From: Peter Secor Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:11:47 -0700 Subject: [BARGE] BARGE Trip Report My 2008 BARGE starts sometime in 2007 when Chuck, Mick and our new organizer, Nick, email each other back and forth preparing a "proposal" and affirming the times and games we want to have at BARGE. Once that's complete we submit the proposal to a few rooms, although we expect real interest from only a couple of places, especially Binion's and Golden Nugget. I think we are agreed that BARGE is better downtown. Eventually we agree to go to Binion's, but hold the CHORSE at GN because Binion's wants too much juice for the event and GN wants to have us do something at their place. Next we apply to the NGC for permission to hold the tourneys and cross our fingers. Everything goes through fine and we get an approval letter. Binion's loses their copy of this letter at least twice, but I bring the original to BARGE, so they are much relieved. Midway through this process, Binion's gets sold to the Four Queens owners. Leading up to BARGE we dealt with three different Cardroom Managers at Binion's, but each of them was very supportive of BARGE. Just before BARGE I get a lovely note from Chuck Weinstock explaining that he will be stepping down as organizer after 2008, but of course he is stepping UP to Organizer Emeritus and we expect to pick his brain whenever we need to. It is hard to describe how delightful it was to work with Chuck all these years. He is thoughtful and resilient and he does all the behind the scenes stuff with the money and the banquet folks so well that everything appears effortless. Chuck is the heart of BARGE and I am happy he will now get to enjoy it without obligation! I arrive Tuesday afternoon via Southwest. Jeff "ADB Jester" Woods has kindly offered to hang around from his earlier arriving flight so we can ride downtown together in his rental. I exit the jetway, orient myself toward baggage claim and head for the exit. I hear a voice, "Peter!". I turn to look but don't see anyone I know. I start to resume toward the exit, when the voice comes again, "Peter!". I turn to look again. "Peter, it's me, Jeff." My jaw drops to the floor as the remains of Jester stand in front of me, totally unrecognizable. I'm pretty sure he has this on video. Very well done my friend. I'll not be the last ("Who is that guy in the pink shirt?") to be dumbfounded. I get checked in and everything seems in order at Binion's. (It was, and remained so throughout the week.) After greeting lots of folks, I jump in a 4/8 mixed game. I won about $70 in an hour and went off to the NL to HORSE Tourney. Here was proof that the organizers seating is random as I start seated between Sabyl and Gavin, with Rob Lauria, Keith Troll and Richard Brodie (the eventual table winner) also at the table. Not a soft spot anywhere at the table. I've already had a couple of drink units, so my notes have descended into gibberish already, but I remember that Sabyl and Gavin were the first two out and that nothing much happened interesting in my play and I was out. Congrats to Grizz on his win. I had sort of promised myself that I wouldn't play too late any night until Saturday, and I did get to bed by 3AM most nights, but the adrenalin was running high and I slept poorly, awakening before the alarm went off each morning. Proof of this was having breakfast most mornings, including a great omelet at Egg & I (Thanks Steve!) for the first time. I did the VP on Wednesday, knowing it's my best chance to cash during the week. I go off in the first heat and hear Chic loudly cackling as he gets first a Royal and then a couple of quads to destroy the field. I had three full houses and around 1,000 to Chic's 5,900 or so. Chic also took second at the Blackjack, at which point I began to wonder how much the fee was to Don Perry for the Anal Horseshoe rental. I don't play Lobah, so I played some 4/8 Dealer's Choice. In fact about 90% of my live play was DC. We weren't waiting until Saturday to play our reindeer games, nosireebob! Richard Brodie won the Lobah and made a serious run at the BAAP, eventually finishing second to Larry Larson. Chris "Tom Bayes" Mecklin finished second, cementing his rep as a draw games specialist. Then off to the Karaoke. I loved that we were singing on Wednesday rather than Friday as I still had some voice left. I was the first singer with a rather gravelly version of "House of the Rising Sun". The room filled more & more as people drifted in from the Lobah. Russ sang something that ensured his day job, but I didn't catch the title. Probably the best singer was Dan's friend Randy (who knew? :), but the highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Kevin Un's rendition of "I Love This BARGE", which he did an encore of during the Symposium. One thing I especially liked this year was more singing and less group shouting type stuff. Even "If I had A Million Dollars" actually had some (not much, but some) vocal quality. Thursday morning I attended but did not play in the Team CHORSE. I was available as a sub, but wasn't needed, so I hopped into a 3/6 HE game and played vs. an amazing variety of players as several teams were taking turns playing a stack on the table. The local in seat 10 had a few of us on tilt. NHS, WP. I can't tell you how grateful I am to Mick for volunteering to manage this event. It is a lot of fun, but getting the thing started is like herding noisy cats. Plus there was the great joy of figuring out the structure since the room didn't have the right denominations of chips (despite them having the structure for months in advance). Good job Mick! And congrats to the Moosecocks for winning and having bragging rights for a year. That evening I played the Stud Shootout, an event I have enjoyed and done OK in. (<--Grammar nazis speak up here :). I always enjoy the laughs when the 35/70 round is called. When Nick was redoing the structures for all the tourneys I had only two requests: leave in the 35/70 and the early rounds in the NL. I like playing serious stud but it wasn't my night as no one would let me push them around (darn BARGErs). Once again out but only after hanging around long enough to miss the smoker. Damn. The nice thing about shootouts is the ring games crank right up and once again I enjoyed DC. Apparently Chris Kluchman plays better than her husband since she won the SO Stud. Speaking of which, what a great job Dave K (& Diana M) did organizing the Virgin Class of 2008. Great Tees & Hats, two CHORSE teams, a syndicate, a meet up, trophies and 2 losing last longer bets! (Nya-nana-nya-na, thanks Nolan). Well played sir. WTF is with BIA and Marlin chopping the Stud? Scottro must still be shuddering. Friday was the TOC Style, imho a great event, won by World Class Nice Guy and Player Barry Tanenbaum. What's left of The Occupant was second and our very own Chuck Weinstock finished third. (For an organizer to do well in an event is pretty amazing because of all the distractions, so well done Chuck!) The symposium came off without a hitch. Thanks to all the help we have keeping the records and running the cards to the winners. We still haven't figured out how to do Hors D'oerve accurately, but we'll work on it. Many of you heard Kevin do a reprise of "I Love This BARGE" complete with sing-along refrain. A big shout out to Mickdog for handling all the payouts. Saturday's NL was a lot of fun. The low blinds give some play in the early going (and let the "pro players" sleep in a little). I was doing well until BIA sucked out with AK v KQ on a KQx flop, A on river to chop me down to smallish stack. Congrats to Dan Chevrie, representing all the bald guys out there! Nice try by Dagon to get the final table loaded by icing down the vodka. The significant others also had fun, and Maryann "Good Doctor" Hack took first place in their tourney. Just remember Maryann, you'll have to play with the big kids next year. Congrats also to hubby Ed Hack for his 17th (of 18) BARGE in a row! The prime rib was roast beef and the speaker was, perhaps, a little light on poker content, but the company was great at the banquet. How amazing is Rodney Chen for doing all those pictures for us? The signups for the reindeer games were much improved over past years and we finally convinced Binion's that we needed more tables and they listened! The highlight of my evening was playing two tables simultaneously - a 4/8 must drink DC and a low games (2-7 TD, Badugi, O/8 + ?). While playing real Chowaha (4 cards hi-lo split) at the DC I won or split 7 of 8 hands and was doing OK at the low table too. They did get me once though, when I rolled over to the low table and asked "What game?" "Badugi" - OK I rai with X7s6h2c - roll over (my chair had wheels) to chowaha, raise with some nut hand - roll back to badugi to see a flop! They changed the game in the middle on me! ROFL. I got a rebate from Ice after the hand, which I immediately toked to the dealer. What fun. I was up till all hours as usual and was proud to see the 4/8 must drink DC was the last game going! There is much more but it all runs together. Hilites: - My buddy (and virgin) James getting so hammered he missed his flight home. - shrimp cocktails and ice cream - fucking up the Crunchy points (an unfortunate tradition) despite Crunch having done all the prep work on site. - Great ass late entry with Marlin, Tigress, Shaza and Rodney - broke almost exactly even for BARGE despite massive toking and other negative EV action (can't anyone make a GD point?) - Once again enjoyed seeing my old and new friends, if ever so briefly. Why does this thing go by so fast? - Maintained my lifetime winning streak at Binglaha playing other people's chips (Thanks Michael) - Managed to still get a gift box of cigars despite missing smoker (Thanks Dan and Oliva Cigars and Mick) BEST BARGE EVAH! Let's do it again next year. Best, Peter -- http://zbigniew.pyrzqxgl.com/bargegeek.html A+++ G++ PKR+ PEG- B+ TB ADB++ M+ www.barge.org "There are no strangers at BARGE, just friends we haven't met yet"