Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 18:20:18 -0500 From: Ross Poppel Subject: [BARGE] Trip Report - Part 1 of 2 BARGE 2008 Trip Report - any poker content is purely unintentional and should not be construed as my endorsement of the game Forward ------------- This trip report is long enough but it goes without saying, that a big thanks goes out to the organizers, and host casinos for making this a very enjoyable BARGE. And an extra special thanks to my CHORSE teammate and now Organizer Emeritus Chuck W. Chapter 1 - Why do the Airlines hate me? ------------------------------------------------------- I am a frequent traveler, but in recent years not a frequent flyer. This has changed somewhat as I have had to fly for business much more frequently. But without airline status, it meant a lot of bad seat assignments and poor flight experiences. I am about 280K miles away from the American Airline million mile threshold for Gold-for-Life (I am guessing life of the airline, not of me) but given a few of my recent experiences I am not sure I want to put in the time. Case in point, a recent trip a couple of months ago to Bogota Columbia. I flew AA out of Philly through DFW to Bogota. My outbound trip was delayed 7 hours sitting in the "E" terminal at Miami airport (its a dump). I thought they could not beat this on the return flight, I was wrong. On an upside, I got a free night at the Don Shula Resort and County Club paid for by AA. Turns out to be an amazing place - too bad I could only spend a few overnight hours there. Anyway, for my recent travel I had to pick an airline and stick with it to regain some status. Coming from Philly your choices are pretty limited. USAir has probably 70% of the flights in and out. But past experiences with them has soured me on them (although my last trip was phenomenal). With recommendations from my colleagues I choose Delta as being the "least objectionable of the airlines", joined the Crown Room, and booked a series of flights all of which were uneventful. In traveling uneventful is good. I had my BARGE trip set up on AA using some miles, and was flying first class. I was ready to go on Wednesday and was staying though till Monday morning. Last week I get a call from the project manager on one of my projects that he needs me in Mexico City for a meeting. So long story short I plan to fly Sunday and return Tuesday. I get there no problem at all. Again, Delta has been going 100% so it sounds good. Monday meeting, which lasted a total of 50 minutes, was a total waste of my time, and the customer's money. But on the flight home the trouble began. We board the plane on-time. A few minutes before departure the pilot informs us that there is an air-conditioning problem and we have to wait for maintenance. Now, Jerrod and Bill and probably 70-80% of the BARGE group are better (or at least as good) than me in math. But there are few and far between who are better than me at airline math. Airline math is a subspecialty of math where you have to understand travel time vs. flight time, timezone management, airport layouts (including gate configuration and inter-terminal transportation), flight schedules, customs and immigration configuration, baggage claim, and a plethora of other minutiae that one needs to know to get around. Without data services I don't know have all the info (data services are expensive in Mexico so I don't use them) but a few rounds of text messaging to my buddy Tom back in NYC gets me the list of connections available from ATL to PHL. I start the math and come up with about a 35 minute window for wheels up, After the hour we have spent on the ground I am almost positive I will miss the time for last fight of the night back to PHL. The pilot gets on the speaker and says that everything is fixed and we are just waiting for the paperwork - should be another 5-10 minutes. I guess this was the pilot's first trip to Mexico. Nothing happens there in 5-10 minutes. Nothing. So 55 minutes later we are wheel's up. We arrive at 9:05pm and my flight is 9:30pm - the last of the night. Its close (real close), but doable of EVERYTHING goes right. We get to Atlanta and the first variable in my equation fails. Not only are 4-5 international flights coming in at the same time, but they've closed one side of the immigration center. So there is a full serpentine of people in the US Citizen line, At about 12-13 minutes per twist its gonna take a while. So I resign myself to staying overnight in Atlanta and that means I will miss my flight from PHL-LAS on Wednesday. So I call American to change my LV flight. I am in line in immigration but want to get this done, and I've got enough time. Immigration frowns on phone usage in line, but I've got the small ear bud going and with so many people I think I'll be OK. I talk to AA, explain the situation and she goes off and searches alternatives. 13 minutes later I hear a "hmm...". I am not usually that great at reading tells, but I get this one pretty clearly. I offer up a possibility saying "what if I take first class off the table"? She goes away again, another 10 minutes (while we are moving and picking up speed through the serpentine) she comes back with an alternative that would get me in at 7pm, and give me enough time to fly from ATL to PHL, drive home, repack, drive back to the airport for a PHL-LAS flight. I went through my options (early flight, get in on time to pick up existing flight, get to Vegas, buy some new clothes for BARGE, add in the cost of hotel laundry (you may not believe this but I don't by off-the-rack well). So the later flight was the best choice. Small side story, I was feeling bad for myself but the nice girl next to me on the MEX-ATL flight was flying through Atlanta to Toronto to take her citizenship test Wednesday morning at 8am. I quizzed her on some questions which she knew the answers (the only couple of things I knew were the words to Oh Canada, the denominations of currency, and the current prime minister but she got them right). But I did the math and jumped on Travelocity when we landed in Atlanta to check connections, did not have the heart to tell her how boned she was. So back to the story... I have to hang up the phone with AA to get through immigration and customs - it took her (Michelle from AA) that long to work out the new plan . She puts the trip on hold and tells me I have to call back to work out the points from my old flight, the new flight, etc. In a bit of foreshadowing this turns out to be a good thing it took so long to work out this mess. I am waiting in line for my new flights and hotel info with Delta (mechanical failure = free room, don't let the airline try to angle you). He says that there is one more flight at 10:02pm (it is now 9:56pm) and that I should try it - worse case there is a service center in Concourse A to finish the rebook. I do the airline math - security in Concourse E + travel time to gate A21... off by 5-10 minutes depending on security, well what do I have to lose. OK, I am off. Now, when a fat man runs its not a pretty site, but once we get up to speed its all in the momentum, you should probably give us a wide berth. Anyway I get to the gate at 10:06pm to see the words I had hoped upon hoped to see. "Delayed Flight, departure at 10:30". Ding! I call AA to get my original flight reinstated. The recorded message tells me that my flight is scheduled for 10:25am. Michelle has only put a 2nd flight on hold, not cancelled my original flight. I use the iPhone to get onto AA.com and check it out. Kudos to AA for their mobile web site - its aces on the iPhone. I not only see my flight but to make sure there's no issue, I check in for the next morning. I get home at 1:30am, unpack, repack, set the alarm for 7:00am, and off to sleep by 2:15am. Welcome to Wednesday, the day I travel to LV. I get up, get prepared (snip the boring bits), and get to the airport with plenty of time to spend at the Crown Room. Check my email, check my flights, life is good. In a double bonus the Crown Room is closer to the AA gates than is the American Airlines lounge which is on the wrong side of security. All carry-on, so I am good to go. The flight boards on time, and even pulls away away from the gate right at 10:25am. HOWEVER.... so does every other plane at the airport. We are, no exaggeration, 30th or so in line. More airline math, 2-3 minutes per plane, 1:45 wheels up to wheels down, taxi, subtract the hour time difference. OK, the window is close, but doable. Then the take offs start to speed up - thats good news, about 1 every 1-2 minutes. We are on the runway for takeoff. Engine up to speed and we are going down the runway. Wait, why did the pilot just cut the engine? So we roll to a stop at the end of the runway after the aborted takeoff. The pilot says that a door light is on and while we are on the ground we want to make sure its a sensor and not a door problem. We travel back to the gate, they check the door (its fine) and fix the light, and we want another 10 minutes for more fuel. Meanwhile I am back on the mobile AA website checking for the next flight to Vegas. There's one at 2:35pm and they have seats available. I text and voicemail Rich Strauss and tell him to that he will have to make his way to Binions on his own, I am not getting there on-time. I don't have Bob J's number so sorry bout that - if you read this, or see me you'll understand getting ditched (post-editing - ignore this as I will meet up with Bob later). But good news abounds. When I got to the counter the AA representative took my info and punched some keys and then some more, and then some more. I said, "well its more important that I get there today so even if you have a coach seat, in the middle, in the last row I will take it". She printed a ticket for the next available flight, still in first class. Ding! I get to the new gate and see Taki. He's on the same flight. We talk a while and then head on off to Vegas. He's in the back of the bus and I had wanted to send back a Beefeater and Tonic but the guy in the aisle seat next to me slept from wheels up to wheels down and I could not climb over him. Chapter 2 - Vegas Baby! ------------------------------------- There are many things I do as sort of a ritual when I am in Vegas. One of them is the shrimp cocktail from the Golden Gate (at least once during the trip - in fact I had it twice this trip), the In-and-Out burger (thanks to George, but that didn't happen this trip), another is the "Vegas Baby" SMS to a group of friends while taxing into the gate. This will be the third time this year that they receive this message however this time its a slight change. I've got a new iPhone and found an app called "hereIam". There are two apps with that name but this one is pretty simple. Its reads your position via the location services of the phone being either the GPS (accurate), WIFI (a little less accurate), or tower triangulation (even less so). And then there's a button that will send an email with a link to Google maps with a pinpoint on your position. So that is how they got the message. Not quite instant feedback since they have to check their emails but fun anyway. So we land a few minutes late (maybe 10-15 minutes) and Taki says that we are meeting Mickdog and Bob J at the airport for the ride downtown. Turns out Bob and I work for the same company through acquisitions. Always good to network with other groups, you never know when you will be on a multi-project integration and have a few questions. The rental car is pretty easy, the ride down equally so, no line at the counter for check-in to the Nugget, and I am off to my room. That went as expected - got a Saturn Aura - a perfectly usable rental car. George, my roommate, popped in a little earlier than expected so he was on his own for a ride downtown. He's smart enough not to get himself tunneled. Chapter 3 - CHORSE ------------------------------------- I had high hopes for our team this year. On paper it looked pretty good and we were all playing games that we were comfortable with. My team, the Icicles, won the event a couple of years ago and 3 of the members returned for another go. The changes were fine - we lost our Holdem player and got a stronger one, we lost a fantastic stud player but picked up Rob L for Stud/8. Only 3rd at the series event, I guess that would have to do. I played the RAZZ round and was amazingly card dead. I started with 1 or two face cards pretty much every hand. Or when I started with a reasonable hand I went "counterfeit, brick" almost every time. But we were doing fine as a team and had a good chance of winning up to my round at the end. Ice felt, and I agreed, that we were not playing for the money - we were playing for the title - so we had to push the last round. Both Ice (at "C") and me (at "R") were REALLY REALLY card dead and ended up dragging down the bottom line. Our team lost $15 each. Maybe next year. Chapter 3a - Carnival Games ------------------------------------- Between the events I was playing some carnival games in the pit. I usually do fairly well at them, the lower the expectation the better I seem to do. I don't get it, the people with me don't get it, but thats the way it is and I go with it. I remember a couple of BARGEs ago I was downstairs early in the morning and there was a $5 craps table open. I sauntered over and threw down a bill. I proceeded to bet dark. The boxman said "ah... sir, thats the Don't Pass line". I told him I know. I proceeded to set a point and crap out 3 times (there was no-one else at the table). He said "well whatever works". So during one of our sessions George and I were playing roulette. George bets a set of numbers each time. I of course bet the dark side to his numbers. I guess if we were to analyze I am probably slightly ahead. So he was playing and I was watching. I grabbed one of his chips and threw it on 13 (the dark side). It came up 13. Nice! Also during this time I was playing some Spin Poker at Binions. I like the game. Its mostly slots, a small amount of VP that accidentally got there and the pay tables aren't that great, but again, the worse things are the better they are for me. The game is basically 15 cards - 3 hands of 5 cards, but there are either 9 lines are 20 lines (depending on whether it is Spin Poker or Spin Poker Deluxe) - the 20 line game is basically all the different ways you can get connect the cards and eventually you get the hang of which ways the lines. So you are playing 9 (or 20) lines x 5 coins (max) at either 1c, 2c, 5c. I play the max the machine has to offer (45 nickels or 100 nickels). 5 cards get dealt like a regular VP and you select the cards you want to hold. They are held for the same spot on each row and the deal will "spin" cards into the remaining spaces. The hands are totaled and... well you get the idea. I am most of the way through a $100 on Double Double and get deal AA8AA, I drop the 8 because of the pay table and spin. I hit 3 4's down the middle for a 18000 coin payout. I later hit the same machine for 2 Royals for another 8000 coins. And later managed to get Howler and Mrs. Howler hooked on the game as well. Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 18:21:08 -0500 From: Ross Poppel Subject: [BARGE] Trip Report - Part 2 of 2 Chapter 4 - Stud Shootout ------------------------------------- I like this event, I like the game, I like the format. I usually hold my own in it and coming into the event I was 2 of 4 for winning my table. This year I came in 4th on my table - nothing to write home about. I was SMS'ing to my friend back who was asking me how it was going. I picked up the phone and sent him an picture message of Gavin at my table and his response was "oh well, maybe next year". I didn't go up against him too many times an I came out the victor in most of the hands. He had a good read and saw I was playing decent starting hands. I think I had a decent read on him and stayed out of his way when he was betting aggressively. My hands were not that great, I pushed a little and ran into some hands. Howler was running over the table at this point and Gavin was not that far behind, I got it all in with the better pair but could he hit his 2nd pair (sorry, I forget your name), so IGHN. Chapter 5 - the TOC ---------------------------- Not a whole lot to say here. I came in middle of the pack, No exciting hands, no bad beats, just an eventual drainage of chips down to 0. Chapter 5a - More Carnival Games ----------------------------------------- During the TOC dinner break, we had dinner at Main Street Station with Rebuy and Llew. It was their break, I was long gone by this point. But Tom, George and myself decided to play some Let it Ride on the way out of the casino. I did OK, either staying even or winning $5 but Tom had other ideas. He Martingale'd his way to about 6 chips per pile and did not hit even a pair of 10's in 15 hands. I have not seen that before. You'd think at some point just by the shear probability or dumb ass luck he'd be dealt 10's or better or AT LEAST the dealer would pair one of his face cards! Later that evening we were back at Binions after Tom takes 5th (great job Tom - it made up the LIR session). Binions has a couple of new carnival games. You can always tell how poor the EV on the game is by the number of colors on the felt and table. Look at Poker - nice green felt. Blackjack - green felt with some white spaces for chips (oh maybe they try to dress it up a little with some extra colors for bonus hands and such), Pai Gow - not a lot of colors but the more colors the worse the EV. There was one game a few years ago in AC called "Rainbow Dice". Basically a combination of craps, roulette, SIC Bo, maybe more, but long story short --- 9 colors = bad EV. So one of the games was California Draw. You put up a (optional) bonus bet for your top card matching either the suit or value and are dealt 4 cards to make a 4 card hand. You can discard 1 card and then match your hand against the dealer. So one session Rebuy, George and I were playing this game. We had a common stack of $1s that we were using for the bonus. We were Martingaling our way through. "Let's see, I just hit so I go back to 1 chip, Tom you are up to 3 chips and George is up to 4". The pit boss came over and said "ah, that's a minimum of $5 for the bonus". We we'd been playing $1 for about 15 minutes -- and doing really well at it, although more than once we had a spade, club, and heart and the dealer drew a diamond which seemed to give her thorough enjoyment. But with the dealer change and the demeanor of the pit boss we stopped playing the -EV bonus. I never understood why that do this, its the same as having three or four empty $25 BJ tables and people trying to shove their way into a small crevice of a $10 table. Chapter 6 - No Limit Holdem ---------------------------- I had hoped to do well here. Last year I came in 16th (a small cash) and I have cashed in at least one tourney in each of the ARG events I attended since 2004. So I wanted to keep the streak alive (for those of you getting nervous let me say right now that I did not cash, please put this out of your mind). Mike B had bought me and my partner Steve C. Usually I am partnered with George but I was traveling and George was busy and we missed Foldem's note about the pairings so we got randomly paired. I know Steve, I've played with him in cash games in AC and LV, but I was having a real mental block. I asked George to point him out and he said. He is tall and thin an usually wears a white T-shirt. Somehow we got to talking about that and somehow we got a bet down that he would be wearing a white T-shirt, that's the way things go at BARGE. So Steve comes up to us and he is wearing a white T-shirt. I got r00led for $5. So the tournament started off innocuously enough. I found the syndicate who purchased me and I bought myself back. I sent Steve C a water and gave the waitress a buck to make sure he didn't drink. But about the 4th or 5th hand it got interesting. I don't remember the EXACT sequence of events but it went something like this: I limp in UTG with 44 (OK, I know, but i figured the opening couple of rounds are usually very tight in RGP events and I was using that to my hopeful advantage of seeing a really cheap flop). Mike B puts in a 3x-5x raise. Called by Diane M. Mordecai goes over the top and its back to me. Now, 1 raise, maybe.... 1 raise, a caller and an over the top with 44, nope. So I fold, Mike goes all in, and Diane thinks and thinks (and thinks) and mucks. Mordecai calls. Sort of as expected it was AA (Mike) vs KK (Mordecai) and Diane says that she folded AA preflop (just for an extra kick by the 5th hand she had AA for the 2nd time)! All I can guess is that she did not want to bust - I am not gonna try to analyze the play. Well anyway, you know the story, you've seen it on TV. 953o flop, turn is trash, river is K. Mike GHN. Don't know if it could have played out any different. The money was either going in pre-flop or flop or turn with the way the board played out. I manage to not get any pairs pretty much at all (no AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99). I get enough cards to keep me on life support until 4-5 tables to the end where I get a few chips then lose them on a beatdown. And then later get 77 that I fold to Llew's UTG or UTG+1 raise. The only interesting thing here is that I tossed in my cards and they bounced to face-up (unintentional and there was still plenty of action behind). People were a little shocked that I would fold it to the (smallish) raise with position, and she never showed down but I think I had the right read on her. I get down to 3 tables, and am really card dead. Putting in the ante is eating away at my stack and we take a jump to the 500-1500/100 ante level. I don't have the chips to sustain that for long and find myself in a position where I am three off the BB. David (SamSix) is in a similar position and he is all-in on Mordecai's raise (so the first table comes back to haunt me), and I am now getting over 3:1 given the blinds, antes, and players in and look to see 92o. I got to have two live cards and I was exactly right. Between some paint, and some other paint (maybe an A, I dont remember exactly) I am EXACTLY where I thought I'd be - the lightest side of a 3-sided coin flip. But its that hand (at 3:1) or probably a lot less in the next hand or so when I am BB and all-in. Long story short (too late). I am out just behind David (who had more chips). I counted 21 left so that puts us 22nd/23rd and I pretty much bubble. boo... Chapter 7 - the aftermath ------------------------ So that is pretty much the end of the trip. Played a few reindeer games, played a few carnival games, lost a little, won a little, played 3 hours of Crazy 4 Poker at Green Valley Ranch for +125, had a VILE buffet at Palace Station for breakfast. Had a great comp'd Noodle bar at Bellagio with my dealer buddy and his wife and got up at 3:45am for a 6:00am flight through Dallas back to Philly. I was able to trade my first class seat on the 4:14pm flight for a middle seat in coach on the an earlier flight and pick up 4 hours of not sitting in Dallas arport. Epilogue - You know BARGE is over when... ----------------------------- You know BARGE is over when you try to bet the guy in the aisle seat that the window seat will remain free 10 minutes before the door closes and you cannot get action. BTW - I would have r00led the bet.