Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 23:42:36 -0800 From: Ken Kubey Subject: [BARGE] QB's 2015 EMBARGO Trip Report My fourth EMBARGO. "Great Scott!" Thursday, February 5th. ---------------------------- Sandi drops me off at SJC. I get to my gate. Some crazy woman stars talking to me. Up walks Rodney. I say "Hi Rodney!" Crazy lady says "Hi Rodney!" He smiles at her and for a few seconds I actually believe that they know each other. Rodney has a better boarding pass and saves me a seat. He's behind the emergency exit and there is no seat in front of him! I've never seen this before. How cool. We talk about poker and stuff in his rental car before he drops me off near the Four Queens. Thanks again for the ride. I dump all of my stuff in the room and head over to Binion's. GamboMouse is tired from the long trip and stays in the room. Obviously he is more popular than me as people keep saying/asking "Hey Ken, where's GamboMouse?" 7:00 p.m. Time for the EBOLA tournament. This is a rotation of 5 games. E is 7-stud High-Low (Eight or better for the low.) B is Badugi (best hand is A234 of four different suits.) O is Omaha High-Low (Eight or better for the low.) L is Lowball (A2345 is the best hand.) A is Omaha High. Got EBOLA? Good. Oh, blue breathing masks are passed out to everyone. As we start out, 50 or 60 of us and the dealers are wearing masks. Too funny. I hope someone got pictures. At one point, the table is: Arthur, Ji, Scott Byron, Sabyl, Dean, Jeanne, Me and Stephanie (dealer) My keen pattern sensing notices that we are seated BGBGBGBG. Jeanne thinks it's funny that I'm referring to people our age as boys and girls. Notes say: Rat 88. Hilarious, right? I have no idea what it means. Somewhere around here Sandi calls me gushing about Cal beating USC. Does my heart good on several levels. I'm all-in in lowball and draw into an 86. Arthur also draws into an 86. These are both very good hands, but my 8632A beats his 86532. I survive 3 more all-ins and there are cracks about me having 9 lives. But mice don't have 9 lives. Eric R. knocks be out with 2 pair. Rich S. and I go to the Main Street buffet. $12 if you have a players card. This isn't the Mandalay Bay or Mirage buffet, but pretty decent for $12. Friday, February 6th ---------------------------- I get into a $3-$6 Dealer's Choice game after midnight. The table: Carol, Arthur, Rich B., Dean, Masa, Ron G., me, Becca and Joe. This is a pretty wild game. Highlight had to be Becca and Carol showing off how flexible they are. Chips are flying around the table. I'm down $70 or so. Ron cracks me up several times. I need to take better notes. Doug G. joins the game. He asks me if I saw the Cal highlight on ESPN. What? I watch the ESPN Top 10 plays. #1 is a Tyrone Wallace 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat USC in Berkeley. There's a great shot from high up in Haas Pavilion as the entire crowd reacts to the buzzer-beater. I watch this maybe 15 times during the poker session. Around 3:00 a.m. Dean and Becca leave. Carol says that she won't be around for the Friday tournaments and says "I won't see you today." I thought that was a funny comment. David Lawful and I had earlier planned to go for a run at 10:00 a.m., so I keep planning to leave the game. 3:30. I scoop a pot and am $5 from being even. Leave? Nah. 4:00 a.m. Carol crushes me in a big lowball pot. Arrgghhh. Back down $50. 5:00 a.m. Masa cashes out a winner. We've picked up some new players through the morning. Can't remember who. 5:30 a.m. I'm more hungry now than tired. Stuck close to $100. I finally quit the game to get a sandwich at the deli. The game is still running as I walk by a few minutes later. Get a 9:45 wake-up call and try to get some sleep. I think I slept maybe 90 minutes. Head down to Fremont Street near Starbucks to meet David. Right at 10 he shows up in regular clothes and says he's in this great game and doesn't want to go for a run. No big deal. I usually run by myself anyway, so I take off jogging toward the Plaza and then take a left. The road we usually run on is closed for construction so I head south passed a bunch of Bail Bonds offices with cool names. Free Bail Bonds. Hero Bail Bonds (Bingo's favorite), Dad's Bail Bonds, etc. I run by the Gambler's General store. I run by the Transit Center. If I hit a red light, I make a turn otherwise I go straight. A map of my run would look pretty funny. I send a tweet/Facebook post out declaring myself the winner of the EMBARGO 2015 Fuf Run in a course record 35:50. Perhaps I will organize the EMBARGO 2016 Fuf Run. Take a shower. Wash my running clothes in the bathtub. Have a free breakfast at Magnolias. Walk back over to Binion's around noon. The game is STILL going. David looks to be ahead $150 or so. Arthur (who had one of the worst runs of losing cards I've ever seen) is still there. I get back in the game and win $20. With our 1:00 tournament looming, the game finally breaks up. Poor Arthur played 13 hours and is now ready for the tournament! Time for Pot-Limit Dramaha. Each player gets 5 cards. Betting. Then a 3-card flop. Betting. Then players draw cards (like 5-card draw) then a turn card. Betting. River card. Betting. At any time, a player can bet what is in the pot so the pots grow very fast. Game is played 6-handed. And we each have two rebuy lammers. So if you lose all your chips, you can rebuy and try again. Oh, half the pot goes to the best 5-card draw hand and half goes to the best Omaha hand. Table: Lawful, Ji, Russ, me, John G. and Patti. Early on I have AAQXY with both aces suited. David raises, Ji reraises. I put in a big pot raise. All 3 of us quickly get all-in. The flop comes with high cards and 2 spades. I decide to keep AsAhQs and draw two. Ji stands pat! That means she probably has a straight, flush or full house in her 5-card hand. I'm ahead on the Omaha board until David rivers the nut straight. Argghhh. Ji shows a 7-high straight. I'm not to pleased as I spread my hand out on the felt. A-A-Q-A-A. What the Heck? I didn't even think to look at my draw cards. I drew the other two aces to make four-of-a-kind!!! I felt really bad for Ji. But she was able to rebuy and keep playing. But she took two more pretty bad beats in the next 30 minutes and was the first player out of the tournament. She really had some bad luck. I start with JJ and call Russ' all-in. The flop is K-3-2. My in-hand JJ is good for half the pot, but Russ is ahead for the other half. Turn Jack. River Jack. Quads again! I bust Russ for about the 6th time in the last few years. Crazy. Rochelle, my favorite waitress comes on shift. I'm ordering double 7&7s. Our code for this is Double-Oh-7. JJ again and raise. Bob O. calls. Flop K-K-J. Awesome. Then Bob bets close to the pot all-in. Wow. I don't like this. I haven't played with Bob a lot, but I've always seen him show up with the goods. But even if he has trip kings, I have a full house. Turns out he only has a straight draw so I bust Bob. Have a pat flush and make a boat on the board to scoop another pot. I start a hand with 555 in hand. Three of us jam it up. Jeanne has AAQ in hand. The board runs out with K-J-T and three diamonds. The 3rd player has the nut flush to take half of the small main pot. My 555 is good for half of the huge side pot. I think Jeanne's straight is good for the other half, but people keep saying "No, she loses to the flush." Finally I look again at my hand and see that I have Td5d for a flush. I apologize to Jeanne for not reading my hand correctly. She isn't bothered by it at all. She saw my flush right away as did JZK. She gave me a BCC County chip as her bust out prize. I will add it to the pile I have from Russ Fox. With about 16 players left, I'm the chip leader. I half-jokingly mention to a couple of people that I don't know how to play with a big stack in a tournament. It really is the truth. Rochelle's shift is over and so is my luck. My big stack does allow me to fold my way to the money. Rich Strauss and Un bust on the same hand and I make the final table with Bremmer, Nolan H., Goldie and Patrick. Patrick takes most of my chips with a spade flush and them Goldie takes the rest with... a spade flush. Arrgghhh. 5th place for $290. Rich Bremmer won it all completing the super-rare Sigma-Derby/Dramaha double last accomplished by Honus Floppenberg in 1926. Goldie, Rich and I went to the Main Street brew pub for dinner. A lively conversation about sports, poker and three broken ulnae ensued. We skip the World Chowaha Championship as we are all pretty tired. I heard that Nolan won. 3-time champ Nolan Hee? No, Nolan Dalla! Rigged! Dead tired, I went to bed around midnight. Slept for nine hours! Saturday, February 7th ---------------------------- Head down to Magnolias for another free breakfast. JP sees me at my table for one and calls me over to join Heldar and him. Conversation ranged from stuff about cities getting tanks and armored vehicles to birds in England teaching other birds how to open milk bottles. No-Limit hold'em tournament. I don't have to explain that, right? Table: Landrum, John L., Masa, Ben G., me, Oliver, Patrick, Dan and Kenny. KK and raise. Patrick calls from the SB. Flop A-A-A. "That's and interesting flop." Check, check. This is Lee Jones' old way-ahead/way-behind situation. No reason to bet a lot. Turn 4. Patrick checks. I bet 600 into the pot of 1100. He calls. Alarm bells are going off. River Q. Patrick bets 1000. I can't fold here can I? I call and he shows A7s for quads. Next time I check the turn too. A6o on the button and put in a steal raise. Dan defends his BB. Flop comes A-J-6 with two clubs. I'll take it. I bet it, Dan calls. Turn 8c. Possible flush. Dan jams. I don't love it, but I can beat 86, J8, and any ace with a kicker. I call. Dan has Ah2h so he only has a couple of outs for a chop. River 7. He gives me a Baby Shower game. A plastic pink and blue catapult that will launch little plastic babies into the air. There's even a target on the back of the package. Heh. I now go ice cold. I think I folded about 40 straight hands. I'm down to about 10 or 11 big blinds. A6o. This is the best hand I've seen in about an hour. I jam. Cards explode out of people's hands until it gets to Steve Landrum in the SB. He calls. There is no way I am ahead. John Lloyd calls all-in from the BB hoping for a triple up. Steve has ATo. John has T9s. The board misses everyone and Steve knocks John and me out. I gave Steve a shot glass. I go back to the room and take a nap! Sandi wants me to bet the Warriors and Hawks to win the NBA. One casino has the Warriors and 2.4 to 1 and Hawks at 7-1. Other casino has Warriors at 3-1 and Hawks at 6-1. Weird. No-limit 2-7 Lowball tournament. Best hand is 7-5-4-3-2. Straights and flushes are bad. Aces are bad. Table: Bwana, Stephen M. (TT), Oliver, Un, Dan, Masa and me. I draw to 7-6-5-4 hoping to catch a 2 to win a big pot. Instead I catch a 3 for a losing straight. I later made 8-high and 9-high straights. Sigh. Dan tells a story about a player who got angry at him asking "What is your name?" Dan tells him "Dan." Angry player then says "Well Fuck You, Dan." They later became friends and for years the guy would have a waitress bring Dan a napkin with "What is your name?" written on it. Peter Secor drops by and says "Is this Kevin's table?" and then Peter tosses ear plugs to each of us except Kevin Un. LOL. I get dealt KKJK and show it to Stephanie. She tips *me* a buck! I get moved to a new table. One player mentions having his or her legs over his or her head three times during the weekend. Gerdog knocks me out when he makes a jack and I make 2 pair. He also got a shot glass as a bust out prize. Sunday, February 8th ---------------------------- I get into a 3-6 game with Peter, Ron G. and two women I later find out are named Leah and Christol ("Christ with an O-L.") I'm seated between Leah and Christol at the end of the table near the wall. On the floor there is popcorn, papers, empty water bottles, napkins, a bag, etc. I mention that it looks like a ballparks. The women think this is hilarious. Ron is doing live straddles and appears to be raising any time he has a 3 in his hand. The women take to calling him "South Carolina" and Leah especially is being tilted. Oh there's some kid with an "M" hat between Ron and Peter who thinks he's a great player. He is great at sucking out on the river. Christol hits a straight flush for a $100 bonus. I limp in. Ron raises. Ron doesn't see that I'm in and he turns up 43o. should I 3-bet or call? I just call. I flop top pair and Ron gets bottom pair on a K-9-4 flop. He calls me on the flop and turn. The river doesn't change anything. I think there's some tiny chance Ron will bet if I check, so I check. He checks back. He *says* he would fold if I bet again. I dunno. 2 hours in and I'm starving. I start to rack up and say that I have to get something to eat. The entire table begs me to leave my chips and come back Okay. I'm a sport. Wonderful cheeseburger at the counter. I learn that the counter will be taken out next week. I don't like that at all. Back to the game. Everyone is still there. The game finally breaks up at 3:00 a.m. Christol said she will check out barge.org and/or will drop by to at least watch BARGE in August. Ron, Peter and I head over to The D to check out the dancers and video poker. We run into Scott Samarel upstairs. He is up about $300 on a VP machine. Cool! He's also agrees to give me a ride at 1:30. Cool! I watch Peter and Ron play VP for about 30 minutes. Peter has a neat app that tells you the best play based on the cards and payouts on any given machine. I go to my room and toss and turn. Maybe got 2 hours sleep. Meet ex-SGI guy Mike near the cowgirl dealers at 11:30. Mike doesn't really gamble, so he's interested to watch me run $25 through a slot to get a free prize. I did this on all four days and got $5 free slot play once and stupid free drink coupons the other three times. Sigh. We have lunch at the snack bar or whatever they call it and then see Ryan and David Low playing craps. Doug also drops by. We try to explain craps to Mike. After 15 minutes, I think he understood the basics plus odds and come bets. Somehow it is almost 1:15 and time to meet Scott S. I find him at a VP machine near The D valet area. He's up $15. Yay. He's driving Kyle's father's van. Good to talk with Scott a bit as we made our way to the Mirage. We collect Kyle and his stuff at the Mirage and then head over to the Goldman's house. Hmm... how can we get Kyle in his heavy wheel chair into the house? There are some bricks and tiles. Rodney, Scott, Dan and I create a makeshift ramp and Kyle motors his way inside. Yes! Scott Barela brings some Trippel beers. Really good. Eileen introduces us to a dice game. I think called LCR. Three dice. Each has L, C, R and dots on the six faces. Each player starts with three $1 bills. Roll L, give $1 to the player on your left. R - $1 to player on your right. C - $1 to center (pot.) Dot - nothing. Last player with one $1 bill wins. A player that is out can come back to life with a $1 bill passed to him or her. Early on, a die rolls off the table. Dan jumps up and inspects it like a craps pit boss. Ha! Dan rolls so many triple dots. 7 to 1 shot. He rolls it like 4 out of 6 times. Since there is no skill involved, I easily won the first two games. The game is fun, but needs some little tweaks. Scott S. and Kyle took me to the airport. ------------------------------ --------------------------------------- Thanks to Binion's for hosting EMBARGO. The poker staff and waitresses were great. Thanks to the Goldmans for hosting the Sunday party. Congrats to Scott Byron for being the BAAP. Thanks to Scott Barela for the beers. Thanks to Scott Samarel for driving. Thanks to the organizers for a super smooth EMBARGO. -- Ken Kubey kenkubey@gmail.com