From: Suzan Sabyl Cohen Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 01:21:22 -0700 Subject: [BARGE] sabyl's BARGE trip report part I Well in a nutshell this was my first losing BARGE in a long time - I failed to cash in one BARGE tournament - and I still luved this BARGE!!!! BARGE is really a vacation for me and I treat it as such. It's like a giant family reunion of family members you actually like. And every year I get to more family members and get closer to old family members I didn't know as well before. If I have one complaint about BARGE it is that I try to do too much in too short a time and end up feeling a little rushed. I tried to do less of that this year and mostly succeeded. the Saturday before BARGE, I enjoyed a lovely meal at Big Al's Oyster Bar at the Orleans that [info]schmengie organized. Was nice to chat with ARGERs who were already in town. After dinner Sharon, Dan, [info]adbploink, omaholic, and I started a short-handed PLO/PLH game that was joined by locals. TIlting locals so much fun, tilting [info] adbploink even more fun. Up over $900 in the pre-barge 1-2 PL game - woohoo!! I play online on Sunday and on Monday take care of some errands before checking into Main Street Station for [info]blakwngbrd so she would have a place to crash during BARGE without having to drive home. Joined [info]scsuhockey10 and [info]mgrape for dinner. After dinner, I get to cash in on $100 freeplay. I gave MSS some VP play at 3x points since I didn't play at all last time I used an offer there. Sadly I hosed at VP for -$2K. Doh! Tuesday BARGE starts - woohoo!!! I was staying with [info]jox13 (thanks so much!!) the week before BARGE and I spent Tuesday doing laundry (fun fun fun) and running some errands that needed running mostly related to making sure my sister did not become homeless again. I get to the 4 Queens to check in to a lovely suite at about 6:30 which should be plenty of time to make the tourney at 7PM. Except my 2 month trip meant tons of luggage and the bellman was taking forever to bring up my bags. When I called down after having waited over 20 minutes I was told there was only one bellman and the wait would be over half an hour. I explained that I was late for a poker tournament and that I would tip nicely if I could be bumped to the top of the queue. Well that seemed to work as I had my bags in about 10 minutes after that. But I might have had better luck in the tourney showing up even later. So this tourney was a NL shootout to HORSE. meaning first I had to win my table playing NL. I had the joy of finding Gavin Smith, [info]scsuhockey10, [info]quietlion, [info]adb_foldem and some other decent players at my table. I would venture a guess that this was the toughest of the starting tables. Gavin was active as always and I decided to reraise jam him with JTs after he opened raise. [info]scsuhockey10 wakes up with 99 and jams to which Gavin folds and I go s*&t! So I suck out on the flop but 9 resucks and IGHN. Prior to that hand an interesting hand came up with [info]quietlion who is an excellent poker player. I raise in the CO with a not so good suited king and [info]quietlion calls. Flop is AKQ all of one suit. So here is the question. If you have a very broad range of raising hands in the CO what is your plan when checked to on the flop. I am thinking this is the kind of hand where most of my hands either miss completely or hit in a way I am not thrilled with. Occassionally I will have a monster (AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ, JT, or a flush). So betting some of the monsters and some of the complete misses makes sense to me. But I want to check some monsters and some mediocre holdings I think. A lot of my mediocre holdings might be ahead but can't stand a raise and wants to keep the pot small though with this kind of flop if I bet I am wanting to bet big (close to the pot or even slightly more than pot). And well at that point with the short stacks we started with I am usually committed with a bet as big as that flop warrants. SO I think I have to check behind a lot here. Most of the time I am way ahead or way behind. And a free card won't hurt me too much. But maybe my reasoning here is way off. I guess I just think I want to make a showdown as cheaply as possible with a lot of my hands. So anyway I check behind on the flop and the turn is an ace. Richard bets T400 which if I recall is about 1/2 pot. I call. Now Richard bets smallish in the river again, which happens to be my kicker, an 8 - LOL. But in this case my two pair is really aces and kings with a Q kicker. Not kings and eights. So the eight is basically a blank. I crying call a small river bet as well and am shown an ace with a weak kicker. Which doesn't too surprise me. I was very tempted to fold, but really I've played the hand too weakly to fold and I've gotten what I wanted with the hand - a cheap showdown. I assume [info]quietlion is value betting all is AAA hands, JT, a flush and probably a king. Not sure if the queen is in his betting range. And also he will follow through with some semi-bluffs that missed. I can beat the semi- bluffs. I tie some of his value bets but lose to most of them. And unless he is betting a Q lose to all his value bets that don't include the king. OTOH, his range is very broad with a blind defense there. I do think he checks other pairs like 55, or 66 as they do have showdown value - not sure just how weakly he will value bet there. Anyway - this hand cold make for some interesting analysis by the mathgeek crowd. Curious when ranges are very broad how to proceed on this kind of a board. So anyway after the tourney I join a binglaha game. I proceed to tilt Dan - tilting Dan is also fun. Basically I only had the odds to call on the flop if Dan did indeed have the flush and if he would indeed pay me off when I filled up. Both conditions ended up being met and I r00led a hand playing a bad hand badly - but that's the fun of binglaha at BARGE. Actually the hand wasn't horrible preflop. It was AQT4 with a suited ace. Flop was not so good though as it was Q94 all of one suit. But the Q turn and 4 river meant the only hand that r00led me was Q9xx. And before I could even decide whether to check/raise the river or bet the river Dan beat me into the pot with a bet and I raised all in. So it was a very profitable hand. Binglaha = +470ish and mega tilting. Wednesday I slept in and missed the Egg and I. While I love the Egg and I and the company I am still on a go to bed between 4-6AM schedule. So 9AM breakfasts hold no appeal. I wisely did not sign up for blackjack and barely made it downstairs in time for the VP tourney. I had zero luck in the VP tourney despite playing twice as many hands as those around me. Oh well. At this point I am starving but Ethiopian dinn. . .I mean breakfast is at 5:30 so I wait it out and pile into Patrick M's van for Ethiopian. One thing I miss since leaving the Bay Area is good Ethiopian food. I get strong cravings from time to time. So I got a group of us down to the non-spicy end of the table. I sorta thought it would make sense for each table to order a platter on their own. But Asya thought it was more efficient to order 6 platters for the group and have the restaurant pick. Well they only brought out one non-spicy platter. And I and a few others had been scarfing it down before we realized there were other non-spicys who had not eaten yet and there were no more non-spicy platters coming. I felt bad about that. Also we only got two entrees where most of the others had 3 or 4 and we were sharing with more people. So I feel kind of bad that some people didn't get enough food. And I have to admit I am a control freak when it comes to food. I prefer to order and know what I am getting rather than getting mystery food. So the food choices weren't my favorites either. While the food situation left something to be desired I did enjoy the company. Which is what these big meals are mostly about anyway. But I think it works out better sometimes when a group of 4-6 people go out randomly than these big meals work out. My food pickiness and crowd issues may play a role in that though. We make it back in time for lowball. I have Gavin at my table again. We had decided to crossbook BARGE the night before. Given my BARGE cash record I liked the bet. I was happy to see Gavin exit early from this event. Sadly I failed to cash as well. The last level I played I had a number of joker-wheel draws and joker-six draws that pretty much all paired. And I tried to snow with 88844 and failed when my opponent made a 6. I really didn't have enough chips to successfully pull off a snow - but that ended up saving me a bet in the end as had I raised he surely would have 3 bet after the draw. Instead I folded face up. He showed his 6 and I guess you don't need any eights when you have a 6 - lol. In hindsight - 8's full is not the best hand to snow with in a-5 lowball. So off to Karaoke I go. I am joined by Fern and we chat a bit. I also chat a bit with Taki as we discuss how lucky we both are to have such r00ling spouses. I am noticing alcohol is not so fun for me this year. It's not making me feel giddy as much but is making me feel queasy and nauseas. Not so fun. So I only have 2 drinks and give away my other 2 tickets. I do not get drunk enough to torture everyone with my singing. I am also of enough sound mind to make sure [info]noisytigress is being looked after when she is clearly running out of the room sick from the alcohol. I chase after her and see Amy is taking care of her. Later when Amy goes to get her fresh clothes I watch after the tigress and make sure she is OK and doesn't pass out or anything. I find that this year I've taken on the "mom" role often than I would like in groups. Guess I am getting older - sigh. More fun to be the kid :-). But I am relieved to find out the next day that the tigress is recovering fine and am grateful that Amy and Sharon made sure she was well taken care of. After karaoke I am just totally exhausted. I go and watch [info] quietlion, QB and [info]tom_bayes battle it out for the lowball title rather than donk off a bunch of chips. I know I played some HORSE or dealer's choice sometime this trip. As I remember blind betting the whole way and turning over nut-nut in OHL. But I didn't record the session. So I don't know when I played, with whom I played with, or how I did that session. Oh well - anyone care to refresh my memory? I suspect it was on Wednesday though. From: Suzan Sabyl Cohen Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 01:24:02 -0700 Subject: [BARGE] sabyl's BARGE trip report part II Note regarding part I - I forgot to replace the livejournal names with real names - oops. Sorry! I did replace with real names for Part II though. . . . Thursday is team CHORSE. And I again wonder why I didn't join team sleeping in. Every year I say I will join team sleeping in net year and every year I commit to my team to play again. This year we were the defending champs, which played a role in my decision. I play stud this year instead of my normal stud8. I won in 2 of 3 rounds. But I busted us out the last round - doh!!! I forget the hand, but I do remember it was against Greg Pappas and I remember telling Michelle about it and her incredulously saying "How did you lose this hand?" Oh well. The good news is I r00led the 3-6 holdem game and more than made up my team CHORSE losses. I was thinking of napping instead of sushi, but was chatting it up with Michelle and decided I was hungry afterall and wouldn't mind going to sushi. So off to sushi we go. I like arriving late and getting a side booth with about 6 of us. It helps with my crowd anxiety. And it gives me more control of the food ordering. Mystery rolls scare me I guess. The sashimi and the rolls were all yummy!! I was going to skip the betting on the over/under on the bill because I thought the line was a really good one. That is until Un mentions the overs are out numbering the unders 2-1. Given this is a para- mutual I decide to gamble on the under. If I thought it was a 50-50 bet then getting 2-1 on a coin flip has to be a good decision. I win the over-under - woohoo!! The sushi is so good and a steal!! And I got to enjoy the company of jerrod and michelle, as well as Chris Mecklin and ron and carol. We make it back in time for the stud tourney in spite of the traffic. I love this event. Sadly I did not do so well in it this year. And I was out halfway through my table. Grizz r00led me I guess. He had AA when I had KK and he won with KK when I had AA. Doh and double doh!! But the good news is Steve is here!!!! Yay for Stevie hugz!!!! I am so happy to see him I could care less about busting out of the tournament. So Steve and I go spend some time together after the tournament. Some of it losing at VP and the rest of it hanging out in the room. I later find out Gavin made the final table in this tourney - doh!! Friday the tournament starts at the unholy hour of 10AM. Aargh. Steve makes sure I get up in time to grab breakfast. We show up a teeny bit late missing a hand or two. But thats on time for me. I hose once again. Steve is still in though. Yay!! But he busts before the caclut. . . .I mean symposium. Now prior to this year, the 3 or 4 times I did a syndicate where I was in charge of bidding we won. My inspiration for strategy comes from the bladders, which is to mostly bottom feed and look for value. I think I should have been willing to go up an other 10-30 on some teams I gave up on as we were funded for it. I did get some amazing deals though. And one of those deals did well (thanks Frank Lawful!!). Sadly that team bought back 1/2 their action and we ended up losing a fair amount. We underperformed - as about 2.5 of is should have made the money. David Lawful and I got awfully close. But we both failed. And while I laughed at how much Chic and Goldie paid for their teams, they did r00l and make profit. So what do I know. Sadly I failed to make profit for my syndicate this year. The symposium ends just in time for me to make a 6PM HORSE tourney - which I can't resist playing. So I buy-in to this non-BARGE event. We are only 18 to start and the field is oh so very soft. I get down to the final 5 and 3 people pay. The woman who is chip leader proposes a save for 4th and 5th. As I am one of the short stacks at this point I agree. Chic goes on a rush. I fail to go on a rush. And I end up getting $100 of $150 buy-in back thanks to the save. At this point Steve and I are starving - it's almost midnight. But Chic is starving also. So we wait for him to hose out of the tourney and we run over to the GN coffee shop. We run into a few other ARGERs and 6 of us enjoy a nice meal with a waitress who looks like she is from the Addam's Family even though she does a great job serving us. Saturday is my favorite day of BARGE!!!!! I oversleep a little for the 10AM tourney but make it down the middle of the 2nd level. I start accumulating chips. I accumulate a lot of chips when Charles runs into my quads and pays me off drawing dead to a flush. I realize my invitation to stay with him if we ever visit Australia may not be good anymore. Sigh!! Charles is replaced by Nick who has tons of chips and raises even more frequently than I do. Thankfully he is to my right. Our table breaks - yay!!! I am at a new table that has tons of chips on it. They were clearly doing their job busting players. I roller coaster a bit at this table. Nick comes and joins the table again. At some point the room bursts into applause as Goldie has busted. I am very happy to get my $10 but Goldie has to tell me that I really am getting Steve's $10 and am breaking even. Oh well. I get down to about 24 or 25 players before finally busting. I don't remember the details. I suck at remembering hands. I do know that at some point I was short enough to be playing tons of hands but kept seeing hands like 82 and 93 and had to fold my blinds a lot. Oh - and Gavin pussied out of the tournament to play golf and his sub cashed - doh!! So I owe even more money to Gavin in the crossbook. Methinks I should stop prop betting with Gavin. I am pretty sure I am losing the two we have on the table for the Legends too. Aargh. After busting I join binglaha where Action Bob is rolling the dice on his straddles to see if he will pot it blind. The die is not a fair die I am almost certain and he rarely has to pot. Also we have another die for the dealer. Dealer gets to roll the die after each hand. Whoever picked the number that came up has to toke $1. I picked 6 which only came up once. The number 5 comes up a lot. I have my first ever losing session of binglaha and am stuck about $100 when banquet time rolls around. Banquet is great for mingling and chatting with people. Steve and I are at a table with JP, Kevan and Kevan's mom, Ron and Carol and Taki. Food is OK. Salmon was very good. Prime Rib was just OK. Dessert was creme brulee - yum! The awards were great - the Virgins deserve kudos for that. Love Un's song - I Love This BARGE. Hope it becomes a BARGE tradition. And while I was sad to hear Chuck is retiring as co-organizer - I hope he now gets to enjoy and relax at future BARGEs - he deserves it. Thanks so much for all your hard work over the years!!!! Oh - and it was good to see Tony Shelton. I am glad we ARGERs made a difference and I wish him luck and good health. Tom Schneider was the speaker. His humor is not my taste in humor. Very misogynistic and on the mean side. He made some good points in his speech but it got lost in his bitterness about not being signed by a major site. While I can empathize with that he really needs to think about it a bit. The irony is he talked about looking at poker like a business. And well - from a business marketing perspective Hevad Khan and Humberto Brenes did a good job. They got the attention of the cameras with their antics and got signed. It isn't about being the best player. Stud 8 and stud high events are probably easier to make the final table in - but they aren't TV events - so he didn't really get TV exposure. At the same time - he did make some good points about too much money leaving the poker economy without being given back - though I have to say targeting PokerStars was a mistake in this crowd. PokerStars has done a lot for BARGE over the years and IMO the best poker site out there. Both the pros and the site he targeted was PokerStars. Quite frankly Hevad probably took a cue from the likes of Matusow and Hellmuth and gave the cameras what they wanted. Stars in general has the best behaved pros on the circuit IMO. When the half of Jester . . . I mean ADB Lightweight . . .that remained got up to speak I was inspired by the idea of a EuroBARGE. I planted seed with Amy and Ploink and hope something comes of that. That could be a lot of fun and would make ARGE accessible to ARGERs working overseas these days or ARGER wannabe's who are overseas. But I do suspect economics would make it a smaller ARGE. Not that that is a bad thing. I enjoyed MARGE the one year I went precisely because it was a small event. After the Banquet was reindeer games. So many games - so little time. I played Binglaha. I got up a fair amount whe I had the nut flush against Charles non-nut flush. But gave it back, then gave more back and then gave more back - yikes. Charles sucked out on me twice so I think I am welcome in Australia again. I donated once more to Charles and also donated to Deadhead. I sucked out on Kenny (sorry!!!!) But all told I spewed a lot on that game. I chose the wrong night to up my buy-in to $1K from $500. I blame the malibu and diets. By Saturday I had enough to drink over the week that I was feeling giddy rather than sick so I was not playing well at all I am sure. Poor Crunch was confused by some of the plays at the table. I tried to tell him he was overthinking and that a lot of us weren't thinking. And yes, those plays that look bad really are bad. At the same time - we were getting action. Crunch wasn't donating so it was hard to give him the same level of action on his good hands. But I will say Crunch wisely laid down his wheel when I also had one but with redraws. Sadly Charles could not lay down his two pair with a gut shot straight redraw to a higher straight than mine and he hit his full house. I played until about 6AM I think before stumbling back to the room. I slept most of Sunday while Steve joined JP and others for more reindeer games. We had dinner reservations at Hugo's Celler and David and Caryl Aronson were joining us - dinner courtesy of our VP play at 4Q. The meal and company was delightful and I had dinner for breakfast once again. During the course of dinner conversation we decided that without David I might not even be playing poker today. I was playing at Muckleshoot in Seattle in 1995 and losing. I really couldn't even afford to lose the $40/week I was losing so I stopped going. But I enjoyed the game and found IRC poker and the IRC poker client David wrote. WIthout an easy to use client, and not being a computer geek, I might have given up on poker. Instead I played almost exclusively on IRC for a year or two for free and learned tons about poker in the process. Now that I've come home I can't remember if I used GPkr or Poker3, so either David or Greg gets the credit for me not giving on poker. And without their software I would never have the amazing group of friends I have today nor would I be married to Steve (I may not have even met him). Seriosuly, IRC poker totally changed my life. Anyway I am glad I got to enjoy a nice meal with David and Caryl as we usually sit near each other at the Egg&I and because I slept in this year we never got to catch up. And that my friends is the end of my BARGE. I am glad to be home but I wish BARGE was another week. So many people I didn't see enough of :-(. So many more binglaha pots that could have been played!! I so loved this BARGE even though I lost in cash games, tourneys, prop bets, symposium, VP, etc. It's the people that make BARGE what it is and in the respect BARGE did not disappoint. Thanks Peter, Chuck, Michael, and Nick for a job well done!!!! Oh and Michelle thanks for getting me hooked on malibu and diets. Last year I lost weight at the WSOP and gained it back at BARGE I think from alcohol calories. This year while I may have gained at BARGE - I don't know as I was scaleless between the WSOP and BARGE - I did lose weight since May 28th and unlike last year did not gain it all back and then some at BARGE.