Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:07:40 -0700 (PST) From: Ken Kubey Subject: [BARGE] QB's 2009 BARGE Trip Report The story of my fourteenth BARGE. "My friends are gonna be there too..." Tuesday, July 28th ----------------------- I want to leave at 9:00. Tell Sandi I want to leave at 7:00. We are on the road at 9:45. We pick up Kristina in Monterey at 11:00 p.m. Conversation is lively for the first hour and then they both nod off. Wednesday, July 30th ----------------------- I-5/Hwy 46 interchange. Gas and bathroom break. "either of you wanna drive?" Snores. I keep driving. Take a good little nap in a parking lot in Tehachapi. I keep driving. Around Edwards Airforce base, AC/DC's Highway to Hell comes on. I'm listening to the lyrics and they are about driving South to BARGE! Don't need reason, don't need rhyme Aint nothing I would rather do Going down, party time My friends are gonna be there too I'm on the highway to hell Sandi and Kris get us the rest of the way. We are nearing the Egg & I. Sandi says there it is "Egg One." LOL. From a distance, it does look like "EGG 1." We sit with Bev, Amy, Warren and Chic. Good food, good conversation. BARGE is off to a flying start. Thanks to Goldie and Ice. See Adam. He recommends that we check out Red Rock Canyon. It is a mostly driving tour. Takes about an hour. $5. We get to the Red Rock Canyon gate. I assume it will be $5 per person. Nope. $5 per vehicle. What a deal! If you have Peg and/or kids along in Vegas, this is a good touristy thing to do. Next we check out the Red Rock casino and some new houses in Summerlin. Man, you can get a helluva house in Vegas for $250,000. To the Golden Nugget. Check in. Beds seem smaller than last year. Opinions? Otherwise room is fine. Lowball tournament at 7:00 p.m. I take my seat, order my first 7&7 from Maxine. We will become good friends over the next few days. I make a couple of 75's early. The middle of the tournament is kinda a blur. I'm playing well. Making hands, bluffing once in a while. Everything is working. Rick Bevan is at my table and is just playing great poker. Somewhere in here, Chuck W. busts out. Another player busts on the same hand. Chuck stays seated and then runs out of the room to avoid the standard standing ovation. As we get down to three tables, I see that just Spencer Sun and I are left in the ADB last-longer. I have about twice as many chips. I tell him that if he doubles up we can talk about a save for the last-longer bet. He says something like "I have my pride." Joe Long joins our table. I mention to Patti that we are to the left of Joe. She gives me a patented wry smile. Patti gives me a bacon mint. Yum. I gotta buy these. Still later Spencer comes over to my table and puts a $20 bounty on my head. I go completely card dead, but still hang around. Spencer busts out. I win about $100 for the ADB last-longer. Around 18 players left. Only 8 places pay. I get all-in and make a Jack-low. Rick announces that he has paired. Woo hoo! Then he says something like: "Oh wait, I didn't pair, I have a 7." Doh. I'm out. Some of us wonder if Rick should still ask Spencer for the $20. heh. Later Rich Strauss comes by to tell me that he busted Spencer. Pat 8 vs a 6-joker one-card draw. Rich is one of my very best pals at BARGE. I give him five $1 chips. Apparently these were lucky chips as he made the money in lowball and then won the Binion's tournament for about $1000. James is trying to get people to go to the dancing thing. No one really wants to go. He announces that his wife, Leslie, is dancing suggestively in a short skirt. Interest perks up quickly. I witness the odd 3-way deal and then head to bed? WTG Rick and Gillian. Thursday, July 30th ---------------------- I wake up at 10:00. Think about my friends who are out playing golf. CHORSE. Also called C-HORSE. This is a team tournament played with chips that are actually worth money. There's this new girl on team PMS. Blonde hair, nice legs. Oh God, is that a dude? "Christina" wins the BARGE drag queen award. I actually win a few pots. Team Moosecock makes about $30 per player. MOOSE!!! WTG Kevan, Asya, Ron, Barbara and captain Murray! We won this event in 2008 and out names are now on the wall at Binion's. Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, Doyle Brunson, Ken Kubey. Why not? --- Kristina plays in the SO stud event. Sandi claims to be too tired to play, but somehow manages to play some slots. I go to take a nap. I'm awakened about every 20 minutes by a call from Sandi to report a slot jackpot or from Kris to report winning a big pot in Stud. Kristina takes 2nd place! WTG! Sandi is having fun playing the flaming 7's slot. Somewhere in here I play the Big Six wheel and win. Oh, how about the scantily clad girls dealing blackjack!? Holy crap! I'm still trying to figure out how one of them didn't tip over! Friday, August 1st. -------------------- ADB Craps Crawl at midnight. We start out at Binion's. I lose $15. No biggie. Bingo tells me he is up a few hundred shooting craps at BARGE. Cue ominous music. Off we go to the California and Main Street. Peter Secor plays a neutral EV game by only taking my odds bets. Steven Markowitz and Nick make a few passes, but the darkside is strong this time. Bingo gets creamed. I lose $150 which is pretty bad. I take my last $50 and head for the cage. I see Bingo playing blackjack. What the hell, I'll play a few hands. Win the first one. Then wham bam, $50 gone. Uggghhh. I learn what Mitch's "BFB" nickname stands for. So true. I head back to the room. Remember Sandi was dead tired at 9:00 p.m. I get to the room. Empty. LOL. Sand and Kris beg me to come over the Binion's to play the flaming 7's slots with them. Okay. I walk the mile back to Binion's. (How far is it really?) There's a bonus game where an arrow spins around various prize amounts. Sandi has the thing timed. She gets the top prize like 3/4 of the time. Amazing. Sandi also hit four flaming 7's for $100. We saw another lady get all five flaming 7's for $1000. 4:00 a.m. I'm tired and want to get some sleep. The slot queens want to keep playing. I head up to the room. Card key fails. Arrgghh. I don't want to walk the 1/2 mile back to registration. Call Kris. "Will you come up and let me into the room?" Nope. Go to registration, get three keys. Go to room. Crash. I think Sandi and Kris got to the room around 5:00. Not sure. --- TOC tournament Good to see Barry up and around. Betty and I discuss stuffed rodents. With 4 or 5 tables left, I'm getting very low on chips. 1500 Omaha-8 BB. I post the blind and have 300 left. I'm getting all-in with 99.99% of hands. QJ76, three spades. Sure. After the flop, there are four players all-in and probably a main and three side pots. Flop T-T-5. I'm dead. Turn 3. Maybe I can with with a 4. River Q. Ugggghhh. Showdowns start. Murray is busted. Chris Kuntz is busted. A5 is winning the pots. I show my QJ. I scoop the main? Wow. I get Murray's moose with an alligator clip. What could you use that for? I also get a very nice 1923 silver Peace dollar from Chris. Chris, I owe you a thank you. I collect coins, so this is a nice prize. I do battle with Diane a couple of times. I beat her AA in stud. She beats my KK. Somehow I'm still alive as we break for... --- The Symposium. Rich, JRX and I have our usual little syndicate. Jim B. joins us. Once again, I provided most of the comments on the Calcutta sheet. If you want any of them explained, let me know. --- Somewhere around here Kris won at BINGO at the Plaza for $120. --- We buy several pairs. We get a couple of outright steals. I'm paired with Larry Stone. We go early for $60. That seems kinda low. Aaron Lion bought us. Aaron made $20 on me as a TARGET horse. This poor guy probably thinks I can play poker. LOL. Two free drinks and plenty of snacking food. Good job. Also have to praise the folks that run this thing. Great job. Smooth as silk. --- Somewhere in here Paul McMullin gives me a cool pair of "Ken's Casino" dice that he found at a gift shop. He said they were out of "Bingo's Casino" dice. Paul and I go way, way back to WRGPT2. Thanks buddy! --- Back to the TOC. Where are all the ADBs? Just Howler and me. Howler has a ton of chips. I misplay the hell out of a hand against Randy C. I think I made 6 mistakes on one hand. Cringe. We switch to no-limit hold'em. I jam with 77. Dan Nussbaum has AK and flops the A. Arrgghhh. Turn blank. Just as the dealer is putting out the river I say "Come on seven." The poker Gods hear me and the seven of spades hits on the river. Dan actually said he was rooting for me. :-) 27 players left. 18 pay. Folded to my SB. I have T9o. BB is 2000. I have about 7000. I jam. Paul G. very quickly says "I call." Uh oh. He has QQ. Flop is K-Q-X. I'm pulling for a jack, but it doesn't come. I'm out. Howler (my ADB classmate) wins the last longer. --- Sandi, Kris and I drive out to the strip. We check out the new Mirage volcano and then the new TI Pirate show which Kris dubs "Sluts on a boat." Off to the Encore. Nice place. Get back to the room around 3:00 a.m. Get some sleep for... Saturday, August 1st. --------------------- The BARGE no-limit event. The $1500 WSOP NL events was easy compared to this tournament. Around the table... Chuck W., Bryan S., Cliff, me, John Pickels, Charles Humphrey, Bob Jones, Lynsy and David Green. I don't have notes, but Charles played really well. Cliff has some cool bottles of booze, but forgot to bring a corkscrew. He sends someone off to buy one. "A corkscrew runner." heh. Pickels jams on a 9-5-2 flop. Bob calls. John has TT. Bob has 44. Turn A. Bob Jones says "3." River 3! Ooof. Around here we all trot outside for the 2009 class picture. First time we've dont this since 1996. How in the world did we get Fremont Street closed off? Rodney! Way to go! Thanks for taking this picture and the hundreds of other shots during BARGE. If we ever have a Most Valuable BARGEr poll, you are going to get a ton of votes. Bryan jams. I look down at KK and call. I bust him and get a pair of the "I Busted a Cherry" thong panties. Blinds start to get up there. Chuck raises to 300. He has 600 back. I find KK again and make it 900. Chuck doesn't like it, but makes the call. My kings hold up again. Chuck wants to sneak out again, but it doesn't work this time. Most everyone stands and applauds for Chuck. I talk to Sandi on the cell later. I ask her: "Who is the last person I would want to bust in the tournament." Almost instantly she replies "Chuck." David Green has a little bottle of gin as his bust-out gift. He goes all-in several times. After a while, he no longer has to push his chips in. He just puts the bottle forward and declares all-in. This works many times. Notes say "Hack KJ me AQ" I think that means I busted Edmund Hack with my AQ beating his KJ. David Green does his gin-jam again. I find QQ in the BB and call. He has 77. The turn gives him a straight draw, but he misses and my QQ holds up. AA. What a nice looking hand. I make a raise. Rick B. jams. Action comes back to me. I say: "I call-I have aces." Rick also had a pair. Aces are good. I'm starting to dream about making the money. Brenda M. joins the table and is just kicking ass. Like me, she is getting some great cards and playing them well. Around here I try a "creative" bling steal with 63o. Marge hangs in there with A4 and beats me. --- Around here David F. comes running at me and chest bumps me. Nut case. --- My co-TARGET champion Bob Jones is also playing well. ADBs are dropping. Just Bruce Kramer and me left. I want to make some sort of deal, but every time I check, Bruce has at least three times as many chips as I do. Somewhere in here Rich reports to me that Larry Stone and I are the last two horses for our Syndicate. Odd for me to be in the tournament still while Rich, Bob and JRX are out. Goldie finally goes out around here. Man, you gotta work to win that last-longer bet with Goldie. 18 places pay. 22 left. Brenda makes a good raise. I look down at AK. Dang. If this situation comes up again, I'm going all-in, but having never made the money in 13 previous BARGE NL events, I decided to fold. Bob called the raise. The flop was Q-X-Y. If I jam, I probably win the hand, but who knows? Diane goes out in 20th. James K. suggests a $200 save for 19th place. All agree. I'm happy as I have one of the shorter stacks, but I really want at least 18th place to make an official cash. Corey is just playing some fabulous tournament poker. My Calcutta partner, Larry, went out in about 15th. Good show. Glad we bought back. I survive a bit longer. Just no cards at all. We are at 13 players. I'm hoping to get 12th for $310. I just need one more player to bust before I'm blinded all-in. Brenda and Deron get all-in. She has KK. Fine hand. Deron has AA. Yipes! They both have big stacks. The King flops. I'm sick for Deron. Brenda has him covered. He is out in 13th. I'm all-in in my BB with A2o. Brenda calls from the SB with 99. Her 9's hold up and I'm out in 12th. Not freaking bad. I gave Brenda a copy of "The Cartoon Trivia Book" and then got to go to the podium to get paid. Squeak! Sandi later reminds me that I also busted in the WSOP with A2o. What a year. My first WSOP and BARGE NL cashes. Wow. Oh, thanks to everyone that congratulated me on my WSOP cash and BARGE cash too. I appreciate all the nice words and thoughts. I think I'm playing some very good poker these days. Nice to have some cooperation from the cards. I think long-time BARGEr, Mary M., also had her first BARGE NL cash. Good job! Sandi went out early in the SO event. Kris made the money. WTG Kris! --- The Banquet. Our table: Sandi, Kristina and I sit with David G., Bruce B, Mark, Pauline, Bob H., Rich and Michael (MPH). Doyle Brunson was our guest speaker this year. Doyle was very friendly and spent a good 30 or 40 minutes signing autographs and taking pictures. Instead of the usual format, Doyle's talk was done as an interview with Nolan Dalla pitching the questions. Yes, Nolan lobbed a few softball questions to Doyle, but he also asked some good follow up questions and kept the segment moving at the right pace. Interestingly, some of Doyle's stories did not match up with reports we've heard on the news and on the internet. Anyway, I thought Nolan did a very solid job and that Doyle did a great job of just being himself. I hope he reaches his new goal of being the oldest player in the WSOP Main Event. I don't think there's anyone that people like and respect at the WSOP more than Doyle Brunson. He's the Chuck Weinstock of the WSOP. Nick Christenson did a fantastic job as the main emcee. I don't like to trot out superlatives like "fantastic" and "awesome" Unless I really mean it. Keep up the good work Nick. I think you could do stand-up comedy. The food was better than usual. The dessert was great. I'm not supposed to each chocolate, but I ate about 1/3 of it anyway. Rodney dropped off some snapshots. What a guy. Mickdog, Nick and Peter, thank you for all your hard work. I think this was the smoothest run BARGE ever. --- Back to Binion's for the reindeer games. I get into a 4-8 Must-Drink HORSE game with Adam, John Lloyd, Tony, David L., Patrick, Bwana and Stephanie. Steve W. was spectating. JP joined us later. John was drinking Long Island ice teas. ADB? He got stuck a rack of chips in a hurry, but then rallied back. Oh yeah, Stephanie was at my tournament tables a couple of times. She can play some poker! Oh, forgot to mention the pins and chips. Good job Patrick! And the rest of the BCC too. I won a huge Stud-8 hand. On 4th street... David had A4-23. Tony had A5-55. I had KK-4K. David made aces up, but missed the low draw. He wisely folded on the river. Tony made 5's full of aces. As my 7th card was being dealt to me face down, I thought to myself: "A king would be a good card." Boom. King. Four kings good. Scoop! I also scooped a couple of decent razz and stud-8 pots. Cashed out +$180. Get over the the NL final table just after it is all over. David Heller has his back to me. I say "Hey Champ!" Heldar turns with a big smile on his face. We shake hands. Also want to say "Way to Go" to Brenda, Corey and Bruce. I wander around the poker room. Fun to chat with friends and watch all the silly games. Asya's table was playing Indian Chief at one point. You know, the game where each player holds a card on his forehead? John Grout tells me about the razz game that was going for 3.5 hours. 3.5 hours of razz? I'd rather go to the dentist. I walk up behind Murray and Rick Mombourquette. It looks like they are playing Omaha-8. I can see Murray and Rick's cards. The flop is checked around. The turn makes the board: A-8-6-6. Murray bets some red chips. Oh, this must be pot-limit. Murray has A6 for a full house. Rick has 2447 for the #2 low. Two players call. The river is a 5 giving Rick a straight. Murray bets, middle player folds, Rick calls. Murray's full house still beats Ricks straight. The dealer pushes the pot to Rick. I'm in shock. I say something like "But Murray had a full house!" Rick says "We are playing low only." I turn away to start taking notes on the craziness. As I'm writing, Murray and Rick tell me that they split the pot. That the dealer did push the pot incorrectly and they were just messing with me. Thanks pals. Sunday, August 3rd ------------------- Sandi and Kris play BINGO at the Plaza. I spectate. We goof around playing some slots. I think we ate at the Binion's coffee shop again. Oh. We had a fried Twinkie. Wow, was that good! We went to a Walmart. Monstrous! Also went to some indoor flea market type thing. On the way out of town, we stopped at the brand new "M" casino. Is that the name of the place? Pretty nice casino. Off we go. The Baker thermometer is out of order? Kris gets us to Barstow. Monday, August 4th. -------------------- I've got a good post-BARGE buzz and some Coca Cola and get us all the way to Monterey. We drop off Kris in a little bit of a drizzle. Sandi gets us back to Sunnyvale at 7:00 a.m. craps: lost bad big 6 wheel: won blackjack: lost (BFB) live poker: won slots: lost tournies: won!! 12th in NL. +$30 in CHORSE. roshambo: did not play. I'm sure I left out a ton of people. I was glad to have conversations with all sorts of people. The 2009 Virgin group was one of the best ever. I had a great time at BARGE 2009. Crazy that I look forward to BARGE all freakin' year and it is better than I hope every year. Thanks again to Binion's. The home of BARGE. Thanks also to all the other people who make BARGE go. Awesome job. Please keep up the good work. Can I sign up for BARGE 2010 now? Ken Kubey