From: Ken Kubey Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2016 13:55:14 -0700 Subject: [BARGE] Fwd: QB's 2016 BARGE Trip Report The story of my twenty-first BARGE. "Remember that the moose are in your car." Monday, August 1st. ----------------------- Sandi drops me off at SJC. Neat that I can watch some TV shows for free on Southwest flights now. Land. I go to the ride share area. Lyft driver Michael shows up, puts my bag in the trunk and offers me a chilled bottle of water. He is my favorite Uber/Lyft driver ever! Sample size of three. Roll into the Four Queens. I hear someone ahead of me at the front desk say that they are sold out. Wow. On a Monday night? I get to the front, guy looks up my reservation. "I have it right here Mr. Kubey. You are staying with us Tuesday through Sunday." Doh! Well, I'll just have to play poker all night. I leave my bags at the bell desk and head over to Binion's. David Low is the first BARGEr spotted. Diana gets the first hug. Say "Hi Katie!" to Tracy Becker. Watch Rich Strauss win the first BARGE tournament of the week. Rich treats Diana and me to dinner at the cafe. It's good to have friends who win tournaments. Tuesday, August 2nd. ---------------------- Get into a Dealer's Choice game around 1:00 a.m. Stud high-low is the current game. First hand, I'm dealt 88-8 in the first three cards!! I win half of a huge pot and am up $40 right out of the gate. Peggy and Jan leave. Rokitka, Masa, Grizz, Cider and I play on. Masa has a terrible run of luck and calls it a day. We play on. Finally Stevie has had enough and the game breaks at about 3:30. Grizz, Cider and I go over the the deli. I say "I have to hit the head." as I run off to the bathroom. Cider is surprised when I come back. He though I said "bed." But I tell him that I can't go to bed because I don't have a room. Grizz says he has a spare bed. Hooray! Do some great sleeping until about noon. Back at Binion's I see Deron. We are hungry. To the cafe! Deron orders as follows: "For breakfast, I'll have the hobo stew and the hamburger for lunch." --- BARGE 26-Game Mix tournament. Patti is collecting for the ADB last longer pool and asks me for $10. I hand her a $5 bill and $5 slot credit slip. At first she looks a little ticked, but then seems amused. Around the table: Kenny, Grapes, Campbell, Me, Nolan and Joe. I talk to someone behind me. GamboMouse is gone again! Joe has a big grin on his face and then returns the mouse. Joe tells us about how lucky he was years ago busting out of a BARGE tournament early and then winning a cruise somewhere else. I tell him we will try to help him win another cruise. Chuckles. Nolan is the big blind, I'm the small blind. Folded the the button. Nolan says "I need a walk." Button folds. I look at my cards. "Raise!" Later Nolan has to put in a bring-in bet, but doesn't know how much, so he asks Zircon the dealer: "How much do I owe?" Zircon: "Everything you got." Much laughter. Around here we see a security guy talking to JP. We are giggling at the thought of JP in handcuffs. Next thing we know there's a stretcher and JP is taken to the hospital! Thankfully we hear a few hours later that JP is okay. Whew. The 19th game of the 26 is Omaha. I go all-in. Carolyn and Grapes get into a raising war with Q-8-7-8 out there. Grapes busts us both with four 8s! Go to dinner at the 777 brew pub with David Aronson, Bob H., Martin, Patrick, Eileen and Rich. I have a fantastic rib-eye steak. Later I play more DC and lose. Cider notches me with an ace-high flush over my king-high flush in draw, etc., etc. I grab my few remaining chips and storm off at about 3:00 a.m. Wednesday, August 3rd. ---------------------- Breakfast at Hash House A Go Go at the Plaza with everyone. Table... Nancy R., Patrick, JP, Joe, Chuck H., Russ, Kenny, Ron, Ron and me. Ron G. dubs ours "The table for the hearing impaired." I have a eggs, sausage and Frisbee-sized pancake. Really good. Nancy is new to BARGE, so I tell her some stories. I bet she'll be back. Thanks to Ice, Chuck and Goldie for treating us all. We all pitched in $5 (per person) for a monstrous tip. Outside I talk with Bruce I. and Lynsy. Bruce says "Penny for your thoughts?" and hands me a collectible Cherrios penny. I like this gift a lot more than you might think. --- Four queens elevator with Dan N. and Davis Sousson. He tells us he is in room 711. I tell him he should join us on the craps crawl! --- Random comment dept. "I'm Irish by marriage." --- Go to the Big Six wheel at the corner of Binion's near the craps tables. One of the hottie cowgirls is manning (that can't be the right word) the wheel. I grab about 20 $1 chips from my bag and nervously place one on the $1 spot. Away the wheel goes... it's looking good as it slows down. Geez, might overshoot to the $40 slot. But it just barely holds in the $1 slot. I take my $1 profit and run. --- Lose a bunch in a ring game with Lawful, Chuck H. and others. --- I'm part of the BARGE Welcoming committee, so I go to the Virgin mixer at the Chicago Brewing Co. Talk a bit with Jan, Peggy, Blair and Nancy. I meet Sef and Maren. As I'm talking to Maren, I notice that the two people near us are Deron and Sharon. Got me thinking about all the rhyming names at BARGE... Barry, Larry, Mary, Gerry. Maren, Deron, Sharon. Len, Ken, Ben. John, Sean, Ron, Don. Rick, Chic. Corey, Lori. Jim, Tim. Lee, Bree, Bea. Dan, Jan Also pairs of people that might be confused for each other by looks or names... Spencer and Kenny, Katie Baxter and Tracy Becker, Oscar and Kevan, Mickdog Patterson and Gerdog Peterson. --- Time for Lowball! The table: Oscar, Empty, Nolan, Bozo, Mickdog and Me. Six-handed tables. Alex comes by to talk politics and puts the whole table on tilt with his defense of Trump. Random comment Dept. "You can be loud at BARGE!" New table: Me, Llew, Betty, Jim A., Patrick and Mickdog. 2-7 triple-draw hand... I raise with a 7632 draw, Mickdog reraises, Patrick FOUR bets it. I call time and try to think about this one. Patrick has a pat hand for sure. If he has a 75, I'm drawing dead. If he has a 76, 85 or 86, I'm drawing just for a 4 or 5. Wow. I fold it. I think Mickdog started with 87632 and Patrick had 85432. Nolan and Mecklin are moved to my table. Nolan busts Chris. Chris gives him two WSOP chip magnets as a bustout gift. Nolan makes some funny remark and then wings the chips about 30 feet away. A couple hands later, I get all-in with Nolan with a 543A draw vs. his 7632 draw. I catch a jack and say "50-50" figuring I had a coin-flip shot to win. Nolan ends my tournament by catching an 8. I give Nolan a different cheap chip magnet and he says he'll keep it. I picked up Mecklin's chips on my way to the rail. --- Bozo and Dan N. want to go for Mexican food. We get to the place 10 minutes after closing time of 10:00 p.m. Try another place. Closed. Magnolias? Magnolias. I have the prime rib. We discuss politics and health problems. Pretty typical stuff. I have a $10 comp, so I cover the tax and tip. --- I head to bed around midnight. I'm a pussy? No, *you're* a pussy. See below... Thursday, August 4th. ---------------------- Wake up call at 4:45 a.m. Mother flipping @#$%&#. Time for the Death March a.k.a. the BARGE Golf Outing. Meet up with Oldbear, Kevan and Gerry. Off to the Las Vegas Golf Club. I tell Kevan "Remember that the moose are in your car." Kevan, "That's not something you expect to hear at 5:45 in the morning." There are a few drops of rain and one loud thunderclap just before we tee off. Otherwise, it was overcast and not as hot as usual. Mark (Oldbear) and I are cartners. Mark and Gerdog both sank ~20 foot putts. The other guys are much better golfers than me and they hit many nice shots, but as Kevan reminded me, I had the three best shots of the day... #3 I hit a chip from behind a cart path. It one-hops the curb and bounces back about 20 feet behind me. Arrghhh. Much laughter. #2 I hit a birdie. Well, actually a Canada goose. It hit him in the side after a bounce or two and he ran away quickly. He's okay, eh? #1 On our closest-to-the-pin hole, I hit a beautiful high shot right on line. It bounces once, strikes the pin and rolls about 12 feet away. I manage to two-putt for my only par of the round. Oh, picked up $5 each from the other guys. Yay. We are all tired as we struggle through the 18th hole. We never did see the food/drink cart. Anyway, we all had fun and got through the round in about 3.5 hours. Thanks again to Kevan for organizing and dragging me along. --- CHORSE. Also called C-HORSE. This is a team tournament played with chips that are actually worth money. I'm playing the 7-Stud low (Razz) round. Table: Regis, Nolan, Diana, Heldar, Rokitka and me. Razz is the most boring game known to man. I stay out of trouble, win a couple of hands. Ron G. invents a new drink call the Lisa Wallbanger. O'Grady involved. I think it's a Wallbanger with vanilla liqueur instead of galliano. Named after one of the great Binion's waitresses. Also had a couple of those crazy pineapple drinks. Woo! Around here I see Janie wearing a "Hug Me" ribbon. Well, if you insist :-) She has promised to get me one for 2017. I'm needed at the other table. 7-stud high-low (E). Table: Warren, Lori, Russ/Prock, Llew, Dan and me. I win a big pot from Prock with a flush vs. his two pair. Give it all back later with two pair vs. his higher two pair. I think this 2nd hand bounced us from finals. At least we moose got most of our money back. --- Take a much-needed shower and do some bathtub laundry. Power nap. --- All during BARGE, I go up to TARGET players and hand them $40. Always fun to give friends money at BARGE as long as it isn't my own. --- PLO (Pot-Limit Omaha) tournament. We each get four cards, must play exactly two, high only. Board is like hold'em. And you can bet up to what is in the pot. Table: Len, C.O.C., Sharon, Jeanne, Grout, Low, Me, Chaz and Gillian. Charles notes that an Omaha hand of 5555 is six Prestos! Jerry the TD makes some funny comment ripping on Ron. I toke him $1. Out of Context Dept. Sharon: "I like big things." Hug Derek Gomez. Saw him for all of about 30 seconds all week. New word dept. "Hornery" when you are horny and ornery at the same time. North Shore shows up with Kelly. Kelly and I know each other's faces from Facebook. We've never met, talked or anything, but we somehow know that we like each other. More hugs. Jeanne flops top set against me twice. I think I played both hands right, oh well. --- I have no traction in this tournament. 7&7s aren't working, rum and Cokes aren't working. I ask Tandra (the waitress) to pick a new drink for me. She gets a smile on her face as she scribbles something down. You know how we have "Dealer's Choice" poker games? Len and I come up with "Waitress' Choice" for this. She comes back with a "Sex on the Beach" for me. Tandra, you naughty girl! --- I raise with A966ds. Len calls. Flop in T-7-6 giving me bottom set. We quickly get all the chips in as Len has flopped the straight. Of course it holds up. A cheap chip magnet for Len. --- I'm one of the first 8 or 10 people out. Huh, you get a lot more applause when you go out so early. Good to know. --- I'm wandering around in a daze. Sharon says "Kubey, let's go play Pai Gow." Oh what the hell. On the walk over, she explains that you can make sort of an insurance bet against being dealt a pai gow (a hand with no pair, straight or flush). Knowing my luck, I will clean up on this bet. Jodi is at the table in seat #3. I take #4. A civilian woman is in #5. Sharon takes #6. Highlight reel hand: I have K-Q-J-W-X-Y-Z. A horrible hand, but I know I'll get paid $5 for the K-high pai gow. I assume my main $10 bet is toast until the dealer shows her Q-T-V-W-X-Y-Z. My pai gow hand beats her even crappier pai gow hand. Ship it! Jodi and I talk about craps a little bit. I explain that everyone gets all excited about the "odds bet" that pays at the true odds. She doesn't quite understand why. Neither do I. I finish with a $16 win. --- ADB Craps Crawl. We start at Binion's. Big crowd! I'm happy to spectate and save $$$. Off to Main Street. Again the tables are packed with BARGErs. I just hang out and watch. Stephen "TT" McLoughlin is playing. He doesn't know a lot about craps, so I'm advising him about where to place chips, how to bet odds, etc. He wins about $40 and tokes $5 to the dealers. Finally some spots open up. I buy in for $100. Bet $5 on the pass line. Shooter rolls a 7. Winner! Something tells me to run for it. I pick up my 21 chips and head to the cashier. Stephen is ahead of me. As we walk away, he says "Can go up there?" pointing to the 2nd level. He asks a security guard who is all too happy to take us on a little tour. We see a snooker table that was once owned by Winston Churchill. Later the railway car inside the building and some other cool stuff. --- Back at the craps table, I watch a couple of rolls standing behind Stephen Markowitz and Chuck Weinstock. A guy in a blue shirt has the dice and is on a roll. Stephen and Chuck each win about $100 while I'm watching to get unstuck or close to it. --- Back to the PLO final table. Good to see Adam doing well. --- Un grabs people to go to the D for the Sigma Derby World Championship. Caryl, Meee, Nutt, Un, Samarel and Andreas participate. Somehow I get terribly lost downstairs and wander around the pit area watching the dancers and dealers. Ed Baker, get back to BARGE. Oh, the D took out their Big Six wheel. I guess after our big win in 2015. --- Back to PLO to see Adam take 3rd for over $1000. Not bad. I play security guard and escort him to the cashier. We have a nice chat. Friday, July 31st. -------------------- Bed around 2:00 a.m. Yeah, I'm a pussy. Wake up call for 7:30 a.m. The BARGE Fun Run. Eight Participants: Joe Long, David Lawful, Fruchter, Campbell, Deadhead, Ron G., Mickdog and me. 81 degrees at the start. 3 miles and 37 minutes later, 88 degrees. At 9:30, 98 degrees. Mickdog says something that I'll save for later. Nice run. A little more tiring that usual for me. We arrange to meet for breakfast at 9:30. Thanks to Ron for organizing. --- No sign of other runners, so I join up with Rick M., Len, Paul S., and the Beckers for breakfast. Tracy shows me how to milk the cow. Out of Context Dept. "While you're down there..." --- Talk to Bingo. His son will be 21 in two years and wants to come to BARGE 2018. "Bingo Junior?" I ask? No. Bingo says "The Bingling." --- Tournament of Champions tournament. Months ago, Steve "Scoop" Evans sent me a long-sleeve Giants shirt in the mail. I looked at the front and thought it was pretty nice. Then I looked at the back. Number 55. Name above the 55? PRESTO!!! Awesome. The shirt is a big hit. I get many compliments. Table: Doug G., Cory, Me, Tony, Steve W., Campbell, Chris Quan, Jepsen and Murry. Hand off several used decks of cards to Big Mike Klein. He needs them for a charity golf tournament. I'm wearing my distance glasses for the stud rounds. Steve W. says the glasses make me look smarter. Followed quickly by "Of course anything would." Ha ha. Tony has an FSM pillbox and Alien Vodka as his bustout prize. I want the Vodka. Same table with some new players: Grout, Cory, Me, Tony, Zach, Chic, Katie, Dan N. and Murray. Chic tells Katie "Power of V" Baxter that he's going to show her the "Power of P." Much laughter. --- On a break, talk to Barbara Z. and a couple of guys. My notes say something about Barbara mentioning a 4-way and happy ending. I guess that we will chop up the first 4 places, right? Sure. --- In stud, I make two little pair to outrun Zach's split 9s and knock him out of the tournament. We shake hands and I tell him to not tell Becca about the hand. --- Karma (Tony) also has a Rock/Paper/Scissors Pez dispenser. I do a high-five with the plastic hand and we laugh way too hard. Gregory the dealer chuckled at some dumb joke I made. Toked him $1. A bunch of people start singing B-I-N-G-O when Bingo busts out. I'm trying to figure out the plural of Nemesis. Grout says Nemeses. I raise with some good hand and get Chic'd losing most of my chips. Oliver beats my 99 in stud to send me to the rail. I suck in the TOC. --- Random Comment Dept. "Call Bunnies." --- Time for the Symposium. Rich Strauss, Diana, Steve Sherman and I are in a little syndicate. Bob H. participates in our buy backs, but not any bidding. We pick up only two pairs. Russ Fox while auctioning off Bingo: "He made the final table twice. I beat him." Some cheering after that one. --- As usual, I wrote the comments on the Calcutta sheet. If you want any explained, let me know. The 2017 comments file is already going. My favorite comment is the anagram "Teacher In Slam Pot" for teacher Michael Patterson. I ask Deadhead if he knows what his comment "CHY;BIME" means. He has no idea. Rich, Martin and I try to Google it to no avail. See *way* below for the answer. --- Notice Chuck W. and Chuck H. sitting together. I'm about to make some dumb comment about a pair of Chucks when I notice that the only other person at the table is Charles "Chic" Natkins. I take a picture and it got many likes on Facebook. --- Note say something about "Harker bids $77." --- The #Trump2016 syndicate buys Nolan. He just about throws a fit. --- Dupars with Slick, Rich, Russ and Adam. I'm not very hungry so I just have the shrimp cocktail. $3.99? You bastards! Discussion about housing prices, Fortran, 1989 earthquake, etc. --- Karaoke Memorable performances: Kevin Un singing "You've Got a Friend." Nolan "Kashmir." and whipping off his shirt with Sharon on stage. I have pics. Zach Kerl "Safety Dance." Entire room gets into this one. Randal "All Night Long." I think Randall has the best voice at BARGE. Mrs. Heldar "Desperado" with Heldar on backup. Other good performances by Kristi, Becca, Joe, Peter, Linda, Diana, Eileen, Patrick, Ben and Gerdog. Out of Context Dept. Peggy Stein: "You've got the longest one here." Sharon/Dan buy a bunch of us shots of something. --- Back to the TOC final table to sweat Corey who had less than a big blind back when I was still in. Corey manages 2nd place. The winner is Mary Massey! So happy for her. She is just thrilled. Saturday, August 7th. --------------------- Andreas hands me a funny little Canadian gift. Somehow he thought I was from Canada. Eggs Benedict at Magnolia's with Andreas and Rich. English muffin and Canadian bacon. The United Nations of breakfast foods. I learn that Andreas met Ron G. looking for home games on the interwebs. Pretty cool. --- The BARGE NL (No-Limit) event. 138 players. Three less than last year. Around the Table: Bingo, Me, Murray, Campbell, Samarel, Sherman, Dave Tall (welcome back!), Grizz and Big Mike. Ron N. is the first Canadian out. --- Rodney has us do the BARGE photo in the poker room. --- Back from break. All of the tables are pretty full except the one right behind me. Bob Jones and David Aronson are playing heads-up with one player late coming back from break and three no-shows. Weird. Kevan (about the no-shows) "They're all ahead of me." --- Grizz is drinking the Binion's house champagne and is destroying the table. Okay, I'll try it. Murray (about the champagne) "Now made of potatoes." Laughter. BTW, it is pretty bad. I think it is Andre. If anyone would know cheap champagne at BARGE, it would be me. Something about a "Missed Moose button." Someone folds 4Q. "That's not a hand, that's a hotel." Blair Rodman and I agree that Binion's dealers would be smart to do 5 minute downs to maximize "incoming" tokes. We imagine someone saying "I won the tournament, but I'm stuck." --- Same table with some new players: Asya, Me, Mur, Campbell, Samarel, Bob Jones, Lewin-Berlin, Grizz and Rodney. Bob jams and then tosses in his bust-out gift. Someone says "String raise!" I am as card dead as I have ever been. I'm looking for any pair or AJ+. Nothing. I've folded about 40 hands in a row. I can probably steal with anything, but J4o, 83o and 92o aren't to my liking. 86s and it is folded to me. Jam! Murray calls with KJs. I pick up a straight draw, but miss everything. Out. --- Wander over to the poker room. Seat open in a 1-1 Binglaha game. Oh, what the heck. Buy in for $200. Win a $9 pot with AQ on a Q-Q-X flop. Dan is next on the list. I keep trying to sell him my seat to get unstuck. Dan (smiling): "No, I'd rather let you twist in the winnnd." Heh. Bunch of us come in for two blue chips ($2.) Bremmer puts out two red chips ($10.) I say "Wrong color chips." Bremmer quickly pulls out the two reds and puts in 10 blues instead. Clever. Notes say "water $8 Binny I'd like a to go bottle." I'm sure that's something hilarious. Oh, if you mess up the die roll, you have to toke the dealer. The fine doubles each time you mess up the roll. Flop comes Q-9-9. No need for a die roll really, but Sabyl says that it is a "Dealer Freeroll Roll." If the game is at "I Love Sushi," could they order a Dealer Freeroll roll roll? (Hey, these can't all be gems.) I'm folding a lot of hands. I play A359s for $5. Flop is K-6-2. Chaz bets $20. 3 of us call. I'm going for the low and hoping for a 4 to clean house. Turn is about the Jc bringing a flush. It checks around and my spidey sense tells me no one has ANYTHING! River K. Bryan checks. I make a very smooth bet of $80. Chaz folds (he told me he had A34), other player folds. Bryan shows me a king in his hand and says "Do you want a call?" I make an "Are you crazy?" look and he mucks. Whew. I proudly spread my pure bluff hand on the table. I play another two rounds and then notice I only have 15 minutes before the banquet. I cash out, go to the 4Q to change, back to Binion's. --- Banquet. The table: Bob H., Rich, Sherman, Diana, Bowtie, Dave Tall, Hack and me. Apparently Slick is too good for us now :-) Hack tells some good stories about the early BARGEs. Somehow, I'm a BARGE newbie to four of the guys at the table. --- Heldar in his last official act "It's pronounced "Sea Horse." Amen brother! --- Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu is our guest speaker. He does a speech about setting goals, being prepared and even if you can't reach the goals, to do your best. He says that other players know they can't bluff him and that "It cost me a couple million dollars to develop this reputation." Laughter. He talks about playing too long during a losing session. "But it's a great game!" "Yeah, it's a great game because YOU'RE in it!" He calls North Shore a hoser. I enjoyed the Q&A session even more than the speech. --- Oh, the prime rib was good. I mean really good. Perhaps the fastest banquet ever. --- Nolan and I take a picture. It's a doozie. He'll post it sometime. --- Chowaha game with Corey, Hack, Regis, Heldar, Asya, Ben, Nutt, Diana and me. The first pot is capped with about 8-way action. Heldar scoops it. Eileen is the dealer. I call time during the 2nd hand and yell "Incoming!" Chips rain down on Eileen. I win the next three hands tipping Eileen $2, $4 and $4 again. I build my usual chip structure. It got many likes of FB. There's a question about Alcoholics Anonymous in Canada. The A Eh A Eh? (It was funny, you must believe me.) Virgin Justin takes Ben's spot. Of the NL tournament, he says "Yeah, I was just like a real virgin, I didn't last very long." He folds two hands and then picks up his chips dead even. "Tight Virgin." --- The game is dying. Being a good sport, I post my BB on the last hand. Up $50 for the session! Woo!!! --- I ask around about the 2016 lammers from the PLO. I finally get them and get permission from Russ Fox to sell them for $1 a piece with the proceeds going to the BARGE fund. It was weird. It seemed like people weren't too interested, but then once one person at the table bought one, I could usually sell 4 or 5 more at that table. I handed the money to Rich Bremmer. Can you guess the amount? $55. Maybe we can do this in a more organized fashion in years to come. --- We have two horses at the final table. Doug Grismore with like 1/4 of the chips in play and Becca who is on fumes. I miss the monster hand where Doug's AK falls to Alex's AQ when he hits a four-card flush. I curse our syndicate's bad luck. Doug out in 8th, I believe. --- Barbara and Grapes have some alcohol from from Slovakia, I think. Did you know Slovakia used to be part of Czechoslovakia? Obvious to me now. Anyway, the stuff is just vile. Barbie says "I love you because you are Ken, but I hate you because you didn't like it." Oh well. No dream house for this Ken. --- A couple of people bust. Becca is still hanging in. It looks like the end when she is all-in and needs a jack on the river. River: Jack!!! Suddenly the momentum has changed. People are taking bites out of Alex's stack. Rodney and Becca are closing in. Down to four, down to three. Becca knocks out Alex in third. I was rooting against him, but I shook his hand. The guy can certainly play poker with three final tables at this BARGE. Rodney and Becca played a tremendous heads-up match. It was sure that Becca would win. Then we were sure Rodney would win. Rodney "sucked out" with a AK vs. A6 when we all saw a 6 in the window, but then a K on the flop. And then the final hand. Becca's A9s was ahead going to the river. I got my iPhone camera ready and got a couple of great shots just seconds after the river card gave Becca the title. Lots of cheering for Becca and then cheers of "Rodney! Rodney! Rodney!" for our second place finisher. Many of us gave Becca hugs congratulating her. Quite a show. Sunday, August 2nd. ------------------- Somehow get lost wandering around the D blackjack pit yet again. How does this keep happening? --- Back to my room at 2:54 a.m. The worst moment of the week... taking off my BARGE badge. --- Set a wake-up call for 11:00 a.m. and drift off. --- Text from Larry at 10:45 reminding me about brunch at Main Street. "Oh hell, I'll try to make it." I text back. Take a quick shower, leave bags at bell desk and dash over to Main Street. --- Sabyl/Gillian have comps, Un pays the rest with points. We just have to get the tip. At the table: Un, Becca, Gillian, Gerdog, Claudia, Larry, Susan, Sabyl and me. We have a good time eating and gossiping. G&G can give me a ride to the Goldman's! Awesome. --- I go make some bets for Sandi on the CUBS! Watch the Aronsons play bubble dice. Rochelle sees me playing video poker and she gives me a big hug. Get a club sandwich for Sandi. She won't pick me up from the airport otherwise. G&G pick me up. Gillian mentions that she's had some good luck playing video poker this week. Ask her for details. --- Goldman's After Party. Beer, bourbon slushies, BBQ. Gillian slaughters Bingo and me at OFC poker. Bingo destroys the LRC dice game. Talk with Grout, Hack, Llew, Peter, Regis, Claudia and many others. Crunch jokes that we may need to ban women from the NL tournament. I mention that maybe we need a male-only tournament to give us a shot. Llew hears this and says that the women could play, but only dressed as men. Random Comment Dept. "I'm watching boob." Llew is giving Ron and Mecklin a ride back downtown and is nice enough to drop me at the airport. The energy level is falling fast in the car as I think all four of us are starting to realize that BARGE is ending. --- Gambling... craps: won $5. big 6 wheel: won $1. blackjack: DNP because BFB. pai gow: won $16. live poker: lost $115. slots: lost small. tournaments: lost, lost, lost, lost, lost and lost. last-longers: lost. roshambo: DNP. Hugs: Diana, Sharon, Becca, Lori, Lynsy, Regis, Barbara, Claudia, Betty, Debbie, Gillian, Eileen, Tracy, Linda, Kelly, Kathy, Jeanne, Janie Carol, Beth, Sabyl, Janie and Rochelle. Manly hugs: Peter, Adam, Murray, O'Grady, Bingo, Un, Howler, North Shore and Derek. I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple. --- Missed all of my friends who didn't make it this year. A few names... Goldie, Kramer, Tina, Bob O., Kyle, Brenda, Ed, Jeff, Pickels, Moser, Rob, JRX, PRM, Mike, Connie, Bart, Bill, Spencer, Rafn, Tahajian, Michael, Ming, Perry, Tanya, Tom, Kuttz, Kim, Rachel, Patrick, Bill, Steve, Stephen, Dave and David. There are many, many more. Running with Mickdog, he said something like: "Do what you can to make it to the next BARGE." I think that sums up things well. Save up some money, try to lose a little weight, try to cut back on the cigarettes, exercise a little more. Even if it is just walking. Everyone please make an effort to come to BARGE 2017. The other 51 weeks of the year are just waiting. Pretty much everyone is struggling with health, financial or family troubles. I heard my share of horror stories this year. Anyway, make it to BARGE if you can. Bring a cane, walker, rollator or wheelchair if you need it. Come for two or three days. More if you can. You don't have to play in the tournaments or you can get backing. Thanks again to Binion's, the Home of BARGE. The dealers, waitresses and poker staff are awesome. Jerry did a great job as the TD. --- Kubey's 2016 MVB (Most Valuable BARGEr) Award: A tough decision this year, but I'm giving it to Rodney Chen. I think we've all almost forgotten that we nearly lost Rodney a few years ago. He's back at full strength spending so much time taking photos, making prints, herding us for the group photo, etc., etc. And he comes within an eyelash of winning the tournament too. Also, within 10 seconds of losing to Becca, he picked up his camera and was back to work. Do I need to mention what a nice guy he is? Anyway, there you have it. Thanks to the board: Becca, Barry, Heldar, Patti and Kluchman. Thanks to the organizers: Russ, Bremer, Deitch and Goldie. Tech Crew: Doug G., David Low and Barry. barge.org is better than ever. Another Great BARGE in the books. Patrick Milligan with badges, pins, structure sheets, BAAG and rule book. The BARGE Chip Committee... oh wait. Double duty next year, okay guys? Rodney... see above. Peter and Chuck just plain R00L. All the other folks who ran or sponsored events with their own cash. Dan G., Asya, Ben, Chuck, Goldie, Ice, Ron, Kluchman, Sharon, Kevan, Aronson, etc. Thanks also to all the other people who make BARGE go. CHY;BIME = Can't Hear You;Beans In My Ears. --- Can I sign up for BARGE 2017 now? -- 2016 World Chowaha Champion. Ken Kubey kenkubey@gmail.com