BARGE

Big August Rec.Gambling Excursion

I started playing poker in 1998 and discovered RGP shortly thereafter. Since it was summer, RGP was filled with threads regarding BARGE. I felt like such a newbie that I didn't feel comfortable taking a spontaneous trip to Vegas to join the group, but I read the threads with interest.

By the next year, I had already gone to my first RGP event (ESCARGOT '99) and was eager to attend my first BARGE. After registering and signing up for the mailing list, I read lots of discussion about a Calcutta. Well, I had never heard of a Calcutta and didn't have a clue. Someone suggested that newcomers form their own syndicate to pool their limited knowledge of the players. I wasn't sure if I would get much response, but I stepped forward and called out for any interested "Virgins" like myself to email me. Immediately I received seven responses! Eventually, we had a group of 20+ 1999 Escargot Virgins who formed a syndicate (a successful one, I might add), won last-longer challenges issued by the ADB'ers and the Boston BARGE Brigade, and generally had a great time...especially since we had corresponded by email in advance and didn't feel quite so lost by the time we arrived at BARGE.

Because we enjoyed hanging out together so much, we wanted to continue our group at BARGE 2000. We knew that we couldn't continue to be Virgins, so after much discussion, we evolved into the ADV'ers (alt.deflowered.virgins). In the meantime, there have been successive Virgin groups: the 2000 Virgins led by Scottro and the 2001 Virgins led by North Shore Mike.

1999 ADV Beth

2000 Scottro

2001 North Shore Mike

2002 Zbigniew

2003 Sethro

2004 Asya

2005 Bob Jones

2006 MissT74

2007 Ron Grossberg

2008 David Kluchman

2009 Sean Frame

2010 Yolanda Kerr

2011 Drew Boyett

2012 Rod "SURFER-1" Crane

2013 Chris O'Connor

2014 David Kullmann

2015 Jennifer Shahade

Virgins who have won the BARGE NLHE Main Event

Jeff Bartoszewicz, 2000

Mordecai Schwartz, 2006

Andreas Wolfram, 2014

Jennifer Shahade, 2015