Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2015 23:13:52 -0700 From: Ken Kubey Subject: [BARGE] QB's 2015 BARGE Trip Report The story of my twentieth BARGE. "Now it's BARGE!" Monday, July 27th. ----------------------- Sandi and Taylor the Dog drop me at SJC. She (Sandi, not Taylor) has a ticket to fly down on Wednesday, but she is doubtful. Kristina is too busy with her new job. Taylor will be guarding the house. I find Rich Strauss at the gate. We play two $10 freeze-outs on the flight down. We each win one. Yawn. Diana Mercer gets the first hug of the trip. She can give us a ride downtown. I'm hoping we can wait 30 or 40 minutes to help out Chuck Weinstock, but the car is just tiny. With the bags, there's barely room for the three of us. Sorry Chuck! Four Queens Hotel. Cheap. $10 a day food comp. Cool. Take a short nap. --- Meet up with Bob Herlien for a late lunch. We go for the ribs and the Binion's BBQ place. Pretty good. We discuss travel and getting lost while driving in Europe. --- Around here JZK gives me two old Garden City chips (25c and 50c). Very cool. --- No-limit Bounty Tournament. Each time you knock a player out of the tournament, you get $25. Around the table... Ice, Bree, Ron, Goltz, me, Gillian, Dean and Adam. About five minutes into the tournament, Bree asks "Where's GamboMouse?" I reach into my bag full of BARGE stuff, find Gambo and perch him on the table. Bree gleefully says "Now it's BARGE!" The BARGE Trip Report contest is discussed. 1st prize is a full chip set. 2nd is a smaller chip set. 3rd prize is a set of steak knives. It's agreed that I'm the favorite to win the steak knives. "I need those steak knives." Going for a bounty, I see a flop with Qc5c. Flop 7c-5x-3c. Pair and flush draw. Very strong. Bree goes all-in, I call. Then Dean goes all-in and has me covered. Have to call. Dean has 75s. I need a club or a queen. Bzzt. Dean gets $50 for busting Bree and me. I also give him one of those light-up shot glasses. --- I eat something and go to bed. I'm super tired and sleep for something like 10 hours. Tuesday, July 28th ---------------------- Go to Magnolia's to use my first $10 comp. Ham and eggs. Yum. 25-Game Mix Tournament We will be playing 25 different poker games. Four hands of each game and then start over. Table... Ron, Oscar, me, Bob H. Bwana, Bob Ogus. Oh yeah, only six players to each table since some of the games are draw or games with multiple boards. Comment to Un: "Yours is bigger." And then "You thought the last hand was the last hand?" Later, I say "Rochelle is my nut waitress." Ron fires back: "I got divorced just for Rochelle." "Could someone not named Bob win a pot?" Somewhere in here I bust Bwana (Scott Byron.) Whew. One of the best players at BARGE gone. Twitter a pic of GamboMouse passed out. Bingo tweets back: "So soon?" New table... Alex, Patrick M., Kenny, me, Sabyl and Sean. Patrick (as he folds) says: "As table captain, I will have to abandon ship." Call from Sandi. Taylor the Dog saw a squirrel and pulled Sandi to the ground injuring her shoulder. X-rays negative, but she's in pain. Even newer table... Me, Grizz, Paul M., Jeannie, Bob H. and Rich S. We discuss reasons to miss BARGE. What I consider valid reasons... Being in prison or being dead. I'm willing to let fellow moose Ron Nutt slide this year for having life-saving surgery. Grizz points out that if you are in prison, you should at least *try* to escape in late July. I agree. I'm not kidding. Un joins the table. Bob advises me to take out my hearing aids. Smart man. Peter Secor comes up to the table and kisses GamboMouse. Aww. I have a low and hit a gutshot straight-9 to bust Un in some high-low stud game. He gives me a Chicago shot glass, a BCC chip and a tiny rubber fish. Dan and I agree to chop the ADB last longer. --- Dinner break... Paul, Grizz, Rich and I go to the Binion's cafe. Several others go for pizza. The waiter botches my potato salad order. We consider betting on him botching Paul's order too. No action. He botches it. --- Back to the tournament... Random comment dept: "I think I'm committed there... or should be committed." Around here, I correct Buck (the dealer) reading the board and say "And I've had 10 more drinks than you." Buck fires back: "You don't know that." Immediate $1 tip for Buck. I've been all-in about 6 times in this one and win them all. Somehow I'm still alive and in the money when Mecklin rivers a flush to take me out. Fridge magnet for him. 8th place and $175 for me. Interestingly, pizza guys went 1-2-7. Cafe guys went 4-6-8. Wednesday, July 29th ---------------------- Wake up call at 7:30 a.m. Oh the pain. Scramble down to the GN valet area. Bob O. gives Patrick M., Big Mike, Jeanne (the other one) and me a ride to the Egg & I for breakfast. I sit with Patrick K., Mike and Jeanne. Hear the interesting story about how their lives almost crossed paths *so* many times and then finally they *did* meet and are living happily ever after. Usual awesome bacon/avocado omelette. Thanks to Ice, Chuck and Goldie for treating us all. Huge tips to wait staff. Ride back downtown with Bruce I., Lynsy and Llew. --- Text from Sandi. She is officially bailing on the trip. "Say hi to everyone." --- Go for an early dinner at Magnolias. Spot Kyle and join him. We both go for the prime rib. He asks the waitress to get something out of his backpack on the back of his wheelchair. There is no backpack. Uh oh. I help Kyle with some stuff. We finish up dinner (Kyle treats) and head up to his room to look for the backpack. Kyle hands me the room card keys. They don't work! Back down we go to the front desk. New key works. Yay! Backpack is on the floor! Yay! I plug Kyle in so he can recharge. Sorry, Kyle's chair, not Kyle! BTW, talk about a real BARGE trooper... Kyle is a stud for making it to BARGE every year. Kudos to Samarel for being his chauffeur. --- I join Rich as he goes to Le Thai way down on Fremont Street. The hostess looks like a Thai version of Selina Gomez. Double Rowr. Learn about the new Roller Derby leagues from Rich. Rich insists on treating. I only a glass of water. What a pal. --- Walking back to Binion's, some crazy teenage girl runs up and grabs me around the neck and shoulders from behind. Check that, not a a teenage girl, it is Kim Scheinberg! --- HORSE tournament. We will be playing a rotation of Hold'em, Omaha-8, Razz (7-stud low), Stud (high) and Eight-or-Better (stud high-low). I accidentally wear a Mustang shirt with a picture of a horse on it. Lynsy give GamboMouse a beautiful sombrero. GamboRiton! Oh, ribbons... Jeff Deitch made it easy for us to order special ribbons for our badges. I bought 25 "20 Year Member" ribbons. I gave these out to anyone who started going to BARGE in 1996 or earlier. Figured I'd only need 12 to 15, right? Wrong!!! Will get more for 2016. Around the table... Peter, me, Patrick M., Len, Kim, Oscar, Doug G. and Gillian. Doug plays 99 against Peter's all-in with AK. At the turn... K-K-X-Y. River: 9. Ooch! Playing Razz, the high card has to "bring it in" or make the first bet. I get dealt the king of spades and toss in the opening bet before the dealer can get a 3rd card to each player. He isn't pleased with me betting so fast. I say "What are they going to get, the king of stars?" Mild laughter from my tablemates. On a break, I see Jennifer Shahade sitting at a table. I'm nervous as I walk up and say: "Hi, are you Jennifer?" Oops, turns out it is Lori Miller. She takes it as a *big* compliment that I though she was Jennifer and that I thought she was about 25. Alan Veach joins the table and is having a beer. We note that it is mostly water with some vegetables. He says "It's practically a salad with water." Randall makes some funny comment about betting beers. Might have been that you can bet your beer and a fellow drinker has to call with his beer. Ron keeps catching bad cards (bricks) in Razz. Gerdog comments to Ron: "You must be a mason." See Ice during a break and ask him why he doesn't have any ribbons. Ice says: "I don't do ribbons." We totally need a ribbon that says "I DON'T DO RIBBONS." Paul Stine raises my blind. I have ATo off and go all-in. Paul has A6o. Flop X-Y-Z. Turn 6. I recoil out of my chair. Arrgghhhhh. Paul gets a poker chip refrigerator magnet. I've lasted too long in the tournament to play in the jam-or-fold and also miss out on the Pizza Rock dinner. Oh well. --- Get into a ring (cash) game... Ron, Warren, JP, me, Michael Brennan, Lawful, JR and Dean. Someone mentions that Michael and I look alike. Insult to Michael. Ron makes and early entry in the quips contest with "Oh look, I peed myself." This will be more common at BARGE 2040. Russ mentions that he has 50% of his hearing in his left ear. JP asks "So you hear every other word?" Random comment dept: "Size matters Ken." Actually win some money in this game. Talk to Patti. She is one of the Trip Report judges and she will be giving high marks for brevity. I am *doomed*. I might bubble the steak knives. Thursday, July 30th ---------------------- Wake up call at 4:30 a.m. Did I sign up again? Yes, I did. Time for the Death March a.k.a. the BARGE Golf Outing. I get over the Binion's a little early. Decide to ask security if they found my hearing aid case that went missing on Wednesday. One security guy says to the other: "He's looking for a hearing aid case." Second security guard says: "What?" "He's looking for a hearing aid case." "What?" Then we all laugh. Case found and returned to me. Yay. --- Meet up with Oldbear, Kevan and Gerry. Off to the Las Vegas Golf Club. Mark (Oldbear) and I are cartners. Mark hits a putt way to hard, but it strikes the pin and goes in. It would have rolled another 20 feet otherwise. "What does a Canadian goose say?" "Honk, eh?" Me to someone about to hit a tee shot... "I'll watch it for you." The tee shot dribbles about 20 yards. Me: "I see it!" There's a note about Kevan and the pink tee. On a par four, I hit an absolutely perfect chip shot from about 25 yards out. It lands right where I want and then rolls straight into the hole for a miracle par. "I guess I have to come back next year." A couple of the guys buy us drinks. Bloody Mary's and beer. Kevan asks: "Is Heineken okay?" I say: "Sure, unless they have PBR." Pabst Blue Ribbon it is! Google "Heineken?FTS PBR" if you want to know what this is about. Later, I hit about a 12-foot putt for a second par. A nice change from my usual 7s, 8s and 9s. Had to do the snowman dance a couple of times for the 8s. On the 17th hole, I hit a great shot from the fairway, but it is headed straight for a massive trap. The ball lands and rolls and stops about six inches before the trap. Whew! I have a note about a BARGE Napping event. Someone comments that Team Sleeping In would be favored. We finish golf in record time and zip back to Binion's. Thanks Kevan! I even have time for a quick shower before... --- CHORSE. Also called C-HORSE. This is a team tournament played with chips that are actually worth money. I'm playing the 7-Stud round. Please tell me you know the rules for 7-stud. Table: I don't remember. Too many of those Crazy Pineapple drinks. I remember Chris Mecklin being rolled-up (starting with trips in three cards) two times in about 45 minutes. Oh, I beat Peter Secor in a tiny pot. C-HORSE ends. Team Moosecock (that's us) has lost about half of our money. Could have been worse. --- Lunch at the Cafe with Rob Fagen, Kevan, Mom Garrett and Rich. I think we are talking about BARGErs aging. Rob mentions that we will have to use shillelaghs. Did I spell it right? Some of the guys discuss reading. Like books, not text messages and Facebook status updates. These crazy people! I actually had to pay money for food. I hate when that happens. --- Walk up to the Binion's big six wheel. I feel pressure. Bet $1 on the $1 spot. A guy comes up to the table and bets the $40, $20, $10 and $5 spots. The wheel stops on the $2 spot. Are you kidding? Other guy bails. Martingale. $2 on the $1 spot. Looking good as the wheel slows. "Hold, hold, hold, hold, hold." It holds. I win! --- PLO (Pot-Limit Omaha) tournament. Kind of like hold'em but you get four cards and must use exactly two. And you can bet up to the amount of the pot at any time. Simple right? Table: Me, Dan, Ira, Wendy, Chuck H., Nate, Ron and John Grout. BTW, I know that I shouldn't put "Me" first, but I am in seat one at the table. Okay with you you grammar Nazi? Dan: "Did I get a defective googley eye?" I'm drinking Rum and Coke. Ira notes that the drink was invented during the Roman Empire, but it was called a "Roman Coke." Even Mr. Peabody would groan hearing *that* one. I beat John flush over flush. He tosses me a small tin of Altoids. KKQXs and jam it up with Dan who has AAQXs. I flop a king to knock Dan out of the tournament. He gives me a little sound box with a "Fail" button. You press the button and the box makes that "wah, wah, waah" sound. Wendy wins another tin of Altoids and passes them around the table. Are you trying to tell us something? I get moved to a new table: Me, Barant, Paul S., Karl, Sharon, Jepson, Ira, JR, David Low. Who the hell is Barant? Time! Need to get out the magnifying glass for this one. Bwana! --- On a break I see Bree walking around with a third eye. I complain to MPH that the drinks have been very weak this year and that I am barely even lisping. He says that I "...should be listing not lisping." Brilliant. --- I go card dead. Finally find KKXYs and put in a big raise. Sharon comes over the top to put me all in. I think she has AA, but there are other possibilities. It's AA. I can't conjure a king this time. Sharon gets a chip magnet and all of my chips. I walk away from the table. Dan's Fail box starts going "wah, wah, waah. wah, wah, waah." Depressing. I go to take the batteries out. There's a phillips screw. Arrgghhhh. Glad to see that Sharon went on to a 2nd place finish for $1200. --- ADB Craps Crawl. Bingo calls an audible and starts the crawl at 10 p.m. "The Seniors Craps Crawl." he says. We start at Binion's. $10 table? Yipes! I'm stuck $70 before my first drink arrives. Finish at Binion's only down $40. Off to Main Street and the California. $5 table. I get a spot next to this lady who is a big bettor. She often has $300 spread around on different numbers. She reminds me a little of Carol Brady. Bingo and I are getting murdered while Regis and Peter are cleaning house betting against us. Carol is taking a beating. While I've lost $35, she's dropped about $700. I get the dice and make my $5 bet. I roll a whole bunch of numbers and make Mrs. Brady about $500 before I 7-out and lose my $5. It was really too nerve-wracking having her betting so much. Oliver walks by and mentions that he is just dropping by to bring me bad luck. About five seconds later the shooter rolls a 7. Arrgghhhh. Virgin shooter Michelle McBride (Howler's daughter) gets the dice. She makes three straight passes. Easily the best shooter of the night for us pass line players. But Oliver's hex is too strong and I go bust. $120 lost. $160 total. Yuck. Didn't hit one hardway or yo 'lev. No high fives. Must do better next year. Friday, July 31st. -------------------- Wake up call for 7:30 a.m. Hey, after 4:30 a.m., that's not so bad. The BARGE Fun Run. A record 13 Participants: Eileen, Brian O'Grady, Sharon Lewis, Joe Long, David Lawful, Jim Anderson Andreas, Rob Fagen, Bruce I., Lynsy, Ron G., Mickdog and me. David Lawful has figured out a way for us to gamble while we run! The walking group will be going clockwise. The runners, counter-clockwise. As we pass, each runner will get a card. At the end, there will be a flop, turn and river. Winner take-all. I run the first lap mostly with Jim Anderson. The second lap with Mickdog. As we come around I want to do a third one-mile lap. Joe and I do that. Now we all meet up to deal out the board. The flop is 4-5-6h. I think someone flopped a straight. The turn is the 5 of hearts. Two hearts on board now. I need a 3 for a full house, but the river is the 7 of hearts. Andreas has a flush. Wait! He has the 9h8h for a straight flush! He jumps up and celebrates. Someone said he seemed more excited to win this hand (and $40) than the BARGE main event last year. --- Bruce and Lynsy invite me to McDonald's. Absolutely! I talk a bit about the craps crawl starting early the night before. Bruce says we should have called it the "Early Bird Craps Crawl." Ha! We talk about retirement. I'm waiting for 2032. No, not kidding. I mention that the 4 Queens hotel should change the name to the 7-3 off. Len drops by. My notes for this aren't great as they are written on a McDonald's napkin. Bruce and Lynsy treat. I love BARGE. --- I take a much-needed shower and do some bathtub laundry. --- Tournament of Champions tournament. I see Eileen. I mention all the stuff I have to bring to BARGE... "Mice, dice, moose..." She laughs and orders me to put this in my notes. Table: Rich S., me, Larry S., Oscar, Dan G., Brian O., Melissa Hayden and Mickdog. I note that three fun runners are at the table. Melissa says "Running? Morning? Fun?" Dan and Brian are having Sea breezes. There's something in my notes about girly drinks being explained to Oscar and Larry and much laughter. Dan plays the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" on his phone. O'Grady is dancing in his chair. Sharon comes by wearing a revealing top and gives Dan a hug from behind. Melissa mentions that Dan's head looks like a "third boob." LOL. --- Mickdog wins a hand and then holds up Presto! that had hit a set. We start clapping for Presto! I think the people nearby knew we were clapping for Presto! The clapping gets crazy loud all through the room. Then people who thought Mickdog had busted out of the tournament see him sit back down and now many people are booing. It was all pretty funny. --- Later Mike Conners (Mannix) is at the table. He though the Goldman "Smoker" was a BBQ. He had no idea it involved cigars. Random comment dept: "Dean Kerl, the Sonny Bono of BARGE." Random comment dept: "It's not like I asked you to give up cheese." --- Break for the Symposium. Rich Strauss to someone asking to join our Calcutta syndicate: "You probably won't lose more that fifty." As we pick off two good pairs cheap early on... Rich: (rubbing hands greedily in a sinister voice) "This is all going according to plan." --- As usual, I wrote the comments on the Calcutta sheet. If you want any explained, let me know. The 2016 comments file already has a bunch of entries. --- Back to the TOC. Make a boat is 7-stud against Grizz' flush to win a big pot. New table: Mecklin, Patrick, Big Mike, Adam, Chris K., Sean, Bingo and me. Chris: "I've got the trophy... it's down here." as she points straight down with both hands under the table. Those of us with filthy minds (all of us) laugh. Grizz mentions Alt.Drunken.Benefits --- It is so late that Karaoke is already going strong. Bob Herlien drops my TOC table by with his stunning niece Liz. I mention that if they hurry upstairs, they can probably still get free drinks. Liz says "Holy shit!" grabs Bob and off they go. --- Down to three tables now. Bingo and I chop the ADB last-longer. Omaha. A39T in the BB. Flop is Q-6-4. Grizz has A56T and puts me all-in. Turn J. River Q. Arrgghhh. Grizz' pair of 6s wins it. Chip magnet and the final table for Grizz. Karaoke for moi. I went out in 19th place. I think my best ever TOC showing. --- Karaoke. Go upstairs planning to say hi to a few people and then head back down to the poker room. Outside the room I see Un serenading Bingo and Ro. I walk up to the table without a word. It was just magical. Un was only practicing, but it was *the* (pronounced thee) highlight of BARGE. Karl and Shae were there later. I must have been out there for 20 minutes listening to Un practice/play. We even sang along a bit to "The Spirit of BARGE." Patrick M. drops my later and he is drunk! This is too cool. He tells me that I need to "wear less ribbons of grow taller." Ha!! Pete Segal: "I'm not that drunk yet." --- I go back down to see how the tournaments are going. Rich Bremer simultaneously busts in the TOC and make the money in the High Roller HOSER tournament. He wishes me a "Happy BARGE!" "Happy BARGE!" --- Back to Karaoke... Decide to *buy* a beer. $4.75 and a dollar tip. Holy crap. Rachel is singing. Her backup singers? Just Peter Secor, Nolan and Dan. Kinda your BARGE 3-4-5 hitters right there. Becca nailed an Eminem song. Around here, someone starts to give me a shoulder massage. "Please don't be a guy" I think to myself. It's Sharon. Good. I reciprocate. Un did "Spirit of BARGE" and "Party Down at Binion's." Awesome. Rachel dragged me up for a group sing of "Here Comes the Sun." Okay, even *I* can sing *that*! Interestingly, I can hear Rachel's voice really well. I can't explain this exactly, but her voice has a musical quality to it. We finish with "Bohemian Rhapsody" with everyone on stage. Ron, Dan, Rachel, Becca, Sharon, Bev, Jade, Peter, Nolan, Patti, Ice and me. Gong. Oh, then the crew needed help getting under the stage to get some expensive batteries that had fallen down under. Jade and I pulled it apart and then he went under the stage and tossed the batteries out to me. Brave dude. --- Starving, I get a wonderful cheeseburger at the Cafe. David Aronson comes by. We know he owes me money for a football bet. We settle on $10 pending my finding the actual bet made in my e-mail. Saturday, August 1st. --------------------- Eggs Benedict at Magnolia's with Murray and Rich. --- The BARGE NL (No-Limit) event. 141 players. 10 less than last year. Around the Table: Rodney, Ross, Jared, Ron, me, Regis, Corey, Un and Adam. --- Peter Secor goes out first to thunderous applause from us all. --- There's a funny moment with Doug Maher photographing David Soussan photgraphing Rodney photgraphing someone else. This is with real cameras, not cell phones. Ron: "Now Regis doesn't like me." Regis: "Well, I didn't like you before." --- First Break. There's a rush for the bathrooms. The place is packed. I hear two BARGErs trying to make a bet on which urinal will open up first. --- BARGE group photo on Fremont Street. Random comment dept: "Kubey, have you ever been in the back?" --- Random word dept: "Convivial." Back at the poker table... Rodney: "How Asian do you want me to be?" Something about the Gorton's Fisherman. Regis: (As the Wicked Witch of the West) I'll get you Kubey... and your little mouse too." Oh, did I mention that Rochelle is back working this tournament. My hopes are high! For making the money. Get you mind out of the gutter! --- Adam goes all-in on my big blind. It's an auto-call situation with the size of the pot. I have 32o and reluctantly call. Adam has 88. Flop K-Q-2. Turn J. River 3. Adam gave me a $5 Commemorative Rio chip. It was strange, but we both felt that I was going to win the hand. Someone mentions that Patti stealing the blinds is "Patti Larceny." Regis does a perfect slow clap. Jared pushes AQ. I call all-in with 66. Flop K-J-X. Okay. Turn A. Arrgghhh. I start to get up. River 6! I sit back down. People mention how lucky I am to catch that river 6. "I was behind for two seconds!" Nolan: (to Patti) "This isn't the best time to show you this." Blinds at 600-1200 with a 100? ante. TT UTG. Rum and Coke says jam for 20K. Jared is in the BB with AQo and makes the call. I don't like the play, but the math guys say it is reasonable/correct. I double through Jared again and now have some chips. Rochelle is bringing the drinks. Life is good. I barely have to catch her eye to order another drink. Mecklin: "Ken is on auto-booze." To explain... you remember back when we played online poker and would check the "auto post blinds" box? Same idea. Dean: (about the dealer Kristina) "She's a ninja." She really was the best dealer I saw all week. Despite not winning a hand, I still tossed her $1. Corey plays 75o and says "Best hand I've seen." Connie has grape-flavored vodka as her bust out prize. I want that! Ron promises that if he busts Connie, he will give it to me. We notice that it is only 60 proof. Mecklin: "That's like children's vodka." Everyone laughing. Ron does indeed bust Connie and give me the vodka. Cool. Roy Cooke joins the table. A couple of guys aren't thrilled to have a pro player at our table. Roy: "I haven't even passed gas yet." --- Patrick jams. Ron jams. I look down and find JJ. I call all-in hoping to triple up. Patrick has AQ. Ron has AK. Pretty good spot for me. Let's run the numbers... Yeah, I'm 44% to win the hand. Flop A-X-Y. Unless a freakin' *ace* flops. Turn blank. River airball. Out in about 37th place. Another good run, but no cheese. Ron gets a copy of "The Cartoon Trivia Book." I take a maybe 30 seconds to collect myself and head to the rail. I see Rochelle chatting with someone. I give her another $1 chip for nothing and we both tell her that she is by far the best waitress. Always smiling and happy. Tries her best to get things right and is apologetic when she makes a rare mistake. Just awesome. --- I chat with some people and then go back to my room to put on my "dressy" BARGE clothes. Jeans, shirt with a collar, dark shoes. --- Banquet. The table: Rob, Paul M., Diana, Steve S., Steve W., Slick, Rich and me. Jennifer Shehade is our guest speaker. She is a top chess player and poker player. She tells us about her 26-day alphabet diet where she could only eat foods that start with the letter for that day. Apples and avocados on day one. Zuccini and ziti on day 26. She fasted on day 24. She also showed a video of women playing chess while hula hooping. Also Goldilocks winning a poker pot from the three bears. --- Un does a little talk about "why this works." Pretty cool stuff. Asks people to stand if they've done this or helped that. Eventually everyone is standing. And then Un gets a standing ovation. --- Back to the tournament to watch our horses. With 24 players left, we still had six horses! --- I go to play in a $4-$8 Dealer's Choice game. See David Soussan and Russ Fox at the next table holding cards up to their foreheads. I don't remember all the players. Eric, Carol, Kyle and Bill Turner for sure. Probably Joe also. On the very first hand, I have the nuts going to the river when Carol makes quad 7s. Bill zonks me in a badugi game. Somehow I lose $160 in less than an hour. Yeesh. I give up. --- Martin and I are on the rail. We are both tired. Martin: "It's been a long week." Me: (nodding in agreement) "It's been a long week." --- With 16 players left (in the money) we have just three horses left. Wendy, Tony and Nolan. With 11 left, we still have Tony and Nolan. Anyone want to guess what places Tony and Nolan took? 11th and 10th baby. Sigh. This night is not going well. --- Nolan invites me to go along with Oscar and Kramer for food. BBQ place... just closed. Nolan swearing. Chicago Brewing. Children in the place. Nolan nearly has a fit. --- We get a spot in the child-free room. Pizza and wings. Awesome conversation about sports and Nolan losing bets to Bruce and other fun topics. One of the highlights of BARGE. --- Three of the final nine players are women. Of course Nolan wants to handicap this. He gives Oscar 2-1 on $10 that a woman will win. Then we discuss the chance of women going 1-2. A female exacta. I say 10-1. Then someone mentions that Sharon was very low on chips. Nolan sets the line at 20-1. Oscar and Bruce make the bet for $5 each. Nolan won't let me bet as I've beaten him out of money betting sports for two years in a row. --- We are almost to Binion's when Patrick comes out. "You won't believe this." Patrick says. "It's Bree and Jennifer heads-up!" Nolan has just dropped $220 in the wink of an eye. We are all laughing. Yes, even Nolan at his own misfortune. --- I watched a lot of the heads-up match. Finally all the chips go in and Jennifer's A4 holds up. Loud applause for a *long* time. There was literally a line to give Bree a hug and congratulate her on a great, but somewhat disappointing 2nd place finish. I also shook hands with our first female BARGE champion, Jennifer Shehade just before Rodney took some great photos of her. She had these very cool satin? teal shoes on. She knows how to strike a pose too. --- Dead tired, I went back to the Reindeer Games to say my good-byes. That took like 30 minutes. Joined David Lawful at the Cafe. I got a club sandwich to go. Sandi said she would only pick me up at the airport if I brought her half of the sandwich! --- Do a quick solo D-tour in honor of Ed Baker. --- Back to my room. Perhaps the worst moment of the week... taking off my BARGE badge in the hotel room and realizing that BARGE 2015 is pretty much over for me. --- Sunday, August 2nd. ------------------- Drop by the poker room. Rochelle is there and she gives me a big hug. I love this BARGE. --- Shuttle to the airport. They have WiFi now! --- Take an aisle seat. A Hot Babe (tm) takes the middle seat. At first she's all chatty with Mr. Window Seat. I hate Mr. Window Seat. Just before take off, I offer her a piece of gum. Now she's my friend too. Window Seat falls asleep. I have my book of crossword puzzles. I'm most of the way through a puzzle, but I'm stuck. I ask her for help. She's eager to help, but she doesn't know any of the answers either. She seems sad. I turn the page and start a new puzzle. Now she is getting answers and she's all happy again. We finish the puzzle as we approach San Jose. Her name is Randi. She looks to be about 25, but I think she said she is 31. I wave to her across the baggage carousel. --- Sandi picks me up. She is happy about the club sandwich. I wisely didn't mention Randi. --- Gambling... craps: lost bad. big 6 wheel: won $1. blackjack: DNP because BFB. live poker: lost $95. slots: lost small. tournaments: lost, won, lost, lost, lost and lost. last-longers: won. roshambo: DNP. Hugs: Diana, Sharon, Becca, Lynsy, Regis, Patti, Tanya, Barbara, Rachel, Claudia, Connie, Betty, Debbie, Sue, Kathy, Jeanne and Rochelle. Manly hugs: Peter, Adam and Murray. I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple. I talked to or at least said "Hi!" to over 175 BARGErs this year. Probably a record. --- Missed all of my friends who didn't make it this year. A few names... Chic, Rick, Fich, Quick, Nick, Jeff, Jacobs, Ed, Tina, Tom, Tim, Pickels, Lennie, Bruce, Murph, Marlin, Moser, Nutt, Bullbert, Bart, Bill, Keith, Katie, NorthShore, Cliff, Brenda, Tracy, Spencer, Frank, Shari, Lee, Rafn, Tahajian, Ming, Charles, Perry, Sippy, Kuntz, Dave and David. I'm sure there are many, many more. Everyone please make an effort to come to BARGE 2016. Tell you S.O. or boss that you need a few days with all of your friends. Just come down for Saturday and Sunday. Or just Wednesday and Thursday. Short on cash? Get backing from Goldie's BUTTKISS organization. They will take 50% of your tournament action no matter how much you suck. Yes, they have even backed *me*. Get to BARGE. Health stuff... If you smoke cigarettes, please try to cut back or quit before the next BARGE. I'm very serious about this. I saw three of my very favorite BARGErs smoking this year. Cut back. Please! Cut back. Skip one cigarette a day. Don't smoke it. Throw it in shoebox marked "I will play poker at BARGE 2045." If you (like me) are one of the 150 BARGE people who are overweight, please try to drop 5 or 10 pounds before the next BARGE. Have a glass of water instead of soda. Get a medium fries instead of large. Eat one serving of chips instead of the whole bag. We can do this! I know, I know. I like KFC and McDonald's too. It's tough. Just try to skip one bad thing a day. Or one bad thing a week. Thanks again to Binion's, the Home of BARGE. The dealers, waitresses and poker staff are just the best. Paul, Nick, Stephanie, etc. Great job. --- Kubey's 2015 MVB (Most Valuable BARGEr) Award: Dan Goldman with honorable mentions for Sharon and Bree. They host the Smoker and the BARGE After Party. Sharon final tabled a couple of tournaments. Bree was a card or two from winning the NL. Sharon also gave me a shoulder massage. Dan contributed hundred of dollars from his WSOP cashes to the BARGE fund. That's what sealed the award for him this year. Way to go Dan! Thanks to the board: Un, Becca, Barry, Heldar and Kluchman. Thanks to the organizers: Russ, Bremer, Dietch and Goldie. Awesome BARGE. Patrick Milligan with badges, pins, structure sheets, BAAG and rule book. The BARGE Chip Committee with the special free commemorative chips. Rodney with wonderful photos and group shots year after year. And the prints too. Rodney R00LS! Peter and Chuck R00L. All the other folks who ran or sponsored events with their own cash. Dan G., Asya, Goldie, Ron, Kluchman, Sharon, Kevan, Aronson, etc. Thanks also to all the other people who make BARGE go. --- Can I sign up for BARGE 2016 now? -- Ken Kubey kenkubey@gmail.com