From: "Mike McBride" Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 22:59:22 -0600 Subject: [BARGE] Howlers Trip report (Bark at the moon) I have to say that this years Barge was the best!!! Not quite as good as the year I won but pretty damn close!!! Saturday Arrive after a long drive from Denver and try to play a little but all they are spreading at the Plaza is 2-4 Holdem and $40 buy in NLHM. Me and Howlerwife play VP and go to bed. Sunday Attend the BCC chip Grope and see some long lost friends. We catch up and play a NLHM freezeout. I bust out of the money and watch Paul Stine take down the goods. Way to go Paul!! Later, me and Howlerwife walk down to Main Street Station to play the Deuces full pay machines. I hit a Royal on the third pull and rake in $1k. ChaChing!!! Monday My brother from another mother and his wife get to town. We hang with them most of the day and later that night we split up to have some Adult Fun. The ladies head down to the Excalibur to see "Thunder Down Under" and Lenny and I go to the Strat to see "Bite". I can't speak for the ladies but Len and I really enjoyed "Bite". I highly recommend it!!! Tuesday Bargers are starting to arrive. We play the PL Omaha tournament today and I am anxiously awaiting the start. I have never played PL Omaha and am wondering about how dead my money is. After several hours and some lucky beats, I make it to the final table of 10 players. I bust tenth, bubble of course, but feel I learned a bunch about the game. Wednesday Howlerwife and I are playing the VP's at Plaza when I hear the following over the loud speaker "Attention players, the Plaza poker room is spreading a Pot Limit Bing....a....la......ha... game in the poker room". My wife and I look at each other and start to laugh hysterically, I yell "Barge is HERE!!!!" and get a bunch of dismayed looks from the Plaza patrons around us. I love this time of year!!!! Draw Lowball is tonight and I am NOT registered. I speak with Foldem and ask him if I can help tonight and he says yes. Foldem wants a night off so I volunteer to help with the tournament and take pictures for Peter. This ROCKS!!!. I love watching the play and pick up a few pointers along the way. I plan to play next year. Thanks to Peter for letting me help out, I love working these tournaments. Congrats to Barge Virgin Mav on his win! Thursday Today, Howlerwife plays her first live tournament in the Significant Others tournament. She has so much fun meeting the other wives and, although she is the second one to bust, she stays and cheers on the rest of the ladies. She has the bug now and is looking forward to next year. Thanks again to Peter and Chuck for such an insightful addition to the Barge tournament list. That night is the Stud Shootout. I suck, I bust, nuff said!!! Next year I play better. I stay up way too late with North Shore and Scottro eating at Carson Street and drinking Guinness at the Plaza with North Shore. Get in around 4:30am. I love Barge!!! Friday TOC is today. I really want to win this tournament someday. I play well, I go deep, I make the cut, I see the ball, I reachout to catch it, it bounces off my hands, off my chest and falls dead on the ground, I bust 13th. My good friend OZ wins the bloody thing. Good Show and Well Done OZ. You Rock!!! Saturday The NLHM tourney. I decide to wear my werewolf mask for the tournament and I seems to work to a point. I managed to scare Foldem and Don Perry and get Suzy Issacs to take my picture when she got moved to my table. I play well until they bust my original table. I make a very BADDDDDD play with an all-in and a call in front of me. I had good chips and did not have to play the hand at all but I got married to my AKs, read the all-in for a small pair and the caller for a dry Ace. I was right about the reads when I went all-in myself, I just did not count of 4 diamonds coming on the board and knocking me out around 60th when the AdTd made her flush. One momentary lapse of judgment and I am riding the rail. The Banquet was good and I really enjoyed Wil's speech. He is a natural entertainer and I was very impressed with his "Getting Us" so quickly. Kudos to PokerStars. I got a chance to get to know several of the dealers and our awesome tournament director Brad Thomte. Brad and his team of dealers are to be commended for there great work during our tournaments. They were AWESOME. Brad you rock and pass my thanks on to all your people, they made this a great event. I hope to see you next year. Thanks to Patrick for letting Howlerwife and myself work the Barge store. I get to meet so many great people during my time at the store. Thanks. Thanks to the BCC for a great set of chips and all their hard work for the cause. Thanks to Peter and Chuck. You guys are great folks and I look forward to working with you to get a few more Significant Others events schedule for next year. The Ladies will not be ignored!!!:-) As always, I loved seeing all my old and new friends. I was driving back to Denver on Sunday wishing that Barge would never end. I thought about the people, the camaraderie the well....love that we have for each other and I think "why can't we do this all the time?". I realized that if Barge never ended, I would have nothing to look forward to next year. So, live on Barge and live on Bargers. You are all uniquely twisted but you are all GREAT people. Thanks again for the opportunity to participate in the Barge Experience for my 5th year. I love you all. Here's to Barge, The Worlds Largest Home Game!!! Mike "Howler" McBride "Scotch: Its Celtic for CRACK!!" "Scotch: the other MIC drink" ________ BARGE 2005 is being supported by PokerStars.com and ParadisePoker.com.