From: Yolanda Kerr
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 17:50:23 -0400
Subject: [BARGE] Whiskey for Breakfast: The BARGE Twenty Ten Virgin Queen Trip Report Story

Many thanks to all the people who make BARGE possible every year; you guys
are the true stars of poker.
PROLOGUE:

I met BronzeDodger online a couple years ago. It was a BARGE picture that
got me talking to him as I love to play in the home games and online, and
figured a poker player couldn't be all bad.  We chatted for a while ended up
hooking up as a couple and he convinced me to join him in Vegas for BARGE
2009 as a Significant Other.  I flew in Friday, played the SO Hold Em event,
lucked into my favourite player of all time as the banquet speaker and spent
another week in Vegas getting to know The Strip. I was in awe of the entire
atmosphere and experience and Vegas in general. I'd wanted to go to Vegas
for years and was enthralled with the city. As soon as it was over, I was
looking forward to BARGE 2010 and playing as a BARGEr in the tourneys, and
cash games.

Believe it or not, I'm a rather shy person. I didn't feel like I had
experienced BARGE at all in '09 as an S.O. and had met few people outside of
Team Fold Dark, so as May turned into June, and there was no response to
Nick's call to virgins email of June 1st, I wondered if I'd be classified a
Virgin this year and whether with a long distance move in the weeks
preceding BARGE I'd have time to be the Virgin Queen.  Since I hadn't really
experienced much "BARGE" last year, and since I was planning on immersing
myself in the experience, I decided to use my haiku writing skills and
volunteer to be the Virgin Queen. After a little static on the BARGE list, I
was accepted at the Queen and started making plans. I decided to make card
protectors by casting cherries and other objects in resin, which turned out
to be a bit of a hit. DING!

By the time August 1st rolled around four BARGE Virgins had contacted me,
and the Twenty-Ten Virgin Class was made up of 5 people, I had arranged for
the mixer, had decided not to make up t-shirts and had 12 card protectors
available to the virgins as bust out gifts. I figured I'd be bringing many
of them home.

We arrived in Vegas on Monday night after an uneventful flight which
included a business class upgrade (thank you Skippy, aka Erin, aka
SpiteCall) and my smoothest flight ever. That could have been the free
flowing booze, or the spacious seating and excellent food, but it was a
great flight and the approach to Vegas at night was simply stunning.  We
decided to take the shuttle from the airport instead of a cab. I was all for
this because I'd missed The Strip and wanted to see it again. By the third
strip hotel drop off I had had enough and just wanted to be downtown.  After
what seemed like an eternity we made it to the Nugget, and were checked in.
We stopped for a quick bite at the Carsen Street Cafe because Dave
(BronzeDodger) sat in cattle class and was hungry. On the way to the poker
room I stopped at Starbucks for a quad shot latte which did nothing for the
fact I'd been up for almost 24 hours, so I pussied out and went to bed while
the guys played some poker.

Tuesday morning I realized I'd been in Vegas almost 12 hours and hadn't had
a drink yet, so while nursing a quad shot latte I picked up a bottle of
Gentleman Jack for the room, and thus started my week of whisky breakfasts,
and continued the trend of Yo buying her first drinks in Vegas <shaking
head>. When will I learn? We were staying at the Nugget and spent Tuesday
afternoon applying SPF 50 sunblock and hanging at the pool. The slide and
shark tank were just amazing. I'm glad we got in when we did, because on
Wednesday the camera crews were in the pool filming an episode of CSI,
though I hear the slide and part of the pool were open. Chris (Jepstonian)
arrived in the afternoon and we retired to his room to check out some cool
beers and other things before the badugi tournament. We sat down to a cash
game and Patrick brought me a bag of lapel pins to sell. This was my sales
pitch: Me: "Hi, I'm Yo the Virgin Queen. I need $5". They:  "Ok. (pulling
out wallet) Why?" I sold 2 bags of pins that night.  I have absolutely no
idea what else I did, but I'm sure it involved other things and turning $20
on the slots into a $1 whiskey - I did that a lot this week.  The Virgin
class grew to 12 (with a good percentage of the new virgins being pro
players), though I couldn't find one I had spoken with prior to BARGE, so a
couple weren't in on the last longer with the ADB's... I have also seen a few
trip reports from Virgins I hadn't met, so I don't have an actual head count
on the class. I ended up bringing only one card protector home.

Wednesday morning I breakfasted on whiskey before heading down to Starbucks
for my quad shot latte and another exploration of Fremont Street while I was
waiting for the guys to wake up.  After our food breakfast (second breakfast
for me), we ended up at the Binion's poker room playing some dealer's choice
games and when the button came around to me I panicked. It was my turn to
call a game and I was told I wouldn't endear myself to anyone if I called a
traditional game so with badugi on my mind and through a mild haze of
whiskey and other things I called Second Best Badugi, which is little more
than a crap-shoot, and didn't endear me to anyone, though I did hear someone
else called it later in the day. Oh well - it was worth some laughs and
broke my dealer's choice and cash game in a casino cherry.  Wednesday
evening Chris's wife arrived and brought on the beer tasting - several stone
brews including Arrogant Bastard and other beers.... and other things. Then we
went up to the Binion's Steakhouse for some amazing filet, great company and
a very nice red wine.

Thursday's CHORSE was fun. I had been called in as an alternate for Team
Fold Dark and as Raffy folded dark on BARGE this year, I was playing the H.
After a breakfast of whiskey and other things I headed down to meet the
team. It was pretty awesome to have most of the team sweating me as I played
and I was able to conservatively play the chips and either increase the
stack or keep it even on my rounds. While the guys played 6 game (which I
didn't because I don't even know how to play 6 games, let alone those six
games) I tried the "turn $20 on slots into a $1 whiskey" game and managed to
turn $15 into $100 and a $1 whiskey. DING!

My first learnings as a BARGE Virgin happened during the ToC on Friday.
First, I realized I have no idea how to bet limit games. In speaking with
Zbigniew on Friday about my ToC play, I found out I'm a bit of a calling
station, which had surprised me as I thought I'd been betting the hands I
played. Obviously I need to get the lingo down better for an in-person game.
It's much easier when you can call, bet or raise simply by clicking a button
on Stars. Second, I realized that I play much better when I'm relaxed. I was
so worried about being the first to bust that I wasn't relaxed as I played.
Once the first people (Oldbear and Ron Grossberg) were out, I relaxed and
was able to have a little fun while I played. I was also able to order my
whisky breakfast once I wasn't all wound up anymore I lasted through the
break and colour-up and I went out to a Virgin (Tom B) who had busted Micon
a few hands earlier. The Virgin Mixer ended up being a bit of a flop (so to
speak) as most of the Virgins were still in the ToC, but I was able to
introduce a few to a couple organizers and JP when we drifted over to the
tourney room to see how the ToC was going. The symposium was pretty cool.
Among other things, I learned Andy Bloch wears the same hat I picked up on
Fremont Street that afternoon. I was seeing nothing but the tiara, and
didn't recognize the hat was the spitting image of the one Andy wears (sans
the tiara of course and plus a hole). We went to karaoke but I wasn't in the
mood to sing, which is odd for me, because usually I'm a karaoke whore. The
whisky was great though - many thanks to our sponsor.

I was a couple minutes late for the Main Event Saturday, but we hadn't
started yet. Trusty quad shot latte in hand I sat down amongst a table of
chip stacks and was thrilled I wasn't playing limit. Three seats were open
for quite some time on my table. We never did see one player, but Sabyl came
in, played aggressive and busted after a few hands. Replacing that empty
seat was ADB Iceman, so I managed to get in some trash talk about the Virgin
Class being well equipped enough to take down the last longer bet this year.
As the ADB's fell one by one, Iceman admitted we might have a shot this
year. Prock showed up after a while because he was hungry and took his seat
with a chip stack that was slightly diminished due to blinds and I doubled
him up almost right away. Great. His chip stack continued to grow until he
busted me out after the break and group photo. The theme for my NLHE hands
could be lifted directly from a Poker Stars ad... "The river? You don't wanna
know." After an AhKh resulted in folds all around the table, I got AhKd in
the very next hand. After the KTx flop I ended up all-in against Prock's
ATo. DING! The river was another ten. Unding. I spent the rest of the
afternoon split between tracking the virgins remaining in the tournament,
and doing other things.

A highlight of one of my forays to check on the Virgins was seeing the floor
getting called on the floor. I found this particularly hilarious, but I had
been doing a lot of other things prior to this so it might not have been
that funny.

I went down one last time before getting ready for the Banquet to see how
the Virgin Class was making out in the last longer. There were 2 from each
house standing.  One more ADB went out just before the final table, and the
last ADB standing went into the final table as the short-stack. A couple
hands later the last ADB went out in 9th, leaving 2 Virgins standing on the
final table to finish 7th and 5th, and enabling The Virgin Class of Twenty
Ten to win the last longer bet with the ADB's for the first time since 1999.
DING! GOOOOOOO VIRGINS!!!!!

Barry's speech was awesome. I move that we have the guest speaker earlier in
the week. I really could have used those tips earlier. ;-) The food was
great and the whisky, though from a lower shelf than Friday night, was still
decent and went down quite well.

After the reindeer games a few of did some other things and then went over
to the Carsen St Cafe for some nosh and I listened to some math talk when
Bill Chen dropped by our table for a few minutes.

Marginally hung over for the first time all week, I was unhappy when the
alarm went off Sunday morning, signifying the end to the downtown portion of
my Vegas Vacation. Saddenz. Checking the whiskey levels as I packed I
realized I had enough for one last breakfast. DING! One last second
breakfast at the Carsen Street Cafe, and we grabbed a cab for the Aria, and
checked in before heading down to meet Chris and Erin for dinner at the
P.U.B. where I had my first yard of beer. Well, not the first yard per se -
but it was the first time I had a beer in a yard glass.

Monday morning we headed to the airport for our 12:25 flight home.

Good-bye Vegas - see you next August... or in January if it works out and
doesn't interfere with a potential trip to Jamaica.

---------------------------------------------------
Yolanda (or Yo)
(Born-Again) BARGE Virgin Queen,
Class of Twenty-Ten