From: "Tracy Becker" Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 14:19:50 -0400 Subject: [BARGE] Virgin Trip Report Part I BARGE 2011 Virgin Trip Report aka "I want to show you this game I learned from my hair stylist..." I've attended FARGO for 9 years, played in 8 of those, attended ATLARGE for 7 years (missed the one when my son Ricky was born) and organized FARGO for 4 years, but have never been to BARGE. I feel like an honorary BARGEr, especially since I have lurked on the BARGE mailing list for so long. BARGE. It's so far away. And so expensive to get there (especially for 3 people). And so hot in August. And so lacking babysitting by someone I know, even remotely. And so, no BARGE for me. Until this year. Rick and RIcky are registered for Cub Scout Resident Camp for the first weekend in August. Gee, that time frame sounds so familiar, but I can't place my finger on why that is. When it finally dawns on me, I do a bit of research and decide to go. Not too expensive for one person to go, it's always around 75 in the poker room, and no child care issues. Not an optimal situation as far as Rick is concerned, since he played poker long before I started, and has wanted to go to BARGE since that first FARGO in 2002, but I am super excited. I owe him big time. My friend Courtney decides a few days in Vegas is a great idea, so she comes with me. She decides that she will spend days in the pool and be available in case I need an emergency shrimp cocktail from Golden Gate. I dub her my minion, since I've always wanted a minion. Any details in this trip report are remembered with very little sleep, and it will include very little poker content, so if I make a mistake or forget someone, I'm truly sorry. It's also pretty boring; be forewarned. Wednesday - Picked up my minion Courtney and grab a quick lunch at Five Guys Burgers before we head to the airport. She has never been to Five Guys, and we enjoy it tremendously. On to White Plains to catch our flight to Vegas (via Chicago). Parked at SUNY - Purchase in their (relatively) new airport parking venture Purchase Park to Fly (PP2F.org). If you ever have to fly out of White Plains, this is a great alternative to the ridiculously expensive and very limited parking garage. Uneventful flight to Chicago and connection to Vegas, which was wonderful. There was a possibility that we could have gotten delayed in Chicago because some guy named Obama was in town for a birthday celebration. One more reason to not like him...Asya and Ben arrive at just about the same time, so we connect and get a ride with her to the Nugget. (Thanks Mark Dagon for the BARGE Arrivals page - it came in very handy!) Check in to a room that meets the bill - 2 beds, no smoking, not near elevator. Ding! We unpack a bit and I decide to run over to Binion's to see if anyone is around to say hi to. It's around 10 Vegas time, and although I am feeling every bit of 1 am EDT, I know going to bed too early will only make me get up too early. I know I will need all the sleep I can get, but it is Vegas, so I venture out. I find Len Greenberg and Rick Mombourquette looking to start a game in the poker room lobby. I tell Len that I am just saying hi, and will head back to the room in a bit, but he convinces me to stay and play. It didn't take too much convincing. Play a bit, say hi to a lot of friends, and meet a ton of new people. At some point, Barry Mr. Raise unintentionally slow rolls Len G in an Omaha hand. Len is not happy. He goes out for a smoke and knocks over Barry's chips. In my sleep-deprived state, I unintentionally slow roll Barry a few hands later and the table erupts in laughter. Len tips me, which I send on to the dealer. Len convinces the dealer to knock over Barry's chips again. She balks at first, and says she doesn't want to lose her job, which causes more laughter. Once we convince her that this is BARGE, she knocks them over easily. Up and down in the 4-8 HO game, and cash out a few dollars ahead. First day of BARGE is a huge success. We wake up too early on Thursday, but it gives us plenty of time to have a leisurely breakfast and wander a bit before CHORSE. Tina DILLIGAF and "NoMoNoSho" NorthShore Mike stop over during breakfast at the Nugget coffee shop to say hi. Tina has always been one of my very favorite ARGers, and after meeting him, Mike is also - maybe even top 25. We also run into Len G outside breakfast . We figure out that his plane leaves just before ours on Sunday, so we arrange to share a cab. Can't decide where to meet, so I offer to have him sleep with us on Saturday. Courtney plays right along, and no one misses a beat. She fits in well, and I am really glad she came with me. Courtney has never been to downtown Vegas, so we walk up and down Fremont Street and I give her the quick tour. We buy some bottled water and a foam cooler so we don't have to drink the $7 a bottle Fuji water in the room. Sheesh, the room rate was good, but the Nugget was not going to raise their profit line by me drinking that overpriced water. Courtney spends breakfast being enticed by the pool at the Nugget, so she plans on spending the day there. I grab a beverage at Starbucks (I will drink that overpriced stuff because it has caffeine) and head over to meet up with my CHORSE team. Team Confusion - Tina, me, Jeanne David, Bryan Micon, Brandon Gerson and Steve Nelson. We have a lot of fun, and we bust out. Meh, it's only money. We'll make more tomorrow. I spend most of the down time introducing myself to as many people as I can, so I can "maximize my BARGE experience." Using this strategy, I introduce myself to several people many times over the weekend. Sorry Ken Kubey, I'll not be pawning off my "FARGO 2011" cards to you any longer. Must buy ginkgo biloba or embrace the lack of memory. Probably easier to do the embracing. Arrange with Courtney to meet at 2:30 to get to the sushi gathering. I'm not a big fan of sushi (so I thought) since I don't eat it often, but Courtney loves it, so I decide it is a must not miss event. The company was superb. So many friends in one place. So many great conversations. So much good food. I only had one item I didn't like out of the 25 or more things I tried. Only two things were too questionable for me to try. I'd say a successful meal all around. Some points about sushi: Fich sits next to Courtney. I tell her that he is a blast, but not always a people person, so not to feel bad if he doesn't say much. (See http://tinyurl.com/3dd4d8v) Ha! He chats her up for a good portion of the meal, totally destroying any credibility I have with her. Luckily he is his usual charming self and entertains us both easily. At some point, he turns away and Courtney tries to get his attention by placing her hand on his leg. He stops what he is doing and s-l-o-w-l-y turns around to face her. His deadpan expression is priceless. One of the best moments of BARGE so far. Courtney and I both wager on the line by taking the over. As soon as we place the bet, Asya tells us that the under has won for many years in a row. But not this year! Ding! We grab a ride back to the Nugget from Steve and Sabyl Landrum. I take the opportunity to pick their brains on some Badugi strategy for the 6 Game event later. This turns out to be a great idea and go on to win most of the badugi hands in the first round. Unfortunately, I don't win many others and do not last very long in the event. I realize that I forgot my bust out in the room, so I promise to find John Pickels in the morning. I find Foldem near the poker room and ask about the Craps Crawl. I've never played, although I have watched many times and have never been able to understand it. I realize later that like sex, Craps is a participant sport and not a spectactor sport. Once Peter finds out that I am a Craps Virgin, he convinces me to join in the fun. I text Courtney to see if she wants to join, but she is taking advantage of the no children situation and relaxing in the room and falls asleep early. I meet up with Peter, Paul "prm" McMullin, ADB NorthShore Mike, Larry Stone, Mark "oldbear" Hughes, Rich "Omaholic" Bremer, Don ADB Bingo Rieck, Kevin Un, and others that I am forgetting. Everyone around me is drinking, so I decide it is time to have an adult beverage, my first of the weekend. Ding! Liver, welcome to BARGE. We shoot at Binion's for a while. NorthShore Mike takes me under his wing and explains the game and betting in very simple terms. He starts slow, and I have an opportunity to let it all sink in before he adds to the information. A non-BARGEr has a good 10 minute run and then Paul has a good run as well. Peter wore his "Make 7 - Up Yours" shirt for the crawl, and had been calling for sevens. I countered a few times with "Up yours!" to add to the silliness. NSMike passes on the dice so they end up coming to me and I have a monster roll for about 25 or 30 minutes. I rolled many points and it was a blast. I am up $16 from this Craps stop. We head over to Main Street via the secret passage (another BARGE experience!) and through the California. We stop at the Golden Arm Awards and pay our respects. More good runs, much frivolity and many drinks at Main Street. I am up $65 at this Craps stop, so I am lifetime +$81. NSM promptly tells me my life is over now that I know how to play craps. I laugh, but don't believe him. It is my first experience at Main Street and I am pleasantly surprised at how nice it is. NSM, Rich and I head back to the poker room at Binion's. We play for a while and I call it a night around 3 am. To be continued. Flop quads, TracyB From: "Tracy Becker" Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 14:21:27 -0400 Subject: [BARGE] Virgin Trip Report Part II Continued from Part I. Friday I wake up feeling very well even though I shouldn't. Courtney looks fabulous since she had plenty of sleep. I drink lots of water before we head over to Golden Gate for breakfast. On Bruce Kramer's recommendation, we order pancakes. We also have the fresh squeezed OJ, which is delicious. Will definitely put breakfast at Golden Gate on the "must do" list. Warren joins us and we discuss the lack of bagels in Vegas and Memphis, where he is currently working. I suggest he open a Bruegger's franchise, but he balks. Note to self - look into bankrolling a Bruegger's franchise in Memphis when I win the lottery. Still feel a bit fuzzy after breakfast, so I decide to get a huge coffee at Starbucks. I also decide that adding Bailey's to it would be a great idea. I find Katie Baxter at Starbucks and we decide to head to the ABC store and buy a nip bottle of Bailey's. They only have a large bottle, so I decide to just order a double shot ASAP from the waitress at Binion's. At 10 am. Welcome to BARGE! Chic is at my table in the TOC, as well as Cliff "deadhead" Matthews and Lynsey Iwamoto. Lynsey has come to FARGO, so I am glad to see a friendly and familiar face. Cliff spends much of the time at the table folding paper to make several very interesting polyhedrons and I chuckle at his creative use of rolling papers. I also notice that he makes it deep in the event, while I do not, so there must be something to having a calming past time at the table. I bust out about half way and head over to the poker room. I find Peter again and ask about the Calcutta Symposium. I do not understand the idea, but I know I want to participate to "maximize my BARGE experience." He offers me a spot in the ADB syndicate and I pay him. In the poker room, I watch and play a bit before meeting up with Courtney for the event. I am glad that I take pens at every possible opportunity, since no less than 8 people ask for one. I can accommodate them all. We sit with Crunch, Regis and others while the event gets underway. Snacks are great; company is better. We are thrilled to hear the Crunch is a sheep farmer in New Hampshire. The Virgin Wool market must be exceptional there. Courtney decides that Fremont Street light show may be a bit more entertaining, so she heads off to that. Our table breaks and I head over to sit with Tina, NSM and mickdog. I am paired with Donna Houle in the Symposium, and am pleased that we sell for $65. Not too shabby. Too bad I can't make that good vibe work for me and cash in the NL event. Oh well. Up until this point, I had been trying to pay attention and write in the sell values. NSM, Tina and mickdog are having too much fun chatting so I give up trying to pay attention and join them. I decide all ARG organizers must be great people. I have yet to meet one that isn't pretty cool. I stick around for the BOD meeting, which must have set a record for brevity. I am the incoming PTO President at Ricky's school this year, and I promise to take the BOD meeting plan into account each month. Earlier, I had talked to Courtney about all the fun at the Craps Crawl, and I convince her to shoot as a virgin roller on Friday night. Barry "Mr. Raise" Kornspan's SO Sharon and Jessica Kuznick have also never rolled, so I convince Bingo and NSM that a Virgin Sacrifice Part Deux is in order. We meet up with a few others and head over to Main Street since the Binion's tables are $10 min. We decide even if the Main Street tables are also $10 and not the preferred $5, at least Main Street has the brew pub and great beer. We stop again at the Golden Arm Awards and pay respect. We find a $5 table with only a few people on it and manage to crowd around it. The shooter passes the dice shortly after we arrive, and Sharon rolls. She hits Yo (Yo Canada!) on the first roll and then sets the point. And then rolls the dreaded Voldemort. Jessica has a similar roll, as does Bingo. I roll a bit better, but nothing like the epic roll the previous night. Bingo proceeds to spill his IPA after one sip. He ends up standing in a squishy puddle most of the night. Within minutes, NSM also spills his IPA on Courtney's foot. We wonder if the waitress can bring beer in sippy cups for them. New beers all around, and NSM spills again, but this time on the Dealer's shoe. At some point, Bingo decides to go play VP at the bar and leaves the table. NSM joins him. We all shoot twice. I end down $15, but still positive lifetime. Courtney and I head over to the VP bar and order drinks. NSM pays, and Courtney thanks him by saying, "Thanks, Big Daddy" in a breathy voice that sends him over the edge. Since she and I can see the effect, we do it several more times over the course of the weekend. Bingo gets dealt quad Aces, and wins a nice profit. He also wins a whopping $2 on the scratch ticket for the quads. We have a few more drinks and talk while NSM and Bingo play VP. During the conversation, I mention that I don't drink much. NSM laughs out loud. We eventually head back to Binion's. Courtney heads off to bed, while NSM and I wander around the poker room. We decide he is going to teach me to play VP, and we sit outside the poker room. David the bartender learns our drinks quickly since he brings them often. In hindsight, I start to see why NSM doesn't believe me when I keep telling him that I don't drink. I have had a drink in my hand each time he has seen me. Hmmm. Maybe I should have clarified - I don't drink much in a non-BARGE atmosphere. Murray and Prock stop by to say hi at some point. Patti and Ice stop by after Karaoke. We all talk for a bit and realize the bar is closed. The gang splits up (some to Pai Gow) and NSM and I move over to the center VP bar so we can continue the lessons and the drinking. Murray joins us shortly, as does Prock. Howler comes by after helping the DJ bring down tons of equipment from karaoke. We all talk for a bit. I explain FARGO a few times, and invite everyone to come in six weeks (September 22 to 25. Next year it should be October 4--7, plan early!). Much laughing and great conversation. I finally head off to bed around 5 am, after I get a "you ok?" text from Courtney. D'oh - how'd it get to be that late? Wake up Saturday feeling much, much better than I should. Maybe BARGE is too much fun to be a bad influence? Opt to sleep in a bit, so no time for breakfast and grab a quick coffee at Starbucks before the NL event. Order another shot of Bailey's and enjoy my coffee. Glad to see Chic, deadhead and Lynsey at my starting table again. Random, schmandom. In the first five hands, I get dealt AJs, AA, KK and AJs again. I only end up laying down the last AJs, and am up considerably early. I am sitting pretty at the first break and am glad to be in the group shot in the valet area. The car is way cool. I can't wait to order a print of the shot. Great job Rodney! I play pretty well through the day, and bust out midway. Paul "prm" busts around the same time I did, and asks if I wanted to get lunch. I am starving at that point, so I agree. I check around to see how friends are faring, and see NSM bust out. We invite him to join us for lunch. Deadhead also comes. We head over to Triple Seven Pub at Main Street and have a great lunch with good conversation and food. We all head back to Binion's. Deadhead and NSM decide to find a pool hall, and I decide to join them. They play a couple of games and then Cliff says, "I want to show you a game that I learned from my hair stylist." Well, this is perhaps the funniest line I have heard in ages, and I cannot stop laughing about it for quite a while. The game is reverse pool, where you shoot the balls into the cue ball and then into the pocket. If the ball doesn't hit the cue or the cue scratches, the other player gets ball in hand. It is a fun game, and interesting to watch. We head back to Binion's after a ridiculously long wait for a cab. There is about an hour or so to kill before the banquet, so NSM is a pussy and decides to nap. I head to the poker room and hang out giving back massages to friends. I meet up with Courtney and we head upstairs and save seats for Jeanne, Tina and Sharon Goldman. Our table is fun. The roast for Peter was fantastic. The video from Chuck was a great touch. I realize how disappointed I am that he had to leave before I arrived. We've met at a couple of ATLARGEs, and he is one the good guys. The food is okay, but Mori Eskandani was a fantastic speaker. He told some wonderful stories. I head down to the tournament area to find a seat in a reindeer game, and am pleasantly surprised to see all of the photos that Rodney took spread on the open tables. Wow. And some more wow. I had read that Rodney does a great job with the pictures, and that is an understatement. I take home a bunch of great shots. Thanks Rodney, for all the pictures and the wi-fi in the tournament area. That came in handy too! Reindeer games are a blast. I start to fade at this point, but I decide that I am not going to sleep that night, since we need to meet Len G and Mike "mjoseph" Brennan at 4:45 am. I start ordering martinis to stay awake. I am surprised at how well that works. I move around a bit in the games, but always into games that are traditional. I don't play in any BARGE-specific games, and I only slightly regret that, since the HORSE and HO games have lots of people that I love being around when playing poker. There is much more fun when Barry unintentionally slow rolls me with a flush in Omaha. The unintentional slow roll comes full circle. I lose a couple hundred and decide that 4 am is a good time to go pack and head to the airport. When I get to the room, Courtney is just getting up and we check out. We get to the airport and Len and Michael decide they are paying, so they send us on our way home. Thanks, guys. Remind me to buy you a drink at FARGO. When Courtney and I check in at the airline counter (who would think the airport would be mobbed at 5 am?), we are offered an upgrade to first class for just over $100. Since I haven't slept in 24 hours, and have only had about 11 hours since Wednesday 6 am EDT, I decide that this is the greatest bargain on the planet and we take the last two seats in first class. Arriving at security, we realize what a deal it truly is, as first class has almost no line while steerage has about 100 people. Ding! We find John Moser at Starbucks in the concourse, and we sit with him for a bit while we have a snack and coffee. I am worried that the caffeine will keep me up, which makes us all laugh. Courtney is very surprised at how coherent I still am considering the poor sleeping and eating habits I have practiced while in Vegas. She wonders if I will need alcohol detox to get back to normal. Welcome to BARGE! I crash on the plane for a couple of hours and I appreciate the extra room in first class. We have a slight delay in Chicago because of bad weather on the East Coast. I doze a bit on the trip from Chicago and we arrive in White Plains an hour after our expected arrival. Despite the hour, I feel great and ready to drive home. Somehow, American Airlines manages to rip one entire wheel assembly off Courtney's suitcase and she ends up dragging it out to the shuttle. This sends us both into fits of giggles. We end up arriving home at 9 pm. I stay awake long enough to hear a bit about Cub Scout camp and crash. What a fantastic BARGE!! Rick and I will be married 20 years next year, and we have already planned a family cruise to Alaska at the beginning of August. I am trying to convince Rick to change it to mid-July so we can fly home through Vegas just in time for BARGE 2012. Thank you to Peter, Mick, and Nick for a superb event. Thanks to Rodney for pictures and wi-fi. Thanks to Asya and Ben for rides, sushi and sake. Thanks to Steve, Sabyl, Len and mjoseph for rides. Thanks to everyone for showing me a great time. I'm really looking forward to seeing all of you again soon. Flop quads, TracyB