Get to LV on Tuesday night. Decide to stay a few days on the strip to play some poker at the bellagio and maybe some BJ before heading downtown for Barge madness. When I get to the IP (barge tradition to stay at cheap hotel without wife) there is a huge line. I just check my bags and head to mirage to play some BJ. The MGM has suggested in the past I don’t play 21 so I have to keep sessions to short and move a lot. I play about 45m at $25-200 and win $900. I then walk through the bellagio. I have often played in their $50 game here but tonight all 8 tables of DD are $100 with nobody playing. I leave and go to Aria and find the same thing of all DD tables being $100. I should have brought more money as in past trips $50 tables were always available and that is what the CBJN report said.

I head to the palace station. They have a DD where they deal 75-80% of the cards. Not as good of rules but I only come to vegas 1-2x per yer so I decide $10-200 is acceptable here. I had 2 beers at the airport and 2 on the plane and 2-3 at the mirage. I get to the Palace station around 1:00 am. I buy in for $500 and the pit boss comes to talk to me. Most players are betting $10-15. I start with $50 bets and adjust. I order 2-3 drinks and start playing. Buy 2:30 I have had 7-8 drinks and I am up $1000 or so. There is a pit boss camped at my table now. I could care less. Next round I bet $40 on the first hand and I get 20 and dealer has an Ace. No insurance (of course). Later in the deck I see 11 small cards come out on one round heads up and I adjust my bet from $75->250. I order another shot and beer (I have 2 shots and 1.5 beers in front of me). I get 16 and the dealer has an A so I take insurance and she has it. I figure the end is near but what the hell. My drinks come and I now have 5 on the table. The casino manager comes over and says no more BJ. He also mentions that he had not seen someone drink sooo much and still play a tough game. Been in vegas 6h and up $2400 total, pretty buzzed/drunk, and 1 barring. I play until 6:00 am at the TI and Mirage. When I get to the IP there is no line and they ask me if I am checking out, I say no in. Totally forgot to get my bags and just head to the room to crash. Pretty drunk by 6:00 when I go to bed. Forgot to drink any water, bad idea.

Wake up on Wednesday and go running. I broke the cardinal rule of not drinking 8 glasses of water before bed. As I am jogging down LVB towards the El Cortez I think I have some minor stomach convulsions. I go into the stratosphere and drink 5-6 glasses of water. I then play some BJ at the Bellagio before Steve W gets to town with John. I find the $50 table at the high limit area is open. I love this room. They have a private bartender. I am the only one playing so I play it cool at $50-250. I order some fine wine from France. Of course I would be ok with Charles Schwab. I sign a few markers (3 to be exact) and mostly lose in here. You do have to be pretty mellow if you are a small bettor (anything under $1k is small). They move all tables to $100 but let me play. I leave and play some BJ at the Aria before I need to meet Steve at the Bellagio poker room. We play some 4-8. We are drinking double pineapple stoli drinks pretty fast. We all move to the 10-20 game and notice we are the only players drinking. We play until about 2:00. Steve goes to bed and John and I head to the mirage for some late night BJ. The $25 game is empty so we sit down. Not sure if I can count after 20 drinks but I give it a shot. Counting isn’t the problem but dealer 5 card 21s is. The count goes up and up and I am down $1000 in one shuffle. We lose every hand. I decide that maybe I have had too much to drink to play BJ correctly and head to bed around 4:00.

Thursday after running we played at the Venetian 4-8 game. Saw bargers playing 8-16 O/8 but friends want to play HE. Can’t get a 8/16 game going. I leave early to play some BJ at the Mirage. Bellagio again only had all $100 tables. After giving back most of my BJ winnings we play 10/20 at the Bellagio. This is really a rock garden game. Steve W finds out you can order 12y Macallan at the table and has 3. I am on drink 15+ so I stick with mixed drinks. I think I play until 3:30 or so and even play a few rounds of 3 handed. I moved up to a 20-40 game that was even more rocky. I never played the 40/80 game this trip but the other games were very marginal.

Friday we head down to the 4Q and checkin. I do my usual I suck at tournaments and end up about mid pack in the TOC. All I remember was drinking 5-6 beers before I go. That afternoon I played a ruling 4/8 horse game. The bet that Dave F made about the stack of chips had me laughing so hard I couldn’t take it. The part about his being jewish and the line was 5s was really funny. I paid Dave my $2 for the over and was the funniest time ever for $2. I think I donked off 2 racks playing 4/8 horse. A bunch of us went to the brewery at Main Street for dinner. North Shore Mike paid off some of my aresenal/man U bets with dinner/drinks. Beer is really good here. Tom Hummel is a master home brewer I hear and even he liked it. I had 3 I think to bring my total to 15 or so for the day. After dinner I head back to the shoe and play 6/12 HO. Bingo, Mav, and some others are here. I am really drunk by now so I decide to only have 5 doubles before I head to bed. Mav is in best behavior and we sit next to each other and have an enjoyable time. One funny hand I flop the nut flush on O8 against Bingo and some all ins. The pot is huge and I have 2nd nut low draw also. Board pairs a 7 on the river. Bingo who has been calling the whole way fires 12 into the pot. I ask him if he will show me one card for $1. He agrees and I turn over a 7. I assumed he had a set but this was enough to fold a $250 pot so I save the $11 call. Bingo shows the other 7. We all laugh. Mav then runs super hot against me and wins something like 7 hands in a row with “commerce outs” as he puts it. Some hands had 2 outs others had 15+. Mav was cool about it and I drop $200 in the game.

Saturday I again play OK until the blinds move up. I have to wear my German jersey for paying off a Euro 2012 soccer bet with Bingo. What an ugly $100 uniform but I couldn’t lose to a nicer guy. I give him the jersey that night to take home and wish him bad beats when he wears it. I decide AQ is good enough for a raise of about 40% of my stack. Ice goes all in and he has AK and I go home now. I truly play AQ like a limit player who has been drinking in tourneys. I win last longer bets against Steve and John so that is cool. Steve and I go to Texas Station to play some poker and me some BJ. The game is 2-6 spread with a 1/2 kill. Later it becomes NL with over buttons though nobody has more than $150 on the table. First time I have every played limit with NL over buttons. I get bored and go play some BJ. I sit down and start losing at the $10-150 range. The pit boss is like in my lap. I go down about $400 in 5m and then hit a card rush. Parlay a $25 bet into $150 when a split and double wins. I hear “shuffle” from the boss to the dealer at about 1d left when they normally deal to 1/2 deck. Next round I bet $10 on the top. When count gets to -2 I just sit out the rest of the deck and order another drink. I wonder if they have my picture or they just sweat more than me jogging in LV. After 1h or so we leave and I am up $900. When we get back downtown Steve and I go to the El Cortez to play BJ. I decide I will sit at their SD and bet $10 on the top and either $5 on the next round or $100-125. The new dealer looks really nervous the first time I slam $125 in 5 chips on the felt. Some rounds I just sit out on bad counts. The pit boss is watching but nothing happens. I make about 6 large bets expecting the tap at anytime. I at least get a few more beers. We leave for the banquet and I am even and Steve wins $100 or so. Banquet was great and Un’s song was the nuts. I am now officially an ADB and lose $40 on the last longer bets. Go figure!!! Drinkers against Math Experts!! We play 4/8 horse. I go on a major rush and scoop many Omaha hands including one with quads that Steve has AA. I also sucked out on QB when playing my double gutter pretty fast. I end up around $350 for the game at around 2:30 I really need to sleep for the 7:50 flight to Seattle.

Played poker at Diamond Lils this week. Game is definitely +EV but the players, fun atmosphere, environment is 10x worse than barge. I book a small win and think I would be better served playing 4/8 at Barge. Thanks to everyone for making barge great as ever! Can’t wait until January for Embargo.

Monte

When this was posted to the BARGE list in 2012, there was an interesting followup from an unnamed BARGEr:

I wonder if they have my picture or they just sweat more than me jogging in LV.

They don’t have a picture, but this was posted to the Pit Boss forums last week under the “Card Counters Forum”:

I was working my standard pit last night and this mid-30s guy, stocky, with short blond hair, fairly loud is at my double deck blackjack table. He bought in for $500 into a $10-200 table which is my normal warning sign for a card counter.

What makes this post interesting was that his play was not what drew my attention, but the number of drinks that he consumed. As soon as the cocktail waitress came by, he immediately ordered 3 drinks. Every time the cocktail waitress would come by, he would order another.

Aside from the first 8 drinks he had in the first 75 minutes of play, he was killing the game. I was trying to figure out if he was following the count or just lucky. His bets seem to vary dramatically with the count, but I could see his body sway with the deal. I was starting to get worried that he would fall out of his seat.

I called over to the cocktail waitress and suggested that she increase the frequency that she came by. She was happy to do so as it was 2:30 in the morning and this guy tipped well. I also give security a heads up and they place a couple of team members close by. I figure he was a few more drinks away from falling out of his seat and then I could have security escort him to a cab.

30 minutes and 5 drinks later, he is still on fire and I have to cut him off. He looks as if he is on the edge of alcohol poisoning but was still varying his bet according to the count and even hit an insurance bet. At this point, I have to cut him off, both for the sake of the casino and his liver.

I give him the “I think you are done playing blackjack speech” expecting to have him either throw up on me or give me some sort of slurred argument. Surprisingly, he colors up and staggers off without any fuss. After he successfully dismounts from the chair, I compliment his liver for it’s solid play.