From: Dan Goldman Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 01:36:05 -0700 Subject: [BARGE] Dan's BARGE 2008 trip report, part 1 Well, apparently I am even more verbose than I thought. This is the first post I have made that was rejected for being too long, so I have broken it into two parts. .dan So my intent was to post daily BARGE trip reports. Unfortunately, bourbon got in my way, but I'll do my best to reconstruct the rest of the week. Note that toxic alcohol symptoms may suppress some of my recollections. I am pasting my day 1 report at the beginning in case you missed it and actually care. -------------------------------------------- Checked into Golden Nugget, and as always went through 3 sets of keys before finding 2 that worked. Suddenly I realized that I might have registered for the NL Shootout to HORSE tourney (who thought THAT up?), checked my badge, and sure enough, I was registered. Raced over to discover that my table included Gillian, Nolan and Bwana - how sweet is this? Played well, had a few races go the right way, got HU at my table and got unlucky, but had made a 20% deal and netted a massive $80. The Binglaha game got going almost instantaneously. We decided to make it 1-2 this year, but of course there were 6 live restraddles on a lot of hands so it was more like 1-2-5-10-15-20-25-30. Was doing great until some drunken hussy sucked out on my deuces full with Presto-full. OK, sucking out might be an exaggeration, since she was way ahead the whole time. And the hussy was my wife. But whatever. In a later, smaller debacle, some other known-to-the-list player called my just-under-pot-size bet on an all diamond board with two pair (I also had the same top pair) and somehow managed to (1) find the magic card and (2) duck my making a bigger full house. I await the heavily math-based justification for calling when you probably only have 4 live cards (3 in reality). The locals love Binglaha. Until they actually play, that is. We had several cases where one of them sat down and you could just read the "YUM" expression on their faces. They left broke. ALL of them. Stumbled back to our room and discovered it was 6a. Sharon was somehow silly enough to register for the Blackjack tournament so we ordered breakfast to be delivered at 10. They were early, those bastards. Sharon blew out of here, I went back to sleep, but it really wasn't 'sleep,' as I had had a cup of coffee with breakfast, so it was just that "I'm lying here because I am exhausted, sure wish I could fucking get to sleep" feeling. Off to pick up my best friend Randy, a BARGE virgin, at the airport. More later. -------------------------------------------- My last trip report had me lying in bed in a profound state of exhaustion but unable to sleep as a result of coffee with breakfast after 4 hours of sleep. I made the standard mistake of getting out of bed and guzzling an entire bottle of water, which dislodged the alcohol molecules that had adhered to my arteries and returned me to the drunken state in which I went to sleep. However, I had promised my friend Randy, a BARGE virgin, that I would pick him up at the airport. I stumbled out of bed, made myself somewhat presentable and headed to the airport. Randy has been my closest friend for 22 years, and we have played in a home game together for almost all that time. I have tried for the past 6 years to get him to come to BARGE, but his Peg despises Las Vegas and gambling with such ferocity that it never happened. This year, at the very last minute, he agreed to come (thanks, Chuck, for registering him so very late!). I picked him up and tried to give him a quick rundown of what to expect, and then realized that it was completely absurd to even attempt to do so. We got to the Golden Nugget, got him registered and I took off for the video poker tournament. I suck at these tournaments, and have no idea why I register every year; I should just donate $50 and play poker instead, where my expectation is somewhat greater. But I played anyway, even though Chic had already Chic-ed his way to a royal in the first round, reducing my already-low expectation to roughly $0. I have no idea where I finished - apparently not in the money, even though I did hit quads 3 times. We went to the poker room and found that the Binglaha game was getting started, so I got Randy settled in a 1-2 NL game and we then fired up Binglaha for the second day. For those reading this who don't know what Binglaha is, it's Pot Limit Omaha, but whether it's high or high-low isn't determined until after the flop betting is complete. At this point, the button rolls a die. If it's 1, 2 or 3, it's high-low; otherwise it's high only. There was some spirited discussion this session about what constitutes a valid die roll. In the past, we only required that the die roll past the flop. After a lot of discussion, we decided that any roll that didn't make it past the flop, or that went off the table, was subject to a $1 toke penalty. This penalty increases 2x for each miss, so the second is $2, then $4, etc. We further decided to use craps rules to determine if the roll is valid, so a cocked die is OK as long as the angle is less than 45 degrees. The die can land anywhere on the table, which includes landing in a drink holder (which happened) or the dealer tray (which happened a lot).The BDA (Binglaha Directors' Association - Nolan, Chris, Bingo and me) has now formally approved these rules. Nolan got cracked by Sharon (again), and Chic got all of his money in horrifically behind and back-doored a flush vs. two flopped sets and a straight. No big news there. The game was great, but unfortunately Sharon and I had to leave around 7.30p for Karaoke at the Nugget. I heard later that the game got even better after we left, which is extremely hard for me to swallow. The Karaoke tradition started in 2003 with an ad-hoc, late-night Karaoke and trivia session in the Nugget coffee shop. I vaguely recall it started with Sharon, Nolan, Patty, Fich and me, and somehow expanded to about 16 people and lasted until 6a. The following 2 years, we went to the Karaoke bar at the Las Vegas Club, which subsequently closed (how much we impacted this decision is unclear). In 2006, Ploink and Amy got married in a Karaoke wedding at Fitzgeralds (which some nameless online poker site sponsored). In 2007 we went to a sushi bar on the west side that had private Karaoke rooms. Sharon has been the Goddess of Karaoke for the past few years. She worked out a deal with the Golden Nugget in which they provided a room and bar, but it was looking like it would be very expensive, maybe as much as $40-50 a person. But suddenly the Angel of Karaoke appeared in the form of Jester, who approached a nameless online site he works for and asked if they would be interested in sort-of-anonymously sponsoring Karaoke. Said site agreed, and suddenly Karaoke was FREE, alcohol included (anonymous site obviously had no idea what they were signing up for). Karaoke looked like it might be pretty lame at the beginning. When I walked in, there were about 15 people sitting around sort of looking at each other, wondering who was going to be the first to get up and sing. Karaoke is odd that way - somehow it's easier to do in front of a crowd than just a few people. I found a few songs I was interested in and filled out the forms. A few people started drifting in, and all of a sudden lame Karaoke turned into raucous Karaoke. I vaguely recall dancing, but my usually-faulty memory tells me that I danced with Peter (who dipped me) and Marlin (who attempted a sloppy kiss). I may also have done the bump with Tanya. My friend Randy sang "Mack the Knife," and got what I think was the only standing ovation. I've known the guy for 22 years, and had no idea he could sing. This is his first BARGE, and he fit right in. As always, it went much too fast. We had to be out of the room by midnight, and somehow managed not to do our traditional "Bohemian Rhapsody." Not at all sure how this happened, as I tipped the DJ pretty liberally to make sure that was the last song. But once again it was a fun and totally entertaining time, one sure to be repeated next year. Pretty thoroughly toasted, I returned to the Binion's poker room to find the Binglaha game already in session, but only 5 handed. Of course, within minutes of sitting down the game filled up. Apparently I'm that guy. There were two memorable hands during that session. The first involved Crunch, Fern and someone else (sorry, whoever you were - I know you, but like I said, I was pretty toasted). Crunch had put in a pretty big raise preflop and was called in 4 places. Here are the hands and TwoDimes' preflop analysis (note that I didn't remember the suits but I didn't recall anyone having backdoor flush draws, so I guessed): As Qc Kd Ah 248485 49.70 244288 48.86 7227 1.45 0.504 Ks Kc 2d 3h 110421 22.08 389579 77.92 0 0.00 0.221 Js Ac Jc Qh 133867 26.77 358906 71.78 7227 1.45 0.275 The flop was KJT rainbow. Crunch bet, was raised, Fern called, Crunch moved all in and both players called. Crunch now has the nut straight, unknown guy showed KKxx for top set, Fern showed AQJT for the nut straight and bottom two. As Qc Kd Ah 3 0.45 178 26.73 485 72.82 0.369 Ks Kc 2d 3h 142 21.32 524 78.68 0 0.00 0.213 Js Ac Jc Qh 36 5.41 145 21.77 485 72.82 0.418 The turn was a blank: As Qc Kd Ah 0 0.00 7 19.44 29 80.56 0.403 Ks Kc 2d 3h 6 16.67 30 83.33 0 0.00 0.167 Js Ac Jc Qh 1 2.78 6 16.67 29 80.56 0.431 but the river was a J. Unknown guy picks up main pot with KKKJJ, Fern takes substantial side pot with JJJTT, Crunch, the clear preflop favorite and holding the nuts on the flop, gets nothing. Just one more reminder of how dangerous it is to flop a straight in Omaha. The other interesting hand involved me and someone else I don't remember (sorry, but this night was really a blur - someone brought a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue to the table, so I take no responsibility). Short version - we both flopped the nut straight on a 2 heart board, significant money went in. Turn gave me the nut flush draw to go with it, and almost all of the rest of the money went in (pot was about $3,000 at this point) - except that he had $30 behind. This is important only because, if we had put all the money in, we would probably have run it 2-3 times. I rivered the nut flush and told him to keep the $30, which I doubt was much consolation. Turns out that he had flopped the nut straight AND the flush draw, I turned the other flush draw and sucked out. There was one other hand that I can't recall all the details of, except that all the money went in on the flop among Tom Schneider, someone else and me, we ran it twice and the pot was split 25%-37.5%-37.5%. Not the strangest I have seen - I was involved in one a few years ago where we ran it 3 times and I lost two and got quartered on the third for 1/12 of the pot, and another one where I lost two and the third was a 3-way chop, so I got 1/9 on that one. We also had a hand where a lot of money went in on the flop, Tom proposed we just chop the pot right there and we moved on. THAT I have never seen before. [continued in Part 2] From: Dan Goldman Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 01:36:51 -0700 Subject: [BARGE] Dan's BARGE 2008 trip report, part 2 Thursday started off with the Team CHORSE event. Nothing much to report here - I was drafted the prior night to play on the Luck Factor Zero team. As always, I showed up half-asleep and trying not to have a hangover, and actually had no idea what team I was supposed to be on. For a moment I thought I was on JP's team, but when I asked him, he got a horrified look on his face and said "What would make you think you were on MY team?" Apparently I suck even more than I thought. Our team just never went anywhere - I played Omaha/8 and had very few playable hands. I did manage to be ahead of my starting position every round, but not by much, and not enough to drag us out of the muck. I dragged my butt back over to Binion's with the intent of playing Binglaha, but somehow got sucked into a stupid negative EV game called Texas X Holdem or something like that. It's somewhat less horrid than 3 Card Poker or Let It Ride - you get 4 cards, keep the best 2 card hold 'em hand, and the dealer does the same. She then puts out a 5 card board and the best poker hand wins. The only house edge is that they win ties. The game is played from a 6 deck shoe, which creates some interesting situations - I had Ah Ah one hand and made a flush, even though there were only 3 heart on the board. THAT's a nut flush. There is a massively negative side bet (of course) - I don't remember the exact number, but IIRC if you get five of a kind SUITED you still only get 1,000:1. The odds are about the same as being hit by a meteor. In the casino. The Binglaha game got started - actually someone saw me in the casino and said "They're waiting for you to start the Binglaha game!" This is probably not a good sign, but I go anyway. Not much new to report there - the usual bad beats and horrible suckouts. I did get involved in a huge pot with Chaz in which he called pot size bets on the flop and turn with a naked Q high flush draw. He got there, of course, and as I was struggling with whether or not to call, I said something like "well, I know you're smart enough not to call pot size bets twice with a flush draw, so maybe we have the same hand." He showed me the hand and said "You give me too much credit." True enough. We left around 6 to go back to the house and set up for the smoker. There really wasn't much to do except lock the cats up (one of them is violently allergic to everything, including CAT DANDER - yes, our cat is allergic to himself) and ship Randy off to pick up soda and ice. We had arranged for Famous Dave's BBQ to cater dinner, so it was totally painless - they showed up at 7.45, set everything up and by the time people started arriving at 8 they could just grab dinner and start the festivities. MANY cigars were smoked. We started the bourbon tasting around 9.30, and interesting conversations arose around this. We ended up tasting 12 bourbons, including a few new ones (one of my new favorites, Jefferson, which I hadn't tried until very recently). There were a lot of people at the smoker this year who had never tried bourbon before except the standard Jim Beam and Maker's Mark stuff, so this was an eye-opener. Small-batch bourbons are becoming more and more popular, and the selections are getting better even at average liquor stores, so this was a good way for people to try something a little different that they will actually be able to buy. Goldie was kind enough to bring me a few Cubans, 2 of the 3 of which I've smoked already. MANY thanks there! The smoker broke up around midnight and we all headed back to Binion's for more Binglaha and alcohol. There may have been more interesting hands, but I am having trouble distinguishing one night from another so who knows. Friday started with my making the guzzling-water-after-too-much-drinking mistake, so I showed up for the TOC half-drunk with a quadruple espresso from Starbucks as my only crutch. (note for future homeless BARGErs - if you want to make your fortune, just hang out at BARGE and offer to make Starbucks runs for $1. I promise you will be good for $500 minimum, $50 of which will come from Sharon and me.) Not a lot of exciting hands to report - this is all limit play, which is not my forte, and includes stud, which I passionately despise. I didn't have many playable hands, but did manage to survive down to 4 tables, at which time I ran into the following hand: I have 4500 and am second to act with (78)7 of irrelevant suits. We are 7 handed. 2c brings it in. We are at 1000-2000 with 300 bring-in. Two other 7s are dead. I complete (questionable play). Lou Krieger is to my left showing an A, and calls; everyone else folds. I hit an 8 for 2 pair on fourth street, Lou hits a 4. I bet 1000, he calls. 5th street is a blank for me, Lou hits an A. I bet 2000, Lou raises my last 500. He has called me with AK3 rainbow, hit nothing on 4th, paired A on 5th. 6th is a blank. I ask him to turn over his river card first - a 3, leaving me with only 2 outs, neither of which hit, and I'm out. He later tells me that he figured me for absolutely nothing since I was on life support; I don't think his play was very good and tell him so :) I ask a few stud players later, and the consensus is that my play wasn't very good and his was slightly worse. I am on his radio show this week, and it should be fun debating this. The rest of Friday was pretty much Binglaha, although I sat and played with Randy for a bit. He has absolutely no clue what he's doing, but damn, he had a good time and just didn't care about the money (he's playing 1-2 with $100 max buy in, so hard to get hurt too badly). His table was about half locals and half BARGErs, and the locals were none too amused by the BARGErs, particularly since they won most of the time. I went to the Symposium, but didn't buy anyone except for buying 50% of Sharon and me back. My record hasn't been very good in the Calcutta, and I figured I needed the money for Binglaha anyway. I managed to keep the drinking to a reasonable level on Friday night so I could avoid being unconscious for the first few hours of the main event, unlike prior years. I was quite disappointed to have Ploink and Bwana at my table - not that I am particularly afraid of either of them, but I'd rather not bust my friends. Although I had very few playable hands, I did manage to work my way up to about 4500. I then went pretty much dead for several hours. I did make one very obviously correct laydown that would have made all the difference, though. I had QQ UTG with 50-100 blinds and made it 300 - player to my left, woman I have never played with, made it 600, and the button moved all in for 2000. I had about 3800 at that point. This is a clear fold, so I did, and the woman to my left insta-called. The two players had AA and KK, but the turn card was a Q. So much for playing well. In what ended up being my last hand, I raised UTG with AKs to 600 (100-200 blinds) and the player to my left moved all in and had me covered. I obviously can't fold here. He turned over 66 (???), and unfortunately I couldn't outrun his pair. I think I went out around 45th or so. After more goofing off in the casino (went back and played Texas X Hold 'em again), we took off for the banquet. Nothing exciting there other than disappointing chicken and an even more disappointing speaker. I did find a bartender that made a mean Long Island, though, so it wasn't a total loss. And I got to see a lot of Rodney's pictures - damn, this guy is good. Thanks again, Rodney. You should charge more. After the banquet the Reindeer Games started, and this year was much better organized than last. Binion's had enough tables and dealers, and even almost enough cocktail waitresses. The only notable hand I remember is getting a lot of money in with top set vs. Ploink's flush draw and another player with a set, and of course the flush came. I made the appropriate criticisms of his play; he made the expected lame defense. This was the only losing session I had, but fortunately it was offset by Sharon's monster win at the other Binglaha table. I couldn't keep my eyes open past around 3:30 and went to sleep - Sharon stumbled in around 8, so she managed to take full advantage of the last day of BARGE. That's pretty much all I remember. I probably got hands, players and days confused - don't bother correcting me. It's all there even if it's in the wrong order. Sunday morning at 10a I played in the monthly tournament at Binion's - a freeroll for players who have won a tournament during the month. Randy came by to say goodbye, and his last comment made it clear to me that he's a true BARGEr: "Do we really have to wait a whole year?" .dan