Best. BARGE. Evah! BARGE 2005.
My BARGE started pre-BARGE when I won a "seat" in the first BARGE
satellite/warmup tournie. It was a good start to what would be
one of the Best. Weeks. Ever.
Background to those who need it... Ah, screw it, if you need background,
read my BARGE 2004 report.
Sunday, July 31st:
I took a Sunday afternoon flight into Vegas. I expected the plane to
be empty (aren't people leaving Vegas on Sunday?) but every single seat
was full. At this rate, United should come out of bankruptcy in no time!
The airport seemed deserted though and even the passenger pickup area
was uncrowded. I waited a few minutes for Mark who drove to Las Vegas
from LA, and we headed off to Las Vegas Hilton.
This was the last day of DEFCON, a conference I used to go to back in
the 90's, and we were supposed to meet a friend of mine for drinks at
Quark's and then maybe catch some dinner. My friend didn't show up till
way later and cell phone reception at the Hilton is practically non-existent,
so after a few drinks we headed over to Benihana for my semi-annual
someone-else-plays-with-your-food dinner. Drinks at Quark's were excellent,
food at Benihana was passable, and eventually we headed off to downtown
and the Plaza Hotel and Casino which would be my home for the next week.
Mark had already checked in and got us an end-of-the-hall room in the
South Tower on the sixth floor. The view was of the pool and Binions
tower with clock and temperature reading. I'm happy to report that the
only day I saw it go to three digits was that last Sunday. The South
Tower is also most convenient to the poker room and parking garage.
The North tower is more convenient to Fremont Street.
The poker "room" is just an area in the casino, no barriers even, just
tables next to craps, etc. If you don't like smoke, you have to make sure
you get a table way by the walls. Of course those four tables are pan
tables! There's a little room off of the area with three more tables,
that would be most smoke free but I didn't see them in use except for our
tournaments twice (and then only one of the tables out of three was used).
The whole casino and rest of downtown was pretty dead at 10pm Sunday night.
Was pleased to see that their buffet is open 24 hours but was warned by
several BARGErs in no uncertain terms to STAY AWAY FROM THE BUFFET.
Monday, August 1st:
I tried to go to the workout room at the Plaza and exercise, I honestly
did, but what I found there was rather pathetic. After then trying to
run on their outdoor 1/4 mile track and lasting about 10 minutes, I decided
that any outdoor exercise will have to take place in the pool. The pool
was okay, not too chlorinated but enough, if you know what I mean. It
would occasionally get crowded but no one seemed to stay there too long.
We got some lunch at the Golden Nugget Buffet which turned out to be quite
great, at least for lunch. They had breakfast items out till at least 1pm,
and everything was at least decent.
We drove out of downtown and stopped by the Gambler's General Store on the
way towards the strip. That place is amazing as far as selection of various
gambling related stuff, but their prices are ridiculously inflated.
I can't remember what we did in the afternoon but since we decided to
go and see Penn and Teller show at the Rio at 8pm we were looking for
an early dinner by 5:30. We drove to the Palms because there were a
couple of restaurants there I was interested in, but didn't find them
appealing once we were there. We did check out the poker room(s) and
they were hopping, at least the lower limit one was full.
We drove to the Rio and after checking out a couple of restaurants there
and finding either the menus or the atmosphere less than perfect we went
to their seafood buffet (not to be confused with the Carnival Buffet)
for dinner. It was pretty decent, though not sure I ate enough crablegs
to justify the $35/person price tag.
While waiting for P&T to start we found an interesting roulette table.
The table was set up in the middle of a bunch of stations with screens,
kind of like video poker machines, except these were your own individual
touchscreen roulette betting screen. Cute. We couldn't resist and played
for a few minutes, netting something like $140 in the process. I understand
playing low stakes roulette to kill time for entertainment, but the lady
sitting next to us deposited something like $6,000 into her machine. Yikes!
P&T were funny and entertaining as always, though I think I liked the show
which I was seeing for the third time better than Mark did (he was seeing
them for the first time).
After the show we stopped by a few little stores. I checked the "All
WSOP merchandise all the time" store. I also found my bustout gift
in a little boutique called "Hippy Chic", it was a poker chip keychain
which had this little cartoon of "It's Happy Rabbit" and it said:
"Wow, this hand made me throw up a little" For some reason I found it
hysterically funny and so did everyone else I showed it to.
Tuesday, August 2nd:
Tuesday, the last day of my "restful" vacation (as opposed to partying
vacation) was not unlike Monday. We decided to skip Grand Canyon as the
weather over there was alternating between very hot and thunderstorming.
So it was more of the same thing -- pool in the morning, breakfast at GN,
then we decided to play the 2pm tournament at the Horseshoe. Several other
BARGErs who were already in town were there. I recognized some of the dealers
from last year, including a few that had several BARGE pins from several
previous years. They were NOT happy that BARGE was elsewhere this year and
were really pissed at their management for not making it happen -- they
knew it wasn't our fault but their owners who were in the process of
selling them, and didn't want to sign any deals for August. They all
expressed sincere hope that we'd be able to work with new owners and be
back in 2006.
After lasting to about 13 players and outlasting Randy C and Mike Mc,
I still missed out on our four-way last longer to Rick. Mark went out
earlier (he chose not to rebuy as he didn't like the way the play was
going at his table) and I found him playing NL ring game at GN. By the
way, no limit ring games were EVERYWHERE. Mostly $1-$2 blinds but some
places had bigger games as well. At the Plaza the minimum buy-in into
this game was $40 only!
We had made a reservation at the Eiffel Tower restaurant at the Paris and
headed over there after dressing up a little. The meal was quite nice --
I had been there once before and remembered it as being one of the better
restaurants in Las Vegas, and certainly with their view it has close to
the best ambiance.
Around midnight back at the Plaza I decided to see who was already in
and what was going on. I found a rather happening no limit game with
Terence Chan and Greg Pappas betting and raising after only looking at
one of their cards. The game could pretty much be separated into three
types of players: drunk or drunk-acting BARGErs having fun, young
tourists playing tight and hoping to catch a hand, and a few old angry locals.
Now, it seemed to me that they must have been angry because they did not
have all of Greg's and Terence's money yet. I decided to settle down and
watch for a while.
Now, I had never met Terence before sitting down to sweat him, but in one
of those only-at-BARGE moments, it certainly SEEMED like I've known him
for years. In fact after some funny hands, including a couple of bigger
pots that Terence lost to RT guy, he left for a little while and told me
to play his chips.
Now two things you need to know. One is "his chips" included a roll of
hundreds that started out being about $5900, but was maybe 20% lighter at
this point. Two is RT guy. I dubbed him "Reverse Tilt" guy. A couple
of times he was bluffing at the pot to back into the nuts on the river
and then after Terence paid him off he'd go on a fuming rampage screaming
things like "How do you like that punk" and "See how you like it" or
something like that, and getting so worked up that he had to leave the
table to calm down. It was the strangest thing. The guy went on tilt
after winning a big pot and it wasn't happy tilt either.
Anyway, after playing Terence's chips for a while and winning and losing
a couple of small pots this hand came up: I picked up 98 off in early
position and raised to about $8. A few people called including the
RTguy in the big blind. The flop came 998. Ka-ching! He bet out
$10. I raised to $30 which is what I did before with nothing, and
then he was able to push me out of the pot, so I wasn't worried about
losing him. He made it $55 to go and I called his $25 raise. The turn
was a five and he now bet $30. I raised to $60 and he pushed his chips in,
his stacks of red and the $100 bills under them, which came from Terence,
I believe. He still had a stack of whites in front of him, so technically
he was not all in.
I started thinking. Terence was already back at the table watching us,
but he hadn't seen my hand so he probably thought I was considering folding
or calling. He shrugged and said "do whatever you think is right". Later
after he found out my hand, he thought I was slow-rolling the RT guy. What was
actually going through my mind was whether or not it would be bad sportsmanship
to re-raise the guy to get his last few white chips. Given how much of a jerk
he'd been, I decided it would NOT be and I tossed Terence's roll in the middle
of the table saying "I raise". The RT guy had that look on his face. You
know the look it's the "I don't know exactly what's happening but I think it's
not good" look. He put in his last stack of chips and turned over 97(!) as
I turned over my 98. The river was a deuce and the dealer pushed the
pot to me.
The guy now proved that his newly given nickname could not have been more
appropriate by being really nice. "Well, darling, you really got me on
this one" he kept repeating several times. Reverse-tilt, all right.
At this point Terence gathered his chips and cashed in, finding himself
completely even after this hand. As we were walking away from the cashier's
cage the RT guy came over to boast to us that we didn't "get" him as he
slipped a five off the table. I can only imagine how pathetic his life
has to be that the only way he can feel better about being beat is by
bragging about sneaking money off the table in a table stakes game. In
any case, I think he was lying as the amount in that pot was about right
for the amount I watched him win previously.
At this point it was after 4am and true to Terence's prediction, the game
broke up as soon as he (or rather his money) left. I went back to the
room to try to sleep which was pretty hard with all the adrenaline pumping.
A fine and fitting start to BARGE.
Wednesday, August 3rd:
Wednesday morning started at the pool. After another brunch at the GN,
we played some poker in the GN poker room (Scottro and Russell Fox joined us
in the $4-$8 game for a little bit -- what was up with that, famous
authors???) The game was hysterically funny. Most players were open
books (BARGErs excepted) but one of them after losing a big pot to me
on the river (he thought it was to a two outer, it was actually to an
eleven outer) was convinced that I was the game's biggest fish, and when
we got up to leave he actually started protesting (something about that
I couldn't leave with all those chips). Guess he thought if I stayed
he was bound to win them back with his fine, fine play. NOT!
Mark wasn't due to leave for a few hours, so we drove over to the Wynn
to check it out. Man, that place is really something. Kind of like the
Bellagio in the over-the-top decorating style. And prices of everything
to match. Kid's cap in the gift shop: $38.00. Matso ball soup at the
country club grill: $9.50. The casual-ish looking Chinese restaurant
had prices exactly double what Bay Area restaurants would charge and
we are not exactly the cheapest in town. We walked around till we came
by the poker room. 4pm on Wednesday afternoon and the place was COOKING.
There were five $4-$8 tables, and another half a dozen limit tables
going up to $15-$30, and another seven or eight no limit tables with
blinds from $1-$2 to $5-$10, and interest lists for up to $25-$50.
We saw a few BARGErs and said hi. They said the place was great to play
at and I could see why. Comfortable looking chairs, food served at the
tables (like in California but I'd never seen that in LV before),
shuffle master machines on every table, and plenty of tourists from the
looks of it.
I make a mental note to check it out during a non-BARGE LV visit.
Eventually it's time for Mark to head back to LA and work and he drops
me off at the airport around six. It's considerably more crowded than
just three days ago, in fact it's totally packed. Ben's flight is delayed
45 minutes so I grab a shuttle to Dollar lot to pick up my car rental.
My choices of a compact include red Dodge Neon, burgundy Dodge Neon,
white Dodge Neon and gray Dodge Neon. I go for red and drive back to
the pickup area to wait for Ben.
As many of you saw, we each picked up a set of "Rock, Paper, Scissors"
shirts from here, regular for Ben and ladies shirts for me (came out
just in time for BARGE).
I told Ben to wear one for the flight and I'd wear one to the airport,
to see who pays for dinner (we were going to the (non)smoker so not an
insignificant expense). We both told each other we were going rock,
so I went scissors to Ben's paper, and he had to pay for both of us at
the smoker. Ding!
Even with his flight being way late we had time to go back to the hotel
and drop stuff off before changing for the smoker and driving back down
to Piero's. Now I was very happy about the choice because I've heard a
lot about the place and was very curious to try it -- the place has
been around forever and is some sort of a legend in Vegas.
There were about sixteen of us there (owing to the conflict with the
lowball event) with three people joining us a little late. We had a
private room set with three large tables near each other which worked
really well, as we could talk easily to everyone at our table and it
was easy enough to move to other tables to "visit". I had a nice time,
and the food was good enough, but probably short of legendary status.
The service was a little slow but good, until the end when we just
couldn't get a check out of them for an extra 20 minutes after we were
ready. For the curious, the price there runs anywhere from $50 to $200+
depending on the number of courses, which ones, and whether and how much
wine was ordered.
After the smoker we got back to the Plaza and I got into a Chinese Poker
game. I would actually spend most of my spare time at BARGE this year
playing Chinese Poker. Ben meanwhile started playing in that $1-$2 NL
game. Around 2:30am I noticed that Patti was sitting to Ben's left and
to her left was a very drunk Murray. Oh no! I thought. I got to get
Ben out of there!!! I went over to look. He probably only had about
$70 or $80 in front of him at that point so the damage couldn't be too
bad. I gently suggested that maybe this wasn't the most profitable
game for me (I think I said something like "oh my god, why the hell are
you playing at this table?" to which his answer was a very practical
"because it's the one that had a seat open") Anyway it was a hand before
his big blind so he was going to play that hand and go. While waiting
for this hand I watched seat 3 bust someone with aces against another
big pair (queens I think it was). So Ben peeks at his cards and I see
they are red aces. He limps (I know he's trapping because he doesn't
tend to slow play too much), followed by several limps, seat 2 who raises
to $20 and seat three who has a million chips in front of him says
"all in". Ben calls, as does seat 2 and everyone else gets out of the
way. Ben flips over his red aces, 3 shows kings and 2 doesn't show at
this point (turned out later he had Jacks). The flop comes with a
highly disgusting looking QJ2 of spades (3 has Ks) and to make the
matters worse the turn is a king. Ben at this point still has four
legitimate outs even though he's now trailing both jacks and kings.
But the ten nor remaining non-spade ace don't come and he's out $70 or so
instead of picking up $200+.
He shrugs and takes it very well ("that's pocker" he says) as we walk
back to the room but goes on meta-tilt by the time we're back (his
internal statistical calibrator is telling him he's never flopped a
set in this sort of situation) and he's declaring that he's quitting
poker. I think losing the airport roshambo was eating away at him also.
I walk back down to the poker room because I don't want to catch his
bad attitude and have a drink with North Shore Mike and play some video
black jack. Why do we come to Vegas to gamble again? It's all computers
just like at home. Even the hands are rigged just like online!
Thursday, August 4th:
It's Thursday morning and Ben had to get up early to meet his team
"Dead Money Walking" for a 9:30 breakfast to "decide on their strategy".
I thought it was all simple -- win more money than you lose!
I was once again on Team Moosecock and found an appropriate t-shirt to
wear for the event (imagine a t-shirt with a Canadian flag which says
"FUKENEH" under it). North Shore Mike brought us team hats which he
ordered for last year, but they didn't arrive in time :( Anyway we
were all looking sharp except for that party-pooper Harkness who showed
no sportsmanship or team spirit whatsoever.
I played the Crazy Pineapple leg, same as Ben and did okay all three
rounds, in fact I think I ended each round with a little more money than
I started and the third round with a lot more money than I started.
Between my rounds I watched Gavin Smith play Chinese Poker with a bunch
of people which included Linda Johnson. Now, I'm sure Linda is very nice
and all that, and I'd never met her before, but when Gavin left to play
his round and left me and Kevin Un to play his chips (!!!) she actually
complained about collusion between us. We were, in fact, setting Gavin's
hand together, but god knows this was not the case of the whole (team in
this case) being greater than the sum of its parts. In addition she was
nagging the dealer to give cards good scramble and instructing him on
proper sequence of dealing out the four hands. In a BARGE $5 or $10/point
Chinese Poker hand that seemed kind of weird. Kevin and I didn't want
to make trouble though (huh?) so we just took turns losing Gavin's money.
Actually that's not true, when he got back each time he was pretty much
exactly even.
Now, I have to give some background about the sushi outing. About a week
before BARGE Patrick Milligan and I were emailing about going for some
sushi while we were there (and knowing Ben, some sake as well). So I
asked the BARGE list where the good sushi places in Las Vegas were. I
got a few replies with recommendations, but I got a much larger set of
replies with interest to join us. So I turned it into a group event.
CHORSE was expected to end around 3pm and Stud didn't start till 7pm
so I figured we had time for a long leisurely early dinner (or late lunch)
and socializing, all during the time when restaurants are usually quite
slow and would welcome our business.
Jeff "Blofeld" Deitch, a Las Vegas resident made a strong recommendation
for "I Love Sushi" and after finding a few excellent reviews of it on
the net, and calling and confirming their ability and desire to handle our
group, I made the reservation for 30 based on 20+ replies up to that point.
Since "I Love Sushi" was in Henderson, 15 miles and about 25 minutes away
as we hit little traffic on the way there, I coordinated drivers and people
who needed rides and everyone on the list who wanted to go did, except for
John and Kerry Planow who had a good excuse -- Kerry was busy winning the
Significant Others event, way to go Kerry! And with about ten cars, the
31 or so of us showed up at "I Love Sushi" at about 3:30 on Thursday
afternoon. On Jeff's recommendation I pre-ordered a bunch of appetizers
and rolls for us so we wouldn't be starving and to their credit, they
handled us beautifully. They had an extra sushi chef there that they
called in just for us (he left as soon as we were done), and several
waitresses kept the food and drinks coming.
This places is pretty amazing and they specialize in unusual rolls. In
addition to being unusual combination of ingredients they also have rather
out-there names. Screaming Orgasm, Tastes like my X-girlfriend, I Love
My Ass and Who's Your Pimp? were all popular choices in addition to more
traditional sushi and cooked Japanese fare. The sake selection was okay,
they had six or seven premium of which we tried four (Onikoroshi, Kurosawa,
Sho Chiku Bai Ginjo, and a nigori which Ben thought was Sho Chiku Bai also)
Patti set the over/under line on the bill at $50 (including tax and tip)
and we passed the napkin around. Since I would have set the line between
$40 and $45 I took the under but the majority of the people went with over.
Finally we were done eating and the bill came in... before tip: $1,028.
With tip it worked out to about $40/person which was an amazing deal, plus
I cashed for $9 in the pool.
We were out of there a little after five so people had lots of time to
rest up before stud at seven. Next year, we're DEFINITELY going back.
At seven I kibitzed stud for an hour or so trying to pick up some strategy
as it would be a full 1/3 of TOC and I don't really play stud much. At all.
Thursday night the plan was the martini crawl. However, Randy who organized
it decided not to go, and since we wouldn't have enough people to make the
Red Square vodka freezer visit a good deal, Ben and I decided instead to go
to some places we've been to or had on our list. First stop was Hard Rock
Cafe where I had some fantastic cocktails at Simon across from Nobu last year.
Unfortunately it was smoky, dark and crowded so we left. Nobu has no bar
to speak of, and we wandered off and ended up at the Pink Taco. Figuring
that a margarita was not a bad way to kick of a cocktail crawl (even if
technically it doesn't resemble a martini in any way) we had one each,
plus split an appetizer sampler instead of having dinner.
We decided for our next stop to go to the Wynn because we've already been
to Quark's, like, a million times, and I thought Ben would like the Wynn
and the drink menu at one of their bars with a view. After parking in
valet we took the escalator down to the Pagoda where there was an indoor
and outdoor bar. The outdoor bar was facing this huge lagoon and wall
of fountain with gorgeous lights which kept changing. We had a round
of drinks (after waiting about 10 minutes for a table to free up) and
heard that there is a mini-light-show at 11:30 (in 10 minutes) and a big
light show at midnight. We decided to just hang out there and watch the
show while enjoying their drinks which were excellent but ranged in price
from $12 to $16 each. The 11:30 light show was nothing to write home about
but the one at midnight was very cute, definitely worth seeing if you're
over there (though probably not worth a trip to the Wynn just for that).
Afterwards we ended up back at the Plaza with me playing -- you guessed
it -- more Chinese Poker. Finally at 4 or 5am I got back to my room and
set the hotel alarm clock for 9:45am as I was playing in the TOC at 10am.
Well. That's what I thought I did, anyway.
Friday, August 5th:
When we left late Thursday night or technically Friday morning, the
somewhat tired heroine of the story was setting the hotel alarm clock.
However, something went very very wrong with that plan, as I woke up
and saw the clock clearly say 10:42. That means that TOC was already
underway. I jumped out of bed threw on some clothes and rushed downstairs
to find my seat.
Here, let me summarize my TOC experience. I started late and finished early.
Luckily I missed a round of stud (which, honestly, I didn't miss at all)
and most of a round of Omaha (which is really fine with me too) and got
there for all of the first holdem round. That's limit holdem which I'm
not crazy about also. Why the hell DID I sign up for this event? It seemed
like _such_ a good idea at the time!
I did find myself at a r00l1ng table, at least as far as "fun" is concerned.
Sharon Goldman, Jen "PokerWire.com" Creason, Regis Donovan, Stacy "Big'Uns"
Conrad and me, you can imagine the fun we were having. I'm pretty sure
Russ Fox still has ringing in his ears from those two hours.
Anyway, right after this table breaks up, I'm somewhat short stacked I
find AKs in small blind and a raise from Goldiefish in mid position to me,
so I reraise and put all my money in on the flop and turn that includes
two fives. Goldie shows me 54s. VNH, sir, well played. IGHN.
Actually I go back to the room and finding no Ben nor my laptop correctly
conclude that I can find him using the free high speed wireless access at
the Krispy Kreme at Fitzgerald's.
After we get back to the Plaza I go to play some more Chinese Poker but
finally we rebel against the usurious $50/hr drop and decide to go and
play in the hospitality suite instead. That works out reasonable well
and kills some time before the symposium. When I get to the suite, I
run into NS Mike who tells me that the Moosecock syndicate will be having
a strategy meeting at the Main Street Station Brewpub at 2:30pm.
"What time is it now?" I ask someone. "Quarter to three" they say.
"Okay, meeting is cancelled" declares Mike. I love Mike!
Of course given our results maybe a meeting to plan strategy would have
helped our syndicate. In spite of having about a quarter of the field we
managed to return about $30 out of $100. Not to be confused with $30
profit -- this was actually a $70 loss. Next year we will meet to discuss
our strategy: buy only people who will place. And buy them for cheap!
Symposium was pretty good. The snacks seemed excellent though we were
headed off to dinner at six we skipped them. The auction moved quickly
and Ben and I went for a bargain of $60 (to Patti who only bought us so
she could keep telling us that she owned our sorry asses). Ben's nickname
on the calcutta sheet was recDot which had to be explained to me, but he
liked it well enough that he may well keep it for next year as his official
nick.
For dinner, Patti, Chris, Ben and I went to Alize on top of the Palms.
It's a nice French restaurant with good food and a gorgeous view of
the strip especially as it got dark while we ate and all the lights came
on. The service was slightly pretentious but decent, and the food was
quite good.
We then drove over to the Aladdin where we met Regis and Claudia to see
"Fashionistas" at Krave, the "alternative" nightclub at the Aladdin.
I did NOT have high expectations of Fashionistas which is basically a
story the plot of which comes from a porn film told through music, dance
and lots of fetishwear. In spite of this questionable premise it actually
works really well, and we all enjoyed it a lot.
After the show we rushed back as we heard that the karaoke would only
last till 1am and it was already after 11pm. Ben and I are both big
karaoke fans and we figured it would be lots of fun. We got there when
things were in full swing and I put in for one of our favorite duets.
It came up in about 45 minutes during which we enjoyed the talents of
BARGErs which we had no idea they had! Before our song I really, honestly
sincerely apologized to the non-BARGE side of the room for what was about
to be inflicted on them and we did our dramatic interpretation of Meatloaf's
"Paradise by the Dashboard Light" with me singing the part of Meatloaf and
Ben doing a very credible Ellen Foley.
Due to BARGErs being so much fun (and some generous tips, I gather) the
karaoke was extended till 2am and then 2:30. I got to do "I Will Survive",
Ben did "Just a Gigolo" and then we both did "Jungle Love". There were
many group numbers and many talented soloists, and who can forget, a
very chesty Terence Chan doing an amazing Brittny Spears? Not I or my blouse!
Afterwards, we went to the GN coffeeshop where we continued singing and
telling stories and jokes and riddles, making bets of how many drink orders
the waitress would get right and other friendly banter. It was an awesome
night, and to me one of the highlights of BARGE this year.
Saturday, August 6th:
This morning I figured out the damn alarm clock and we were up a little
before 10am to get to the start of NL ontime. I lasted for over five
hours, till about 3pm to go out around 50th. Outlasting more than 3/4th
of the field netted me absolutely nothing as all my big pots came against
people with bigger stacks and I got no bustout prizes. Eventually I
gave my gift and chips to Nick Christenson who busted my presto with KJs and
then used the chips well and came in 2nd. I did sit next to Un for a while
and when he busted before me won my quickbet with him. Luckily it wasn't
the only money I'd win in the NL event.
After I busted I saw that Ben was still in the event and while
his stack looked a little below average it wasn't hurting yet. And that's
how it was every time I looked for the next three hours as Ben made the
final four, then three tables. With about 23 people to go he got lucky
and picked up kings on the button facing a raise from middle position
he pushed all-in and more than doubled up against QJs. He then made it
to final two tables and the money. I was so excited! This was basically
his first real live tournament (though he's been playing a lot of NL online,
mostly SNGs but some multi-tables and he did play in YACHT in April).
And to make the money at BARGE with that field was really impressive!
I was now watching all the hands. Ben was shorter stack at the table,
and he was playing pretty tight so I knew he'd need to get some cards to
keep out of the crapshoot of having to push all-in with anything.
When he was in the big blind, the button raised and Ben pushed all in...
Ben's AQ against QT! Yes! And it holds up! He now has a decent stack...
only 11 players left now... a couple of orbits later, the same guy on
the button now smaller stack than Ben's pushes it all in and Ben calls
with no hesitation: he has AK vs KQ and it holds up again and they are
down to ten and get consolidated to the final table. This is so exciting,
plus Ben has a well above average stack now with all three players to
his left being severely short-stacked. In fact it looks like all three
may be all in on the first hand, as Ben gets the button on the first
hand of the final table.
To make a long story short, Ben ended up fifth. And he didn't do anything
wrong and generated a lot of excitement as the last five hands he played
were real nailbiters. First his stack was halved when his A8 didn't hold
up against Steve Day's KJ (jack on the turn). Then he was almost
eliminated when his 66 didn't hold up against A8 (eight on the turn).
He now had exactly the full amount of the ante UTG. He'd have to win
the next three hands in a row to stay alive. First one, he had 92 against
two overcards and the river brought a deuce. He's got enough for 1/2
a big blind now. He's all in again, and has 72o(!) against two facecards.
His opponent makes top pair on the flop but the turn puts three diamonds
on the board with Ben's deuce being the only diamond and when the river
brings the ace of diamonds, Ben is still alive! Now he posts his ante
and small blind which is almost half of his stack and I know he'll throw
the rest in unless two people go all-in in front of him and he has a chance
to move up.
Instead, Don Perry raises and gets flat-called by Steve Day and Ben tosses
his last dozen chips in. All hands are still unknown as there is action
on the side. The flop comes QT2 of spades and Don says all-in. Steve
folds and now Don turns over QJ with Jack being a spade for top pair
and spade flush draw. Ben dramatically turns over 73 of spades! On his
third live or die hand in a row he flopped a flush! The crowd goes wild!
The turn is a small diamond! The river is ... another SPADE!!! The
crowd screams again and it's over... Ben is out in 5th place. Impressive
as that was, I know having been there that getting busted any time is
a disappointment but I know that the $2000+ fifth place prize will take
some of the sting out of the pain.
By this time it's after six o'clock and after Ben gets paid we go upstairs
to change for the buffet. Ben looks a little dazed, but I'm guessing those
thoughts about quitting poker he had just a few days ago are long gone.
The banquet is fun as always. The food is a mixed bag with some items being
decent and others being barely edible (and only edible at all because neither
of us had anything to eat all day except two Krispy Kreme donuts).
We had some time after eating and we walked around socializing, saying hi
to people I hadn't had a chance to talk to yet, meeting new people, collecting
our calcutta winnings from Patti, and doing general socializing. I was
also drumming up interest in the World Roshambo Championships which was
not going to a Tiltboy this year, because, as you all know, they pussied
out and didn't come to BARGE.
Peter made some announcements, we called Chuck and Nolan presented some
awesome gifts to Peter and Chuck. Peter got choked up and I know he
wasn't the only one.
Then Wil Wheaton gave the banquet speech. It was very entertaining and
it was clear pretty much as soon as he started speaking that he "got" BARGE.
Hell, he was one of us, even if he was a virgin BARGEr. It didn't matter
that his poker knowledge wasn't as extensive as most people there -- he
was there to tell an entertaining story and that he did. I had read the
story on his blog before and while I enjoyed it there, I really feel it
benefited from being abridged, and being read out loud (it didn't hurt
that Wil's delivery was excellent, as I would expect of an accomplished actor).
Anyway, I think that if we can't get a good expert poker player to speak,
an entertaining speech from a good speaker would certainly be an acceptable
substitute, and would certainly be preferable to a bad speaker who knows
poker well (*cough*ESCARGOT*cough*).
In fact, I nominate Matt Ruff for our next writer-who-plays-poker-speaker. :)
After the banquet and the speeches was time for Roshambo. We made some
announcements and quickly had seven people signed up. I gave a last-chance
announcement but got no immediate takers, so I signed up myself to round
out the brackets.
I drew Claudia in the first round and she was a tough opponent quickly
taking a 4-1 lead. I made appropriate adjustments and pulled back even
as we moved up keeping up with each other when I caught a few lucky breaks
and won 10-8. Ben ruled Regis winning 10-1, while Goldiefish and Ploink
advanced against Jerrod and Lee Crocker (final scores unknown). I drew
Ploink in the semi's and Ben faced Goldie. Ben struggled falling behind
9-4 but countered with scissors as Goldie threw paper after paper to pull
to even. Unfortunately the last throw did him in as Ben switched to paper
and fell to unexpected scissors. Meanwhile Chris and I stayed close with
me eventually pulling ahead 10-7.
It was me against Stevan Goldiefish Goldman in the final. We agreed to
a $200 save and got in positions to play for the remaining $400.
I didn't know about his paper ream move against Ben but still I wasn't
surprised to find myself facing an avalanche halfway through the match.
I skillfully countered with paper after paper pulling ahead and never
surrendering the lead till my rock crushed his scissors for a 10-7 victory.
World Championship was mine! As was a tidy profit for BARGE, which I
would still have plenty of chances to lose, as I was planning on spending
the rest of the night playing Chowaha.
It turned out that the Plaza didn't quite have enough room to accommodate
us so a bunch of tables were opened for us at the Horseshoe. It was like
old times! We started a new must-drink-must-straddle table and were joined
by a bunch of r00l1ng virgins (I mean these guys may be BARGE virgins
but they are hardcore as they play Chowaha in their home game!) David Low
and Brian (hey never did get his last name) Bob Jones and Patti and Chris
also joined me, Ben, Regis, Ron Nutt, ADBBigBoy in a most ruling Chowaha
game. We toked dealers, janitors and passers by. We even got a tourist
who was watching to join the game when Regis busted out (sorry Reg!)
There was cleavage toking and dealer beaning (don't ask about that).
There was lots of rowdy fun as is befitting the last night of BARGE.
After we got exhausted at the table and the game broke up we headed over
to the brewpub at the Main Street Station where we split some snacks and
Ben sampled some beers. We said fond goodbyes to all the BARGErs we
passed and I was already sad even though I wasn't leaving for another day.
Sunday, August 7th:
We got up at the crack of noon to gather our crap together and head
over to the Paris where we were going to catch the 2pm matinee of
"We Will Rock You" the musical based on the songs of Queen. I saw
it last November and enjoyed it a lot and wanted to see it again,
and it seemed like the sort of thing Ben would enjoy also. We got
there by 1:15 and had time to split a crepe before heading in.
The show was good though we got understudies for the two main parts
and for some reason they cut one song from the show (possibly to
shorten running time since there was another show at 5pm).
After we walked over to the buffet, since I'd heard good things about
the buffet at the Paris. We happen to split our time there between
the brunch and dinner (the changeover is at 4:30) We left the
Paris by 5pm and since we didn't have to be at the airport till
6:30 or so, we went to the Rio to get more of those happy rabbit
keychains. We browsed some more shops and eventually made it to
the airport completely uneventfully.
Some remarkable numbers from Sunday: total for a week long hotel
stay in a decent room with a decent bed, plus a bunch of local
phone calls and tax: $177.50 ($27 deposit was already charged to
the card, but still). Car rental for four days with all taxes: $99.
They really want you to save all your money for gambling, huh?
While waiting for our plane at the gate, Bruce Iwamoto, from virgins
class of 2005 came up to introduce himself and thank me for last year's
trip report, saying it encouraged him to come to BARGE this year.
You're welcome, Bruce. If this report communicates even 10% of the
awesome time I had and inspires another new person to come to BARGE
next year it'll have been worth the time.
The flight back was uneventful and the only bad beat of the trip was
realizing when I got back that I have no idea where my house keys are.
Special thanks to:
Peter and Chuck for another great BARGE
PokerStars and Paradise for sponsorship
Plaza for excellent tournament staff
Everyone who goes to BARGE intending to have a good time
Everyone who reads this report and gets inspired to go next year
Best. BARGE. Ever.
Additional notes: John and Kerry Planow, David Low and Brian ? get
on Patrick Milligan's YACHT list and hopefully we'll see you this September.