Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 13:17:20 -0400 From: Tom Goodwin Subject: [BARGE] Rebuy's 2008 Barge Trip Report (Part 1) ------=_Part_50169_10768058.1217956640349 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline First of all I want to thank Nick, Mickdog, Chuck, Foldem and everyone else who helped make Barge 2008 such a fun event for all of us. I would also like to thank the staff at Binion's poker room who really went out of there way to accommodate our needs. Wed 7/30: Depart work at 2:30. A conference call goes over by 30 min so I'm running a little late but traffic is light, the parking shuttle is efficient and I arrive at the airport with time to spare. Manage to quell my pre-Barge excitement and get in 2 hours of sleep on the plane. Arrive in Vegas 20 minutes early; shortly after 6:00 pm (was I really flying USAir?). Pick up the rental car, grab a quick bite to eat and head to the Venetian for the 8:00 tourney. See prm and say hello. I really like this tournament structure: $180 buy in, T5000, 30 min levels, 25-50 starting blinds. I pick up a few pots early but then go totally card dead. Find myself short stacked in the 5th level 200-400 blinds w/ 25 ante. It is raised in front of me and I move in with QQ. My opponent has AK and hits a K on the turn, IGHN. I drive to the Nugget, check in, and meet Karma at the 4 Queens brewpub for a couple beers. Leaving the brewpub we see the penny slots that allow you to wager 300 units per pull. I thought this looked interesting so I put in $6. I connect on the first roll and after a few rolls hit some multiplier bonus that progresses to 50x. Woohoo! I r00l the penny slots! Cash out $150 and move on. See a new table game: California Draw and give it a try. Essentially you get 4 cards and can replace 1 to make the best 4 card hand. The dealer gets 4 cards plus 1 up card. The dealer has to use the up card to make the best 4 card hand. You win by beating the dealer AND get paid odds on hands higher than 2 pair(?). I thought "how can you lose at this game". I lose a few hands and move on but I was still pretty certain that you couldn't lose at that game. Walk over to Binions and get in a 1-3 NL game. Make about $250 and pick up sometime around 4 am. Thur 7/31: Order room service and play a few heads up sit-n-go's online during breakfast. Meet Mr. Raise at the Venetian shortly before the noon tourney. This structure is even better with T7500, 30 min levels, 25-50 starting blinds, buy-in = $150. I should however point out that the Venetian daily tourneys are non-rebuy events. This puts me at a significant disadvantage. I pick up one pot and late in the first level with about T8000 the following hand occurs. 25-50 blinds, UTG limps, one middle position player limps, button limps, small blind calls and I raise to 300 with KK. UTG calls, middle position player folds, button and SB both call. Flop is T93 rainbow. SB checks, I bet 1000 and everyone calls. Turn is a 6. SB checks, I bet 3000 and everyone calls. River is a 7 and everyone checks. SB shows J8 and is now the table chip leader. Very next hand I have AJs in the SB. Middle position player (MPP) raises to 300 and I call. Flop is Axx. I check, MPP bets 600 and I call. This is probably my biggest mistake in the hand as a check raise would have been a better play. Turn is another small card, I check and MPP bets 800. I think this is a weak bet and now I am pretty certain that I have the best hand so I call. River is a T and I check. MPP bets 2000. I thought this was a very odd bet because I expected him to check down any pair. Concluding it was more likely a desperation play than a value bet, I called and he flips over TT and says "you let me get there". Yes I did. I have T75 left and put it in 2 hands later with QTs and lose the hand, IGHN. I decide to head over to the Wynn for the 2:00 tourney. On the way I see a new table game called 357. Basically you get paid odds for the hand you make on your first 3 cards, your first 5 cards, and 5 out of your final 7 cards, I think "how can you lose at this game". I play this game for a while and discover it's pretty stupid ( I call it stupid because there is almost no decision making during play of the game). Eventually I hit a 3 card straight flush. End up winning about $300 confirming my initial suspicion that you can't lose at this game. I then continue on my way to the Wynn. The Wynn daily structure is T4000, 30 min levels, 25-50 starting blinds, buy-in = $120 with one rebuy for $100 to get another T4000 anytime during the 1st 3 levels regardless of stack size. A rebuy event, now this sounds more like it. I misplay AK on a flop of As8s7x and get all in against A8 and 3s2s. A spade hits on the turn and I rebuy. In the 3rd level 100-200 blinds, it's folded to me in the SB and I have AA and about 3800 in chips. The BB is a very aggressive player and I'm certain he will raise if I just call. So I call and sure enough the BB raises to 800, I reraise to 2000. BB thinks for a while, questions why I would go from calling 100 to raising to 2000 but finally calls. The flop is JT8, I push in the rest of my chips and BB calls. He shows J6 and hits a J on the river, IGHN. I get a seat in a 2-5 NL game and buy in for $500. I play my first hand in the cutoff and get AhQc. UTG limps 1-2 other limpers and I raise to $20, blinds fold, UTG calls, and one other player calls. Flop is Axx with 2 clubs. Checked to me and I bet $40, UTG calls and other player folds. Turn is a small club, UTG checks, I bet $80, and UTG raises to $180 and I call. I don't improve on the river and fold to a $250 bet. I play for about an hour more and with a little over $200 left the following hand occurs. I limp UTG with KdQd, about 6 players limp including the blinds. Flop is Jd9x4d. Blinds check, I check, next player moves all in for $65, folded to the SB who thinks for a while and calls, BB folds, I jam and SB calls with Ad2d, the all in player had 88. A 9d hits on the turn and I miss my 1 outer. I am totally disgusted with my Wynn experience and leave. I have plans to meet several Bargers for our annual Makino sushi outing. This outing actually started several years before the unofficial Barge sushi/sake outing. Our usual plan is to fill up on sushi and hit an evening tourney at the Mirage. This year we changed the tourney venue to the Venetian. I head over to the downtown Makino, get a little lost in the process but finally find it. I forgot something in my car and was walking across the entrance road to the mall where the Makino is located. Some lunatic in a gold car almost runs me over as I cross the street. I think "doesn't anyone yield to J-walkers, what an asshole". I look up and notice that it's actually Mr. Raise and think "what an asshole!!!" J. Meet Mr. Raise, George, Ross, Karma, and Paul in Makino an all-u-can-eat sushi and Asian food restaurant. The food quality varies from average to above average over the years. This year the food was about average but the company was well above average. I tilt after losing a $1 bet to Mr. Raise because between George, Ross and Karma only one liked fake tits. I will not disclose the affirming party at this juncture. George, Mr. Raise and I head over to the Venetian for the 8:00 tourney. Same buy-in and structure as yesterday's 8:00 pm tourney. I bust out early and forget the details but it had to be a bad beat. I stay at the Venetian for a while and sit down in a 1-2 NL game with $300. Within 15 min I get AA on the button. It's folded to me and I make it $6 to go, SB calls, BB raises to $18, I reraise to $48, SB folds and the BB jams for almost $300 and I call. Flop is Axx (DING), turn is a T and river is a J. BB shows KQ... nice hand sir well played. I play a few more orbits and get a horrible ruling from the floor. There is about $20 in the pot, a player bets $10, another player raises to $40, I say raise and put in a $100 bill. The dealer says there is a 1 chip rule and because I didn't announce the amount of my raise it would be considered a min raise. I call the floorman and he upholds the dealer's decision. I play until my blind and then hunt down the shift supervisor. She agreed that I was correct and the floorman made a mistake. The floorman had actually spoken with her after the hand and she corrected him. On my way back to the table the floorman stopped me and apologized, admitting he got confused when the situation was described to him at the table. No hard feelings, at least he followed up on the situation. I notice that George has busted out and left the room. So I give him a call. He is in a 2-5 NL game at the Mirage with a seat open -- "lock it up please, I'm on my way". I win a huge pot with 86 on a flop of 864, turn is a J and I get two players all-in. An 8 on the river seals the deal and I rake in a ~$1500 pot. I play in the game until about 5:00 am and head back to the Nugget to get some sleep before the TOC tourney. Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 13:18:13 -0400 From: Tom Goodwin Subject: [BARGE] Rebuy's 2008 Barge Trip Report (Part 2) Fri 8/1 Wake up at 9:30, shower, stop by Starbuck's for coffee and muffin and arrive at the TOC a few minutes after it started. It was one of those tournaments where I never went on a huge rush but just happened to win most of the pots I played. I skipped the Calcutta and had dinner with Llew, George, and Ross at the Main Street Station Brew pub. Then we played a little Let It Ride. I like to play this game with a modified Martingale betting structure, a way that insures you really can't lose at this game. It was a $5 table and I would add another $5 to my bet after losing 2 hands in a row. So after losing 15 hands in a row I picked up, but you really almost can't lose at this game. Now I had to place high in the tourney just to break even from my Let It Ride debacle. Fortunately I continued to win pots and I think I was the chip leader by a small amount entering the final table. Then I went card dead and Quiet Lion was controlling the action. I had to really pick my spots. Quiet Lion had lost a pot to Barry T that crippled him. I picked up AK and knocked him out. Then I played a pot with A9 against Chuck who was forced to go all in with 82. I didn't improve and Chuck hit an 8 to stay alive. I went all-in with 88 and Barry T called with 99, IGHN. Time for Binglaha. I heard that ActionBob through a party at the Binglaha game Thursday night and I was sad to miss it. But the "action die" was back in business this night. Basically, Bob was posting the $5 straddle with the "action die". When it was his turn to act he would roll the die. If the die rolled high (4, 5, or 6) Bob would make a blind pot sized raise. If the die was low Bob would look at his cards and only raise if he wanted to. So I played in this game from about midnight until about 3:30 am and Bob never rolled a high number. I thought the die was rigged. I finished close to even and Bob and I walked around looking for a table game to r00l. We played a little PaiGow Mania a game that there is seriously almost no way to lose at, but the game moved way to slow for our level of sleep depravity so we decided to call it a night. Sat 8/2 Wake up at 9:00 feeling kinda bad with a headache and an upset stomach. I order room service thinking food and coffee may help. I shower but start to feel worse. By the time room service arrives I feel too awful to even attempt eating. It's a few minutes before 10:00 and I contemplate skipping the tourney. Frankly, if it wasn't for the fact that people had money on me from the Calcutta I would have skipped the Main Event. I put a plastic bag in my pocket in case I needed to vomit and could not make it to a bathroom and proceeded to Binion's. I am seated at Table 1 that included AllKnight, Michelle, and Quiet Lion. Needless to say, I was not talking much because my head was pounding and my stomach was hurting. After about 3 hours whatever was bothering me started to subside and I started feeling better. I won several all-in confrontations and it seemed like my stack size was between 5000 and 10000 most of the tourney. I finally busted one of the ADBers and received the bustout gift. I love the irony in the ADBer's gifts; giving an alcohol molecule which would literally be the world's smallest drink. I hung around and made the final table after Mark Rafn busted Nolan and Oldbear(?) the last virgin standing, on the same hand. I think I had the 3rd smallest stack at the final table and drew the Big Blind. On the very first hand of the final table the action was folded around to one of the chip leaders on the button who raised (enough or close to enough to put me all-in), SB folded and I called with AK. The button had TT and I didn't improve, IGHN. I played a little 2-7 triple draw-Badugi split with Oscar, Shaza, Jester, and Nolan and headed over to the Banquet. I r00l Nolan in a hand where he stands pat after the first draw, I draw and then tell him he needs to break his T. He shows me a T and says I guess I need to break this too and shows me a 9. Much laughter ensues. The Banquet is always a great opportunity to socialize because you basically get to talk to only 8 -10 people at a time while playing in a ring game or tourney and it's impossible to catch up with everyone while just playing poker. I thought Tom Schneider did an ok job as speaker. He clearly tried to be humorous (even though his humor may not have appealed to everyone) but I was disappointed that his talk was weak in poker content. I also thought it was inappropriate if not downright rude for him to disrespect Poker Stars after we had just heard Jester speak on how much Poker Stars has done for us over the years. Lastly, I found it interesting that he identified the behavior of Havad and Humberto as being bad for poker but didn't mention Hellmuth and Matasow. I think that the hero/villain aspect that these players bring to poker actually makes poker more entertaining for the general public. After the Banquet I went to Binion's for the reindeer games. Binion's spread games in the tourney section this year which enabled them to accommodate all of our games. This worked really well and I commend them for this needed change. I get a seat in the second Binglaha game. ActionBob and the "Action Die" are on my left but oddly enough the Action Die never rolls high. I am now convinced that the die is rigged. I don't pick up any large pots and fluctuate between +$300 and -$200 all night. An interesting discussion starts up over who has the better ass: ActionBob or Shaza. Marlin is the main judge but several others contribute. After several evaluations Bob finally said "OK, nobody else is grabbing my ass". Consensus was never reached but I'm looking forward to a best ass contest during Barge 2009. Shortly before 5 am I pick up and head back to the Nugget to pick up George, Bruce, and Shirley and drive to the airport for the 7 am flight home (which arrived in Philadelphia about 30 min early, no way that was USAir). So that was my Barge 2008 experience. It came and went far too quickly but it was the nuts while it lasted. To the Barge organizers and my friends both old and new, thank you again for making Barge such a great time for me. I can't wait until next year. Regards, Rebuy