Subject: Escargot trip report
From: "Big John" <jhartz@pcmagic.net>
Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker
Date: Sun, Feb 10, 2002 5:33 PM
Message-ID: <3c67216b_1@news.pcmagic.net>

Went in early on Thursday to play the Bicycle Club's Thursday nooner lowball
tourney. When i got there, I found out it was now a stud eight tourney. Oh
well, I played long enough and well enough to make two rebuys and a double
add on. Started with about ten full tables and went out about 20th or so. JP
Massar came back from a deep hole about 3/4 of the way in to rally and come
in a strong second place. Got into a fine CHORSEL 2-4 game and managed to
hit enough pots to make about five dealer rotations happy and still clear a
whopping $30.00. New Jane was making a huge effort to personally see to it
that every dealer left the game with enough to remember us by. Jane is one
of the bright spots I always look forward to being around at Escargot.
(NOTE: I sold my seat to John Vorhaus sp.? for $4.00, so I include that in
the $30.00 amount.) That $30.00 paid my registration fee so I'm practically
free rolling if you don't count my tourney loss.

Saw Beth Even and got a hug. Saw New Jane and got a hug, saw ADB Fold'em and
was bought a slug. Saw Russ Fox and paid him the money I owed for
registration. (no hug or slug...saddenz) Saw three different Marc's
including Gilutin, Met Barry and Betty Tennenbaum for the first time and it
took Betty about three seconds to offer to help me with a question about Las
Vegas pools for one of my grandkids........Thanks Betty. I met Joan Hadley
and also met Andrew Prock after enjoying many of his posts for a long time.
I was a little surprised at how young he was. He looks like Allan Cunningham
would look if Allan had taken steroids. Pretty fair poker player. Saw Dieter
and could tell he wanted to give me a hug, but he was too shy around all his
NOCAL friends to be seen fraternizing with the SOCAL enemy. We settled for a
manly handshake and a short lesson in improving my German. I also had a
chance to meet Steve "Ice" Eisenstein, Scott Byron and later saw, but didn't
meet Johnny D. I was going to introduce myself and say hello, but "Ice" was
discussing a last longer bet and I didn't want to interrupt them.

Thursday night was the ROE tourney and I lasted from 7:15 to 12:15, busting
out 20th after amassing a pretty fair stack from about halfway through. Key
hand was in Omaha when I decided to put a guy all in before the flopp with
my AA36 with one of the aces suited. We were playing 300-600 at the time. I
flopped an A and felt pretty good until a 3 came on the river and he pointed
out that he had made a wheel. I gave Fold'em most of the rest when he took a
stand with a piece of cheese that had me dominated for hight and no low
came. I went out trying to push through a head's up hand in RAZZ. Beth Even,
a former SoCal player, took the tourney and gave the last longer pool money
to the NOCAL team. Way to go Beth!!!!

By Friday morning my head was aching, all my bones were creaking and I had
trouble breathing with my congestion. I managed to get to the Bike in time
for the Limit Hold'em tourney, but not early enough to fleece Steve BIA of
his bankroll in the PL game they had going. Saw Gary "Creepshow" Furness
working that game and was a little surprised to find out that Steve still
had enough to buy in to the tourney later. The highlight of my tourney was
probably making a nut flush against Nolan Hee and having him pay me off. I
went out fairly early, one of the first ten I'm sure, when I called my last
$75 in the BB against a raise by Russ Fox from early position. Blinds were
50-100 and Russ's raise meant I was getting 325 for my 75. My 8-5o seemed
like a reasonable money choice in that situation. Russ had pocket 10's,
flopped a set, I turned an open ended straight draw and Russ rivered the
case 10. IGHN.

By Saturday morning I was so thoroughly ill that I couldn't climb out of
bed. I had been anticipating Escargot and the match play NL tourney for a
whole year and wound up flat on my back and not being able to participate. I
look forward to reading the trip reports of those who really attended the
whole ESCARGOT and can fill me in on what happened, who won and any scandals
that Gavin and Foldem might have gotten into.

Thanks to Lou Kreiger, "Ploink" Straghalis, Jerrod Ankenmann, Steve Nissman
and Russ Fox for doing all the necessary work to make Escargot a reality.
Thanks to Denny Williams and the staff at the Bike for rolling out the
welcome mat for all of us.

I would be more disappointed in not having gotten to participate fully in
Escargot if it weren't brought to my attention that others had it much worse
than I did. I heard that Doug Sohn, the original NL Match play champion from
Escargot I is having some serious health challenges. Get well Doug and we
hope to see you at next year's event. As usual, I've forgotten to mention
some people in this report. This isn't a matter of indifference, but rather,
the product of a brain that now functions less fully than it should. I hope
to see all of you next year at Escargot V........

Big John