Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:58:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Raider Fan Subject: [BARGE] Raider goes to BARGE I'm still a newbie, this being my third year in a row attending this remarkable event. Needless to say, WTF was I doing with my life before finding BARGE? Here's the highlights, since like my mentor Frank I didn't take any notes: Tuesday I fly in (no bad beat stories on the Continental non stop flight from Houston), get my luggage, and wait about 5 minutes to meet Lynsy in the baggage claim area for a shared taxi ride to downtown. We were chatting on the way and I eventually asked who was her husband. She told me Bruce (Cyberchomp), which was really cool to me since we were virgins together in 2005 and have spent a lot of time together. He's a great guy and so is his wife. We get downtown with no problems and I head for the poker room to get my badge and say hi to everybody. I decide to try the daily 2:00 tourney. The format is $70 with an optional $40 rebuy. It started at 2:00. About 2:10, I limped in the small blind with 89o. The big blind checked. Flop comes 994. I check, BB bets, I call. Turn is a blank. I check, BB goes all in, I instacall. He turns over 94. Rebuy! Two hands later, I look down to see QQ. I manage to get all in against AA and KK preflop. Amazingly enough, AA holds up and I'm out at 2:20. A bunch of us go to the Brewpub nearby (I'm not sure which casino it's in, but it's a walk across a skyway, through a casino, and across the street) and had a great time with great food and a red lager that was nothing short of outstanding. Good times! We make it back in time for the Stud/8 tourney. I'm sorry to say I have exactly NO memory of anything worthy of mention in that event. Wednesday brings breakfast at the Egg and I. Thanks again Kevin for the ride and megathanks to Ice for picking up what must have been a huge tab. You rock dude! I'm not in any tourneys today, so I sit at a 4/8 table waiting to show my suckout skillz. What an amazing demonstration I put on. I limp with TT and get raised preflop. I call. Flop is JT4 rainbow. Ding!!! Raiser bets, I call. Turn is a 2. He bets, I raise, he calls. River is another 4. He bet, I raise, he reraises, I reraise, he reraises again (?). I go in the tank. He raised preflop so there's no way I put him on 44 or JJ. I decide to reraise one more time and then call if he reraises again. He calls my reraise and turns over KK. WTF? I get a few looks like I'm an idiot for the reraises without the nuts, but I'd do it again. Same session, a dealer decides he likes the r00ling ways of the BARGE'rs and buys a couple of racks. He's a cool guy that is a 49r fan. Chris is his name. This was not a good idea for Chris. He lost everything and then anything else he bought. Hopefully our tips kept him whole. I cash out of this session up $389. My best 4/8 session ever. Somewhere along the line, I meet Chimp and Tanya arrives - more to come about them later. Thursday is my favorite BARGE day. It started with breakfast at Magnolia's with my favorite BARGEr John Harkness. You guys should take it easy on him. John brought "real" maple syrup for us to enjoy with our pancakes. Excellent and thanks again John! I warm up for the team CHORSE event at the bar. Playing 25c video poker, I hit 4 deuces for a nice $250 jackpot. I do the usual "Touchdown Raiders!" chant with my arms raised, and the other alcoholics drinking at 9:00 in the morning whoop it up for me. I play the holdem shift, and the first round is amazing. Kevin's Mom r00lz the table and she must have tripled them up. Luckily, I didn't catch any cards to get caught up in that ownership. Tanya was playing the Razz at the same time I was playing holdem. While we're waiting for round 2, I go to the bar to get another "free" beer. All you have to do is play video poker and they serve it up. I start laughing my ass off as I hear Tanya tilt the bartender. Apparently this guy is engaged, and Tanya is telling him to enjoy the oral while he can, because he won't be getting much (if any) after the wedding. The bartender is not liking this bad news! Tanya rocks! Anyway, the Dream Team was in good shape heading into the last round. By the time Tanya and I got done, however, we were practically on the felt. I'll skip my bad beat story. Time for the Sushi outing! Asya lined me up with a ride with David Arnson (sp?), but there were a bunch of us. Turns out he had another driver in his pocket - a Steeler fan that I'm embarrassed to say I forgot his name. I could pick him in a lineup though! We make it there with no problem and it's a sushi feast! What a great place! The premium sake tasting was just as good as last year. I've decided that dessert sakes are not as good as port. Hey Ben, number 2 was the best. After that, it's 4,1,3,5. Thanks again Ben and Asya for making that event happen. You guys rule! For some unknown reason, I catch Peter and Mickdog prior to the start of the Stud shootout and ask if they have any openings. To their credit, they didn't start cracking up. Peter says to give him $95 and he'd take care of it. I didn't see it at the time, but I'm pretty sure he winked at Mickdog and said $95 dead money. I go to my table and know I'm screwed. The only good memory of this event was Greg Pappas (who cracked me up the whole time) saying he had a full house and Kenny Shei asking him how big. LOL. Not what you want to hear! Midnight brings the annual Craps Crawl. I show up and Peter immediately gets the floor to make two tables $3. I'm playing $5 pass and come and taking odds. There's several ADB'rs playing the dark side. After a couple of c-notes I decide I can't overcome their power. Saddenz. I didn't even make it out of Binions for the crawl. Friday brings the TOC. I really didn't catch any cards and my blinds were raped unmercilessly by Kenny all day. I finally caught AQ in the big blind when Kenny raised preflop. I reraised and bet it out every street until the river. Kenny shows QJo and scoops with a flush. Good for him he used my chips to win the whole damn tourney! I decide to try my craps skills without all the negative energy. Three c-notes later I decide I just suck at craps. Saturday is the Main Event. I hung in there quite a while playing very loose. Shortly after a break, I say raise with my A4s. I look at my chips and immediately wish I hadn't said that. I decide to go all in hoping to get away with it, but JP calls with 88 and knocks me out. I only take comfort in the fact that he'll be hearing Touchdown Raiders every time he opens a bottle. Banquet time comes along and I find a table with Larry and his lovely spouse, the Pickels, and others I'm not sure about. I go to the bar to get a cocktail and find out it's a freebie. Ding! I really enjoyed Gavin's speech. He was at my table in my first BARGE event. They called him during the TOC in 2005 and told him his bike was ready to be picked up. Gavin is a big Denver fan, so I raised my hand to ask a football question. He said that he didn't like me, but he'd take my question. Saddenz. The roast for Dan was very cool. Nolan cracked me up despite the fact that he got the cold titty from the crowd. It was a roast after all. I go to the poker room after the banquet and quickly realize there's no hope for me to get in a game. No problem. Off to bed I go. I wake up Sunday with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Hmmm... Peter left me John Sanford's latest novel in my seat at the main event. Maybe I'll take a peak at that. I go to Starbucks and get a coffee. Read some more. I go to the casino down the street that has 26 New Orleans daquiries. I get a hurricane for a whopping $10. Go back to my room and read some more. Go to the ABC store and buy a 6 pack of beer for the room. Finish the book. Sunday night Pokerchimp arranges dinner for a bunch of us. We meet up at the Steak House. It's the NLHE champ John Pickels, his beautiful wife Dianne, the Omaholics, Chimp, me, and some random guy that Chimp invited. Great time, great food. I run into one of my favorite RGP'rs and BARGE'rs Guy during a smoke break at dinner. I see him after dinner and we jump in a 2/4 table. Guy butchers the table for at least a rack and I leave up $20 or so. I headed home Monday. The line at security for the D gates was amazingly long. Hopefully I'll be elite next year and I can skip it. So this is it. We're back from BARGE and back to work. Lots of it piled up while I was gone. It's worth it though. Many many thanks to Chuck, Peter, and Mickdog for all your efforts!