Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:50:04 -0500 (CDT)
From: don
Subject: [BARGE] Bingo goes to BARGE 2006

Obthanks to Chuck, Peter, Nolan, Frank Brabec (for the Kareoke) and 
everyone else who helped to pull the BARGE 2006 rabbit out of the hat this 
year.

You guys are awesome !!

Disclaimer:  The entirety of my notes from this trip consist of " Gavin 
Smith says in the Lowball tourney 'I'm actively looking for threesomes'.

Apparently I never wrote anything else down.  So names are fuzzy.  Hell, 
the whole week was fuzzy.  That's BARGE.  Apologies in advance to those I 
left out.

The trip begins in O'Hare Intl Airport, stuck behind some doofus who gets 
along surprisingly well considering he must be blind and deaf and living 
in a cave far away from radio or television, as he's somehow ignored the 
news, the 30 foot tall video screens in the airport, and the constant airport PA 
drones all informing people that we are AT THREAT LEVEL ORANGE and that 
you CAN"T TAKE TOOTHPASTE OR LIQUIDS THROUGH SECURITY.   He must have
thought he heard 'Except for you Mr. Idiot - please bring your stuff on 
through'.  After 10 minutes of the TSA stripping his luggage of about 8 
offending items I finally get through the line, leaving only 2 hours to 
kill at O'Hare.  Sigh.

Uneventful flight, and only about an hour of waiting for my first-ever 
checked bag to Vegas to come tumbling out of the little chute  What do 
they *do* back there in baggage claim ?  Wouldn't you think a city basically built on 
getting tourists to the tables would try to speed up the process of 
getting them their bags ?  Anyway, I'm on my way to the Venetian.  NO taxi line - strange. 
Everyone must still be waiting for their bags.

Enter the Venetian.  Wow.  We ain't downtown anymore Toto.  This place is 
gorgeous.  And BIG.   I'm in the 'some Italian name' towers, and the 
directions are literally 'Go through that entrance, up the elevator, left, 
right, left, left, right, and up another elevator.'.  Boggle.  I try to envision 
finding this room after the Craps Crawl, and suddenly wish I hadn't left 
the GPS at home.

The room is very large, and I briefly regret that I'll spend but 16 hours 
here over the course of the next 5 days.  I quickly get over it.

Drop off the stuff, and head down to the poker room.

Find the room with ease, and it is very nice.  I really liked the comp 
system and tableside food service.  Saves 30 minutes of sleep a day for 
those 10:00 tourneys !

I say hello to Barger's left and right, and pretty soon it's time for the 
Lowbah tourney.   I love this tourney, but I suck at it.   I nonetheless 
last until about 1/3 of the field remains, but bust out when <some hand> 
gets beat by <some better hand by a pip>.  Saddenz.   I then sit down in a Binglaha game.

Apparently Binglaha went the night before in a BIG way - with the lead 
story being Sharon 'ADBLuckBabe' Goldman scooping some monster, 3 or 4k 
pot with the non-nuts both ways even after running it twice.  Wowsa. 
The game is being played $2-5, with multiple straddles, etc.   I'm amazed to 
see theyeven had an official Venetian die for the roll.  Wow - they get us here ! 
I play monstrously tight, as $2-5 is out of my bankroll zone, especially 
on the first day of BARGE.   Nothing much happens to me,  and I call off a 
stack or so and decide to bail out.   I hang around, and I'm sure I did something, but 
can't really remember what it was.  I think it involved Jester, and Casino 
Royalle craps.  Crash about 3:00 or so given I've been up for 24 hours at 
that point.


Thursday

Wake up at the very non-BARGE like hour of 7:00, and just can't get back 
to sleep.  I wander around the casino and even outside to get a feel for 
the surroundings.  I'm supposed to meet up with C-Horse Team Deadhead at 
9:30 for breakfast, and it's still only 8:00.   I sit down at the 
Sportsbook bar to get a coffee, and quickly hit the VP machine for $100 
win.  Yay me !    I wander over to Cafe Luxe - still no deadheads, so I 
sit down at a $15 Blackjack table with my $100 profit.   20 minutes later 
I've won $300, and cash out when I see JR sitting at the Cafe entrance. 
The other Deadheads soon arrive, and we're joined by Jester, Goldie, and 
and one or two other groupies for a nice big breakfast, discussion of live music, and the drawing of the game selection 
out of the hat.

I get an awesome live Chris Whitley CD from Grizz - Thanks !!.   I draw 
the HE round, and quickly trade for the Stud round, as I anticipate 
playing lots of holdem over the next few days (foreshadowing !).

C-Horse is fun, and I add a moderate amount to the team's stack every 
time.  Sherri Brabec r00ls for us.  However, Deadhead takes some hits in 
the final round, and we end up profitable, but 5th (by FIVE CHIPS).  I was 
playing in a $3-6 game in between my rounds, and ask Jester to play my 
stack while I move back to CHorse.  I leave him with 120 chips.  I come back and he 
looks crestfallen with about a stack left.  Mumbles something about bad 
beats, straddles, whatever.  I console him, rebuy, and proceed to win the 
100 chips back in two hands.  Only after the NEXT round does he reveal that he 
slid the chips over to the guy on my left as a prank.  WABOR !  I totally 
fell for it.  Well done !

I move the the live NL game.  There is a guy who has never played before 
with about $900 in chips, and no clue.  He keeps trying to take some of 
the money off the table, and doesn't seem to really understand why he 
can't.  He finally leaves, and I win about $100 on AA, then realize I'm 
falling asleep at the table, the fish is gone, and head upstairs for a 
quick nap.

Grab Foldem and a bunch of BARGERS, and we can't decide between noodles 
and Cafe Lux.  The line quickly determines it's the Luxe, and we have a 
nice dinner and good conversation.

Back just in time for the Stud Shootout.  I finished 3rd in this event 
last year, and was looking forward to repeating.  My hopes are almost 
dashed when I'm down to T300 after the first two levels.  However, I play 
the short stack well, and soon have some chips again.  I get moved to a table with Richard 
'Quiet-Lion' Brodie, and introduce myself and complement him on his BLOG.  I try 
to make small talk, but apparently I don't do a good job, and he seems to 
look at me like I'm a twit.  Oh well.  He loosened up later.    I manage 
to somehow survive to heads up with Ross Poppel, who has me outchipped at 
least 10:1.  I think I won one or two pots, but am quickly eliminated in 
2nd place.  Ross played very well.  That tourney was still going about 
3:30 or so when I left to go to bed, so we might want to reexamine the structure there.

I'm cashing out my $75 consolation prize, toke $10 to the TD, and then see 
Murray standing in line to do the same thing.  'Ro-Sham-Bo for the $65 ?'. 
Sure.

Race to ten.  I'm quickly up 6-0.  Murray looks dazed.   I crush the life 
out of him winning 10-2.  I see deeply into his soul.  It's dusty, and 
good use a good cleaning.

Jester and I head to TI for some dice.  I have a monster roll, but fail to 
bet it hard.  Jester does not, and I dig him out of big early hole.  I win 
back losses at Pai Gow.  Back to Venetian.   I'm pretty sure I played some 
VP and broke even. Pretty sure I played Binglaha.   Don't remember much else, but crawl 
up to sleep about 4:00 or so.


Friday

Having prepped for the expected late-night CrapsCrawl/Kareoke/Wedding by 
getting a solid 4.5 hours of sleep, I stumble down for the TOC.  Order 
breakfast tableside, and it eventually comes.  It kind of sucks, but it's 
food.

Played pretty well in this tourney for a while, and then ran out of cards. 
I lasted fairly deep again, busting about 3:15 or so.  I really don't 
remember too many hands here.  I end up at Richard Brodie's table again, 
and he appears to at least tolerate me now.  I have a $100 last longer 
with Gavin, and we're even in chips for mostly the whole tourney.  Then he 
goes on some monster stud-rush, and has me beaten badly.  I hate paying Gavin off !  I tilt 
over to the bad EV VP machines, and quickly hit Quad deuces for $200.  I 
feel better :)

I try to listen to he directions to the Symposium, hear them wrong, and 
send Patrick Milligan off in the wrong direction - Sorry Patrick !.  A 
herd of BARGERS and I finally locate the symposium, and I borrow someones 
phone to call Peg and say 'Hi'.  I wander around the symposium, and 
eventually Gavin convinces BoBo to go buy a deck of cards after I try (and 
fail) to locate one.  We settle down for $10 a point Chinese, dealing into the 
players cupped hands like some sort of Gamblers Communion.  Someone 
(Prock?) took a picture - please send me a copy !.   I end up exactly even 
for this game, which somehow makes me think I know something about 
Chinese.  I later proved this was not the case !

I convince a bunch of folks to meet up to head to MSS for a 
pre-craps-crawl dinner at the brewpub.  We end up with Un,Foldem, Chuck, 
Kubey, Bullbert, Jester, Prock, and a bunch of others.  Kevin gives us a 
ride, nearly backing up into a cop, almost slamming into the erotic poster on the cab 
in front of us, and almost running over some guy in the cross-walk. 
Thanks for the ride Kev !   Have a nice dinner.  Kevin Un and I end up 
playing credit card roulette for some portion of the dinner.  I lost.  The 
waitress was confused.  It was fun.  Prock, who ordered a $4 salad 
declined to play, as did Bullbert.  Pussies.

We get out to the pit, and BARGERS have completely taken over one table. 
I can't get on, so I play the $0.01 slot machine next to the pit.  I rally 
back with some monstrous jackpot to win 350 pennies and break even.   Dave 
Croson offers to teach me how to play +EV Jacks or Better at the bar.  I 
blow $40 in about 3 minutes.  Vp sucks, bring on the penny slots.

I move over to Blackjack, and start betting high on a really positive 
count.  Bullbert comes up behind me and asks in a loud voice 'What's the 
count' ? Aiyah.  He sits down and proceeds to count out loud.  I guess 
they really don't care at a $5 table !.  I win $100 or so, and we move on 
to Binions.

Everyone lines up at the cage and buys a stack or so of white chips for 
the drive-by dealer toking.  We wander through the poker room, throwing 
the dealers money, amazing the rocks, and making Carole, the poker room 
manager ,cry a little bit.  She gave me a big hug and said how much they would love to 
see us come back.

Through the secret passage and off to the Binions dice pit.  $5 game I 
think.  I get crushed.   Jester takes his turn at the $0.01 slot machines, 
and flops like 15 pirates (Arghhhh!) to book a $3.06 jackpot.  I take a 
picture of all the pirates.

We head to Fitzgeralds.  I play craps for a little bit.  At one point load 
up most if not all the bases and someone sevens out.  But they pay me $40 
for my $5 come bet ! ?  Dingz !  I grab it and run to the Blackjack table. 
Howler and Mrs. Howler sweat me as I somehow turn $40 into $300 in about 15 
minutes.   He promises to sweat me if I go deep in the NLHE as well.  What 
a riot.  We have a blast screaming and high fiving, etc.  Jester is tilted because 
they declined to recognize some bet he made, but eventually the pit boss 
wanders over and fixes things.

I cash out, and we head up to the wedding.  Chris is handing out wedding 
chips.  I love BARGE.   We settle down for some pre-wedding songs.  The 
quality is amazingly good.  Frank Brabec is one hell of a harp player ! 
I proceed to spend the blackjack profits on rounds of beers.

Nolan escorts Amy down the aisle.  She looks fantastic !  Chris looks 
proud and happy.  Patti does a very nice job on the ceremony.  At this 
point my allergies kicked in and I had some wattery eyes issues.  Soon 
cleared up.  They dance to some beautiful Peter Gabriel song - what was 
that Ploink ?

Then Kareoke resumes.  'Baby Got Back' with Tanya and ?? was the highlight 
for me.  That was awesome !  I join the ADB's for a song.  I join team 
Chicago for a song.  I sing some song badly with Peter.  Pretty much the 
entire crowd sings Bohemian Rhapsody.  We drink.  We scream.  We have a great 
time.

Thanks to Frank Nutz Brabec for putting this together.  I had an absolute 
riot !

Back to the Venetian about 4:15.  Jester heads up to room.  I brain cramp 
and head to casino to get 'one more drink'.  Jester pleads.  I ignore.
Have my only pit-melt of BARGE ordering a $300 stoli-ice at the quarter BJ 
table..  At one point almost get kicked out of casino when the FOURTH 
person in FIVE MINUTES interrupts me from behind WHILE I'M IN THE MIDDLE 
OF A HAND to ask to borrow a match.  Have these people NEVER been in a
casino before ?  I go OFF, screaming about 'Euro Trash Morons'.  Pit boss 
asks me to settle down.  I grumble and leave having lost 12 consecutive 
hands.   Not happy.  I've NEVER had anyone at a downtown dive interrupt
me in the middle of a hand when they're not even in the 
game !

Come on people, get a clue.

Stumble up to bed, try to duck the 'I told you so' look from Jester, and 
fall asleep in about 3 seconds.

Saturday

What the HELL IS THAT NOISE.  Oh yeah, wake up call.  Groan.  Actually 
don't feel TOO bad.  Clean up, and head downstairs, only missing most of 
the single $25 blind 'sleep in' round.

My table is really tight - too tight I think.  Kyle quickly shows that 
he's not to be messed with, so I stay out of his way, and bully the table 
early to get some chips.  I also get AA three times in the first two 
rounds.  I would not see then again.  Ploink is at my table, but busts out 
within the first 1.5 hours or so.  We break, and I have a below average 
stack.  I will have a below average stack for the rest of the tournament 
with perhaps one or two hands as an exception.   I get moved to a table 
with my BARGE tourney nemesis - Dr. Tom Overton.  He doesn't seem to
remember, but he has crippled me in many BARGE tourneys over the years.  I 
play one key hand with him where he has me well covered.  He's playing tight,
  and open-raises UTG for about 2x the BB. Folded to me, and I call with 
AJh on the button.  I'm pretty sure I'm behind here, but I can put him on
a small range of hands.  Flop is A-Q-x.  Ick.  He bets some small amount, 
and I brain cramp and 'raise to see where I'm at'.  He jams, and I am clear
about where I'm at.  Dumb move on my part, and I dump.

That's about the only mistake I think I made in the tourney.

I play the magic glasses to the hilt, jamming or folding.  I try to pick 
out one or two people at each table who will fold, and just pretty much 
autojam if it's unraised to me.  I get some cards, double up a few times, 
lose some chips, and before you know it we're down to two tables.  I have 
about 2/3 the average stack, and end up losing a critical pot to Dan 
Goldman when my AT loses to his all in T-9.  Crippled again, but what's 
this ?  You're paying 20 players ?

Cool - I'm in the money !!

I hunker down and resolve to be patient.  Don't get much in the way of 
hands, but somehow find myself at the final table !  I have 9,000 in 
chips, which is not enough to get through the blinds.   First hand of 
final table, Howler and Mrs. Howler are right behind me sending out good 
vibes.  I need to hire them.  I double up with 22 on the first hand, and 
get some chips.  I suck out on some all ins and otherwise blind off.
Players start busting, and soon it's dinner time and we're down to 5.

I enjoy the dinner, and thought Phil Gordon was great.   Bob Ogus was a 
champ straight guy, and that watch he got was pretty nifty !!

We head back to finish the final table.   I get tons of good wishes. 
Mickdog, Nick, Howler, etc. - you guys are great.  I really appreciate the 
kind words and best wishes. We start with me having 68k, and the 15k big 
blind.  I'm resolved to call with just about anything here.  I sneak a 
peak and have 8-3 off.  I walk ! Good omen.   Mordechi starts going on a 
monster rush.  Heldar, who had all the chips is looking a little teetery. 
I'm not trying to farm for the money, but had noticed that 5th to 3rd got 
an extra 1k.  That's real money to me, so I'm not going to just pick any hand.

I get NO cards.  8-3, 9-2, 7-3, etc.   I win a pot when I see a free flop 
and flop a deuce with 7-2 and get Heldar to call me on the river having 
correctly put him on big overcards.   Frank and I chop the ADB Last Longer 
bet.  Ed Hack busts   We're down to 4.  I have one tough decision.  Mordechi raises all 
in to cover me UTG.  I have about 1/5 my chips in the BB.  I have 7-8 
suited.   I think, and finally fold.  Just not strong enough in my opinion.

We get down to 3 players, and I have A-6 UTG.  I jam, and Mordechi thinks, 
and finally calls with A9.  He makes (I think) three nines, and I bust 3rd 
for the second time in the NLHE, and third time in a BARGE tourney.   I 
blame it all on the fact that Howler had to go to bed.  Next time I'm 
buying him a plane ticket so he doesn't have to drive !

I wish I could have caught one hand when down to five, but I was card dead 
and could almost never be first in to the pot..  Mordechi played a great 
final five, and I really felt for Heldar who just got crushed by the cards 
after dinner after playing a great tournament.   Congrats to all.  I had a 
chance to talk with Mordechi and his wife at the cage, and I think he'll 
make a great BARGE champ.  This was his first BARGE, but he promises it 
won't be the last.  Nice guy.

I try to sit in Binglaha, but the brushes don't have a clue.  I play some 
CP with JP Massar, Bart Simpson, and someone else really good (Mike Maurer 
?).  I get crushed for about $400.  Patti comes and helps me for a while 
and saves me a couple hundred on one hand.  I get up.

Move to Binglaha, and get a bad beat when Foldem correctly folds a hand 
playing Sharon's stack that I *know* she would have doubled me up on. 
Some non-BARGER who'se been sitting in Binglaha all week is playing over 
agressive, and I finally take a big pot off of him to get even for the 
game and decide to call it a night.   Was able to give Foldem a goodbye 
hug the next morning, but didn't find anyone else.  Note that the Venetian 
offers comped bottles of water in the taxi line.  That was a nice touch.

I had a blast.   Have still not caught up on sleep.

I enjoyed being on the strip.  I really liked the Venetian poker room. 
However, I always felt out of place in between the poker room and the 
hotel room.  I prefer downtown for cheaper eats and cheaper pits, but I 
also note that I came back a winner since I (with one exception) avoided 
the late nite pit screwings. I'll go wherever, but I think the Venetian 
deserves us back if they want us - they treated us VERY well.

Thanks to all mentioned above.  Thanks to Jester for sharing the room ! 
Thanks to Lee and everyone at Stars.NET for helping in years past and 
hopefully years to come.  And thanks to everyone who made me laugh, 
listened to a bad beat story, gave me a ride, ate with me, etc.  You guys 
are my favorite people in the world, and I can't wait to see you all 
again.

Don 'ADBBingo 'Rieck