Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:12:17 -0800 From: Ken Kubey Subject: [BARGE] QB's 2014 EMBARGO Trip Report My third EMBARGO. "Do you have the shoe?" Thursday, January 23rd. ---------------------------- I have four Southwest drink coupons that will expire in a week. I won't be driving this trip at all, so I have two rum and Cokes on the flight down. Whee! Cab it straight to the Aria. I'm late for the HORSE tournament. I play okay, but stack dwindles. Start with A9-9 in stud, but give up quickly when Rich Strauss calls showing Kh and then bets out when he gets the Jh. Next hand I'm dealt AdQd-Kd. What a pretty start to a hand. Betty is the lone caller. She has four to a flush on 4th. I make aces, but she gets trip jacks to send me to the rail. I hang out watching Rich Strauss make the final table. Starving, I head for the McDonald's that I know is near my "hotel." I tell Rich I'll be back when he makes it to 5-handed play. I get to Las Vegas Blvd. I can see McDonald's and Travelodge right across the street, but there's no way to cross. I decide to go left. About 15 minutes, many stairs and pedestrian over-crossings later I'm at the Travelodge. I check in. Make sure the TV comes on. Cool. Finally reach McDonald's. In line, I'm planning to get a McDouble for now and two apple pies that I will save for breakfast. Then I decide to get the pies on my trip back. So I order my McDouble. Lady then asks: "Do you want to get two apple pies with that?" They know me too well. Take the other route back to the Aria going through the Monte Carlo. Still a very long walk, but much better! As I get back to the HORSE tournament, there are five players left. A big hand breaks out. Eric and Becca both get busted. Becca has more chips, so she takes 4th place. I text Sandi that Rich is in the money. She's happy for Rich, but asks why I didn't make the money! I watch Rich work the short stack back into contention. He pulls even with the others. They all have a zillion chips. I can see this may take hours, so I get into a mixed game with a bunch of BARGE people. Only note I have on this game is that Katie Baxter straddles on three consecutive hands. No "Missed Straddle" button for her! An hour later, I protect my $4 win and cash out ahead of my straddle. Friday, January 25th. ---------------------------- Jeanne and Rich are heads-up, but the writing is on the wall. Jeanne wins her 2nd or 3rd tournament in a week. Rich takes 2nd for $800. It is about 2:30 a.m. now. Rich and I walk over to the Monte Carlo food court. Most places are closed. Rich can't eat anything at the places that are open, so we head back to the Aria Cafe. About a mile later, we are there. Holy crap this place is pricey! Burger is $17 or so. Rich foolishly offers to treat, so I settle on the $20 pizza. Rich tells me that he was part of a team that tried to beat blackjack games with the player entering data with his toes inside a shoe and that wires ran up to a simple computer in his pants. But the player was so nervous that he sweated a lot and shorted out the computer! At some point I asked Rich "Do you still have the shoe?" I bet that would sell for hundreds on ebay. After an hour of talking about Zimmer's old home game and Quick and other legendary figures, we called it a day at about 4:00 a.m. See many women in short dresses and tight jeans in the area. On the TV back in my room, there is a 1994 Cal/UCLA basketball game on featuring Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray. Cal is ahead by 15 with 4 minutes left. Next thing I know, UCLA is down by 1 with 1:30 to play. I'm on major tilt watching a game from 20 years ago. Thankfully Cal pulled out the win, so I was able to get some sleep. Took a wonderful power nap from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Time for the World Chowaha Championship. There is just one non-BARGER in this tournament. Laura. Eileen gives her a 5-minute crash course on Chowaha. Laura has a good time playing with us and may show up at BARGE! I knock out Patrick when my KTs holds up against his QTs. He gives me a nice BARGE card protector as his bust-out gift. Thanks Patrick. Down to 11 players. I'm at a tough table with Bob Herlien, David Lawful, Corey and one other solid player. Maybe Bart? Bob raises for the 40th time in 42 hands. David calls in the SB. I have K9o in the BB. The call will be for about 1/5th of my remaining chips. I fold. Of course one of the flops is 9-9-X. Sigh. Later, I'm seated next to Dan Goldman who has a $20 bounty on his head. Literally. He has a $20 bill stuck to his head just above his glasses. Love it! I make the final table, but I'm really in trouble. I have just over 3 big blinds left now. I decide to raise with K3o 2UTG. Folded around to Gillian who agonizes, but then folds. She later said she had a better hand. It gets to Rodney. He re-raises to pretty much put me all-in. This is a smart play by Rodney in that it doesn't allow me any chance to win the pot with a flops bet. He has AJo. The flops come out with all small cards including one little 3 putting me in the lead. The turns are also small cards. But the river is a stupid jack. I recoil out of my chair and pound on a big wood beam behind me. Damn it. Of course hard to call it a bad beat when Rodney had the better starting hand. Rich asks me if I want to get some food. I tell him I need to walk around and stew for a while. So I walk around cursing my bad luck and stewing for about 10 minutes. Come back to watch the action. I order a Coke from the waitress which shakes up a couple of people nearby. I guess I should note that I was drinking all trough the tournaments. Pretty weak drinks though. If they were full strength, I would have been under the table. There's an out-of-pocket save which goes to Bart. Joe goes out in 6th. David Low in 5th. Corey 4th. 3-handed now and it looks like Bob has complete control. Rodney 3rd. Bob is in the lead over BARGE NL champ David Lawful when suddenly the tide turns. David puts on the afterburners and cruises to his 3rd win in about 6 ARG tournaments. Wow he sure is lucky :-) We are all pretty tired. I play some slots and call it a night. Saturday, January 25th. ---------------------------- Time for the EMBARGO Main Event. $120 No-limit Hold'em Bounty tournament. What is a bounty you ask? Each player has a $50 bounty on his or her head. Every time you knock a player out of the tournament, you get a special chip that is worth $50 cash. Got it? Good. $20 goes to pay the dealers, etc. The other $50 goes to the prize pool. My starting table: David Low Nolan Hee Gillian Groves Eric Rosenberg Rich Strauss Keith Troell Ken Kubey Bob Herlien Russ Fox Last year, the organizers Nick, Mickdog and Bree when 2nd, 1st and 1st in our three tournaments. With Rich and Bob going 2nd, 2nd this year, I figure I should be due for a good run in this tournament. I start the day with a Heineken in on honor of Peter Secor. Later switched back to 7&7s from my lucky waitress, Jessica. Keith has a tiny bumper car on wheels that he uses to deliver a single chip toke to the dealer after he wins a hand. Really cute. Russ takes a beating early on and is short-stacked. I put in a raise with ATo. Russ goes all-in. I can afford to call the raise and Russ is one of the only players I "hold over" in these tournaments. I make the call expecting Russ to have a pair or a better ace. I'm surprised to see 97s. Flop is T-6-5 putting me way ahead. Blanks follow. Russ gives me two BARGE Chip Committee bust-out chips. I also get his bounty chip, so I will at least have $50 coming my way. Later I limp along with 77. I want to get in cheap, flop a set of 7s and bust someone. Nolan H. goes all-in. Folded back to me. Again, the raise isn't that much of my stack and I can pick up $50. I call. Nolan has AKo so I'm a tiny favorite. At the turn, the board is T-9-X-Q so he can win with an ace, king or jack on the river. None of those come, so now I have more chips and $100 in the bank. A round or two later, I limp UTG with 77. David Low goes all-in. Same situation as above. I make the call. He has A9s. The flop is Q-7-Q giving me a full house and a profit for the day. I get moved to another table. There's this lady Polly who is not a BARGER. She is playing some weak hands for a lot of chips and winning, winning, winning. I go out of my way to avoid playing against her. I get a seat next to Randy. His wife Carol likes GamboMouse and pets him for luck. I'm running low on chips. We are playing 6-handed. I push all-in with A2o. Kevan is thinking and thinking. He folds Presto! (55). For shame!! :-) Perhaps the key hand of the tournament for me. A hand or two later, I get AQo and push all-in. Everyone folds. That's fine. I win the blinds and antes which are pretty significant at this point. Next hand, JJ. Jam, win, show the cards. I now have enough chips that I could go back to a standard raise of 2 to 3 times the big blind. Next hand I get AA! Knowing that a small raise might look suspicious, again I just push all-in hoping someone will make a call with AJ or AQ or JJ or something thinking I can't be that strong again. All fold and I show the AA just for fun. I make it to the final table again, but only 6 places will pay. There are 176,000 in chips in play. I have 15,600, so just below average. Not too bad. The Final Table: Becca Randy Collack Dan Goldman Barbara Garrett Mickdog Kevan Garrett Ken Kubey Bob Lauria Polly Dean 5-minute break. In the restroom, I hear the song "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim (had to look that up.) The song gets stuck in my head which is a really good sign for me. I have it on auto-repeat in my head much of the time at the final table. I win some small pots and build up to about 22,000. I raise to 3200 with JJ. Folded around to Becca who jams for 11,500. Damn. My instant read is that she is very strong. AA, KK, QQ or AK. But I think about it for a few seconds. She might push with 88, 99, TT and AQ too. There's some chance I'm ahead here. Plus there's that $50 bounty chip too. I make the call and turn up JJ. Bob L. asks me "What took so long?" meaning that he would have snap called there. Becca calmly turns over AA. RATS!! I jump out of my chair mad at myself for not trusting my read. Well, let's watch the board come out. Maybe I'll get lucky. Flop Q-T-8. Gives me a chance the make a straight. Turn JACK! Gasps all around. I know it is too early to celebrate. River JACK! Four of a kind for me. Becca is out. I really felt bad about it. I wonder if other BARGERs feel bad when they knock people out. I pretty much always do. I heard from someone that Becca came up behind me while I was busy watching the table and she pretended to smash me over the head with some imaginary object. We had a laugh about it later, so there are no hard feelings. 7-handed now. No one brings up a save for 7th. Kevan pushes all-in ahead of me. I look down to find AsQs. I make the call. Kevan has Ac9c. I'm way ahead. Flop is approximately Kc-Jc-X. Kevan has a club flush draw. Turn is a red 10 giving me a straight. River is a blank. I've been playing poker with Kevan for something like 18 years. He also ran TARGET in my place this year, so I also felt bad about knocking him out one out of the money. The good news is that Kevan had about 5 bounty chips, so he made some money anyway. Another break around here. I take a look at my notes. Looks like I have busted six people. Check my pocket. 5 bounty chips? Oh crap. Check other pockets. Uh oh. I go cash in the 5 bounty chips at the cage to avoid losing any others. Check over my notes again. Oh, the 6th line is just the the Final Table line-up, not a bust out. Whew!!! Dan jams with TT. Randy calls all-in with AK. Folded back to Polly who is more than happy to call with KQ. She didn't see the TT and AK of course, but you can't think KQo is ahead of either player. Board runs out K-X-X-X-X. Most of Dan's chips go to Randy, the rest go to Polly. I raise with T9o. Bob jams for not too much. Bob has been playing pretty snug with Polly right behind him, but he is desperately low on chips. I make the call. He has K6o. I have a fighting chance here. Nothing on the board for either of us. His K-high wins the pot. Only time I had a shot at a bounty and lost. We play on 4-handed for a while. I really want a plaque for 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Bob jams UTG. Polly thinks for a while and folds. Randy calls pretty quickly. Well, I'm folding pretty much everything here. Look down at AA. OMG! For about half a second the idea of folding is in my mind, but that is too stupid for even *me*. I call and roll over AA. Bob shows KK. Randy has TT (tens.) I'm thinking all low cards. All small cards. Flop is all non-paint. Good. Turn blank. River blank. I think I've tripled up to over 100,000 in chips until I finally see the 10 that was on the flop. Arrgghhhh. Side note: Polly would have made a flush if she had played and busted all of us. Now Bob and I started the hand with very similar stacks. 3rd place pays $89 more than 4th and gets a plaque. It is really close. On the first count, they say we both have 34,200. A tie? They count again. Bob has a little more. 34,200 to 33,500 perhaps? I ask them to count the stacks one more time to me sure. Bob has more chips. Darn it. No plaque for 4th place. Darn it. Then they hand me the 3rd place plaque. Wait, what? Oh! Polly is not a BARGER so while she is eligible to take our money, she is not qualified to get a plaque. Yay!!! I let out a Howard Dean quality "Whoo!" Shook hands with Bob, Polly and Randy. Someone mentioned that they should have given Bob the 3rd place plaque and that I should have gotten the 2nd place plaque with the "2nd" scratched out and "4th" written in. Some logic there. Randy somehow outlasted Polly to win the tournament. WTG! Since the Aria wouldn't allow us to build in dealer tokes to the buy-in, I decided to tip about double what I normally would in this situation. So with the prize money and bounties, I had over $500 after tipping. As my mascot GamboMouse would say: "SUPER SQUEAK!" BTW, Gambo has now been called a rat, gopher, bunny, moose, hamster and kangaroo. Poor mouse. So now I'm looking for a BARGE ring game. Bart is there. Jeff Deitch. Adam and Corey wander by, but not enough people to get a game going. Bart Simpson not only is willing to give me a ride to Binion's, he is also nice enough to wait 30 minutes for me to go across the street to drop stuff of at the Travelodge. Finally we are on the road. Take the elevator from the 5th floor of the parking garage. It drops us inside Binion's near were the coffee shop used to be. Guess what? The deli/restaurant area is temporarily closed and is temporarily moved back down to the old coffee shop area. There's one seat in the BARGE dealer's choice game. Bart lets me take it. Someone gets up and asks Bart to play in his spot. Doubt the Aria would be happy with that. At first, it is a pretty tame game, but then the Milligans and Russ Fox are replaced by Nolan Hee and Carol. Un, Katie, David Low and others get another game going next door. Patti shows up at my table with a chip rack on top of her head. People want to bet on how long it will be before it falls off her head. Un sets the line at 37 minutes. Wagers are placed. About 30 minutes in, the rack has moved forward. Patti has to keep her chin up. She can see the cards, but can't see her own chips. About 40 minutes in, it gets even worse. At 45 minutes, Patti laughs and the rack really starts to slip. The more we urge Patti *not* to laugh, the harder she laughs and it finally falls off at 45 minutes and 45 seconds. Carol had a black scarf that she dubbed the scarf of shame. Later, when she lost a pot, she wrapped it around her face and called it the burka of shame. I almost got a picture of her holding her cards up high so she could see them through the one inch area of her face that wasn't covered. Rodney came buy and did take some pictures. Can't wait to see those. When Carol *did* win a pot, she took off the burka of shame and started dancing around. As she said, she went from "burka to burlesque." This happened a few times. Somewhere around here, someone started humming the theme from "The A-Team." The whole table picked up on it. Then someone mentioned "The Greatest American Hero" and quickly people were singing: "Believe it or not, I'm walking on air. I never thought I could feel so free-eee-eee. Flying away on a wing and a prayer. Who could it be? Believe it or not it's just me." Our table started to get short around 2:00 a.m. I was starving, so I finally called it. I started down $100, then got on a tear and was up $100. Ended up plus $30. Bart had a wild swing from down $250 to up $7. I got the club sandwich to go. Free with my club points. Best sandwich ever. Sunday, January 27th. ---------------------------- Bart dropped Carol and me back at the Aria. Thanks! Cab to the airport after a few hours of sleep. Accidentally meet up with Steve W. and Oliver. We sit together on the flight back to San Jose (se pic on Facebook) and tell stories, many involving our hero, Monte. Oliver and I use up my drink coupons by getting rum and Cokes. 90 minute flight went by in what seemed like 30 minutes. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Aria for hosting EMBARGO. Justin and the poker staff did a good job. Waitresses were great. The place isn't my style, but it is sometimes good to try new things. Thanks to Nick, Mickdog and Bree one more (last?) time. Russ, Rich, Jeff and Stevan, you have a hard act to follow, but I have great confidence in you guys. -- Ken Kubey