Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 15:17:20 -0500 From: Chris Mecklin Subject: [BARGE] My Trip Report, Part I (pre-BARGE) BARGE 2012 Trip Report, Part I By Chris Mecklin/Tom Bayes First, on the name thing: when I'm playing well, I'm "Tom"; when I'm hosing off chipz, I'm "Chris". We didn't see a lot of Tom Bayes this year. My longest trip for BARGE ever, as I came out early for some pre-BARGE hijinks. *Friday 7/27* Fly one of Allegiant Airlines final flights from Owensboro to Vegas, as the company is discontinuing this route in a few weeks as most west Kentuckians would rather vacation at The Mouse rather than Sin City. Flight had a bonus stop in Wichita to refuel, supposedly due to the heat and full plane and lack of ability to refuel at the cornfield that functions as Owensboro's airport. Take a shuttle to The Orleans and meet a small pack of Snooki wannabes going to Planet Hollywood. One of them told another (direct quote) "Make sure and wear your sluttiest dress tonight". Arrive at Orleans, place full of teenage boys a foot taller than me that I outweigh (youth basketball tournaments), see Randy in a tournament, but decide to go by myself to Le Paris to see comedian Greg Proops. The opener, Cort McCown, mocks me for my slobby dress. Hey, I only brought clothes to Vegas appropriate for poker playing, not for clubbing and trying to hook up with a Snooki wannabe! *Saturday 7/28* Sign up for the $75 NLHE tournament at The Orleans with several other BARGErs. I bust fairly early and then played with the charming beautiful people (otherwise known as "Orleans regulars") at the $4/$8 Omaha/8 table. Some of the small female Asian dealers carry the sticks to scoop in bets, both because some of the douches like to set their bets as far back as possible and also as a weapon if needed. I cashed out for 4 racks (for a net 1 rack loss). My roommate Ron Grossberg arrives and many of us go to Randy's dinner at Big Al's. Good company, huge portions but they'd be better off serving half as much food with twice as much flavor. I had no chance of finishing my Jambalaya Pasta or even considering dessert. *Sunday 7/29* I take Ron G. to the "Bill"agio (aka Bill's Gambling Hall) for some LULZ playing $0.50/$1 NLHE cash and $30 donkamentz. Bill's is fucking great, as their are 4 classes of players at Bill's: (1) bottom tier grinders; (2) clueless new players; (3) drunken degen local casino employees on their day off wasting their paycheck; and (4) amused decent players. Ron and I meet an interesting pair from Canada, a mother and son combination, and a cool Israeli guy. We had 3.5 PhDs at the table (me, Canadian mom, Israeli, Canadian son is a PhD candidate). The other players were a mix of scared young guys with no bankroll trying to not lose their $40 and drunks overplaying every single hand and winning against me. Then we played the donkament with some dude who jammed blind every single hand. He managed to avoid being sucked out on by me when his J6o held over my JJ. Ron ended up bubbling and I went back to cash and turned most (but not all) of my Sklansky bucks into real money. One of the bottom tier grinders actually got up and left and said "I'll come back when you are playing real poker" when there were 3 totally drunk guys actively trying to give away their stacks. Oh, and some dude who looks like Chris Jepsen's brother was there, but they must not be related because this guy was sober. Back to Orleans. Patti B. treated a bunch of us at Fuddruckers (I had the elk burger). A bunch of us entered the Sunday night $75 HORSE tournament. Another non-eventful middle-of-the-pack finish for me, but I did get to sweat Tina G. at the live final table and Andre W. Hime on teh Twitter as he was final tabling an Omaha/8 tourney in Oklahoma. Tina got 3rd and I got an earful from an extremely chatty and persistent young woman who really didn't get that I was marginally interested in most of her conversation. In her defense, she was more interesting than most people you'll ever meet at The Orleans poker room. Tina got 3rd and Chatty Addie's boyfriend/husband chopped with someone else. *Monday 7/30* More LULZ with LOCALZ. I get up and take the bus from The Orleans to Boulder Station (Tropicana bus to Boulder Highway, then north to Boulder Stn.). Why? One, for cool people watching. My favorite was the adult woman who was unironically wearing a John Cena "Cenation" t-shirt AND matching headband IN PUBLIC. She also had her iPod super loud so I could enjoy her music too. At the Boulder Station, where all the dealers love locals (their name badge says so!), Keith T. and I played $4/$8 Limit Omaha High with the regulars. "Mark", the guy to my immediate left, was a 60ish man in a nice suit who looked a little too upscale for a localz joint, but was obviously a regular and played every hand. I picked up a tell on when he would raise or when he would call, but I could discern no pattern on how this was related to the cards be held. I got yelled at by one old regular for the SIN of preflop RAI in a 4 card poker game. Another old guy, wearing a Party Poker hat and an El Cortez jacket, berated every single player as soon as he sat down, including Keith & I who were unknowns to him. I booked a win, as I won a couple of big pots correctly chasing with gutters and backdoors getting 30+:1 when 8 people see a capped flop. Keith & I then met up JP and others at Ping Pang Pong for a nice dinner. Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 16:18:16 -0500 From: Chris Mecklin Subject: [BARGE] My Trip Report, Part II (semi-sober BARGE) BARGE 2012 Trip Report, Part I By Chris Mecklin/Tom Bayes *Tuesday 7/31* While killing some time in the morning before Ron & I moved from The Orleans to Main Street Station for BARGE proper, I hit quad deucies while playing quarters Deuces Wild VP. Ron and I engaged in some keno action and discussion of the hypergeometric probability distribution during breakfast. We break even at keno but I win the roshambo for the check. Then we are off to the Main Street Station for BARGE week proper, linking together his offer with my offer. Room is slightly nicer than 4Q, AC is loud, shutters rather than proper curtains are stupid, walk slightly inconvenient. I probably won't stay there again unless it is free again. Go over to Binion's and see a bunch of r00lerz playing $4/$8 HORSE, so I sit and its hoser Chris M. getting absolutely crushed by Chris J. For those that don't know, this is a 180 degree switch of past Chris v Chris poker confrontations. I have dinner at MSS brewpub with several r00lerz and then go get changed into my "World Champion" red t-shirt (bought from Judah Friedlander's website) for the A-5 lowbah tournament. I get a bad table draw, sandwiched between Fich on my right and Scott Byron on my left. They are both very good players and after playing a bit too aggro at the start of the event, I spend the rest of my table grinding to keep my head above water. I do win an all-in as Fich gives me a fun little sweat by showing me the deuce he drew and slowly peeling to show his final card was another deuce. I fail to cash and remove the World Champion shirt. Congrats to Fich on his win. *Wednesday 8/1* Make up to a cool rainy morning. I am momentarily confused but it turns out I'm still in downtown Vegas. I get a ride to the Egg & I for the breakfast generously provided by Goldie & Ice every year. After a chili skillet, I return downtown while others go off to shoot some skeet. More losing money to Jepsen in cash games; this is a disturbing trend. I join Randy C., Russ F., JP, and Mickdog for dinner at the Hash House a Go Go in the Plaza. I had eaten at the one at the Imperial Palace, and this one is just as good. The waiter was entertaining and a good tip hustler, but didn't seem to know that "PBR"=Pabst Blue Ribbon. I'm a statistician-we have acronyms for everything! I had the Black Skillet Chicken, which was good but I'd probably just go back to the Chicken & Waffles (which Mickdog & JP split) or the Corned Beef Hash next time. Randy had an absurdly large burger and Russ had the swordfish, I think. Another deepish run without cash in the PL Binglaha tournament. I managed to get my money in nearly drawing dead BEFORE the dice roll against Keith T. (I think I had some perfect-perfect outs). He goes on to finish 2nd to Caryl A. It was fun, but I'm not sure Binglaha is a good enough tournament game to reprise next year. *Thursday 8/2* Get up to grind some morning VP at MSS, get up about $60, which apparently triggered a fire alarm and we have to evacuate. Run into Bingo outside; maybe he was winning as well. We go over to Starbux and then I wander back over to MSS and the alarm was false. Go up to the room to find Ron never heard the alarm and slept through it. I hope he's never in a real hotel fire. I captained "Team Conditional Probability" in the CHORSE event, with C=Keith T., H=Howler, O=me, R=Eileen M., S=JP, E=Russ. We do OKish but just miss the NL final table; I think we were 9th with less than a T100 deficit from 8th place. We only lose $10 and I make up for that in drink units that I pilfer from the Arrogant Bastards table, as Jepsen and crew (including Ron "Skippy" Grossberg) had a team of cocktail waitresses continually replenishing their Corona & crazy pineapple supply. The Deadheads end up winning the event and I think the NL final round really added a sense of team comradery and excitement to the end of the event, rather than just waiting for a chip count. It's obviously not perfect, as you are pretty much forced to shove ATC late if you really want the trophy, but the G in BARGE does stand for GAMB00L. I miss a ride to the Goldmans' smoker event due to a mix-up and late reg into the 6-game event. I again get deep without cashing. After Steve "TT" M busts me in about 20th, I give him bourbon chocolates but on his suggestion we just break open the box and share them with the interested remaining players. The opening table was funny, as Alex Z was playing his usual hyper-maniacial style with Andrew Prock in perfect position two seats to his left to grow his stack. The event ends up coming down to a Prock v Omaholic HU match, with Andrew racking up another victory. Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 17:24:20 -0500 From: Chris Mecklin Subject: [BARGE] My Trip Report, Part III (hammered BARGE) BARGE 2012 Trip Report, Part III By Chris Mecklin/Tom Bayes *Friday 8/3* Now the nonsense really starts, as the 10 AM tournaments start. After a thoroughly mediocre breakfast somewhere in the California, I'm off to play the Tournament of Champions. I've never gotten deep before in the TOC but today is to be an exception. I alternate between playing like Tom Bayes (good) and like Chris M. (bad) but manage to stay ensconced in seat 2-5 all the way to the final table. I learn that it really is true that NLHE is played at the end of the TOC. My buddy and roomie Ron G. is also at the final table. He's severely short-stacked, makes a terrible fold when he should have been playing ATC (sorry!), and goes out 8th. I'm getting short myself. I have 9BBs and it is folded to my SB. I find A8 of hearts and jam, Edmund H. finds AK and insta-calls but I suckout with an 8 on the river. This allows me to farm it up a couple more spots before I finally bomb out in 5th. Steve LB ends up winning the event for the 2nd year in a row! Afterwards I go upstairs to try to find karaoke, but no one is there. I remember how much fun it was last year when we all got really drunk because the Binion's staff would pour the most ridiculously large "doubles" ever and we carried on and sang songs badly and had a good time. But no one was there this year. I asked where Nolan was-he had turned in early. So had Patti, the Goldmans, Asya & Ben, everyone but me wanted to rest up for the 10AM start for the NLHE event. I felt bad for virgin Jensen and young Ms. McBride that they didn't get to experience any of the NSFW debauchery that is sometimes a part of Friday Night Karaoke. Oh well. Also visited my first Calcu^H^H^H^H^H symposium since my virgin year. Binion's is much less stingy with the spread than the Golden Nugget was. I got in on Scott Samarel's syndicate. I was teamed with Stephanie W. in the very first pairing and some sucker bought us for $60. Our syndicated got some good horsies, including Randall H. on my recommendation. *Saturday 8/4* Despite the fact that there was no karaoke and I got several hours of sleep, I still almost overslept the beginning of the tournament, walking into Binion's 30 seconds before the start. My table has Diane Pickels (such a sweetheart) on my right and a bunch of guys like Dave Lawful, Ming Lee, Bill Turner, Pete Segal, and David Heller to guarantee that every pot would be at least RAI and maybe RERAI preflop. Ming & Bill bust early and I make it to first break with slightly over starting stack. After getting lucky to cripple Heldar, I try a big move in a big 3-way pot against Trayracer and Lawful that fails since Pete flopped a set. Pete gets my scraps when my QQ falls to his AQ and I'm out about 115th or so. After a short nap, I got some lunch at the snack bar with Mr. Raise and his girlfriend. The corned beef is pretty good. I return to the tournament area to sweat our syndicate's horsies. We get 4 players into the money, with Russ F. and Patrick M. falling before the final table. We have organizer Nick C. on big chips and young Randall H. in the top 4 as well as we adjourn for the banquet. I decided not to gamb00l on Binion's banquet prime rib this year. I go with so-so chicken instead. After the banquet and talk we return to the poker room for Reindeer Games and the conclusion of the main event. Nick and Randall end up getting 2nd and 3rd for our syndicate and we book an $80 win each. Paul McMullin decided to win even though we didn't have a piece of him, with Tina G. short-stack ninjaing her way to 4th. Patrick delegated arranging the lowball game to me and we went with a $4/$8 lowbah dealer'c choice rather than the traditional $10 Nor-Cal lowball game. While I enjoyed the mix more, I think some of the other lowball aficionados preferred the old format, so maybe next year we should return to the old format and then maybe negotiate a change to the lowbah dealer's choice or some sort of mix later in the evening. There was much straddling and RERAIing and capping at our table, courtesy of Carol K., Andrew P. and me. Keith T. knows his junk games and he called 3 card triple draw. This was awesome because I won the biggest $4/$8 pot of my life in that game. About $300ish; Keith said it took the dealer 6 shoves to get the pot to me. I didn't even have the nuts, but I was drawing to 3A, saw another A, and made 43A on the end for #3 and couldn't not pay $8 at that point. I pipped 432, I think held by Schmengie. As some of the lowball regulars like Betty and Patrick and Rich S. left the game, we got the questionable pleasure of some douchey locals to play for a while. The guy with the soul patch and the Inigo Montoya t-shirt who never shuts up chased the other locals away and we played short for a while. Inigo did win some from me courtesy of a pat #1 when I unfortunately made an eight. We picked up some stragglers to get the game back up to 6 players before I called it a night and booked a rare Reindeer games win. I then get introduced to Firstname Lastname, who is nice to me. Ron then talked me into eating in the middle of the night at Magnolia's, so we got some food, helped some guy congratulate his just married friends, and sat next to a table full of loudmouth young punks. I was happy to return home to get a bit of sleep. *Sunday 8/5* Maybe one year we should have a hyper-turbo on Sunday morning @ 10AM and have a betting pool on how many BARGErs will sleep through it and get blinded off. I bet the OVER. Ron and I eventually woke up and stumble into Binion's to find JP encouraging the formation of a $3/$6 HORSE game, with R=razzdugi. We sit and play. One old local grinder is baffled by all of the non-H games, even though he's a self-described "poker player" who can figure out anything. Discussion about one's chances of getting a badugi in razzdugi develops, but no one knows off the top of their head. Several at the table (JP, Sippy, etc) could certainly figure this out. Anyways, I demonstrate that making a strong badugi in your first 4 cards and having a near-freeroll is a profitable strategy and get up about a rack, that I lose back in the other games to finish about even. Ron and Jensen get a ride with JP to the Goldman's Hangover Party, but not enough room for me, so I hook up with the Arrogant Bastards (Jepsen, Skippy, BronzeDodger). Those are some really fun guys that I hadn't hung out with enought over my first several BARGEs. We drink at MSS for a while and watch Chris & Erin lose money at craps, then take a cab to Dan & Sharon's. The party is a good time as always, enjoying the BBQ and booze and conservation and game playing. I play Chinese for a while with the Arrogant Bastards, then a game of Paradise Pickem develops. David Kluchman and family had to leave, so Kluch throws his remaining stack in to splash the next pot. It's my turn to choose but I let David pick the game blind. He picks razzdugi and I win. Hmmm, I heart this game. Let's have a razzdugi touranment next year! I build up a pretty big stack in Paradise Pickem, sell some $20 in chips (my original investment), and then let Matt I. play my stack, which he hoses off. Get a ride back downtown and the Arrogant Bastards are still partying. I have a tough decision whether to try to stay up all night and only sleep on the plane or to grab a few hours of sleep. I end up going for the latter, mainly because I had a 2+ hour drive home after landing, so I turn in about 1:30, get up about 4:30, cab to airport and catch the 7AM flight back to western Kentucky. IGHN. Saddenz :( See you next year! Maybe at ATLARGE, if if coincides with my university's spring break. Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:46:25 -0500 From: Chris Mecklin Subject: Re: [BARGE] My Trip Report, Part I (pre-BARGE) More about Bill's Gamblin' Hall: 1. I found it funny that the most highly educated poker table this side of BARGE or the math department's home game took place at Bill's in a $0.50/$1 NL ring game. 2. Our standard opening raise in that game was to $5, announced as "Raise--I make it one footlong". Larger raisers would entail specifying the premium sandwich or combo appropriate for the raise size. 3. The first two draft beers I ordered were served in pathetic little 8 oz. plastic cups. The third and subsequent beers were served in normal sized 16 oz. glasses. I guess I proved that I could hold my liquor and/or part with a dollar to the cocktail waitress to earn my "upgrade". 4. In all seriousness, I think the poker dealers at Bill's do a good job in dealing with a crowd that is almost entirely newbies and/or drunks. I think it's a nice little game that is a great beginner's game for a friend that has little experience and/or a limited bankroll. Plus there will be one sourpuss at the table you can tilt, as opposed to the Orleans where you have the Herculean task of trying to tilt an entire table of sourpusses.