BARGE and its sibling events, such as ATLARGE, FARGO, MARGE, ESCARGOT, and others, have spawned some remarkable stories. These have become familiar to those who attend these events. Some of them are referenced here.
This document should be considered very preliminary. We are actively soliciting additional information that isn't listed here, corrections to information, and links to the orgins of some traditions. Consequently, this page should be viewed as very much a work in progress.
In 2002 BARGE held its first stud shootout tournament. As the structure was developed, a round with a T5 ante, T15 bring-in, playing 35-70 was implemented by JP Massar as a smooth transition between at 25-50 and 50-100 round. Some pointed out that such a limit seemed to lack a certain aesthetic appeal, but others pointed out that it really doesn't make any less sense than a 30-60 or 40-80 round when using just T5 and T25 denomination chips. Many BARGErs appreciate and applaud the notion that the pragmatism of adding a round with these limits would outweigh other considerations. It would also make sense as a cash game structure for those poker rooms who mint chips in a $17.50 denomenation.
The BARGE tradition of charging $1 to hear a bad beat story. I don't recall when this came about, or who started it, but it probably had something to do with Lee Jones.
In any case, poker players love to tell bad beat stories, but they hate to listen to them. At some point it became a BARGE tradition to charge people a fee to listen to their bad beat story. So, if you're around BARGErs and tell something that is or can be mistaken for a bad beat story, don't be surprised if someone (or everyone) there charges you a dollar.
BARGE tournaments have some unusual traditions. One is that everyone who busts out of any tournament is given a round of applause. The second is that it's common for people in a BARGE tournament, especially the no-limit event, to provide a "bust-out gift" as an additional trophy to the person who took them out. It is not considered compulsory to provide a bust-out gift (it it were compulsory, it really couldn't be called a gift), but it is popular. These are not usually valuable, but they are often personal, poker-related, and/or humorous.
Your humble author has never attended the carnage^Wevent, and so has no first-hand knowledge to report. However, this does present the opportunity to tell a second hand story of +EV karaoke.
In 2006 at the BARGE karaoke event ADB Fich and ActionBob were perusing the list of available songs. Fich asked ActionBob how many digits it would take for him to sing the Celine Dion train wreck^W^Wclassic, "My Heart Will Go On" from the movie Titanic. ActionBob replied, "Not even three, I think." After lining up ADB Darkside, ADB Smaltalk, and Gavin Smith as additional investors, Fich presented a whole $80 to ActionBob who accepted the offer.
While waiting for his turn in the rotation, ActionBob apparently had a change of heart and wanted to back out and return the $80. ADB Fich said he couldn't let it go for less than $200. ActionBob pleaded, but ADB Fich said he would have to check with his investors who insisted that ActionBob sing.
In a moment of weakness, ADB Fich accepted $100 from ActionBob to buy out his action. The investors were paid, and at the end of the evening everyone seemed content. Everyone, that is, except for Fich, who was bothered by the feeling that he left money on the table.
Still, +EV karaoke is +EV karaoke.
A person could enter a poker tournament and content themselves with the action of playing and perhaps cashing in that tournament, but some people might want a little more action. One of the ways to get this action is to make a bet with another player as to who will last longer in the tournament. Last one to bust out wins the bet. Yes, if the bet is for a large enough sum of money, this might affect optimal tournament strategy.
A person may make multiple last longer bets, perhaps even against the whole field. See the BARGE glossary entry for Quick bets.
This can also be played as a team event with N players from team A each contributing $X and M players from team B each contributing $X to a fixed pool. The last player from either team determines with winner of the bet. Yes, the team with more players is more likely to win, but assuming that each team consists of equally skilled players, this is a completely fair bet because the team with additional members is laying fair odds. Think about it.
Warren "Must Be First" Sander has been the first registrant for BARGE for many years. How many? I don't know, but many. Some speculate that starting on May 1 he simply spends all his time hitting "reload" on his web browser at the BARGE web site. Some believe he has automated this process. Some think the BARGE organizers tip him off as to when registration opens, although they adamantly refuse to confirm that for the record. In any case, don't even try to beat Warren. It's just not going to happen.
In New Jersey, gambling regulation does not allow payouts at casino table games to be in the form of cash. If someone makes a $5 bet at a blackjack game that pays 3:2 for a natural 21, they need a chip to make the $0.50 payout. All of the Atlantic City casinos stock $2.50 chips for this purpose. Of course, there's nothing preventing AC casinos for using these chips for other purposes as well. In 199? at the AC Tropicana, ATLARGErs persuaded the poker room in the Tropicana to spread a $7.50/$15.00 blind Texas hold'em game. Despite the strange chip amounts, the structure is no different than a $3/$6 or $15/$30 game, it's just played with different denomination chips.
The first time this was spread at ATLARGE, the game was famous for its action. It was also the game where the phrase, "Nolan, you're not going to like this," came into popular use, as Nolan heard this line many times taking an unusually large number of bad beats in one poker session.
The Barbary Coast had a reputation for being especially quick to bar those they feared might be advantage blackjack players, even to the point of backing off players who have no idea how to count cards, much less have an actual advantage over the house.
On a lark, a group of BARGE blackjack players went to the Barbary Coast with the plan of counting cards in a blatantly obvious manner to see how long it would take for the Barbary Coast to kick them out. In some cases it took surprisingly long. Several accounts of these escapades survive, including one chronicled in the book Knock-Out Blackjack by Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs.
At one point some casinos in Las Vegas spread a seven card stud game with an unusual structure. Typically in stud, the low card on the board is usually required to "bring it in" for a forced bet. In this variant, instead of making the low card bring it in, the winner of the last pot is the one who brings it in. If there are no antes, this presents a problem. It means that if one doesn't play a hand, one could never be required to put money in the pot. Note, this problem was also noted by Mason Malmuth in his essay, "The Rock Game", which appears in his book, Poker Essays, Volume II.
In any case, some BARGErs figured that they could sit in this game and consume a massive number of drink units without risking a thing. In fact, one could fill a table with a group of like-minded individuals, drink up a storm, and never really play a hand. Just show up at the table, play like a true rock, and drink lots of beer. Get it?
Of course, one won't be served all that many drinks if one doesn't take care of the cocktail waitress. Also, the dealer might get a wee bit miffed if his hourly rate from tips goes down. However, one can be generous to both people, drink to one's heart content with no risk, and still come out way ahead compared to the cost of pursuing the same level of inebriation in some casino bar.
Even if such a game isn't available, one could still do pretty well at very low cost playing in one of the 1-4 or 1-5 stud games that used to be endemic to Las Vegas poker rooms. Of course, these games have gone the way of low-juice tournaments, but if they eventually reappear, cheapskates with drinking problems will be ready!
During BARGE 2000, an unusual poker tournament was held on Thursday, August 3. It was called the "History of Poker", featuring alternating rounds of 5-card stud, 5-card draw, and California lowball. The event was repeated in 2001, 2002, and 2003. This event morphed into two different events, the Tuesday tournament, beginning in 2004, in which some unusual poker variant is played, and the Mike Zimmers Memorial Lowbah event, which was inaugurated in 2005. By year, the Tuesday events have been:
The theme for these events is to play some game that is actually spread in poker rooms somewhere in the world (or online) but is rarely seen.
A portion of the prize pool for the 2004 and 2005 events was donated to charity.