Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 11:38:49 -0700 From: Terrence Chan Subject: [BARGE] Terrence's BARGE TR This is my somewhat abbreviated (but still way too fucking long) BARGE 2005 trip report. For the full version, you can go to http://www.livejournal.com/users/terrencechan/ . There you will find the full trip report but *only if* you are on my LiveJournal friends list. (Why? Because I'm a pain in the ass.) To be added to my LJ friends list simply create a LiveJournal account (if you don't already have one) and e-mail me your LJ user name. I'll have you added within the day. BARGE Day #1 Arrived at Murray's house and waited for North Shore Mike for oh, a day, before heading to the airport. Got to the airport and on the plane. Time to break out the chips and cards for the airplane freezeout! Mike and I are seatmates and Murray is in the seat in front of me (aisle), and we're deciding what game to play. I suggest HORSE (or CHORSE, in the spirit of BARGE) but then all of a sudden the 86-year-old lady sitting beside Murray is tossing me a $20 bill. Evidently Murray and her had been talking and she says she plays poker, or at least limit hold'em, and would like to play. Mike and I exchange some "are we sure we really want to take an old lady's money" glances but decide she's too eager, and it's just $20. We play for a while and Murray and Mike run horribly. I'm treading water and the old lady is just taking pot after pot after pot. It's evident that she's only betting with good hands but she's still winning all the pots in a 4-handed game. No one can make a hand. I take a sizeable pot off of Murray and then the old lady puts Murray all-in. Murray has a 5-outer, which I promptly deal on the river. It actually takes us some time to explain to her why she doesn't win. At this point both Mike and I are once again concerned that she's going to think she's being hustled by us. It's really a no-win situation for us. Mike goes out a little while later and the old lady and I are headsup, her with about a 3:1 chip lead. We're only 30 minutes from landing at this point so I know they're going to make us lift the tray tables soon so I increase it to like the 12-24 level with 240 chips in play. I take the lead by simply betting every hand. I'm actually starting to feel bad once I have the chip lead because I still think she's going to think it's a con, letting her knock out the first two players and then being beat by the last guy for all the money. I end up calling a few value bets that I probably would never have called against anyone but a little old lady and she retakes the lead. Then she makes JJ on a A-J-4-4-9 board and wins a bet from my KJ on every street. She's now well ahead and we're about to land, so I offer her a $60/$20 chop as we descend. I'm actually glad she won and that I still managed to break even despite more or less playing to lose (a theme we'll return to later in the day). Ron Nutt picked us up and shuttled us to the Plaza quickly; I'd only missed one round of blinds despite our flight landing an hour late. I blinded/limped myself down to 700 in the 100-200 level. Sucked out once preflop (victim: Lee Jones) to double up, then got sucked out on preflop (perpetrator: Michelle Lancaster) and got busted. After some random hanging out, Lee calls me over to play his money in a 1-2 NL game. For those who were there, Lee Jones is famous for substituting for me in a 5-10 PLHE game during the 2003 PCA and losing all my money to Chris Moneymaker in the time it takes me to take a piss. So I've been waiting for this for a while. My first hand I'm dealt the 4d in early position and I raise. That wasn't a typo, I only know I was dealt the 4d. The flop came with two diamonds and I looked at my other card which was a 8d, so I'd flopped a flush draw, bet, and everyone folded. I played about a half an hour semi-blind, only looking at one card. I do lots of weird shit like this in small games just to get insights about the psychology of being a maniac and how others react to playing against a maniac. Okay, the honest answer is because I do it because I have no discipline and small-limit games bore the shit out of me. In Day 1's most talked-about hand at BARGE, I am dealt an ace in middle position and raise to $12. The guy on my left folds, and there are three other callers. The flop comes AA2 and it is checked to me. I spew out some amount of chips and get two callers, one all-in. The turn is a 2 and Greg Pappas on my left asks me if he can look at my other card. I say sure and he chokes and says "oh my god". So now I think I have a 2, which I don't really want. I "ask" Greg what I should do and he tells me that I have a "$45 card", so I bet $45. Now I really think I have A2. Masa is the one player with $250 or so left and he calls. The river is a Q and he checks and I shove in and go into an act, Hollywooding by yelling over to Lee at the craps table that I hope he's doing well there. Masa thinks, thinks, thinks and eventually calls. I start to say, "I have a full house" as I turn over the card closest to me but as I do so I turn over the other card and don't get the word "house" out of my mouth before saying "holy shit, I have quads". I'd been dealt AA, flopped quad aces, and didn't know it. Lee came over shortly after that and decided to cash out. Later on I decided to rejoin the game. Asya had been talking to me for a while and had heard about the hand, so when I went over to play (with my own money this time) she sweat me for a few hours. I continued with my stupidity of looking at one card, raising with one card, exposing cards and my general lunacy and I was now down a fair chunk. One of the local rocks in particular was absolutely fuming. On one hand he'd rivered a gutshot, moved in, I called, and he showed the nuts and went off about "yeah, see, I can play like you too, you think you're so smart, you look smart when you get there huh? I knew I'd bust you" blah blah blah blah blah. He kept talking and talking. The most bizarre thing ever was that -- as Asya pointed out -- that this guy is on tilt from having won the hand! Which I realized, was true. The guy had absolutely lost his mind because I was being a young punk throwing money around, and that I'd doubled him up. It was truly amazing. A little while later there was a hand where I raised preflop and we checked all the way to the river. I had 8-high no pair and had decided not to steal (given present table image). He turned over a deuce to match the flopped deuce and went on about "look how scared I've got him! I've got him so scared! Bring it on!" Now this is like a 60-year-old guy wearing a cross around his neck. It's really one of the most bizarre things ever, but the more he won off me, the more upset he got. I think there's some kind of M.A. thesis in psychology just waiting to be written here. In response I pick up my $5k wad (which is in play) and say, "well...I'm willing to play any amount of this for as much as you want." He talks tough and so forth and it's evident he's not going to play me heads-up for it, or even any amount of it. Even what was just in front of him. I offer to high card with him for the $400 he's got in front of him. (Note this is not a money-whip, as I'm offering any amount *up to* the wad.) Then I offer to high-card for his stack. (Note that this *is* a money-whip.) Then I offer to high card for his stack laying 7:6 odds. (Note that this is just me trying to embarrass the shit out of him.) He won't take it. He continues telling the table I'm scared of him, to which Asya remarks the obvious, "yeah, the guy offering to play heads-up for any amount of money up to $5000 is scared, and the one refusing is brave." I goof off for a while more and decide to let Asya play my money. She is thoroughly pissed off at this local, saying all kinds of derogatory smartass remarks quite audibly. She thinks this guy is a total jerkoff and evidently really doesn't care if he knows that (this is why I grew to like her quickly!). I go to the washroom and come back with Asya having made a small raise on the turn of 9-9-8-rag against the local jerj. He makes a speech about "do you have a nine, you must have a nine", and eventually pushes in his $200 in red chips on top of the $100 bill. Asya now starts thinking and I tell her not to worry about it being my money, just do whatever you think is the best play, and I'll even go away if you want. She says "no, stay", and after a while she tosses in my $5000 wrapped in a PokerStars elastic band. The local asks, "are you calling" and she says "no, I'm raising". He says, "well I'm all-in already" and she points out that he has seven white chips left behind. He says, "oh, you want those too?" and pushes those in. Asya of course, has 98 and he is drawing dead with 97. I give her a high-five and we rack up immediately. The local is oddly gracious in defeat, saying "good hand, dear. You trapped me good, dear." It was bizarre. This guy who was a total tilting jerk any time he won a big pot, just got taken down to the felt and all of a sudden ws a total gentleman. We walk away all celebratory and as we are cashing out at the cage, the guy comes up to us and says to her, "you played that well. The only thing you could have done better was to catch me taking that five off the table." And he walks away. And we're just like... Oh. My. God. If this isn't the most pathetic attempt at oneupmanship I have ever seen in my life, I can't remember the other. The guy has just lost his entire stack and the only thing left to salvage is pride is to come up to us to tell us he was ratholing (Asya and I discussed this later and actually realized there's no way he was up $500, so he was probably actually making it up). That, folks, is a poor, insecure man. ******************************* BARGE Day #2 Went down to the Plaza poker room around 4:30 so I could get a brief crash course in California lowball from someone who might know what he's doing in the game. Found Greg Raymer and talked to him for a bit before we both started noticing loud yelling and chip noises from a few tables down. I see Dan Goldman in the game as he is getting up to take a short break. He explains to me the Binglaha rules as he gets up to leave. I ask him if I can play his money while he's gone and having heard what I did with Lee Jones' money yesterday he's happy to oblige. On the first hand I play I make a set or something and make him a few hundred dollars. I get up shortly after to give Dan his seat (much to his objections) and wander around a little more. There's nothing really fun or significantly +ev going on so I decide to buy in myself for $1500 (noting that I'm probably the only guy in Las Vegas right now wandering around asking to play other people's money with $6000 in his pocket). The game is positively nuts, with at least 8 players seeing every flop. The game is nominally 1-2 blinds but there is a more or less mandatory $5 straddle. I also introduced the element of ridiculous min-raising. Waiting for 4 or 5 guys to limp in, declaring "raise!", surveying the table to determine the size of the pot, then dropping precisely two red chips in the pot...NEVER GETS OLD! :) Having introduced the ridiculous min-raising, I ultimately become responsible for the pot that is still the talk of this BARGE (or is at least tied with my quad aces hand) days later. On the hand in question, it is limped around to me for $5 and with A37Qds I raise to $10. If I remember the action correctly, Dan re-raises to $15, Barry Tannenbaum re-raises to $20, Nolan Dalla re-raises to $25, Greg Raymer re-raises to $30, a couple people call, I re-raise to $35, Dan re-raises to $40 and Barry pushes all-in for $200. Now Nolan calls and Greg makes it $800. I push all-in for my $1400, Dan folds, Nolan calls all-in, and Greg calls. I don't remember the specific board now but the bottom line is that I flop two low cards and the nut flush draw. I yell "DEUCE OF SPADES!!!!" across the room and the dealer burns and turns a deuce, but it's red. Nolan now jumps out of his seat and slams down 22 for a set of deuces. I have the nut low so I'm feeling okay but the river is an ace! I'm now playing a live 7 for low. Barry and Greg both look downcast but Nolan is out of his seat dancing around and I don't know if he's celebrating escaping for half or if he accidentally has me beat for low! Thankfully he does not and I actually win half of this $4500 pot with a live 7, as Nolan triumphantly spreads the premium hand of 2258. For the rest of BARGE, any time I heard "deuce deuce five eight" I knew it must have been that hand, because honestly, who other than Nolan would play 2258 in any context? More silliness ensues but then the lowball tournament begins so we all break this 1-2 game with $30000 on the table to play a $60 tournament which no one conceivably has more than $100 equity in. The lowball is pretty uneventfully for me. I draw badly and eventually get the last of my money in with a pat 865 and lose to a pat 854 (who was considering breaking because I 3-bet all-in). Steve Day busted out of the lowball around the same time and he, Sarah and I went to dinner, where we decided when we get back to the poker room that we're going to start a $5/point Chinese poker game. Except that I feel that there are too many people who know how to play Chinese perfectly so we should play 2-7 in the middle. Neither Sarah, Steve or I have ever played the game for real money, or read up on the optimal strategy, or anything, so we're looking for a gamb00ler to take the fourth seat (as opposed to a math wonk who probably knows the game cold). I try to get Murray in the game but he's so drunk he's forgotten my name. By the time I get back to the table J.P. Massar is in the seat. Fuck. Oh well. At least there is someone there to tell us if we obviously screw up. J.P proceeds to catch the worst cards ever, and even when he is catching cards, we are catching better. He could have aces on top and an 8-low and I would have aces with a better kicker and a 7-low. Eventually though my luck ran out and JP, on raging CP tilt, was replaced by Fich. Fich ran extremely hot and I kept losing and losing over and over to him. The fun part was that people kept drifting over to the game. At one point there were 11 people at the Chinese table either playing or sweating. At another point we had 8 people, basically one player and one sweater/helper per player. It was my first time playing Chinese ever and I can see why the high-limit action junkies play it. There is almost ZERO downtime in Chinese. At any given point you are either setting your hand or settling bets. As soon as the bets are settled you're setting your hand again. I think the game created such a serious dopamine (or is it seratonin? I forget which is the gambling chemical) imbalance in my brain that when the game broke I was afraid to play any actual poker until I "came down". Eventually I did, and I just went back to my room and to sleep. It was, after all, 3:30 AM. ******************************* BARGE Day #3 Woke up around 12:30 PM and tried to take a jog over at the (outdoor) running track at the Plaza. The last few days had been cloudy and somewhat cool (high 90s or so). However today was a typical August day in Vegas - blistering hot. The Plaza has a quarter-mile track that is not an orbit but in fact makes you snake around the pool and tennis courts, and come back. I last about 6 of these back-and-forths on this track before I start getting cramps. Pretty mild ones but enough to make me take notice and say "your body is telling you to quit", and for me to listen to it. After showering up and eating I went back to the Plaza for another session of intentionally trying to lose money, and failing miserably. (This is generally known in most circles as, "playing bad and running g00t.") We got another PL Binglaha game going - I was the ninth name on the list. We got the game going and of course the floor did not bring enough chips. This game was a little nittier than yesterday's, but that was not saying a lot. We still had 6-7 way action on most hands but other than Nolan and I people were kinda playing good cards. And Nolan was so card-dead that he wasn't able to even play his garbage after the flop. So I was the real action generator in this game. There were a lot of short stacks though trying to take advantage by limp-re-raising me all-in or trying to get me to jam on a good flop, but I rarely put in a lot of money after the flop without a hand. On one hand I limped or raised or re-raised or maybe straddled or did something that involved me seeing a flop with the uh, premium hand of AQ43, with the Q3 in spades (yes, I quite obviously overplay low hands in Binglaha. Sue me.). I flopped the third-nut flush with possibly some kind of low draw. Someone bet out, Raymer raised, I cold-called and the third guy folded. The die rolled high. The turn was a fourth spade and Raymer bet out again, for about $800, which was close to the size of the pot or a little less. I had about $2100 left and went into the tank. After a while I work out my effective odds at something like 3900:2100, a fair bit short of the real odds that I need for him not to have a flush (2.6:1 or something like that, I think). So in the spirit of BARGE I made a -EV but +ITO call. The river did not pair the board and Raymer says, "well the board didn't pair, and if I was bluffing I have to continue to bluff", and sets me in. After a while I again call and I think I've made the wrong read as he picks up his hand and throws down AA56 -- all black, but only one spade among them. I rake in the $5000 pot. Greg seems somewhat annoyed by what he felt was a "donkey play" (which it perhaps was considering solely the math of the situation), but is able to laugh it off later on. A little while later we get our first local rock, who wanders by, asks about the game, sits down for the minimum, sees the wild gambling going on as an opportunity to make his monthly nut, takes a few brutally crushing beats and gets put through the ringer. On one hand I noticed he has not posted his straddle yet, so as a friendly reminder I remark to him, "you forgot your straddle", smile at him, and toss a $5 chip (I'm in the #1 and he's in the #10) which lands right in front of his stack. Everyone has a good laugh as someone jokes, "oh boy, he's sure to go bust on this hand!" Amazingly, he picks it back up, tosses it back and me and grumbles, "you're not my mother!" The man has actually rejected a completely free of charge straddle! Glances are exchanged around the table. He of course folds his utg hand, and I, of course, raise to $5 in the dark. A little while after that we play what is now known as the other $8000 Binglaha pot. This was the other "the Binglaha pot" of BARGE. Dan, who has sat down recently, and I engage in a preflop min-raise war that gets us up to about $60 before Nolan gets sick of it and puts in a real raise of $400 which Dan and I call. Raymer has left the table so it's the only three big stacks in the game. As the flop action comes to a close I point out what we're all thinking: we could have a $15000 pot on this hand! The flop comes down A-3-5. Nolan thinks for a while, then leads out for $1200. Dan pauses and raises either the pot or all-in, but in any case we get the point - it's about $5000 and he's committed to the hand. Now - mostly for dramatic effect, I stand up and throw my hands in the air. In reality I didn't have much more than the nut flush draw and it would be pure gambling to call, but it wasn't like it was a total Hollywood and it added to the moment. I made a "crying fold", and Nolan now tanked for real, eventually calling. The hands were turned over: AAxx for Nolan and 246x for Dan. There aren't enough stub cards for three runs, but there are for two. Someone jokes whether they'd like to roll the die twice as well. They don't, of course, and the die roll comes low. This is now a monster situation for Dan, who now has a complete lock on the low and is a 2:1 favourite for the high. True to form, Nolan makes quads on the first board and aces full on the second board for the amazing 8:1 parlay to survive for half the pot - sucking out for close to $5000. Ultimately, I was the only one who lost money on the hand but I somehow feel like I saved a bunch. Again we broke this gigantic game to play in a $70 tournament, the stud shootout. There were little plastic fish distributed to each table, but on our table they landed in the dealer box with the exception of a few which splashed into my stack. I started betting the plastic fish as well when I entered a pot, but no one ever beat me on a hand where I bet a fish. After a while I started telling the dealers to add the dead fish into every pot, which they dutifully did. After a while we got all the fish in play which led to a ridiculous plethora of bad fish jokes ("we have a new fish leader", "all you need is a fish and a chair", etc.). My favourite was a hand where I bet T150 and a fish on fourth street and was called in two places, leading to a pot of about T1000 and three fish. I bet T300 and a fish on fifth. One of my opponents called the T300 and a fish but one only had T300 and was out of fish. I instructed the dealer to make a side pot which he did, pulling all the chips into the main pot and leaving the two fish on the side! I really think the Plaza dealers appreciate BARGE just as much if not more than the BARGErs themselves. Not only do they make a ton of money during BARGE, but they are dealing poker in a fun, positive, no-abuse environment where the remaining 51 weeks out of the year they have to deal with... well, downtown Las Vegas locals. I was doing nicely in the stud tournament but then lost some big pots as the levels started getting big. I got a short stack (for some reason I can't remember at all who this was, though I remember the hand) with who started with (K8)K to put in 4 bets on third against my (AA)4. We got it all-in on fifth but he hit a running pair to suck out. Then I made a 4-flush on 4th against Sabyl and got all of her money in but her queens held up, and I went from a good stack to a small one, busting out shortly thereafter. After that I sought out Russ Fox and found him and we discussed some tax stuff that we'd discussed via e-mail but never in too much detail. Without going into specifics, Russ really knows his stuff and I recommend anyone like me either easily confused or too lazy to do their own American taxes to hire Russ as I'm sure he's worth it. Bed time: 4:30 AM. Yeah, probably a bit too early, but hey, I'm new to this. ******************************* BARGE Day #4 BARGE is fun, but brutal. The TOC-style tournament was scheduled for a 10 AM start, a downright evil starting time considering the bedtime of the average BARGEr. I staggered over there, got coffee and a muffin and found my seat. The first few levels went pretty badly for me and I got a third taken out of my stack after the first few levels. I was making money in stud but losing in hold'em and losing badly in Omaha. Ploink, among others, destroyed me in the Omaha rounds but I did well enough in stud to stay afloat up until the first couple of breaks. Then I started hitting in the Omaha and started building a good stack. But a couple tough beats when the limits went out sent me out just before we stopped playing the rotation and moved into NLHE. It was pretty much a disaster situation: I hadn't lasted long enough to make any money, but I'd played long enough to not be able to take a nap during the day. At the symposium I found Mike, Murray and Steve, the leaders of our calcutta syndicate. We felt the calcutta went well for our syndicate; we spent a lot of money buying a bunch of unknown (to us, anyway) players for cheap. The game plan was to get a bunch of warm bodies who could pick up aces, or pick up players we knew were good at a slight premium. Since I don't know many of the BARGErs, I mostly just helped by elbowing Steve in the ribs any time someone was in danger of going for $50 to someone else. The game plan was evidently executed well, as we had some 50 horses in the field when the dust cleared. Mike and Steve also bought defending champion Gavin Smith for $100, but not as part of the syndicate. Thank god for that. After a while of hanging down in the poker room I was asked a couple times why I wasn't at the karaoke. I don't much care for karaoke and have never participated, but since Mike was going and in the absence of anything of note going on at the Plaza, I tagged along, and Michelle joined us as we were exiting. Karaoke was uneventful. Nothing of note happened. At all. At 2:30 our group of 16 stumbled over to the Golden Nugget's coffeeshop, where they were (as one could expect) woefully unprepared for our party. I won $300 off of Dan taking the over on drink server correctly getting at least 10.5 drink orders. She got 15 of 16 correct. Since we knew it was going to take a long time to get our drink and food orders we passed the time by telling jokes, singing songs or telling riddles. Offering bets on trivia was also allowed. I was hungry, but I never had more fun waiting for my food to arrive (and it took a long time). People who didn't want to sing would be coersced into singing and then helped out by anyone who knew the words. It was a really nice low-key BARGE gathering as everyone sobered up and winded down. ******************************* BARGE Day #5 Once again, another 5:00 AM bedtime followed by a 10:00 AM tournament. However I would not repeat the error of my ways from the TOC, and flamed out quickly in the NLHE (sorry Jester). At least I went out AK vs. QQ. I was pleased to have made it back to the Nugget room by 11:30, and crashed until 3:30. Certainly my favourite moment of this tournament was Gavin stopping by to tell the tale of his intentional bust-out, then Murray standing in that exact spot 90 seconds later telling me that he's going to buy a piece of Gavin from Mike. Woke up, showered, ate, and generally killed time until the banquet. Somehow I had fucked up and not registered for the banquet. Nevertheless, I rushed the door (twice! :)). Nolan Dalla's presentation of Johnny Chan's autographed and dated 10th WSOP bracelet-winning hole cards presented to Chuck Weinstock and Doyle Brunson's autographed and dated 10th WSOP bracelet-winning hole cards presented to Peter was a fantastic moment for all. Wil Wheaton was a great speaker, so don't you fucking boo him. After the banquet we returned to the Plaza poker room where Michael Zimmers regrettably informed us that the three keystone BARGE games - 4/8 Chowaha, 1-2 PL Binglaha, and 4/8 Must Drink HORSE - could not be accommodated at the Plaza and had to be moved over to the long-standing home of BARGE, the Horseshoe. This kinda sucked for us BARGErs as it split us up. Of course, that's nothing compared to how unlucky the Plaza dealers got, as the average dealer in one of these games probably makes something like $50 per half-hour down. One dealer came over to our Binglaha table with his slot cup already full of $1 chips. As if the dealers weren't making enough, of course there was Patti adding any cleavage toking contributions to the dealer pool. I managed to finish BARGE with a perfect PLB record, getting my money in as almost a 2:1 dog (15-card straight draw vs. set) against Dan and winning two of the three boards after we ran it three times. I believe the correct terminology is that I r0000000led the Binglaha game at BARGE 2005, with an hourly rate of oh, $900/hour or so, most of which was won by getting it in with significantly the worst of it. This day was probably the earliest I went to bed. I commented to Murray that BARGE is probably exactly the correct length, as if it were any shorter, it would be over too soon, but if it were any longer, many people would probably just die off regularly from either exhaustion or alcohol poisoning, or both. So I headed on back to the Plaza to say goodbyes to all. The best part about BARGE is that no matter what you're into, you'll find someone - in fact multiple people - to do it with. If you want to drink beer and play low-limit all week long, you'll have people to do it with. If you want to discuss integral calculus, you'll have people to do it with. If you want to golf in 95-degree heat at 6:00 AM, if you want to talk about experiences on card-counting teams, if you want to butcher pop songs (cross-dressing optional) in a karaoke lounge, if you want to star-fuck a "name player", if you want to play 17-card Chinese, if you want to build chip castles, or if you just want to eat your weight in a given buffet...you'll find someone to do it with. Rich, poor, young, old, math geeks, boozehounds, action players, grinders: BARGE is such an eclectic, diverse group that it's impossible not to find like minds that you want to hang out with. You never have to make an effort to have fun at BARGE, or make an effort to find people you want to hang out with... just show up, and you just will. Thanks to all of you for an awesome first BARGE. It was about time. Terrence ________ BARGE 2005 is being supported by PokerStars.com and ParadisePoker.com.