From: Gerald Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 13:30:28 -0700 Subject: [BARGE] A Virginal View Part 1 A week has already passed since I stepped off my plane from Oakland, CA with my buddy, co-worker, and fellow Virgin James Hammer to attend my first BARGE. Kudos to the organizers (Chuck W, Nick C, Mickdog, and my friend Peter Foldem) for putting such an awesome event together. What a fun and unique experience. It felt like a big home game was taking place in the casino or the poker equivalent of the "Cheers" bar ("where everyone knows your name") in Las Vegas. THURS James and I were trying to unsuccessfully get out of the CHORSE event because we both had been up since about noon the previous day, worked until 4 AM, and took the first flight out. However, Virgin Queen David Kluchman could not find replacements for us on team "Poppin Cherries" and "Like A Virgin". And Ron "Ronsrants" Grossberg told us one of the Barge rules was "sleep is for pussies". So we dragged ourselves over to the Golden Nugget for the event. Jeez... that Poker Room was in full chaos. I was amazed Mickdog was able to get the event running. Mickdog is "DA MAN!". I played Omaha8 for team "Like A Virgin". I only kept our stack even or won a little on my turn. Larry "pltrgyst" Larson was the one who really kept our team alive with a great Stud8 round. My team only lost about $3 per person on this event, but our other virginal team suffered the indignity of entirely busting out. Has this ever happened before to another team in BARGE history? After CHORSE, James and I hook up with Foldem and go to the Triple 7s Brewery for Food and Drink (burp... mmmm beer). On the way, we bow down to the Golden Arms shrine in honor of people who have rolled craps dice for an hour or more straight. By 5 PM, James and Foldem head for some cash games. I hit the room to crash after basically being up for nearly 29 straight hours. James stumbles in a few hours later, and we both sleep all the way through the Craps Crawl. Our only regret of the trip. FRIDAY I awake refreshed and play in the TOC. Patti Beadles, Gavin Smith's alternate, fellow Virgin Chris Mecklin, Michael Brennan, Harry (Baldwin?), Stevan goldiefish are at my table. Table is fairly tight, I get few good hands, and I only win a couple small pots for a few levels. A sizable pot isn't really generated until I am dealt rolled up 2s in Seven Stud. Since the table has been on tightass lockdown, I decide to slow play. I put out the minimum bring in, and a woman with a King doorcard completes the bet to 150, I only call (maybe a mistake). We go to 4th street with me, Harry (Queen doorcard), the woman with the King doorcard, and Gavin's alternate (middling card doorcard), and nobody catches anything appearing significant. Woman with King showing bets, Gavin's alternate calls, I only call (likely a mistake), and Harry calls. On 5th street, Gavin's alternate has caught another middling card and Harry pairs his Queen doorcard. Woman with King still bets, Gavin's alternate calls, I now finally raise to 600 but am somewhat spooked when Harry instacalls. Woman with King thinks for a long time and then mucks, but Gavin's alternate calls. On 6th street, Gavin's alternate catches a 3rd middling card and he bets into me after Harry checks his Queens. His board and manner now scream I made a straight. I only call as does Harry. On 7th street, Harry checks his Queens, Gavin's alternate bets, I make a weenie cryin' call after I don't fill up. But Harry now check raises so I muck after Gavin's alternate calls the raise. Gavin's alternate has the straight as advertised but Harry filled up with Queens and Fours with another four on the river. Big pot, and I just donked off more than half of my chips. A few rounds later in Omaha8, I raise UTG with Ad/A/2/Qd when I am getting low on chips. Harry, Michael Brennan, and goldiefish call. Flop is 7/10/7 with 2 diamonds. I bet and only goldiefish calls. Turn is a low diamond. I bet, goldiefish raises, and I call with the rest of my chips. I turn over my Ace high flush and goldiefish turns over his tens full of sevens. My only out is another low card for half the pot to stay alive, but no go. I leave appreciating the generous applause but thinking WTF goldieFISH. How did you get into this pot with a 10/10 and two lowcards without an Ace? (Later on Sat night, I understand it more sitting next to him in a Dealers choice game). At 3 PM, I head over to the Virgin meeting in Diana Mercer's room at the Nugget. She and David Kluchman did a bang up job organizing us Virgins. Much fun pooling our dead money for last longer bets and the Symposium and putting together our Virgin awards. I was assigned the responsibility of finding ADB Bruce K's "stones". Then attended Symposium and was dam confused. James and I posted a winning bid on Foldem/Steve Markowitz, but we accidently bid against the syndicate that was partially owned by our Virgin group money. And I raised my hand together with James, and Peter took it to mean I was bidding against James to up the price another $10 (doh!). Hearing Kevin Un's Barge song was worth the price of admission. I spend the rest of the day sweating some sports bets and my buddy James who is still alive in the TOC. Sports betting (or Sports Investing as the Bart Simpson I met so deliciously calls it) was my only decent win during BARGE from a parlay on the A's/BoSox under to the Giants (Lincecum). Yet, it could have been so much more if only the Toronto BLOW Jays had not lost an 8-6 lead in the 9th. WTF? BJ Ryan was supposed to be an "elite" closer. James and I eat dinner at the Binions steakhouse after he busts out of the TOC in 8th place. Food better than I expected, but we probably could have hunted down a better place to eat. We then head to the poker room where I get stuck $80 in a dying 4/8 kill Omaha game. I make most of it back in a highly entertaining Dealer's choice game where I'm introduced to Chowaha, Colligula, Oklahoma, and Tiltlaha. That is some sick shit. I donate some money to Matt, the big Brewers fan, by check raising and re-raising when I flop 3 pair on one board and the "nut" low on another board. I get scooped by his better low on the 3rd board and turned set. Matt then gets some even bigger donations from a young drunk local who sits down in the game, but had no clue (even worse than me... LOL) about what was going on. I had a great seat next to the local who kept exposing his cards to me even after I warned him not to. I could not help but laugh at some of his hands and give off tells. On one Badugi/Lowball split hand, he was betting and raising and staying PAT with two pair in his hand. It was hilarious to watch this guy's face scrunch up, then stare, and then eyes glaze over after 3 boards came out in Chowaha and Oklahoma. By the time he got some inkling about the game he was playing later in the round, the game would change. But he would often not notice the game change, and he would still be playing the previous game after a new one was called. It was like someone said, "clubbing a baby seal". Don't we BARGERers have some ethics? LOL. After this game broke in the early morning, it was off to bed. From: Gerald Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 17:07:57 -0700 Subject: [BARGE] Virginal View 2/Hands with Heldar & QB SAT Trip Report The Main Event dominated my day. I hoped to fair better since I sucked in the TOC the day before. Since David "Heldar" Heller and Ken QB Kubey mentioned hands with me in their trip reports, I'll specifically comment on those hands from my perspective. They were at my first table with Steve "(I never heard of Captain) Crunch" Daniel, John "da pickle" Pickels, fellow Virgin Ryan Troll, Steve "IFSATG" Carbonara, and Randy "schmengie" Collack Early on, this was an interesting action table with Crunch Daniel and Pickels making a lot of small raises and occasionally limping with less than stellar hands. Pickels had one where he showed his 6/4 off outside of the blinds, and I wondered to myself "is this how he built his chips and won last year" and made a mental note to be careful with da pickle. Also, surprisingly politics erupts at the table from a discussion between Carbonara and Collack talking about other BARGErs and people on RGP. Collack complains about a headline he saw about an Obama proposal to tax oil companies more, claims to be one of the "reasonable" conservatives, and says both sides are equally the cause of why things are screwed up today. I hope he is reasonable but wonder how the blame is "equal" with conservatives controlling the White House for the last 8 yrs and the Congress for nearly 6 of the last 7 yrs. My first real hand came when Ryan Troll I believe limped or made a small raise, Carbonara raised to 300, and Heldar raised to 600. I look down to see my KK. I jam my 1800 and change stack in since I don't want to screw around risking a 4-way flop, am satisfied to take down the nearly 1000 pot if everyone folds, and if somebody has Aces I will likely not be able to get away from my hand after the flop anyway unless an Ace flops. Folded around to Heldar who went into timeout think mode. He had me covered but a call would really cripple him. He ends up calling with his Ace/King suited, and I wondered if my (I may be a clueless) Virgin gear helped me get his call. No miracle Ace hits the board and now I have some chips to play with. Not sure what range of hands Heldar put me on after I come over the top of a limper AND two raisers. Carbonara said he folded 10/10. Later more chip buildup when I limp with Ace/Nine suited and Ryan makes a small raise out of one of the blinds. I call and hit a Pair of Nines with a Flush Draw on a nine high flop. Ryan reraises my flop raise to go all-in with Queens. I call and hit a flush on the river. Later folded to Heldar on the button who limps. I'm suspicious of this limp, but I look down to see A/Koff in SB, and I make a small raise. Ken QB in BB and Heldar both call. I flop air but continuation bet the 10 high two-club board. QB calls and Heldar mucks. Turn is the King of Clubs. I check and QB checks. River is a blank and I bet 800 that cover QB's remaining stack. QB thinks for a little bit, then mucks. QB says he had Jacks and wanted to know what I had. I tell him after he busts, and he is kicking himself for not getting me off my hand. Before the flop, if he jams after my raise, I wouldn't have liked it but I probably would have decided to call since his stack was less than 20% of my stack. When I bet air on the flop though, I would have likely mucked if he had jammed. Once I see the turn King, he can't get me out now. Sorry to an OldBlue. My lucky table breaks and I have over 6,000 in chips to work with. My second table has a lot of big stacks though with very aggressive players. Gavin Smith's alternate is there, ADB Bingo comes later, both brothers Lawful, and Larry Stone are there, and Mordecai Schwartz is seated next to me. I mention to Mordecai that he looks like the guy who used to write the lowball column in Card Player. I get to over 7,000 in chips by busting a guy in the SB with Ace/5 suited versus my pocket Queens in the BB. He flops an Ace but I hit a runner runner straight. I get a deck of Binions cards as a bustout gift and now think maybe it is my day. Too confident though as I go card dead round after round. I only manage to win/steal the blinds/antes a couple of times. Eventually get ground down to where I have to call Bingo's early position raise with J/8suited from the BB. Flop complete air and know Bingo will call the rest of my chips if I bet so I muck. Later in the round I go all-in with Q/J off and get called by both blinds. SB wins with Ace high and I'm out. I look up at the Tourney screen and it looks like I went out around 42nd. Later in the day I see Dave Lawful. He said I played fine but said I should have went all-in against Bingo with the rest of my chips or not played the J/8 suited hand in the BB since I was holding onto very little chips to continue with. I told him I did not want to commit the rest of my chips with that hand since I knew Bingo was calling with his much bigger stack. I also did not want to fully give up on a nearly 3 to 1 pots odds blind defense. Hence I called. Thanks for the advice and support Dave. Loved the Banquet. Didn't mind Tom Schneider but could see how some might be offended. Had 4 Vodka cranberrys with dinner so I had a good buzz workin' for the Reindeer Games. I sat in the nondrinking Dealer's Choice game and it was tougher than the night before. Goldiefish was splashing chips around trying to hike up the action. I couldn't get many good hands and was floored when Mark Rafn, fresh off his Main Event final table, clubbed me in 7-2 triple draw. I stood PAT (9) on the button and raised right off the bat. He called, took four and check raised me. He took 1, I stood PAT. Check, check. He took 1, I stood PAT and he hit his 7/6, which I paid off. That made me book my -195 loss for the night. Packed up and flew out in the morning a few hours later (without my buddy James Hammer who missed the flight after getting trashed in the must drink Dealer's Choice game- see his trip report). Anyway, thanks alot BARGErs. It was a blast. You all r00le but I am glad to again be playing against the many fools out here in Cali. -Gerald