Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2006 01:29:59 -0800 From: "Tilt City" Subject: [BARGE] belated trip report I figured I should send this out. Sorry it's so late! BARGE 2006 Wednesday: Got in and went to dinner at the Palms... then played in the lowball tournament. I got some helpful advice throughout from Steve Landrum, Sabyl Cohen, Jerrod Ankenman, and Betty Tanenbaum (who was at my table). I got lucky and won the tourney as I was drawing very well... I'd do stuff like draw three and hit a seven, or draw two and hit the wheel. Ding! (note: the people who were giving me advice didn't tell me to play *that* loose) During the weekend people started calling me Spencer 2.0 (apparently Spencer plays lowball too). After the tourney, I played played Chinese poker for the first time. This was a three-handed version with 17 cards each. 1. a four-card badugi hand 2. a three-card hand in the front (like regular CP) 3. a five-card hand, evaluated like a 2-7 lowball hand (this is a common variant in CP). 4. a five-card hand in the back The 52nd card is used as a tiebreaker; if two players tie two-two, then whoever has the highest card of the same suit as the extra card in their 2-7 hand wins the tiebreaker. Thursday: I wasn't signed up for CHORSE, but I went to the poker room and got in a Chinese poker side game, playing $10/point against JP, Bill, and Jerrod. ("If you can't spot the guy who hasn't written a CP simulator, then...") I got drafted to sub in for Murray on Moosecocks team, so I had to wear a moose hat while playing in the hold'em round. After this I went to I Love Sushi. Good food, good saki (Ben or Asya, did you ever send out the list of sakis?), and good fun. Great names on the dishes, by the way. Friday: Funny moment in Chinese poker: JP had been giving me some tips since I was a newbie, and occasionally, I'd set my hand and show it to him (when he was dealt out) so he could comment on it later. Sometimes I'd do this with tough decisions. Other times with hopeless hands so that he could nod with sympathy or it would be a monster hand which I was proud to show off. So this one time I was dealt a monster and showed it to JP. Ploink took some time to set his hand and then surrendered in turn, saying that his "Spidey Sense" had gone off. Then Bill asked, "Spidey Sense, where's that from, anyway?" The whole table replied together, "Spiderman!" We had a good laugh about it because we could add it to the list of Bill Chen-isms. At the symposium, I joined a syndicate with Caryl and David Aronson, Michael Brennan, and Stephen Markowitz (and maybe some others I forget). At the end of the bidding, there was a "Sasha Schwartz" added at the last minute to the list of names. I had heard the name before in the context of math contests, and when Bill and Jerrod started getting into a bidding war, Bayes' Theorem kicked in and I figured they knew something. Afterwards, I told Jerrod about this and he said it would have been funny if it turned out he and Bill had gotten into a bidding war over a random woman named Sasha Schwartz. After dinner at Bouchon (thanks, Bill!), I went with Actionbob to the Horseshoe to try to catch the craps crawl. Bob figures they'd be in that area, and he was right on the first guess. Karaoke and Chris and Amy's wedding at Fitzgerald's was a blast. Some highlights: Chuck singing Teen Angel, Nolan singing Free Fallin', I sang Sweet Caroline with Actionbob, Mark (with a bit of help from Terrence) did Rapper's Delight, Mark and Tanya on Baby Got Back. The official virgin song was Like A Virgin. I walked in on the middle (because I was out getting drinks) and joined them on stage. (Unfortunately, it was hard to get drinks in the room so I had to go to the bar each time.) Saturday: NLHE tourney: I was hung over from the night before, and got a huge rice krispie treat thing to eat. At my table: Bill Chen, Michelle Lancaster, Perry Friedman, Scott Harker, Razzo, and a few others. Tough table... a few bracelets and a few poker books between everyone. Perry asked me if I would give him the rice krispie thing if he busted me. I told him I'd give him half. Later on I got moved to a table with Oz (Michael Osbourne) and Connie Kellers. One time there was a hand where Oz raised, and someone jammed, Oz had to decide whether to call all-in. While he was in the tank, I started daydreaming, and I asked Oz some question about the AFC West (he's a Broncos fan) while forgetting he was still thinking. Sorry, Oz! Dan Goldman raised me, I had QQ in the big blind and I went all-in before the flop. Dan finally folded and I told him I had queens and he exclaimed "Yes, I'm a genius!" as he said he had folded jacks. After that, my stack slowly got whittled away. I finally went all-in and Michael Maurer had the odds to call me blind. It turned out he had me dominated too, and IGHN. Banquet: Nolan gave a great gift to Chris (Ploink) and Amy. How cool was it that Chip Reese won with exactly those hole cards? I really enjoyed Phil Gordon's presentation (with great audience participation too). After the banquet: World Roshambo Championships. I had never played for money before, and it showed. Mark (Dagon) Rafn raced out to a 6-0 lead, but I dug in and cut the lead to 6-4. At 9-9, we both took a little time out to compose ourselves and set up our throw. One, two, shoot. I lost. I think it was scissors against paper, but I don't remember. An expert could tell you the relevant details (the final throw, possible ties before that to provide meaningful context, etc.) but I'm a beginner and just remember I threw something lost. Mark picked up a lot of points following ties. In those instances, I went to scissors too often, and Mark exploited that. The finals was Barry Goren (BARGE Virgin) against Perry Friedman (long-time Tiltboy). Barry had survived a 10-8 and two 10-9 matches to get there, and Perry had won 10-3, 10-4, and 10-5. It was a clash of two styles. Barry was quiet throughout, and Perry was very talkative. Perry would tell Barry and the audience what Barry was thinking. Phil Gordon provided the commentary. Before the first throw, Asya stood behind Perry and gave the scissors sign to Barry. Then they went up to the stage and Barry threw scissors on his first throw, losing. I guess that's what you get from following advice from someone who just lot to Perry the round before! When Perry got out to a 3-0 lead, Phil said that Perry might be running away with it. But Barry settled down and got a couple of points to close the gap to 3-2. Perry got ahead again, but Barry was about to tune out "The Baiter's" comments and tie the game at 7-7. Perry hadn't been under any serious pressure before in previous games Saturday night / Sunday morning: played some must-drink chowaha, and also must-drink HORSE. I switched tables with Prock for a while. One time he called me over, apologized for all the work I was about to have to do, and then let me sweep in this huge pot he had won playing my chips. Thanks! Playing razz, I got a wheel twice without looking at my hole cards. One time I started with a 5 showing. 4th-6th streets: 4, 3, 2, (forget the exact order). River card turned out to be an ace. Ding! My other two hole cards were bricks, natch. I found out that I was on the same Southwest flight back as Prock early Sunday morning, so we caught a taxi to the airport together. We were both so exhausted from the weekend that we passed out as soon as the plane took off. Miscellaneous thoughts: The Venetian was great. I think when the first BARGER busted out of the tournament, someone on the staff immediately made the announcement that they were still taking signups with the Venetian tournament just about to start. That got a hearty round of laughs from everyone. It's great to play in a cardroom that really gets us. I never got a chance to play the drunken heads-up lowball freezeout against Bill Chen. Maybe next time if Spencer is there, Bill can play both of us Bill Fillmaff style. (For those of you who haven't seen the video, Bill Fillmaff plays at the first table like normal, while sitting with his back to a second table. He reaches around his back to play his cards blind at the second table.) "Man, that guy is a tenacious blind defender..."