Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 02:41:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Ken Kubey Subject: [BARGE] QB's 2007 BARGE Trip Report The story of my twelfth BARGE. "Oh No." And yes, I had to look up how to spell "twelfth." Tuesday, July 31st ----------------------- Go to mailbox hoping that my cool BARGE T-shirt has arrived. Nope. Rats!! Couple of hours later, UPS delivers the shirt! Ding! Thanks Scottro. Wednesday, August 1st. ----------------------- We are driving down. I want to leave at 2:00 a.m. I tell Sandi that I want to leave at midnight. We are on the road promptly at 2:30 a.m. Jack in the Box at I-5/Hwy 46 interchange, Baker thermometer, Barstow, Primm for lunch and practice gambling. To Binion's. Check in line. JR walks by, says he's already so stuck that he'll have to win the BARGE NL to get ahead. Not good. The room is pretty nice and big. Walk by video poker tournament. See Andy Bloch and is way cool iPhone. Talk with Jim Bullard and some young BARGErs. At some point Jim says: "I'm good at corrupting young people. (pause) I should become a priest." Laughter all around. I'm standing with a group of BARGErs. Connie hands me a room key. Some winks and funny comments. Search for Connie's name again to learn what that was about ;-) We go for two of the $2.99 Big Shrimp cocktails at the Golden Gate. He have a 99c one two. Later I see Peter and some other ADBers. I'm presented with my own ADB hat. I kinda jump and do a fist pump. This is perhaps the my greatest honor since graduating from Cal. ADB QB. Wow! Mike "Howler" McBride is the only other inductee at BARGE 2007. Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn, eat your hearts out. We are off to play craps. We take the secret passage. No one tries to stop us. Gotta love the secret passage. Peter explains his craps system. I lose a little. Catch a great two hour nap until about 9:00 p.m. We go play craps again. Choppy session. Then ADB Bingo gets the dice. I bet a dollar on 11. Bingo comes out with an 11. $15 for me. Later I bet a $5 hard six. Bingo nails it. $45. I say to him "You remain my hero." If you hang around us, you may hear Bingo say that I am *his* hero. There is no greater compliment. We see some 100 year-old lady playing a nickel slot. Someone says "She remembers when a nickel was worth a lot." At about 1:30 a.m. I think about going to bed to get three hours of sleep before golf. I think to myself "What would North Shore do?" I decide to play through. Get into a really fun 4-8 hold'em game with a bunch of BARGErs and a couple of very fishy non-BARGErs. Taki is R00Ling the table and has a massive wall of chips and a bear card protector. Howler calls the wall a "Bearicade." Really funny. Murray has to get up for a while. He lets Marlin play his chips. Later, Murray comes back. Instead of taking over for Marlin, he buys into the game again to the right of himself. About 20 minutes later, this hand comes up. Murray raises. Marlin is in. Flop comes Q-3-3. Murray bets, raise, raise. So Murray is now heads-up playing against his other chips. Turn X. Bet, call. River K. Action. Marlin says "Can you beat my king?" Marlin rolls over K9o to scoop the pot. Murray flings his AQ in face up. So Murray rivered himself. Game is close to breaking. Josh and Grizz come up with the idea of a last-longer bet to keep the game from breaking. Downright brilliant. I'm stuck about $40 around 4:00 a.m. I pick up 53o UTG. 53o is my road hand, so I raise. Fish calls. Josh raises from the blinds. Uh oh. I call. Flop Q-X-5. Josh bets. I call. Turn 5. Ding!! Josh bets. I raise. Josh is thinking. I say "This would be a good time for you to fold." He calls. River 3! Boat. Check-bet-call. I win. Josh probably had some lame hand like AQs, KK or AA. This is the only really stupid beat I put on anyone all week. Sorry man. Thursday, August 2nd. ---------------------- 5:00 a.m. head up to the room to get my clubs and golf shoes. Sandi is sound asleep. Head down to the Binion's poker room to meet the DEATH MARCH crew. Organizer Kevan Garrett shows up. Then DEATH MARCH ironmen Jerry Peterson and David Aronson arrive. Jerry, is it Gerry or Jerry? I hope it's Jerry. Off we go to Painted Desert. Green fee in only $69. I swear it was more last year. After two holes. David and I are tied. Unbelievable. Later, I'm having my usual terrible round. I have to hit many shots out of the sandy/rocky stuff between the tee and fairway. I am chipping and putting pretty well at least. We had "closest to the hole" bets on three of the par 3 holes. I actually won the first one. Amazing. On about the 14th hole, I'm about 80 yards out. I hit my pitching wedge just perfect. High beautiful shot right on line. It hits about 10 feet short of the hole. I have time to say "Get in the hole." as the the ball rolled right into the cup for a miracle par 4. Or as Kevan put it a later "4 the hardway!" We all had a good time. Thanks to Kevan for organizing the event. Jerry drives us back to Binion's for CHORSE. Team CHORSE... I'm playing 7-stud. I never bet or call on my first 17 hands. On the 18th hand, I river a boat to win a nice pot from George. He had straight and flush draws and had to fold the river anyway. During the third round I bet a pair of jacks on 4th and 5th. 6th and 7th are checked down. Winner!! Somewhere in here David Fruchter gets the imfamous iPod. Thanks David. I needed the money :-) Apparently Murray, Asya, Lawrence, Kevan and Kevans' mom Barbara all played well as Team Moosecock won money for the first time! Moose!!!!!!! Sandi is playing in the S.O. 7-card stud tournament. She was the chip leader early on, but then got revered a couple of times and missed a big flush draw. She finished in 4th place. She understands now about idiot calling stations catching your card right ahead of you :-) Somewhere in here I play the Big Six wheel and lose. Curses! Sandi and I drive off to Ruth's Chris steakhouse. I've promised to take Sandi there for years. Damn expensive. Everything thing is separate on the menu. Salad? Extra. Potato? Extra. Bread? Extra. We both order the fillet. This is the *only* place I've been to where medium-rare actually comes out neither raw nor medium. Steak is just perfect. Yum. The early highlight of the trip. Friday, August 3rd. -------------------- ADB Craps Crawl at midnight. We start out at Binion's. Merlynn is playing hardway parlays. There's just not enough room for us at Binion's so we head over to the Plaza. (Note: We skipped the traditional walk to the El Cortez this year.) Next is Main Street and we end up at the California. I'm having my usual Harvey Wallbangers. Shari, Frank and I do a shot of Rumplemintz in honor of Don Perry and Mark S. I'm down about a $80 when we finally start to get on a roll. ADB Jaeger is still there. I pal up with this nice guy to my left and we vow to bust Jaeger who is betting against us. About 5:00, I notice that there are no other BARGErs around. I call it a night. Figure I should get some sleep before the 10:00 a.m. TOC tournament. I get really tired and decide to sit down in the Keno lounge to rest for a couple of minutes. --- I've debated with myself whether or not to detail the events between this point and the TOC. I've decided not to. Let me say this. I injured myself. On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is a shaving cut and 10 is death and 8 is so bad that you'd have to skip the rest of BARGE, this was about a 7.3 and certainly could have been an 8 or worse. I hope others will learn from my mistake. Drinking and staying up all night are hallmarks of BARGE. But know your limits. I went beyond mine and had to pay for it. Don't be a pussy, but don't be an idiot either. I want to thank the Brabec family and others for their for their concern and especially John Moser for his advice. --- I wake up around 12:30 p.m. After saying "Oh No." about 20 times, I make it to the TOC at 12:45. I figure I will be out or blinded down to nothing having missed 2.75 hours. I find my seat and see that I still have 1/2 of my starting stack. I'm also informed by several people that I outlasted that action player Russ Fox. I take on PeteZaa twice. I draw out on him on the first hand. He draws out to bust me on the other. Oh well. I find Sandi over at the Plaza. She's playing this hilarious Texas Oil penny slot. We have a lot of fun. Over to the Symposium. Rich, JRX (absent) and I have our usual little syndicate. We are joined by Patrick, Grizz and Nolan Dalla. Once again, I provided most of the comments on the Calcutta sheet. I used an online anagram site to come up with a lot of the comments this year. I think this year's comments were my best effort. I don't think I'll be able to top them. A few of my favorites: Anagrams: Sharon Goldman = Dan's Glamor Hon Steven Markowitz = Makes Rent, Pot Whiz. Thomas Gabrysch = Ham Stash Cyborg Walter Hunt = Turn Wealth Christy Hannah = Tiny Hash Ranch Dennis Krein = Seen Drinkin' Marc Kolstad = Lost Rack, Mad! Barry Tanenbaum = Try Banana Number Stephen Landrum = Planned, Met Rush Regis Donovan = Groove And Sin! Claudia Mastroianni = Aid Maniacs Unto Rail George Wattman = Target Nag Me. Ow! Samuel Harbison = Humors A Lesbian Edmund Hack = Hand Mucked Steve Nissman = Mass Sin Event Sam Whitten = Win? That's Me. Michelle Ankenman = Mean Men Kill A Chen Matt Grapenthien = Pat Ten Nightmare Non-anagrams: Peter Secor - High muckamuck (this one is great on so many levels) Lee Crocker - Loves Farfalle Lawrence Ng - N vwl n lst nm David Trinidad - Lost Tobago to Action Bob A couple got messed up in the formatting... Murray Logan - Howard F. Hughes of Drinking. Wil Wheaton - Non-Pussy. Make it so. W Guy Sharra - W for Wild and Crazy. --- Anyway... We pick up Kevan and his mom at the bargain price of $70. We get outbid most of the time, but do pick up one super-strong pair. Gerald Petersen and Mark Trombley. We also buy Pickels and Rick Bevan. We got the wrong Pickels!! Darn it. Dianne. For the record, Rich was impressed with Dianne's play and I think Rick is a good player also. --- Sandi and I have another delicious dinner. This time at the Binion's grill. Much cheaper at about $12. Later, Sandi wants me to hear a couple of songs on her iPod. We each take one earphone. We have to walk close together to avoid pulling out the earphones. So we are walking arms around singing along to Chicago's "Just You and Me" etc. It was pretty damn cute. We go to Circus Circus and see a couple of free trapeze shows. We find a penny Tobasco slot. A guy leaves the machine and goes to play on the same machine right next door. Sandi takes his machine and gets on wonderful roll turning $5 into abut $30. It was a blast. Saturday, August 4th. --------------------- Have some food in the room and go downstairs for the big one. TARGET and the WSOP are intense and exciting, but there's no tournament more important than... the BARGE no-limit event. I look around and see Gavin at the next table. We make eye contact. This is the first time I've seen Gavin during BARGE. Gavin greets me with "Screw you Kubey." I come back with a not so witty "Good to see you too." At least he pronounced Kubey correctly :-) Rich Stauss (my calcutta partner) is at my table. Goldie is to my left. Tanya is across the way and is tearing us apart. Goldie is getting some big cards and is building up. I'm looking around for Sabyl. I owe her a dollar. I have Cheezer the Mouse with me. Sabyl is Cheezer's #1 fan. I bring a dollar chip over to Sabyl with Cheezer holding it. Sabyl takes the chip and says thank you to Cheezer. I make Cheezer clap his hands and walk away as the table erupts in laughter. One really interesting hand... Flop is Ac-Qs-8s. Karl bets pot. Goldie jams. Corey Imsdahl is thinking. Corey is no loose goose. He calls!?? Karl calls. Hands: Karl AQo Goldie 88 Corey AsJs Goldie scoops the monster pot. I don't think anyone played it wrong. I jam with AK and AJ. Tanya has a big stack and makes calls both times with middle suited connectors. She really wants my bust out prize. I win both hands. Russ, Sharon and a really hungover Patti join our table. Russ' bust out prize is a magnetic kiddie fishing pole with magnetic fish. Patti makes a comment about Russ having a fairly long pole, but that it's quite flexible. Maybe you had to be there. It was funny. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson busts out. Gavin Smith busts out and good-naturedly gives the finger to the whole room. Our table breaks. Bill Chen is at my new table. Bill loses with AK to Lynne's JJ. Bill loses another hand and is down to one chip. He is all-in for the antes and wins. He's all-in again. Several of us call. Matt Murray leads at the A-7-4, two diamond flop. John Pickels calls. Turn J. Both check. River 8. Matt bets, Pickels raises! I'm thinking Td9d. Matt wisely folds his ace. John shows 65 to win the pot, bust Bill and get his book. Next Matt jams QQ. John calls with TT and busts Matt with a 10 on the flop. Man. Now John starts telling us that a good friend of his loves Bill's book. You see, his friend could never sleep on an airplane. Then he got Bill and Jerrod's book and was asleep before he finished the introduction. And didn't understand a word. We were all laughing. I'm now the short-stack at the table. I'm looking for some kind of hand. I find KK under the gun. I think the blinds were 200-400. I jam for 1175. Folds around to Tomcat. He didn't see my raise and goes to raise himself. The dealer allows Tom to take his chips back. I was completely at the other end of the table, so I didn't really know what happened. If it wasn't BARGE, I probably would have called for the floor. Maybe I should have. Anyway, Tom folds. Lynne is in the BB and counts out the call. As long as she doesn't have AA, I'm happy to get the action. She has ATo. With the antes in, I think it was a reasonable call. Stupid ace on the flop. Arrgghhh. I give Lynne a copy of my Cartoon Trivia book. She went on to finish 11th. Darn nice showing after playing in the S.O. tournaments just last year. The following is a direct quote from my 2006 report... "I wander around cursing my luck." No survey this year??? I go downstairs to check on Sandi in the 4-table S.O. hold'em event. Sandi has just busted out too. Aww. Greg Pappas gave earings to all of the players in the S.O. event. He makes some really nice stuff. Check it out if you need a present for your S.O. at home. Banquet. JR saved seats for Rich and Sandi and me. Sandi was really tired, but I convinced her to go to the banquet. She perked right up talking to some of her S.O. tournament friends. I have to repeat that the S.O. tournaments are one of the best additions to BARGE. Just a great idea. Our table: JR, Rich, Grizz, Slick, Michael Hunter, Dave McVay, Brian Goetz, Sandi and me. Bob and Pauline, we missed you guys! Food was pretty good. Gavin did quite a nice job. Really interesting to learn about his journey from cab driver to being one of the most feared poker players on the planet. The roast was of Dan was very good. Oh there were a couple of jokes that really fell flat, but the majority were pretty good. Dan and Sharon were great sports. And Dan really got his revenge on Nolan. That was the funniest bit of the night. We gave Mickdog and Nick a strong ovation as they are now official BARGE organizers. Another well deserved ovation for Peter and Chuck. I just can't put into words what great feelings I have for Chuck and Peter. Two of the best guys I've ever met. Back to Benny's bullpen to watch the finish of the NL tournament. Nolan and Kenny have already busted out. JP goes out next. Mark Trombley makes it all the way to 4th making some money for Rich, JR, gerdog and me. It was good to see David Trinidad back at BARGE and taking 3rd. Now it's Bingo vs. Pickels. Sounds like a dog fight or something. But John had a massive chip lead. In the end it was all John Pickels. WTG John! Sandi and I play some dumb slots at Binion's. They are much tighter than the Plaza or C^2 slots. Sandi is super tired and finally goes up to the room. I get on the long list for the goofy games only to learn about the lack of tables with drop boxes. What a bad beat. The SNG idea was a good emergency measure, but it just wasn't the same. If this comes up again next year, I hope we have a better plan. Could we pay rake by the hour? Play a fake tournament with real chips? Have private games up in the bullpen? I take my whole bankroll of $300 and buy chips. Maybe I can build a cool chip castle while I wait for a seat. I make a good start and then realize that I really need $1200 to build the full structure that I have in mind. Bruce Kramer will help get me backers for 2008. I finally get into a 2-4 HORSE game. Wil Wheaton is in the game. We are playing Razz (7-stud low) and I make a wheel in 6 cards. Wil has the good sense to fold and then goes off on a little tirade. I'm about 98% sure he was joking around. Anyway, glad that Wil joined us again this year. In my mind, if you are a celebrity or star poker player and only come to one BARGE, you aren't a real BARGEr. Wil Wheaton is a BARGEr. Chris Ferguson is a BARGEr. Penn Gillette and Howard Lederer, not so much. I win no more hands. My little chip structure crashes to the felt. The game breaks. I'm stuck $27. A tiny loss for a BARGE Saturday night. I get on the list for the other HORSE game, but it dies. I get a $6 comp. Cool. I say goodnight to some of my good new friends and a ton of my old friends as I head up to bed to get some real sleep. Sunday, August 5th ------------------- I see JR. He's managed to get unstuck for the trip. WTG! Sandi and I go to the pool at the Golden Nugget (thanks to Connie for getting us a room key.) You gotta see this. They have a giant tank of fish and sharks in the middle of the pool and a water slide that goes through a tube through the middle of the tank! Really cool. I get some rest in the shade. Sandi gets some sun. Lunch at the Binion's grill. Hamburger and pie. Yum. We play Monopoly slots at the Golden Nugget. It takes us a long time to lose $10. Guy next to us turns $20 in to $195 just R00Ling this penny slot. One last 99c shrimp cocktail. Lose a couple of hands of blackjack. A few more slots at the Plaza. Buy a Las Vegas sign with flashing leds at Walgreen's for $12. Off to Circus Circus again. We argue about whether or not you can get a big hotdog at Slots of Fun. I think it's $1.49. Sandi thinks it is more. I leave her playing the Tabasco slot and got find the hotdog place. 99 cents! 1/2 pound! Sold! I got it to go. It's still in the fridge as I type. We get on a minor roll on the Tabasco slot. It's a really fun machine with three different bonus games and catchy music when you hit a 200+ credit jackpot. We go for dinner at the Cantina at Tuscany. I'm fading fast and we have a 540 mile drive ahead of us and it's 9:30 p.m. Sandi gets coffee at Starbucks and is wired as can be as I rest my eyes while she drives to Baker. I take over there and I get wired planning my trip report as I think about all of the fun and crazy stuff that happened during the trip. About 250 miles later, Sandi finally wakes up. She takes the wheel for 90 minutes. I take over for the rough part of highway 152. We stop at McDonald's in Gilroy and Sandi gets us home from there. We get the food and a few bags out of the car. The lack of sleep during the whole trip finally catches up with me at 7:00 a.m. I sleep the sleep of a successful BARGE. craps: won (thanks to Bingo) big 6 wheel: LOST (breaking a streak of several winning years) blackjack: lost live poker: lost ($23) slots: lost tournies: lost, but team made money at C-HORSE roshambo: did not play. I had a great time at BARGE 2007. A really fun part was hunting down TARGET players to give them their $20 windfall from Barbara Garrett's amazing performance in the WSOP. I want to mention Charles Haynes. Dude flew all the way from India for TARGET and BARGE. No one can ever call him a pussy. I still amazes me that I look forward to BARGE all year long and somehow it always lives up to expectations. I refuse to believe that there is any better group of people to hang out with. My friends who missed BARGE... please try to make it next year. You know who you are. Thanks to Chuck, Peter, Mickdog and Nick for all of their efforts. Big thanks to the Binion's. Truly my favorite hotel/casino in the world. Thanks also to Patrick, Fich, Rafn, Tim, Asya, Ice and all the other people that helped out. Sorry if I left out some names. Can I sign up for BARGE 2008 now? Ken Kubey