Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:01:37 -0600
From: Bob Jones 
Subject: Best BARGE ever (and even donkeys find a nut once in a while)

When I was leaving the reindeer games Sunday morning around 3:30 am, I 
stopped by Peter's table to thank him for everything he did and he said 
the one thing that he asks is that people write trip report.  I didn't 
see Chuck to thank him so this trip report is to thank both of them for 
all their hard work rescuing BARGE.  When I popped my cherry last year, 
I was really disappointed in how badly I played in the two tourneys I 
played so my main goal this year, besides having a good time, was to 
play better.  I think I did.  

I got to the Venetian shortly after the Lazy Pineapple tourney had 
started.  Since I knew I wouldn't get there in time, I hadn't signed up 
for it, though.  I found Scottro, Russ, Mickdog, Schmengie, and Sean and 
said hello.  They were all still in, but were talking about playing in 
the 11 pm at Caesars, so I had some time to kill.  I got into a $1-2 NL 
game.  I don't remember any details other than I won a little.   Those 
guys were mostly still in, so I went over to Caesars solo and got 
promptly lost in the damn Forum shops.   I got there right at 11 and 
ended up on the alternate list, finally getting seated halfway through 
the second round. Unfortunately, I was completely card dead and never 
got anything going, busting after about two hours with half the field 
left.  

Since I have an impeccable sense of direction, I got lost on my way out 
too, finally getting back to the luxurious Casino Royale around 2 am.  
For a shithole that cost ~$50-80 a night, the room in the Royale was way 
nicer than I expected.  It had a tiled bathroom, a little fridge, and a 
safe.  The plastic mattress cover was a little disconcerting, though.  I 
don't want to think about what the mattress was being protected from.

As usual, I couldn't sleep late in Vegas so I was back at the Venetian 
around 9 am.  I don't know what it is, but no matter when I go to bed in 
Vegas I always wake up early.  The poker room was dead, so I grabbed 
some breakfast at the Grand Luxe and then decided to head over to the 
Wynn and see what kind of action I could find there.  They had a couple 
tables going, mostly $1-3 NL and $4-8 HE with a list for $8-16.  Shortly 
after I got there they announced they had one seat left for a satellite 
into their noon $330, so I bought in for $85.  One the second level, I 
picked up JJ in the big blind.  There was one raiser with no callers so 
I pushed, he called w/AQo (how could he call ME with that???) and 
rivered a queen and IGBTVN.

I had to leave to head back to the Venetian because I had left my credit 
card at the Grand Luxe, which they were holding for me.  Once my credit 
card was back in my wallet, I got back to the poker room right as they 
were starting a r00ling $1-2NL game.  Were there ANY $1-2NL games at the 
Venetian that weren't r00ling?  I booked a nice win of $450 mostly on 
the back of a couple nice full houses.  I forget what I did for dinner, 
so if I had dinner with you I apologize.

Soon enough it was time for the Zimmer Memorial Lowbah.  Thanks everyone 
for the tips and links, but I hadn't had a chance to print anything out 
before heading to the airport, so I got a briefing on the rules and 
started playing.  To be honest, the most of the tournament is a blur 
until the last two tables.  I had a decent stack the whole way and 
because I had no idea what what made good starting hands, I did two 
things well.  I played really tight and payed a lot of attention to 
position.  A lot of people were getting short stacked and it was getting 
exciting as I could actually contemplate getting to a BARGE final table, 
an achievement I never thought possible for someone of my limited poker 
skills.

Then came the one BARGE incident I really regret happened.  Stephen 
Landrum was all in and I mis-called my hand.  I had drawn two and looked 
at my cards and thought I had a 9 high, so I called a 9 as I turned over 
my cards and Stephen mucked.  Someone pointed out I had actually paired 
my 4 and Stephen said he had a king high.  Shit.  The floor ruled I got 
the pot (I'm not sure I agree with this, since there was also a 3rd 
person in the pot who had paired his 5 and his cards were face up).  I 
still feel awful about this and feel that it tainted my finish.  I 
apologize again, Stephen.

Somehow we were shortly at the final table (I knocked out Grizz along 
the way) and I was pretty close to being chip leader.  My draws 
continued to hit and soon it was down to 4.  Then 3.  Then I knocked out 
Schmengie when I paired my ace and he paired his deuce.  Suddenly, I was 
heads up with Kenny Shei with a 4:1 chip lead on him.  Kenny didn't give 
up though and after getting him all in before the draw only to pair my 
three when he paired his deuce, we had a battle.  A battle in which he 
prevailed.  Congrats Kenny, well played!  He'd never played Lowball 
before either, but was very aggressive and as Phil Gordon pointed out 
aggression is a key to winning poker.

I was feeling a number of different emotions as I wandered back to the 
Royale.  I had a combination of exhaustion, elation at finishing so 
highly, disappointment at blowing my chip lead, and regret for the 
mis-called hand.  You would think I would have been able to get a full 
night's sleep.  Nope, I was wide awake 5 hours later at 8 am.  Andrew 
showed up from the airport shortly after and we headed over to the 
Venetian so he could meet his CHORSE team and we could get some 
breakfast.  In the poker room we met Prock and JP Massar and joined them 
for breakfast.  Afterwards they headed off for CHORSE and I got into 
another r00ling $1-2NL game.

Holy shit it was a crazy game.  First we had 5 guys on holiday from 
London whose main goal was to r00le each other with outrageous bluffs 
and crazy suckouts.  For example, three people in the pot after the 
flop, a non-Brit bets, Londoner 1 raises all in for about $50, 2nd 
Londoner comes over the top for another $50, non-Brit folds.  2nd 
Londoner had  T7s with no ten, no seven, none of his suit, and no 
straight draw on the board.  It did raise some eyebrows about collusion, 
but they weren't that smart.  One by one the Brits busted out and were 
replaced by even worse players.  It was a revolving door of people who 
had never played in a casino.  One newbie finished up over $600, most of 
the rest blew through $100-200 and then left.  If not for an ugly 
suckout when I flopped Broadway and got all the money in on the flop I'd 
have finished up over $400 again.  Surprisingly I didn't tilt.  Much.  
He obviously didn't know who *I* am.  How could he call *ME* with bottom 
pair and a bad straight draw?  As it was I finished up around $100 after 
5 hours.

I was getting hungry, but there were announcements for the math geeks 
group, so I joined that despite having lost any math skills about 15 
years ago.  I stayed for an hour before going to dinner with Russ and 
Corey.   Jerrod & Bill kept the discussion very accessible and I was 
sorry to leave, but I was starving at this point.  I'll definitely buy 
their book.

After noodles at the noodle bar, Russ and most other people I know were 
signed up for the stud shootout.  I decided to play the 8 pm tourney at 
the Venetian.  I played well early.  "Played well" mostly involved 
folding except for getting aces twice against Pizzaman, although I did 
also make a nice call against a local who claimed to be a "pro".  I had 
JJ on the button, raised 4x the BB, he reraised, I called.  The flop was 
K high and he insta-pushed and proceeded to stare at me for about a 
minute.  It just felt like the classic "strong is weak" tell, so I 
finally called.  He flipped over A3o having flopped bottom pair.  He 
didn't improve, so he got to rebuy.  I then lost a chunk with AK vs QQ, 
then crippled myself on a steal w/ATo.  Right after that I got moved to 
Dan Goldman's table.  He promptly bought me a beer.  Thanks again Dan!  
It was nice to meet him and fun to play at his table.   I was pretty 
desperate and pushed w/83s and doubled trough Tanya.  I then doubled up 
again (and still only had 6x the BB), and then I went bust and it was 
back to the Royale.  I forget the hand.   Anyway, other than my ATo hand 
I was pretty happy with my play.

Oz had gotten in at some point (actually he made it to the Venetian in 
time to play the 8 pm, getting busted by Tanya when she had a straight 
flush and he had a fullhouse) and Andrew had busted in the stud shootout 
getting heads up at his table with Nolan, so we headed to the Royale.  
Back at the room, we talked p0cker for a while as Andrew blew up an air 
mattress since he was consigned to the floor.  Sadly for him it wasn't a 
blow-up Annie Duke.

Friday morning we were up pretty early and got some breakfast before 
getting to the Venetian poker room for the TOC.  I don't remember much 
about the tourney, other than I was card dead.  I made it about 4 or 5 
hours though.  Afterwards I got into a r00ling $1-2 NL game with 
Scottro.  How juicy?  The guy on Scottro's left was prop betting him 2:1 
on who would get the better hand.  Soon it was time for the Symposium 
and I got into the ADV'ers group that Bill Chen was leading.  When my 
name came up Bill asked me to rate myself on a scale of 1 to 5.  Uh 
yeah, let me explain to a two time bracelet winner whether I'm any good 
or not.  I feigned humility and said, "I don't know, maybe a two to 
three."  I think we bought half the field.  

Russ, Scottro, Andrew and I headed down to Main Street for dinner and 
the craps crawl.  The craps crawl was awesome.  It seemed to work out 
much better than last year.  Probably because I was always in the 
black.  Nice roll, Doc!!!  Afterwards we headed to the wedding.  I don't 
know Ploink or Amy much and thought the whole thing was going to be kind 
of cheesy.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  The pre-karoke was great 
and the ceremony was touching.  My allergies must have kicked in because 
I got a little misty.  Patti did a great job with the vows.  Congrats to 
Amy & Ploink!

Schmengie gave us a ride back to the strip and Oz, Andrew, and I talked 
about some more p0cker hands before catching some z's.  We were up early 
again and headed back to the Venetian for the main event.  I was a card 
rack early, catching AA three times and a number of AK hands.  
Unfortunately, only one AA won more than the blinds and AK was a net 
loser.  Gillian made a nice play against me when she had position with 
AQs and got me to fold my AK on the flop, Terrance won a hand w/JJ 
against my AK when we checked the turn and river after a queen high flop 
and then later he won a race w/JJ again against my AK when we got the 
money in before the flop.  Somehow I still chipped up and was pretty 
comfortable when I got moved to another table.  

I had a couple other interesting hands at my original table.  In one, 
Bobo was seated to my right and raised, I folded and Fich stared at me 
for about a minute trying to figure out what to do.  He finally realized 
that it was Bobo who had raised not, me and said that I wasn't giving up 
anything.  It was pretty funny, but you probably had to be there.  
Shortly after busting, Gavin came over to sweat Bobo and it gave me a 
chance to r00le him.  Bobo had about $1100 left and made a big overbet 
raising to about $450 when the blinds were still $25-50.  It felt pretty 
weak, so I came over the top for $1200 to put him all in and he folded.  
I forget what I had ;-)  Gavin gave him some shit for "making a donkey 
raise and then being a pussy when it was time to gamble".  Again it was 
pretty funny, but you probably had to be there.

After getting moved, I bounced up and down some, but slowly built a good 
chip stack ($18k at my peak, I believe), but after a suckout against 
Warren when my AJ knocked out his AQ, I went card dead for a while and 
got blinded down to $11k when I finally got a hand.  The blinds were 
something like $1k-2k w/$100 ante and Peter raised, RktSci reraised all 
in for about $9k, and I pushed with my queens.  Peter thought about it 
for a while and finally called with his TT.  My QQ dominated his TT and 
RktSci's 88 and as he wrote earlier he turned an 8.  I still had a few 
chips with something like $3500, but got nothing until I pushed a few 
hands later in the big blind.  My 97o never improved against Maracai's 
JT and IGHN busted in 28th.  I was pretty disappointed because I felt 
like if I won that hand I had a real chance to go deep again.  Oh well, 
I'd been a luckbox in the Lowbah, so it's only fair that someone else 
got lucky.

The banquet was great, Phil Gordon had me in stitches.  I'm glad Bob O 
had a great sense of humor about the J8s hand otherwise it would have 
been a little brutal.  Phil of all people should understand the implied 
tilt odds Bob was getting on that hand.  And for those of you who think 
Phil was just playing it up and wasn't tilted, think again.  After he 
busted he stood behind my table bitching to Perry about it for about 10 
minutes.  If I'd been thinking I'd have turned around and ask him for a 
dollar.  I also thought Nolan's tribute was great.

I signed up for the $3-6 must drink mixed games and got seated in the 
must move game.  After about 10 minutes of debate we settled on HORSE.  
Things started calmly enough, but as the booze flowed, Zbignew's chip 
castle grew, first Grizz, then Kenny Shei started playing hands blind 
and it turned into a wild game.  Eventually I got moved to the main game 
to the left of Michelle, Patti, and Prock.  Michelle had a massive pile 
of chips.  Kenny and Grizz also got moved.  Michelle, Prock, Grizz, and 
Kenny were *all* playing hands blind.  The main game had a different 
mix, with 2-7 tripple draw and Badugi thrown in, neither of which I'd 
ever played.  Given that by now I was getting kind of drunk (Prock said 
folding before the 3rd draw in triple draw when there was about $200 in 
the pot was a bad move on my part and I tend to agree) and it was $15 
pre-flop to see a flop, I picked the wrong time to get no cards.  I'd 
gone from $300 to forty bucks when I decided it was time to make a 
stand.  Yes, that's right, time to play blind.  I got my last $40 in 
blind on the turn of an O8 hand and won over $100 getting the high half 
of the main pot when my Q3sXX for a flush was good enough despite a 
paired board.  Ding!  What a blast that game was.  Michelle kept 
winning, chips were flying, and suddenly it was after 3 in the morning 
when I called it a night.

The flight home was uneventful and I'm saddenz that BARGE is over for 
another year, but I have a lot of great memories (and some great 
schwag).  Thanks again Peter & Chuck for the BEST BARGE EVAAAR!


Bob Jones
to be x-posted at http://gunga-galunga.livejournal.com