Date: Mon,  3 May 2004 16:48:19 -0400
From: Chuck Weinstock
Subject: [BARGE] My TARGET Trip Report

Saturday, 2pm: 831 people (including me) had entered the $1,500 NLHE
event and they had played down to 18 people on a very long Friday. Now
it was time for those 18 to finish the tournament. It would prove to be
a very interesting afternoon and evening.

Of course I'm only guessing because at 2pm on Saturday I was down in
Boulder City riding a train operated by the Nevada Southern Railroad
Museum. By the time they started playing the final table, I was with Ken
Kubey, Sandra Joe, and others at a craps table downstairs. And by the
time it wrapped up, I was trying to get a good nights sleep in
preparation for my trip home. (For those who care, the train ran 3 miles
from Boulder City to Railroad Pass.)

But, of course, I've gotten ahead of myself here. When Ken announced
TARGET this year I figured I'd pass. The Thursday date meant leaving
Pittsburgh on Wednesday evening (possibly Thursday morning) and staying
at least until Sunday and I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend that much
time away. I'd played in at least 3 previous TARGETs and had even walked
away with 4th place(?) money in one of them.

However, it developed that I had several ConJelCo related business
reasons to make a trip to Las Vegas prior to BARGE. It also seemed
important for Foldem and I to meet face-to-face with the people at the
Horseshoe to get BARGE going. So if I was going to do this it might as
well include TARGET as well.

I flew into Vegas on Wednesday and checked into the Mirage about 8pm. I
had a late evening meeting and dragged into bed around 11. I always have
trouble with the time zones during BARGE and this trip was no exception.
I woke around 6am and tried to go back to sleep to no avail. I had a
breakfast meeting at the Mirage and then headed to the self-parking
garage....and discovered that the forecasted high 80's temperature that
I had noted when I was packing was, shall we say, a bit off as the
temperature was in the low 60's and windy. A quick change to long pants
and I headed downtown to the Horseshoe to see what was going on (not
much). Back to the Mirage in time for the TARGET buffet and then go
ready to play.

Prior to the start of this TARGET, Ken told me that this was the 11th
annual event. This is Ken's baby and he does a great job of it. This
year 23 of us were playing for 2 $1,500 entries and 3 cash prizes. I'm
not much at remembering poker hands so I won't even try to talk about
the play, but as usual TARGET is one of the harder tournaments to play
in because of the competition. Through various combinations of luck and
"skill" I eventually found myself in the money with a reasonable stack
of chips. At this point I started to have a conversation with myself.
What exactly was my goal? Did I want cash or the entry. I decided to
postpone this decision and play for first place until we got down to 3
handed. At this point the conversation started again: $500 in cash that
I can walk away with, or $1,500 in lammers that must be played? I flip
flopped on this issue several times but never did anything but play for
first while I was making up my mind.

The final three were Andy Latto, Jerry Gerner and myself. Ken probably
has chip counts when we started three handed play, but Jerry and I both
had significantly more chips than Andy. However, I don't have (or didn't
have) a clue as to proper short-handed play, and Jerry kept stealing and
Andy kept acquiring chips and pretty soon Jerry and I had less than
Andy. Again, I don't remember how the final hand played out but as I put
my chips into that last hand against Jerry I know that I was thinking "I
really want to win this...I don't want the $500". As things worked out,
that's exactly what happened.

After the photos and the congratulations, I excused myself to head
downtown for yet another meeting and to register for the $1,500 NLHE
event. We thought there might be a chance that it sold out (it was
limited to 1,000 people) and I did not want to get skunked. My meeting
lasted until about 10pm (over dinner) and then I excused myself to drive
"home" and get some sleep.

Friday: I had to be downstairs by 8:30 to meet Foldem to go to the
Horseshoe to talk BARGE with their poker room manager, Michael Soto. We
talked over breakfast and reached an understanding that just has to be
confirmed (later, while I was playing, Foldem also met with the Director
of Gaming). After the meeting I went back to the Mirage for something I
had forgotten, and then back to the Horseshoe for the tournament.

At 12 noon I was seated at Table 69. I had the 9 seat. I looked around
and saw Erik Seidel in the 1 seat. When we started there was no 10 seat,
but they soon added one. I did not know anyone else at the table by
sight.

They shuffled up and dealt and my heart went thumpa-thumpa. It took me a
few hands to settle down. (In one of them I over bet to win the two $25
blinds.) Eventually I was able to talk myself down and developed the
mindset that "this is just like the BARGE NLHE only a bit bigger and a
lot less friendly". I played (I think) a lot better after that.

At 10 handed we had $15,000 in chips on the table, and at least one
point I had about $3,000 of them, but I never went any higher than that.
I made it past the first break, but the first hand after the break
developed thusly (I hope I have this right...I really have trouble
remembering things like this). I had A-J suited in late position. Two
players limp in before me and I limp in as well. The flop comes
J-Low-Low and it checks around to me. I bet (but I don't remember how
much), the big blind raises, the two limpers fold and I call the raise.
Fourth street is a 10. The big blind checks, I put the last of my chips
in and he calls. He turns of J-10 and the river is not an A and IGHN.

After the hand was over, being the good BARGEr that I am, I walked over
to him and shook his hand and asked him his name. It was David Plastik.
Jeez, we need a Griffin book for these guys. :) Not that it would have
changed my play here. 

So I was out, but I didn't feel badly about it. It would have been nice
to go further and I am sure going to try to win an entry again next year
and try again.

After I came down a bit, Peter and I met with the Director of Gaming
again (just so I could meet him.) Then he and I went to shoot some dice.
We found a spot at an uncrowded table, and soon were down to about 1/2
of our buy in. Those of you who have shot dice with me know that I never
hold the dice. I am incapable for keeping them on the table and/or
getting them beyond the mid-point. (It's really an either-or situation.)
So I passed the dice and the dealer nearest to me said "the next time
they come around I'll teach you how to throw them". They came around
pretty quickly (lots of 7 outs) and I got my lesson and did "ok". (Peter
can give the gory details.) Anyway, I had a modestly good roll and got
both Peter and myself nearly healthy again. Then the guy to my left had
a good roll and we soon had a modest profit and cashed out.

Upstairs at least two of our community were still in the hunt. Shawn
Lauderdale and Ken Kubey. I'll let them tell their own stories. But some
of us sweated Ken for a while (and I used my player's buffet comp and
joined those two plus Sandra for dinner in the buffet.) After dinner I
went over to the GN and ran into Dan and Sharon Goldman and had a nice
conversation with them. Then back to sweat Ken a bit more and then home
and to bed.

Saturday I woke late (for me...still on East coast time) at 8am but
lounged around until 9am. Then I had breakfast at the buffet and was
heading to do some shopping when I remembered that the railway musuem
was running trips that day. So I turned around and drove out to Boulder
City which brings us back to the first and second paragraphs of this
missive.

I had great fun at TARGET and got a lot of business done as well. Ken
deserves the thanks for us all for arranging such a well run and fun (if
short) event. I hope to participate again next year.


________
A big thank you to Paradise Poker and PokerStars, both of whom
have agreed to fully sponsor BARGE 2004!
And many thanks to Quiotix Technologies for helping us by
co-sponsoring BARGE 2003.