Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:08:16 -0400
From: Tilt City
Subject: [BARGE] barge 2009 trip report

Barge 2009 trip report

TUESDAY

I stopped by Binion's (new) poker room to see not one, but TWO
pot-limit Courchevel tables going. Already, I love this BARGE! I
briefly played Grapes' chips while he went to get something from his
room, so I played tighter than normal, since if it's someone else's
chips I'm playing, I'd actually feel a little bad if I lost them while
playing in an overly loose manner (heh). But, getting FIVE cards means
it's still pretty easy to get dealt a playable hand (premium hand
being defined as a hand having at least four cards that aren't a
nine).

Afterwards, I got a ride from Chuck Humphrey over to N9NE for the
annual smoker dinner. Good company, and good food too. There's a
discussion about what tannins are -- I think between Goldie and
Grapes. Is it caused from the skin of the grapes or the wood of the
oak barrels? We looked it up on someone's phone and it turned out that
they're both right!

After dinner, I played the PL Courchevel tourney, but didn't last very
long before I busted out. I think it was Sharon Goldman that busted
me. After that, I went over to sit down in a cash game. The table was
previously playing a mixed game but by the time I sat it was mainly
playing a variant of second-best hold'em that is played thusly: limit
hold'em betting structure. On the river, after the betting is
completed, the hands are turned up and a die is rolled. A 1, 2, or 3
means that the second-best hand scoops (or chops with identical
hands); a 4, 5, or 6 rolled means that the best hand wins (or chops)
the whole pot. (For clarification, say it's three-handed on the river:
if two people have the nuts, and a third person has the second nuts,
and a 2 is rolled, the third person scoops, as the nuts is considered
the best hand, and the second nuts is the second best hand.)


Among the players in the game were Bob Lauria, Bart Simpson, Bree
Goldman, Shaun Deeb (of online tourney fame), "TT" who works for
twoplustwo but has stopped by BARGE the last couple of years, Grapes,
and schmengie.

After some ridiculous stories, the game started to break up and by the
end, Shaun Deeb busted both Grapes and me on the same hand. Shaun has
proven to be my nemesis -- he also knocked me out of a WSOP event
earlier in the summer. I went to bed to try to get enough sleep to
wake up in time for the Egg and I breakfast.


WEDNESDAY:

Breakfast was great as always -- thanks again to Goldie and Ice! I
didn't sign up for the blackjack tournament since I didn't feel like
eating a big breakfast and then trying to play blackjack.

I don't really remember what I did on Wednesday, probably just play
some cash games, maybe that Chinese poker mixed game where we rotated
through four variations: (1) the standard high/high/high, (2) the
commonly played 2-7 lowball in the middle, (3) the 'flop' version
where there's a two card flop, and you play 2-7 in the middle with
four cards + an invisible automatic bug, and (4) version where you set
your hand and then roll the die to determine whether it's high in the
middle or A-5 lowball in the middle.

It doesn't seem to me that there's a whole lot of strategy for variant
(4) but maybe I'm missing something.

At night, the pain in my foot (which had been hurting for the past few
days) got bad enough that I took a cab over to a clinic to get it
checked out. After a long wait (it took me a few hours before I got
out of there), they ultimately gave me a stiff-soled shoe to wear,
along with some prescriptions.


THURSDAY:
I played one round of the CHORSE. I had to ask about the rules to
Crazy Pineapple since I forgot if it was "must play two cards from
your hand" but it's like hold'em in that you can play zero, one, or
two. I also didn't know if it was high only or high-low. My team was
poking fun of me at that, but over half the people at the table didn't
know either!

Due to being up at the clinic the night before, I didn't get much
sleep. I only played one round and was sitting down feeling pretty
tired in between rounds, so my team suggested that I go back to sleep
and have someone else sub in for me. So I ended up leaving and getting
my slot filled by Sean "oscarmc" McGuinness.

After a nap, I came down to watch the end of CHORSE and got a ride to
I Love Sushi from Jester. I had held off on taking a Percocet that
morning since it isn't recommended to take those with alcohol. Once
again, the sushi and sake were great. As per tradition, everyone bet
on whether the bill would be over or under the line set by someone
(Asya or Ben?). This time I took the over, but it turns out the under
won... as usual. Sigh...

Once I got back to downtown, I hung out for a little bit and then got
a ride over to the Goldmans from Nick Christenson. When we arrived,
the party was already going strong. Dan Goldman gave me a cigar, but
since I hadn't smoked a cigar in a while, I ended up getting slightly
sick and then had to pass on the bourbon. (IFSATG). At least I
recovered enough to try some of the bourbon slush at the end.

After getting back to Binion's, I thought about going on the craps
crawl, but because I didn't really want to walk around because of my
foot, I went over to sweat the final table of the stud shootout.
Sabyl, Grapes, Michael Maurer, Cliff 'deadhead' Matthews, and David
Kluchman were among the people at the final table.

Cliff was drinking some Chimay Blue, then Grapes asked the cocktail
waitress if they had that at Binion's. (The answer, to nobody's
surprise, is: no). She says they have Sam Adams but Grapes
emphatically turns it down. He got a Chimay from Cliff and then ran
over to the Golden Nugget gift shop during break to get some more.

Another interesting tidbit: on break, someone approached the rail
wearing a SCSU hockey T-shirt. He was wondering about the stud
shootout tourney. Maybe there's hope for the stud games after all,
with under-50 people showing interest in the game still.

I asked if the SCSU stood for Southern Connecticut State University,
and he said it did. Then I asked him if he knew Bob Lauria (who played
hockey there as well and uses scsuhockey10 as his online handle).
However, he didn't know Bob; it turned out he was a few years younger
than Bob. Too bad, that would have been funny if there was a random
SCSU hockey reunion at BARGE.

Anyway, the stud shootout came down to David K and Cliff, but I didn't
watch the end of it since it was getting late. Later on, I found out
David Kluchman won -- congrats!


FRIDAY:

TOC:
My chip count went up and down for a bit before I busted in one of the
flop games. By the way, I didn't voluntarily put any money into a
single stud hand -- I'M THAT TIGHT, PEOPLE. SO STOP SAYING HOW LOOSE I
PLAY AND STUFF.

Symposium:
It seemed there were fewer people at the Symposium this year, though I
don't know if that jibes with the official numbers. Maybe all the
Chinese poker players decided to stay in the poker room to play
instead of coming upstairs to play.

Alan (Grapes' friend) and someone else was a late addition to the
pairs to be bid on. The pair went for a really low amount. I wasn't
sure if this was because a few syndicates had already spent the money
they wanted to, or whether people were just being inattentive when
they were being auctioned off.

I was contemplating making my own bid, but I was already part of a
syndicate, so I didn't end up doing anything. Although, in the future,
I think the play is to bid if I think a pair is underpriced (so long
as my syndicate isn't bidding on them) and if I win, offer the
syndicate the choice of taking the action, or else I just keep the
pair for myself.

Karaoke:
Wow. Before going, I anticipated that this could be the ultimate "is
this going to rule or suck?" event on the calendar. Well, I'm happy to
report that it r00led. I walked in on a room full of drunken
degenerates and Bob Lauria crestfallen that You've Lost that Lovin'
Feeling wasn't one of the songs available. Of course, he didn't know
who sang the song, LOL. I thought it was pretty unlikely a legit
karaoke operation wouldn't have this song (plus I knew to look up
artist: Righteous Brothers), and I eventually found it in one of the
songbooks. Sadly, the Tom Cruise / Goose version wasn't listed.

A funny thing happened on the way to the podium: Bob and Marlin had
requested the song, but apparently so had Dan and Sharon Goldman. Well
with only two microphones available, there are a limited number of
ways they can arrange themselves, and they managed to try every
configuration in the time alloted.

At closing time, the remaining BARGErs finished the event with a group
effort on Bohemian Rhapsody. Karaoke was pretty awesome, I had a much
better time that I thought I would have, and I hope the event returns
next year.

Sometime after Karaoke, I went downstairs to play in the Binion's room
for a little bit. As I'm heading back to the Nugget, I saw Dan and
Bree Goldman and Grapes playing pai-gow. I couldn't sit down to play,
as they had closed the table to new players. There was one other guy
at the table, he was probably in his early 20s. Like me, he doesn't
know Pai Gow strategy. One time he got dealt trip 7's and a pair of
5s. Even though I didn't know the strategy, I told him I thought it
was best to play the trips in the back and the pair in the front. (I
don't remember his high card, I think it was a jack or a queen). He
wasn't so sure, so he tabled his hand and asked the dealer for advice.
The dealer said he would set the hand the same way as I did.
Eventually, he went along and set it that way. Then the dealer showed
his hand -- trip 9's and a pair of 6's. D'oh! He got scooped and
seemed really sad.

In between hands, his friend came over and the guy was explaining what
happened and how he should have played full house in the back after
all. On the very next hand, he's dealt trips and a pair again! Once
again, he asked for advice. Again, I told him to split the pair and
the trips, but he commented on what happened the previous hand.
Everyone at the table (dealer, Dan and Bree, etc) was telling him to
play it the same way. Finally, he set his hand that way and
fortunately he scooped the dealer. I would have felt bad for the kid
if he had gotten scooped again!

It was getting kind of late so I went back up to the room. At this
point, my foot was killing me. It might have been Karaoke combined
with walking around too much all day. I was laying in bed hoping I can
get to sleep but the pain is too much so I take a Percocet and
naproxen (which is the same ingredient in Aleve) and lay back down. On
the directions, it says to take it with food but my foot was really
hurting. After a while my stomach started irritating me. I did nothing
in the hopes that it would go away but eventually I woke back up and
started reading about the prescriptions on the internet. Apparently,
if you take it on an empty stomach it risks stomach bleeding and it
also said don't lie down within thirty minutes of taking it. Oops. So
I ordered a sandwich from room service just so I could get some food
in my stomach. Eventually, I was able to go to sleep.



Saturday:

NLHE:
I showed up a little late because I was up late the night before. But
not too many of my chips had been blinded off. Immediately, I started
getting some playable hands and picking up some chips. It's good to
get lucky at the beginning of the tourney so that when you get lucky
later against a big stack, you can win more chips. I'd win coinflips
and also hands where I was a underdog when all the money went in.

As the tourney went on, sometimes I would 'misunderestimate' how
strong someone's hand was, put some chips in, and suck out. Heh. I got
to the final table and got a freeroll for a Binion's tourney / Playboy
Mansion party satellite that Binion's was running the next day. I
wasn't sure if I could make it to that since I had Rosemary's dinner
plans with some BARGErs so I gave the freeroll to Marlin in return for
a percentage for any winnings. Alas, he didn't win but as predicted, a
BARGE person was able to win it instead of a local.


Banquet + Doyle:
It's pretty cool that Nolan was able to line up Doyle at the last
minute. The Q & A format worked pretty well too. One thing that I
noticed, and maybe I was reading too much into this, was that when
Doyle was asked whether he thought Phil Ivey is the best player right
now, he said "well, he doesn't play deuce-to-seven very well.... but
he's a keeper." He had said that he thought Chip Reese was the best
ever, but I'm curious as to who Doyle thinks are the top few
all-around poker players today. Is Ivey's relative weakness in 2-7
enough to knock him out of the top few spots?


Reindeer Games:
The buzz around Binion's was that Terrence 'not Johnny' Chan was going
to fly in from Vancouver. However, he never showed up. An hour or two
after his anticipated arrival time, I called him and found out that he
got stuck at LAX and wouldn't make it to Vegas until the morning. That
was just about the worst thing that could have happened, as two or
three tables of players racked up upon finding out that Terrence
wasn't going to be there that night.



THE END