From: TIGER123@aol.com
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 18:45:35 EDT
Subject: [BARGE] tiger's abbreviated trip report


hi, folks.
sorry - i can't write one of my usual trip reports this year - too much stuff 
going on in my life and i didn't take any notes.  so it goes.

tuesday/wednesday:  the trip out was a disaster.

my cab driver for the ride downtown had been on the job two days, and missed 
the right-hand turn onto ogden.  ugh.

i arrive at binion's about one hour before the wednesday discussion group.  
this was a delightful afternoon with some good old friends, some new ones, and 
some good talk.  although i had not planned to speak, howard (the organizer) 
asked me to talk about "tiger tours the tables."  since that was five years 
ago, i suggested that i speak about andy glazer.  i jotted down a few notes while 
linda johnson and jan fisher were recounting their adventures in europe.  i 
then stood up and delivered the first eulogy i have ever given.  i concluded by 
saying, "andy was my friend, and i shall miss him very much," and i was given 
a solid round of applause.  i'd rather have my friend.  :(

i played some poker wednesday evening, but don't remember any of it.  dinner 
was the non-smoker at the palms.  my dinner companions were shelly, randy, 
stevie, dave f, chic and chic's buddy.  what a *wonderful* dinner!  back downtown 
and i played some more poker wednesday night, but don't remember any of it.

thursday:  breakfast with some bargers.  i pick up my barge chips and barge 
pin.  in the toc-style tourney, i have jerrod on my immediate left and buckshot 
beyond him.  we all manage to last a few hours before busting out about the 
same time.  i head off to the mirage and find that the 6/12 game there is 
almost as good a gold mine as the one at the borgata.  i have dinner with my buddy 
ray at the caribe cafe at the mirage, and we go back downtown.  i play some 
more poker that night, but don't remember any of it.

friday:  breakfast with some other bargers.  i'm set for the stud shoot-out.  
one glance at my table, and i an certain that the last three of the eight 
will be lou krieger, tony karma goldstein and me.  sure enough, we lose one or 
two players, and then i bust out scottro (winning one of the *beautiful* chip 
committee bust-out chips).  a little later, i'm rolled up with tens.  murray 
logan is the bring-in and there's one other limper.  murray pairs his door deuce 
on fourth street and makes a full (double) bet.  the rookie dealer tries to 
stop him, since she obviously didn't know the rule about the open pair option on 
fourth street.  i'm happy to convince her that murray can make the bet....and 
then i raise him.  he's all-in on fifth street.  i make quad tens on sixth 
street and **check this out**, murray is actually drawing live to a gut-shot 
straightflush!  but he misses (i win a moosecock bottle opener), and we're down 
to lou, tony and me.  somehow, tony busts me and he then busted lou.

i bum a ride from patrick milligan to the mirage, where i find ray.  i play 
some 10/20 hold 'em.  i make friends with the canadian on my left, and give him 
a few pointers.  meanwhile, about 25 or 30 people greet me by my nickname 
while i'm at the table.  after a few hours, the grizzled dude two seats on my 
right (who had been talking and joking with us) racks up.  when he stands up, he 
actually asks me, "are you that famous "TIGER123" guy who toured the tables a 
few years ago?"  i look at the plastic tiger guarding my stack of chips, and 
look at my "year of the tiger" hollywood park commemorative chip i use as a 
card protector, and look at my barge2004 name tag (which reads:  TIGER123  ), and 
confess my identity.  lol....whyinhell didn't he ask me that a few hours 
earlier?  i book a nice win.

dinner with ray, bigboy kramer, mike schmidt and a couple other bargers at 
california pizza kitchen.  back to the 10/20 hold 'em, where i drop about six 
stacks of reds in (what else?) a **fabulous** game.    :::::sigh:::::: 

back downtown, where i stop at the new golden nugget room.  i am immediately 
greeted by name by "joe" - little, older italian guy, white hair, glasses, who 
used to be a long-time dealer at binion's.  he's now a floorman at the new 
room.  since i know that he loves scotch, i invite him to the scheduled tasting 
on saturday.

i think that i played some poker at binion's friday night, but i don't 
remember any of it.

saturday:  breakfast with bargers ken kubey and dean (waters?) from lubbock 
texas.  i tell dean a story from some movie or tv show i once saw, and the key 
line is where one character mentions "the mountains around lubbock."  dean 
roars.  there ain't no mountains around lubbock.  in fact, there ain't no 
mountains  -  or any other geography  -  anywhere near lubbock.....    ;)

in the no-limit tourney, i don't do much for the first hour or two, except 
stop chris ferguson as he walks by, and ask him to sign my blue "chip castle" 
barge chip.  he's happy to do so.  then i notice that chris has about 200 chip 
castle chips in front of him, and he'll sign one for anyone......so i sign one 
of the "adb" chips, and leave it in front of his stack....   :D

my table breaks, and i'm transferred to a table with gavin, toc champ dave f 
and a bunch of other good players, all of whom have big stacks.  i'm the short 
stack by a lot!!!  i win one pot and then i call a raise from dave f while in 
the big blind.  i've got a little pair, and i suspect dave has a slick.  the 
flop is QQJ.  i squint at it, move my head closer to get a better look, and 
immediately move all-in.  dave curses under his breath, and mucks.   lol.....as 
i learned later that evening, this was greg raymer's "stop and go" play!  :)  
i win a few more pots (including picking gavin off once or twice), and then 
play the most important pot of my tourney.  len greenburg has raised all-in 
under the gun, and it's folded to me in the cut-off.  i find rockets and move 
all-in.  player on my left (rick monboquette?  steve evans?)  calls all-in.  len 
had a big ace and the other player had kings.  my aces hold up for a *big* win. 
 i collect len's bounty - a three-disc set of old jerry garcia stuff. (turns 
out to be pretty good stuff, too!).  a little later, i got very lucky.  i 
raised in late position, attempting to steak with king-queen.  player on my left 
(rick monboquette?  steve evans?) calls all-in with ace-jack.  he flops two 
pair, but i river a ten for broadway.  we're now down to three or four tables, 
and i'm moved again.  i see that there are only three adb'ers left - ploink, 
nut-z and me.  and we're down to the bubble.  ploink raises all-in under the gun, 
and it's folded to me.  i've got a pair of sevens and re-raise to get rid of 
big blind gavin, who mucks.  ploink shows ace-jack.  the board doesn't help 
either of us (but the queen on the flop would have made a pair for gavin).  
nut-z and i chop the internal adb last-longer bet.

we're down to six when someone calls a halt to the game.  i run upstairs to 
freshen up and change clothes for the banquet.  ross poppel buys me a beer 
(jeez....did i ever say "thank you" to you, ross?), and chuck weinstock graciously 
invited me to the featured table, where i join nolan and marietta, dan and 
sharon, foldem and greg raymer.  greg's presentation was excellent!  i take the 
microphone to announce that, for reasons which no sane person could have 
expected, the scotch tasting which was scheduled for immediately after the banquet 
was going to have to be delayed for a while.

when we resume the final table, i have about 65k.  gavin is immediately to my 
left with about 190k.  the other four finalists have 20k-30k each.  antes are 
1k or 2k, and blinds are 5k and 10k.  on the first hand, gavin raises to 40k 
and wins the pot.  on the next hand, gavin raises to 40k and tony karma takes 
a stand with a suited king.  gavin's ace wins.  on the next hand, gavin raises 
my big blind to 40k.  folded to me and i see jack-ten offsuit.  i had played 
with gavin several hours during the day, and saw that he could and would raise 
on just about *anything*.  i thought that i might actually have the best 
hand.  who could tell?  so i re-raise all-in and am immediately called.  gavin 
shows an offsuit slick.  i shudder.  but i get a *great* flop:  QQ9, giving me an 
up-and-down straight.  i have four eights, three tens, three jacks and three 
kings to win the hand....and i've got two chances to get one of 'em.  but i 
don't get there, and i go upstairs now.

i had fun at the scotch tasting, and i think that a bunch of other people 
did, too.  :)

back downstairs....i'm looking for the 4/8 chorsel must-drink game.  but the 
players in the 4/8 chorsel must-drink game are all stone-cold sober (except 
for ploink and amy on his lap).  i leave the game and find a 6/12 full kill hold 
'em game in the main room.  i play for a while, and then play a little 1/2 
half hold 'em half omaha high pot limit for a few hours.  it's about 7 am when 
the game breaks.  i need to sleep.

sunday:  breakfast with tony karma.  a few hours of 10/20 hose with the 
boston gang at the nugget, and dinner at the nugget buffet.

my red-eye back to new york was almost as screwed up as my flight out.  and 
when i finally make it to the big apple, there's this damned terrorist alert 
and it takes me almost three hours to get to my apartment in manhattan from 
laguardia.  ugh.

but i managed to have lot of fun.  i'm certain that i have not mentioned all 
the bargers i shared laughs with, and i apologize to all of you.  many, many 
thanks to peter and chuck for doing their usual superb job.  thanks to our 
sponsors and thanks to binion's.  i found that ben mcgee is an *excellent* tourney 
director, and a really good guy, too!

shall we do it again next year?   yeah....i think so.  i do hope that my 
buddy mitch bfb can make it.

[lol....this "abbreviated" trip report is only 1800 words.  last year, my 
report ran more than 4000 words.....]

:)

tiger