Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:03:29 -0700
From: Steve Watanabe
Subject: [BARGE] My Barge Trip Report

Here's my trip report for the year's Barge.  There's little poker
content as old
age/alcohol tends to blur one's memory.

My first bad beat for Barge started a week before I even left.  It was Thursday 
and I was mulling over the fact that some Bargers would arrive in Las
Vegas that
weekend, many by Tuesday, but unfortunately I wouldn't arrive until my usual 
Thursday afternoon.  I was setting my wife up for possibly going
earlier in 2006.

Me: Ohhhhh maaannn.  Still a week until Barge.  Many people will be there by 
    Tuesday.  It sure is going to be a lonnng week.  (BET)
Wife: Well, I know how to take your mind off Barge for the weekend…you
can paint
    some of the bedrooms (RAISE)
Me: Ug…ok (FOLD)

The week went slow as expected but Thursday eventually came.  The
family dropped me
off at the airport and wished me good luck.  The plane trip was
uneventful though
the airline had rescheduled it for 1.5 hours later and so connecting
with my friend
in Las Vegas for a cab share didn't happen.  The taxi line was
completely empty and
all the cab slots were full with waiting cabbies.  I went to the
front, jumped in,
and told the driver I was headed to the Plaza.  He glances back at me
and asks if
I'd like to have a flat $25 rate which I agreed to knowing what I paid
last year
and guessing that traffic might be heavy at this time of day.  It took
almost 45
minutes to get to the Plaza so I'm guessing I saved some money. 

I am sharing a room with Monte and Oliver and so I let the
registration person know
that we'll need a roll-away bed.  She informs me that it will be $10
extra a night.
I hymn-and-haw and say that that is pretty steep for a $25 room.  She
goes off to
talk to the manager and comes back and says they will waive the
charge.  Thanks Plaza!

I meet up with John L, my co-worker who lives in Roseville, commutes
to Sunnyvale,
and who has flown in from Sacramento.  I've been talking up Barge for a year to 
him and being a Barge virgin he's ready to have his cherry popped.

We get to the poker room and see that there is a commotion at the PLO
table.  We
see that there's a pile of money in the middle of the table and four spades on 
the board.  Terrance is trying to figure out whether to call or not.   He 
eventually calls the turn and the all-in bet on the river and scoops a
huge pot.
John is a bit shell-shocked and I let him know that not all the Barge games are 
for those stakes.

We sign up for the 2/4 game and go to play black jack while we wait [side bar: 
when I get home Sunday I've tallied my wins/losses on a sheet of paper
and listed
this session as "BJ -5";  my wife takes a look and says "oh so you got
a BJ for $5?"].

We quickly get called for our 2/4 seats and buy in.  This will be John's first 
ever live poker.  On his first hand he looks down to see AK and raises and gets 
a couple of callers.  The flop comes ace high and he bets and is called by one 
person.  He bets the brick on the turn and gets raised.  He calls the raise and 
the river bet and gets shown the flopped set.

We played the next 9 hours at that table .  Various Barges were in/out of the 
game; it was nice seeing you.  Brad, the tourney director, also played
for a bit.

Friday morning comes soon and Monte, Oliver, and I catch up on things as we see 
each other only once a year.  Monte and his wife Lori are expecting
their first and
my wife has given me a mental list of questions to ask (e.g. boy/girl,
names, etc.)
Oh, yeah I forget to ask what your possible boy/girl names are, Monte?  I find
out that one of us is into "Hello Kitty" and visited 11 different
Hello Kitty stores in
one day.

The TOC is a blur but I make it past the Calcutta break and finish 21st even 
though I can't play stud, Omaha-8, or holdem.  I head to the Nugget to meet 
up with Monte and Oliver who are in a ramming-jamming 4/8 game.  There is one 
guy who literally played every hand staying until at least the turn.  He was 
sucking-left and sucking-right and winning huge pots and losing huge pots.  
The poker gods eventually intervened and he got broke and was gone. 

Once again morning arrives too soon and it's time for the "toughest $100 buy-in 
NLHE tournament in the galaxy".  I buy back half my action from Ken QB (or is 
that a quarter of my team's action? :-)).  I play fairly well and
eventually finish
around 65th.  I was fortunate to see and get to play with Kid Z.  It's good to 
see him back at Barge; I hope he makes it again next year.  

I made a run to get cigars as Monte and I have an annual last longer
bet and then
it's back to the nugget for more 4/8.  John calls and says he made the money.  
It's his second ever live tournament (TOC was the first) and he makes
the money!
Great job John!

The Banquet was nice (other than the beef jerky mentioned in other
reports) and I
enjoyed talking to Andrew P and his wife and Brian G who now lives on the east 
coast [in a number of past Barges, Brian and I have coincidently been
on the same
SJC to LAS flight and I was wondering what had happened to him this year].  Wil 
was an entertaining speaker though I'd like to see someone more "hard
core poker"
next year.

After the banquet Monte, Oliver, John, and I headed back to the Nugget
for another
wild 4/8 game (this time with a half kill).  There were three ladies
at the other
end of the table from Monte and I who would call any bets and if they raised we 
could safely bail.  I did manager to win a nice pot with presto that
flopped quads
and it was even better as Monte (as well as the calling station
ladies) was driving
the betting.  I finally raised on the river and he couldn't figure out
what I would
have played that way and so he called.  Money won from Monte is twice
as sweet as
money earned. 

Sunday morning arrived too fast and it was time to head to the airport.  Monte, 
who had a car, had said he would drive us.  At the last moment he said
he wanted
to sleep more as he had to drive to Irvine.  I went to the TV and turned to a 
Spanish channel and turned up the volume.  Monte pokes his head from under the 
covers and growls "what the f*ck is that; turn that sh*t down".  I of
course turn
it up louder.  Monte grabs the remote from the night stand and tries
to turn it off.
The remote doesn't work.  Oliver and I are busting up.  Finally I take
pity on him
and turn the TV off and we head to the airport.

I managed to sleep most of the flight back to San Jose knowing that my
family was
picking me up and we were driving to Tracy (hour a way) to meet some family.  
Fortunately my wife drove both ways and I was able to catch more sleep.

I had a great time at Barge and already am looking forward to next year (though 
you won't catching me moaning/groaning to my wife a week in advance). 
Thanks to
Chuck, Peter, the Plaza, Poker Stars, and Paradise.  

-stevew

________
BARGE 2005 is being supported by
PokerStars.com and ParadisePoker.com.