From: "Stevan H. Goldman" To: BARGE Subject: [BARGE] goldie's trip report, part 1 I resolved to submit a trip report this year, but it will come in installments due to annoying distractions such as my job. :( I'll return and write in chronological order, but I must begin at the end, with the Go4Goldie results. I had bets with 68 people with a total exposure of $1165 including late registrants. Incidentally, in the future there will be an added fee for late, on-site registrants. Come on, people. This is 2013. I have a website. All you have to do is go to the website. If you can't do that it'll cost you more to make the bet. To begin with, I owe PAUL GIBBONY $20. If you will contact me off list with a mailing address I will send a check. All other bets have been paid. SO, I did REALLY poorly this year. Not only do I suck at poker, but I was card dead all week, including our NLHE during which I didn't win a single hand, save a couple of blinds. Still, I managed to beat 10 of you. They were (in order): Jazzlover BronzeDodger LenG Tom Bayz AlanV Deadhead Grizz TrayRacer Da Pickle David K Everyone else beat me and my total loss this year was $935. Ouch! This year more than offset the $865 I won last year, but I am still ahead lifetime on Go4Goldie bets. Barely. Congrats to the winners. I want you to know I had as much fun making the rounds and paying off as I do calling those I beat over to my table to pay me. So, thanks to everyone who participated in Go4Goldie. I love this BARGE! More to follow..... -goldie From: "Stevan H. Goldman" To: BARGE Subject: [BARGE] goldie's trip report, part 2 I do enough biz in California that I always manage to tack on a visit to either LA or SF prior to BARGE each year. This year it was LA again. In the past I've been joined by Chic, Ice, or both, but not this year. Besides, this year I didn't spend as much time at the poker tables as in the past due to some other obligations. So, while Big Boy said he might join me this year, I discouraged him for that reason. Next year I hope he'll join me, along with whomever else is so inclined. I arrived in LA on Wednesday 7/24. Rented a car (convertable!) , headed to the Commerce to check into the hotel. While out to dinner that night I found out that Tina "Dilligaf" Gonzalez was going to be in town and I located her the next day at a $4-$8 full kill O8 table at the Commerce. What a SICK game that is. I sat into it for a few hours, but never got to her table. Meanwhile, Marc "Occupant" Gilutin was also playing in this game, also at a different table than me. I was in the must-move table, and I really didn't stay long enough to get moved to either of the main games. But, I did stay long enough to notice what the players (all regulars) in this game have in common: (1) They don't fold too many hands; (2) They're in the game essentially to feel sorry for themselves for the 'bad beats' they take; and (3) many of them couldn't even read their hands after they were exposed. With kill pots, the betting would be in $32 increments on the turn and river. Still, these players continually bought and rebought and rebought into this game $40 and $60 at a time! So, when they made hands they often didn't get full value. OK, I'm no Omaha player, and I've seen gamb00lers in California card rooms continually put chips into the pots over and over again with almost no chance of winning. Still, this game (which apparently never ends, by the way) was truly one of the sickest I've ever seen. And, with a steep rake, it is more than likely that after 8 or ten hours, the ONLY winner at the table would be the drop slot. One hand comes to mind....English-challenged player in the 5 seat is convinced that the dealer failed to create a side pot on the river. He didn't...in fact he pushed everyone back 2 chips when one player was all-in so at the showdown there was no side pot...everyone was in the main pot. Still, player #5 continued to insist "side pot, side pot, SIDE POT!!" as the hands were revealed. The all-in player turned over Nut-Nut. The others mucked. #5 refused to table his hand, continuing to insist that the dealer had erred. At one point #5 put his hand across the pot in a Florida State tomahawk type motion in an attempt to divide the pot and separate out what he thought should have been the side pot. The dealer (a paragon of both skill and patience, by the way) grabbed his hand to stop him, and then continued to insist "Sir, PLEASE open your hand!". Finally, with all the other players at the table reassuring #5 that he had, in fact, gotten back his two chips and there never should have been a side pot he stopped arguing. But, his hand was still tightly clutching his cards. Again, Saint Dealer implored "Sir, PLEASE open your cards so we can get the game going again". #5 then reluctantly spread his hand open. The dealer took one VERY brief glance at the cards, saw instantly that he had neither the nut low nor high and in one smooth motion scooped up the hand, immediately mucked it, and simultaneously pushed the pot to the winner with his other hand. #5 was all but apoplectic, now calling the floor and demanding to see the camera replay of the hand. So, that's the kind of game it was. Slow moving, very loud, and over-the-top crazy. I actually took one rack out of this game, but then returned to my more comfortable $20-$40 LHE game where I continued to run goot, by the way. The next day was Friday. Dilli had agreed to keep me company on the drive up to Vegas, so we made our way to the rental car counter so she could be authorized and insured on the car. Friday night we met the Occupant for dinner at his favorite sushi restaurant, a pretty damned good place in Alhambra called Z sushi. Dilli isn't a sushi lover, but thankfully Marc had called earlier to determine that she would find something on the menu and not starve. She didn't, as near as I could tell. ;-) So, Saturday night Dilli and I did a mini LA poker room tour that found us in a $4-$8 game at the Hustler late-ish. In that game we met a future ARGer and ADB. His name was D'andre. He sat next to Dilli and was on the other side of the table, so I didn't get to talk to him as much as she did, but he was drinking tequila shots, offering to buy them for the table constantly (I had one), and he was (almost needless to say) running over the table. I think Dilli got his email addy, or directed him to the BARGE website. Either way, if we can get this guy to BARGE he'll be a big hit and have a great time, that's for sure. Oh, before he got hot, Dilli was on fire when we first sat down. In, like, 15 minutes she was ahead over two racks ($200). Her flopped set of 6s won a MONSTER. I was losing a little until I got Scottro (77), flopped a set, and got called down by Dilli, getting me slightly ahead. :) Meanwhile, the $25-$50 LHE game there looked too good to be true, but it was late and I didn't want to get involved when a seat opened up (there were two tables going). So, Dilli and I both took some chips from the $4-$8 game and headed to the Normandie to look into the 5-card Omaha game the Occupant had recommended. I played $8-$16 LHE, while Dilli played in that 5-card O8 game. I was getting pretty tired, and I really wanted to drink more but I was driving so I picked up, found Dilli. She had been somewhat card dead, but wasn't stuck too much so we left. I had that drink when I got back to the Commerce, played a little more $20-$40 and went to bed. Sunday was all poker all the time. I didn't run as good as earlier in the week, but when we packed up the car on Monday morning I left LA ahead for the trip. Good thing, too, because Vegas wasn't going to be too good to me, gamb00ling-wise. The Camaro convertible I rented was awesome sitting in slow moving traffic on the LA freeways in pleasant weather, but because the roof disappears into the trunk, both my and Dilli's suitcase had to go into the back seat for the drive up to Vegas on Monday. We shared the driving, which was awesome, and we drove with the top down until Victorville when it got too hot so we stopped and put it up for the remainder of the trip to Vegas. I had been invited to dinner with Rich Korbin at 5pm. We arrived comfortably into Vegas around 1:30. I got cleaned up, found my badge and other r00lerz at Binions, played a little $4-$8 HORSE in which the "R" was RazzDugi, and met Rich along with Bree and SmallTalk Dan for a great dinner at Hugos. Lowbah wasn't good to me, but then again, I suck at poker, so no surprises there. I don't know what time I got to bed, but I know I hit the gym on Tuesday morning, so it couldn't have been too late. More to follow.... -goldie OK, I'm not an Omaha player