From: RMITCHCOLL@aol.com
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 23:13:02 EDT
Subject: [BARGE] 10 days in Vegas---Very Long Trip Report


This will be a long report, light on poker....of my 10 day vacation in  Vegas 
culminating in Barge. 
 
An uneventful flight and taxi get me to the Orleans on Thursday morning the  
22nd of July. I have looked forward to this trip for 8 months. I had planned a 
 trip to Vegas with Marlin and my dad last Christmas but life intruded. 
Coming so  close in December really wet my appetite for this years vacation. The 
plan was  4.5 days with my wife and oldest son,Morgan, then 5.5 days with my 
second  family, Bargers. As many of you know, this has been a pretty challenging 
year  for my wife and kids and I was really hoping they would relax and have 
fun in  Vegas. None of us were disappointed. Thursday started with a shuttle to 
the  Barbary Coast, a quick walk through Ballys and a 24 hours pass on the 
new  Monorail. I was pretty impressed with the ease of use and accessibility of 
the  monorail. We had purchased online tickets for the Star Trek Experience 
and took  the Monorail to the LV Hilton. The station there drops you off right 
outside the  Star Trek entrance. While waiting on line for the Klingon ride I 
remembered  standing in the exact same place 8 years ago. Back then we took a 
picture of  Morgan sitting on my shoulders. 
(_http://www.pattib.org/irc_poker/MITCH.jpg_ (http://www.pattib.org/irc_poker/MITCH.jpg) ).  So I got the bright 
idea of re-staging this picture. Morgan is almost 13 now but  we did get the 
picture taken. I told him we would do it one more time when I  take him to 
Vegas for his 21st birthday. We had lunch at Quarks...it was the  worst service I 
have ever had in a Vegas establishment.
 
Next up was a planned trip to the Strat where Morgan said he wanted to go  on 
all 3 rides. We took the Monorail to the Sahara and started to walk to the  
Strat. As we got closer it finally dawned on Morgan how freaking tall that 
place  is. It also dawned on us how hot it can get in Vegas. The elevator operator 
told  us it was the hottest day of the year (115 degrees). I guess timing is  
everything. It was my first time at the top of the Strat and we loved it. We  
stayed off all the rides (pussies all of us) but the view was worth the trip. 
We  got back to the Orleans and it was time for some poker. I walked past the 
 satellite section and they called one more seat left for a $55 NL single 
table.  I said sold. It paid a $340 lammer for first and $120 cash for second. It 
 was pretty apparant only 3 people at the table had any clue of how to play. 
Me  and a guy and a girl across the table from me. The other 7 people took 
turns  giving their money away and soon busted. It turns out the guy across from 
me was  RGPs Warren Karp. He started winning pots and had a nice lead. I took 
most of  the girls chips when my 66 sucked out against her over pair on the 
turn. Soon  after Warren took the rest of her chips. At this point Warren had 
5200 and I had  800 with blinds of 200-400. He said, I am gonna offer you the 
deal of your life.  He wanted the cash and not the seat. He offered me the seat 
and the cash for  $260 in cash. Taking the extra $80 seemed like +EV so I said 
deal (sorry  Scottro). Since I wasnt able to play the $340 Omaha I sold the 
seat for face  value. This turned out to be the only satellite I cashed in the 
next 2.5 days. I  tried single tables and tried their supers ($60 entry with 
$40 rebuys) with no  luck. The closest I came was 6th when they gave away 3 
seats plus cash for 4th.  I am terrible at remembering poker hands and 
situations. I really cant remember  many hands during the 4 days I played at the 
Orleans. The games were generally  good but I really hate playing in the conference 
room. The one hand that stands  out was my last hand in the Sunday night second 
chance $125 plus $100 limit  HE tourney. I was about to blind off when I 
raised UTG with J9s. All fold  to Button who 3 bets, SB folds and BB calls. I call 
all in. Flop was JJ9...not  too bad. The BB and button go 3 bets. Turn is K 
and I know I am dead. Button had  KK, BB had AA, and IGHN.
 
Friday was a poker day for me while Carol and Morgan did their shopping  tour 
of the Forum shops, The Hawaiian Garden etc. (Bad Beat for me). Friday  night 
was the Rio Carnival Buffet and Penn & Teller. The buffet is awesome,  way 
too many choices. Penn & Teller were ok...my son thought they were  great, I 
thought there was a bit too much dialogue and not enough schtick. The  highlight 
was Carol getting pulled up to the stage by Teller for the fish bowl  trick. 
We netted $1.95 in pennies plus a fish bowl. This bowl would reappear as  my 
bustout gift for the Barge NLHE. Saturday was relaxing at the pool, playing  
video games and playing poker. Sometime Saturday afternoon I got a call from  
Scottro. He joined us for dinner at perhaps my favorite restaurant in  
Vegas...Big Al's Oyster Bar. I just love this place. I had a few kamikaze  shooters and 
a bowl of Gumbo and was in Pig Heaven. Later that night I played  some BJ 
(+90) and some craps (-100). Our craps table went 8 straight shooters  without 
making a point. They hit enough numbers for me to make the hundred last  8 
shooters, but not making any points is hard to overcome. On Sunday we were  going to 
get together with Rick Mombourquette and his wife, Holly when they  arrived 
from Edmonton. We spent a week with them last year in Canada and were  looking 
forward to seeing them again. I was also looking forward to collecting  on the 
dinner bet Rick and I made on the Calgary/Tampa Stanley Cup. Rick and I  
played some 4-8 HE while waiting for Carol to get out of the movie she went to  
with Morgan. It was great catching up with old friends. Monday afternoon  Carol 
and Morgan were heading home. Rick and Holly came by to hang out with us  and 
then they took Carol to the airport. I caught a cab and headed over to the  
Mirage to play more poker, Their tourney was is full force and the place was  
jammed. I hopped into a 6-12 game and was up and down for 4 hours. I was never  
more then $100 ahead and never more then $30 down. I took a break for dinner 
at  their noodle restaurant (very average) and went back to playing. One hand I 
 remember was straddled by a maniac who had just sat down. I had 77 on the 
button  and there were 6 callers to me. I raised and was reraised by the BB. Pot 
was  huge. Flop was KJ7 with 2 diamonds. No amount of betting by me and the 
maniac  with KJ could stop the 3rd diamond from falling on the turn or make the 
board  pair on the river :-(. I left up $13..woohoo!. I decided to walk down 
the  strip to catch the shuttle back from the Barbary Coast. As I got to 
Flamingo,  the lure of the Bellagio was too strong. Instead of heading back, I 
jumped into  a 8-16 game at Bellagio. It was like all the players and cards 
follwed me from  the Mirage. I was up and down and finally gave up after 3 hours 
winning  $11...woohoo! I have no plans on quitting my day job. 
 
Barge.....
Tuesday I was checking out of the Orleans and heading to Binions. I was  
going to sleep in, but the Orleans decided to do some power switching on their  
new tower and cut power to the AC at 6 am. I checked out early and took a cab to 
 Binions. I guess I missed an opportunity to r00l the Orleans when I didnt 
bitch  about paying when there was no power. Warren did bitch and got a free 
ride.  Arriving at Binions has become like going home for me. There is something 
about  the dirty walls, musky smell, and old cocktail waitresses that gets me 
every  time. Or maybe it was walking 20 paces from the poker room to the 
elevator and  then 15 paces to my room that did it. Or maybe it was walking up to 
the brush  and asking if there was any plans for comps for Bargers for 
breakfast like in  the past. I hadnt played a hand yet at Binions and she wrote me a 
comp and gave  me my badge. Breakfast the next 5 days was my favorite time of 
the day. Not  because of the omelets but because there was always good company 
and  conversation. This day I had breakfast with Patrick. We talked chips, 
work,  family and even some poker. He is one of the real good guys at Barge. 
Binions  was dead so I headed over to the Nugget to play in their 11am Tourney. 
There  were many Bargers playing and I think 5 made the final table. luckily for 
me, I  had a 10% swap with Marlin on every tourney we played in together 
during the  week. Also luckily for me, he angled the Fitzgeralds limo driver who 
was there  to pick up Nut-z. Nut-z was late and Marlin got the driver to bring 
him to the  Nugget and go back for Nut-z. He called me from the limo to buy 
him in...when he  finished 5th, I basically broke even. Him paying me off on our 
10% swap was a  recurring theme.
 
Tuesday night was the 2-7 Triple Draw Charity event. I have played 2-7  
triple exactly zero times prior to this and my results were expected. Patti and  
Dave Orr took turns chopping me up (another recurring Barge theme for me). When  
they got bored taking my chips, the empty seat that became Andy Bloch stepped 
 in. I dragged exactly zero chips the entire event. I had 5 rough 8's that 
lost  to better 8's or 7's and I had 4 one card draws to 7's that bricked. Dave  
finally put me out my misery and received one of the BCC bust out chips.
 
Wednesday was another failed attempt at the GN 11am tourney but a good day  
at the GN 4-8 game. Today was the Barge-non smoker at N9NE at the Palms. I had  
never attended the smoker or non smoker and was looking forward to this one. 
I  caught a ride with Chic and his friend Bruce from Houston and shared a 
table  with them, Goldie, George, Len, Tiger and others. What a great time this  
was....as Goldie has written, there were over 40 people who attended. Nothing  
better then good friends, good martinis, and good food. We all headed back to  
Binions for the most important event at Barge, I am speaking of course about 
the  CHORSE team competition. I had organized a team of six called The Math is 
Hard  5. We never trailed and went wire to wire winning the tourney. This is 
inspite  of the royal spewing done by the Marlin after some Tiltboysian 
needling by Greg  Pappas. We were so far ahead with the CP/Stud and Omaha/Stud8 
round to go that  we could post and fold and no one could catch us. But 
noooooo...Marlin had to  give in by overplaying AK on a 664 board against Greg, 
Unfortunately for us Greg  had 64 and wasnt too scared of Marlin. But reason prevailed 
and we held on for  the win. The key hand for me was against Gavin in Stud 8. 
I had (KK)3 and Gavin  had a J as a door card with a dead J already exposed 
in another hand. He caught  a J on 4th and I caught a K. He caught a Q on 6th 
and I had not improved. On 7th  I paired for kings full of tens and Gavin and I 
went many bets. Turns out he had  buried queens for queens full of Jacks. The 
betting was subdued until 7th  street..he said he was trying to keep me in 
and had no idea I had such a strong  hand,,i told him I was trying to keep him 
in and had no idea he had such a  strong hand.
 
Thursday was the TOC style event and another beating by Dave Orr and Patti.  
I sucked in this event and made a horrible laydown in the stud round. I 
started  with a 4 as the bring in and 56 buried. I caught a 7 on 4th. On 6th street  
I caught a 3 for a straight but Bob Herlein had a AKQT showing and bet out. 
When  Sabyl called with a board that looked flushy, I pussed out and folded my  
straight. The pot was big enough that I think I should have crying called or  
maybe even raised to see if I was good. Folding for sure was the worst 
option.  Soon after Patti was the proud owner of a BCC bustout chip. Thursday night  
a few of us headed to the Mirage to play. I mainly played 5-10 full kill 
Omaha  8. It was a great game. As usual I was up and down and then almost down and 
out.  I told Len I was gonna play to the felt and then I was heading back. 
But I won a  scooped pot and was half way to even. I won a few more and was 
even. I had A25J  and flopped 55J. 88 was the turn and river and I was called all 
the way and then  someone raised me on the river. He turned over A2xx and said 
nut low. I looked  again and tabled my hand and said me too and SCOOP!! Like 
I said, it was a good  game. I won almost $250 and we headed back to the shoe. 
Len was in a 6-12 game  that he said was awesome. But he couldnt put 2 hands 
together and basically  broke even.
 
Friday was the Stud Shootout. I obviously suck at Stud but somehow managed  
to finish 6th in this event 2 years ago. Once again I found Dave Orr and Patti  
at my table. Oh yeah...the other weak spots were Andrew Prock and Mike 
McBride.  Throw in John Moser, Big Al, and Andrew Roth and I felt like the fish who 
took  Pittsburgh. As usual, Patti, Dave and Andrew were rolling. Dave has 
absolutely  mastered the art of pairing his door card. But soon the cards turned 
and Prock,  Orr, McBride etc busted out. 3 handed I was low chipstack against 
Patti and  John...but John soon lost a bunch of chips to Patti and then I 
busted him when  he missed a flush draw against my 2 pair. Patti had ~4500 and I 
had ~3500 but  that was my high water mark. She had quickly read Daves how to 
pair your door  card treatise and was rolling along. I am pretty sure I played 
well heads up as  we played around 45 minutes. But eventually her unimproved 
pair of 6's beat my  unimproved pair of 5's and Patti now had matching BCC 
bustout chips. This made 3  out of the last 4 Barge events I played where she 
busted me out. I was able to  recoup some money when Marlin took $570 from 
finishing 4th netting me $50 plus  the $70 I got for second at my table. I headed to 
the symposium where me and  Marlin spent $200 between us on 8 wonderful players 
who all bricked in the NL  event. Next was what has become one of my favorite 
Barge events...a trip to  Makino's sushi restaurant with Barry, LenG, David 
H, Action Bob, Buckshot,  Rebuy, Panfried, George and a few others. Again, 
nothing beats good friends and  good food. Especially now that Makino's is open at 
the outlet mall downtown.  Back to Binions for the $125+$100 NL event...no 
cash for me. I jumped into a  very bad 6-12 game and Paul Stine came over and 
told me I HAD to come play the  4-8 Omaha game he was in. So I took the next 
open seat and switched into the  seat next to Paul so we could chat. Little did I 
know I was sitting down in the  best seat ever. I absolutely caught the deck. 
I played premium hands and won big  pots..I played shitty hands and won big 
pots...I went from being stuck 100 in  the HE game to being up 200 in the Omaha 
game in 20 minutes.,,,Thanks Paul. I  kept my seat but took a break and went 
to the Las Vegas Club Karaoke bar to join  Peter, Nolan, Dan and Sharon, 
Patti, Fich, Walter and his sig other, and a few  others. This place reminded me of 
the honky tonk bars in Houston but was a lot  of fun. The DJ called all the 
Bargers up and we did a 9 minute version of  Bohemian Rhapsody. I shared a mike 
with Dan and Patti and had a great time..thx  for the drink Nolan. I went 
back to the game but a couple of the action player  left and I went to bed soon 
after.
 
Saturday was NLHE day...things were looking up when there was no Patti or  
Dave Orr anywhere to be seen at my table...unfortunately the parts of Patti and  
Dave were now being played by Buckshot and Mike Maurer. When my JJ was no 
match  for Buckshots KK (dont even ask me how bad I played this hand) I was 
almost  gone. A small suck resuck got me back to 500 in chips, but I busted soon 
after  and gave my last BCC bustout chip, an official Penn & Teller fishbowl and 
a  few plastic Crunch fish to Mark (cant remember his last name..friend of 
Chris  Fergusons) when his KQo beat my AJsooted. I was so pissed at my poor play 
that I  did what any self respecting poker player would do...I jumped into 
another NLHE  event...the Binions 2pm 70+40 tourney. I am convinced that this 
tourney has the  worst players the world has ever seen. Lenny Augustine was on 
my right and Chris  Moneymaker wannabe was across the table from me. Wannabe 
was schooling all  the players at his end of the table on aggressive play and 
running over the  table while showing such quality all in hands as Q8 and K9. I 
rebought even  though I didnt need to because I was hoping I could get a hand 
against him and  really double up. I got 77 UTG and raised 3x Lennys BB. 
Wannabe pushes all  in...no doubt I am gonna call him if it gets back to me. 
However Lenny pushes in  from the BB for around half my stack. I think for a minute 
and figure Lenny for  a big Ace. Wannabe can have anything but I really think 
I am ahead here and  call. I was 100% correct about Lenny..he shows 
AK...however, like Fossilman  said in his speech..sometimes you put an opponent on a 
range of hands,,and  sometimes they have the best hand in that range. Wannabe 
shows AA. But the power  of the Scottro is strong magic. A 7 on the river throws 
wannabe onto tilt  street. He starts berating me as I am laughing and stacking 
his chips. He asks  me how I can call with 77 and I tell its my first time 
playing cards. That puts  him on perma tilt. I then tell him to show me his AA 
next time and I wont call.  For some reason this does not mollify him :-). I am 
able to parlay these chips  and play pretty well and finish 9th and take down 
$290. Crunch busted me when he  sucked out with the best hand.
 
I really enjoyed the Banquet Saturday night and Greg was a great speaker. I  
signed up for a $10 limit lobbah game but as usual it didnt get called. 
Instead  I played 6-12 full kill with Russ and Rick M. Another very good game, but I 
was  exhausted and went to bed early. Saturday night is always a very 
depressing time  when I realize another year has gone by and Barge is over. I played 
a few hours  on Sunday at Bellagio on the way to the airport.
 
All in all this trip was great fun. I now know that someday I will move to  
Vegas...I just love it there. There are way too many people to mention so let 
me  just thank Peter and Chuck for all the amazingly hard work they do to make 
Barge  so much fun. Thank you to Patrick for the badges, pins and being the 
creative  brains behind the Barge Chips. Thank you Pokerstars and Paradise Poker 
for  sponsoring Barge. And thanks to all my friends who are really more like 
family.  It sounds corny, but I really love you guys and gals.
 
See you next year!
 
Randy Collack