. Time for the TOC tournament. Barry was playing well (yawn) and kept taking the best hand to the river and then improving. The critical hand I remember... folded to me. I have K9o and raise from the small blind. Barry calls in the big blind. I say "Hit me." Flop is Q-9-X. I bet quickly. Barry raises. I don't think he has much. I call. Turn is a 10. I check. I'm planning to call this down. He checks. River is a J. Ooh, I made a straight. I decide to go for a check-raise. I check, Barry bets. There was something I didn't like about how he bet it. My read was that he had a K too. and perhaps he had AK. I called. Barry showed K8. My read was right. The only little fly in the ointment here was that Barry had raised on the flop with a flush draw and had rivered both a straight and a flush. Ouch. Barry busted about 4 guys in the next stud round. Adam got my last chips in the Omaha round. I watched a bit more of the tournament. Rich Strauss busted out. He wanted to try the Mexican place that had been recommended on the BARGE list. I has a big sign that says "Tamales". The food was very, very good. It was my most expensive meal at BARGE. It was about $8. Back down to Binion's. I think it's around here that I lose a big pot to Ming. I raised UTG. Ming had the BB and made it 3. I made it 4 bets. The flop was Q-9-X. I talked with Ming later and he claims that I raised him on the flop. It's possible. Anyway, he calls me down with AK and wins the pot. I left the game in a little huff. I hate getting outplayed. How did he know that I had absolutely nothing? Note to all of you... next time I make it 4 bets, I will have AA or KK. I get into a 3-6 HOSE game chock full of BARGErs. My first hand, I'm dealt AK and raise. Bunch of callers. Flop is K-5-2, rainbow. Nice. MadMary bets, I raise, Gillian three-bets in from early position. Mary calls. I want to fold right here. The pot is huge and my $3 call closes the action. I call. Turn King. Gillian checks. Mary bets. I still don't like it, but I call. Gillian check-raises again. We call. River is a small card. Gillian bets. We call. Do you know Gillian's hand? Of course you do. Presto! (55). Mary shows a K9s. I show my AK. I order a rum and coke with a bunch of cherries. Waitress brings a drink with 2 cherries. I complain that 2 is not a bunch. She says "You have to be more specific." Next time, I ordered a drink with "5 or more cherries." More laughter. The drink came with exactly 5 cherries. Yay. Gillian wins some other hand. This time with a bad hand. A seat opens up two to the left of Gillian. I decide that I want to have better position, so I move to that seat while saying "I need to get position on the crazy lady." From that point on, Gillian is called "the crazy lady" several times by different people at the table. I felt a little bad for starting that. I saw Gillian later. She was playing video poker and she didn't seem to be mad at me. She told me later that she hit a royal. If I hadn't stopped to talk to her, she probably doesn't hit it. Craps crawl. I drop about $30 at Binion's. Someone (Ploink?) makes a 18-way hardway bet. Basically betting $1 for everyone at the table. I believe Peter also made a 20-way hardway bet. Next we crawl to the El Cortez. I can't get on the table. Bingo wants to play 3 card poker. We share action. We start off losing. Perry Freidman teaches us how to squeeze the cards properly. Our luck turns around with Perry playing. We book a win of $13. Only then do we realize that the rest of the group is gone. The 3 of us and two of Perry's friends from Full Tilt head over to Main Street. Bingo and I can't shoot the dice for beans. He wanders off to play blackjack. I get the dice 4 times and can't make one pass. A lady down at the other end wearing a "Bebe" top gets on a roll. Charles, Murray, Marlin, Frank, Peter, Perry and some other folks show up. Charles is switching from Don't to Pass and is winning everything. I offer him $1 to stay on Pass. We goes for it and tips the $1 to the dealers. We are hoping for a 4. The shooter rolls a 10. I comment that that is an upside down 4 (look at a pair of dice if you don't believe me.) Murray or Marlin says that in Australia, that would be a 4. The next roll is a hard 10. Someone (it may have been me) says "That's an Australian hard 4." Much laughter. Several wallbangers later, it's 4:30 a.m. I have a 5:14 a.m. tee time. I cash out up $1. I run (quickly) back to Binion's looking for the golf guys. I find them in the valet area just as they were about to leave. I run up to my room, get my golf stuff and run back to the car. Action Bob has bailed on golf, so I get to use his clubs and save $35 on club rental. Ding. One of the few dings of the trip. Friday, July 30th -------------------- Death March. Barge golf outing. It's pitch dark as we leave at about 4:45. By 5:14, it is just barely light enough to play. My foursome is David Aronson, David Trinidad, Gerald Peterson and moi. One of the early holes is a 99 yard par 3. You have to hit over water. I don't want to hit it into the water so I swing a little hard. My ball hits about 30 yards behind the green on a street and bounces toward a gas station. Nice shot QB. I hit a few nice pitches and several good putts, but otherwise played a terrible round of golf. I had plenty of excuses, but I pretty much just suck at golf. Big thanks to North Shore Mike for organizing the event. We get back around 11. I have breakfast with Action Bob and Buckshot. I had been up for another 25 hours straight. I actually stuck to my plan to get a few hours of sleep before the calcutta. Rich, Jeff Seigal and I had our usual Wagon Wheel syndicate this year. JR joined us. We lost money. At one point, Stephen Johnson was being auctioned off. Someone said "Who is Stephen Johnson?" The guy across the table says "I'm Stephen Johnson." I say "No you aren't, you're Dave Roemer." I was wrong. Later, I was in a game with both Stephen and Dave. They agreed that I wasn't completely insane. Next year, I want to get a picture of them together. Maybe throw in Adam Bacharach too. Time for more poker. A BARGE player folds on the flop in a small Omaha-8 pot. Pot is heads-up. Turns out that he would have won 1/4 of the pot after the river. He says "If I had known that I'd get a 1/4, I would have called." Brilliant. A guy named Modesto is dealing. He asks me for a clean napkin next to my drink. I hand it to him. He wipes a bunch of sweat from his forehead. I say to him "You can keep it." There's some laughter. We were discussing adding more turns and rivers to Chowaha. Mark G. pipes up and says "You should call that "Apocalypse-now-aha." I ate some food. McDonald's was probably involved. I think I actually got to bed around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, July 31st. -------------------- Have breakfast with Dean and Tiger. Tiger now believes that it is good luck to have breakfast with me. Time for the BARGE no-limit event. My starting table features Michelle Lancaster and Kimberly Friedman who are both cleaning up. Perry (Kim's husband) is also at the table and is dealt pocket queens about every third hand. I clash with Perry 3 or 4 times. I think Perry thought that he could push me around. I just needed to get one decent hand to double through him. I get QQ and raise. It happens to be Perry's BB. Perry says "Watch out Kubey, I might have pocket queens here." He calls of course. Pot is 575 or so. The flop is J-9-7, rainbow. Perry had called a raise earlier with T9, so T8, J9, etc. were not out of the question. He checks. I bet 500. He check-raises me all in. I'm pretty much committed. I call. He turns over Ac9c. Only one club on the flop. I'm way ahead. Turn 9. I'm way behind. Someone says that I have outs. River X. I'm out. I shake Perry's hand and give him a copy of my book. At least he used my chips well. Rich, Bob Herlien and I have lunch in the coffee shop. Rich and I go back to watch our horses get rivered. AK vs. 77. Board K-8-4-5-6. K5 vs. KsTs. Board 5-Xs-Y-Zs-8s. Etc. I got Penn (of Penn and Teller) to sign an autograph for Sandi. I said "My name is Ken." He said "I'm Penn." Like I didn't know that! Big Six Wheel. Win $1. Woo hoo. Monopoly Slots. I like to play Monopoly slots. I usually play 9 lines for 5c. This one machine really got me on tilt. I put a $100 bill in. Started playing 5 coins per line. $2.25 per spin. I just want to get into the bonus game once. I swear these machines can sense when you have lost control. Blow through that $100. Put in one more $20 bill. Finally get into the bonus game and win back $100 of the $120. Thank goodness. Banquet. Sit with David Heldar, Rich, Bob, Martin, Martin's dad and some other folks. Dinner is okay. Dessert is wonderful. I was going to have two bites. Finished the whole thing. I got a little misty during the moment of silence for Andy Glazer. Presentations were nice. Patrick was nice enough to recognize me for my work on the 2000 chip set. Greg Raymer's talk was quite good. I liked the fact that he took questions during the talk. Did miss Bill Chen. I swear to you all that my favorite moment of BARGE is the standing ovation for Chuck Weinstock. I was also glad that Llew helped us all remember to give Peter a standing-O too. Dave Orr pays $5 to make my trip report. Last year I lost $5 to Dave betting on the urinal valve brand at the 'shoe. Got the whole 5 bucks back this year betting on valve brand at the the 4 Queens. Sloan. I swear Dave looks about 8 years younger with his new hair style. Back down to the final table... See Stephen Landrums nice fish castles. He comments that he's going to do one with chips also so that it will be "fish and chips". heh. The highlight hand of the tournament had to be Nut-Z's Presto! (55) against Gavin's JJ. Flop 4-3-2. Turn X. "Crowd yelling ace... ace." River ACE. And the crowd goes wild. I went to the scotch tasting. While Tiger was talking, you could hear a pin drop. I learned a lot. I stuck around for at least half an hour, but had to go back downstairs when I heard that Nut-Z had pulled even Gavin. Gavin dominated the tournament after he put a beat on Mike Maurer with AJ vs. AK. Gavin was too tough and took down the crown. I shook his hand. He's a worthy champion. There's a seat open in the 10-20 HORSE game. I get talked into playing. This table is a nightmare. I drop $100 in about 4 seconds. Move to the must drink 4-8 HORSE game. Much better. The lady running the lists called the game "High HORSE". Clever. She also was calling Binglaha the "Bing Bing game." Funny. I'm doing okay in this game and then get on an anti-rush. I have Cheezer the Mouse with me at the table. He's sitting next to my drink glass and he gets a little damp with water. Sabyl and I laugh after I tell her that he has wet himself. Sabyl uses Cheezer to steal some chips from her neighbor's stack. It was funny. Jerrod loses $10 to me rolling a die. I brilliantly lose the $10 right back to him playing roshambo. I also lost money to Peter playing craps at the poker table. Move to the 2-4 Chowaha game. Sweettone is in the game. She's wearing a hat made out of the plastic fish. She's a hoot. I think someone got a picture of her with Cheezer on her shoulder. I win 4 of the first 5 hands. This game is cool. For the next couple of hours, I go cold. End up losing $150, a pen and 3 dice during the night. Foldem is at the table and makes some joke at the dealer's expense that is so funny that the dealer actually tokes Peter $1. Sorry I don't have the joke in my notes. Remember, my pen was stolen. The game finally dies around 5:00 a.m. I'm starving. I talk Shari into having breakfast. We are joined by some guys from the other BARGE game. I listen intently as MPH and Steve Day discuss some interesting big bet hands. Sunday, August 4th ------------------ I look for a $5 blackjack table that pays 3-2 on blackjack. Horseshoe? Nope. Nugget? Nope. Finally find one at the Las Vegas Club. First hand? Blackjack. The dealer is pitching the cards too high. I see that I have a 20 before I pick up my cards. Of course he hits into a 21. I hate blackjack. North Shore Mike and I go shopping. We wander through several stores buying stuff for the folks back home. He tells me about his R00Ling session on 3-card poker. We get into a 4-8 game along with Murray. All of my $100 bills are packed away in my bags. I only have $130 on me and nearly lose all of that before finally winning a hand or two. Share a cab with Bruce, Lennie, Teresa and Sarah (JZK/Kim's au pair) to the airport. and yes, I had to look up the spelling of "au pair" Bruce beats Lennie in a NL freezeout. We then play Chinese poker for the entire flight. We start at $1 a point and then go to $5 a point. After an hour or so, we are about to land. Lennie is up $5. I'm down $5. Bruce is even (duh). Lennie asks if I want to turn that $5 loss into a $100 loss offering to play Roshambo. Sure, I'll play. Little did I know that Lennie Augustine is the 2004 WORLD CHAMPION of Roshambo! We both go scissors. We both go rock. We both go scissors. Lennie says "I like you moves." Bruce and I laugh. I figure that Lennie will think that paper is my obvious play here and therefore, knowing that I'm too smart to make the obvious play, that I will go scissors or rock again. Ha! That means that Lennie will go rock and that I should make the obvious play and go paper. I go paper. Lennie goes rock. I beat WORLD CHAMPION Lennie Augustine at Roshambo. Woo hoo! craps: won big 6 wheel: won blackjack: won 3-card poker won live poker: lost bad (but beat the world champion) slots: lost tournies: lost roshambo: lost (but beat the world champion) I had a terrific time at BARGE 2004. It's amazing that you can look forward to something all year long and then have it still live up to expectations. I hope BARGE 2005 will be at Binion's Horseshoe. Thanks to Chuck and Peter for all of their efforts. Thanks also to Patrick, JZK, Kim, Fich, Rafn, Ploink and all the other people that helped out. Also have to thank PokerStars and Paradise. Can I sign up for BARGE 2005 now? Ken Kubey kubey@engr.sgi.com (650) 933-3536