The story of my second BARGE.

Wednesday July 30th

Fly to Vegas from San Jose. Jeff Woods meets me at the airport. He drives me to Binion’s and helps talk me into going to the smoker. I’ve smoke about two cigars in my life, but went along anyway. The food was great as was the company.
The highlight was learning about non-kommokers (sp) from Martin. I go to bed early in anticipation of…

Thursday, July 31st

Golf? I signed up to play golf in Las Vegas in July at 11am? Am I nuts? I hit my first drive about 20 yards and to the right just past the ladies tees. Nice shot, sir. We play 8 holes. Then we get R00LED by the Big R00LER in the sky. Rain, lightning, and thunder. Lightning and metal rods do not mix well. We are rained out after 9 holes.
We had fun while we were out there and in the bar too. Thanks to Kevan, Scott, Chris, Tom, Mike, Keith, and Gerry. Special thanks to Tom for the cool RGP hat and to Kevan for setting things up.

Still damp, I make it to the buffet. Dine with Connie, Mike, and SteveM. Head back to the Horseshoe for Video Poker. I played very fast, but couldn’t make the money this year. Thanks for the support from the crowd.

Next it’s off to the Sahara for 10-20 HORSE game. I am stunned to learn that chat-speak is nearly dead and that I have to learn a whole new dialect: Tahajian-speak. I R00L the HORSE game for about $400 while having about eight 7&7’s. I hope TomW learned that he cannot check-raise-bluff me. Finally leave 10 hours later at 8:30am.

Friday, August 1st

Warren is nice enough to give me a ride even after I had just rivered a boat to down his straight on the final hand. We have breakfast at the coffee shop and I stagger to bed at 10am.

Wake up around 1pm. Go to the airport to meet Sandi at the gate. Come back downtown for the Calcutta. Once again I get into a syndicate with JeffS and RichS. We got some really good buys this year, but once again had our horses pull up lame. PaulP buys me for $45. An absolute steal. We buy Monte for $35 and I sell half of him for $20. My best move of the trip other than taking the Quick Bet.

Witnessed the man vs. machine Rock-Paper-Scissors match. Patti’s pet took and early lead, but the human came back to trounce it 10-9 (I think). This was actually very exciting to watch. Had to be there.

Go to dinner at Gee Joon with Sam, Aaron and Darse. Gee Joon’s food is usually very good. I’d advise staying away from the chow mein though.

Sandi and I get a ride with Aaron to the strip. We walk through New York, New York, Excalibur, by the Luxor and back to the TI. I get into a 1-4-8-8 game to kill 30 minutes while Aaron finishes his last round in a HORSE game. I get totally R00LED when I flop top two pair against a local’s set. IGHN.

Saturday, August 2nd

Wake up in time for breakfast. Join Mike, Connie, Brian, and Ione. Sandi nails 5 of 6 on a KENO bet for $90. One number away from $3200.

Time for the tournament! I don’t want to play the first hand. I’m hoping for some bad hand that I can dump. I get 55 (PRESTO!). I don’t know about the free jacket and fold pre-flop. Darn. I try a couple of steals but Jeff Sue decides to re-raise me every time. I get no cards. I finally get QQ. JP goes all-in ahead of me for T150. I jam for T325. BB calls us both with KJ. JP has AT and catches an ace. I win the side pot to get to T350. Much later, I’m close to the felt. KimS raises UTG. I call all-in with 55. Llew calls. Flop comes ace high. Kim bets out. Llew calls. I’m so dead. Llew puts a bad beat on Kim’s AK by catching a J to make two pair. I toss my silver 50 cent piece to Llew. At least it made it to the final table. First hand: 55, Last hand: 55.

Sandi and I watch the tournament. I’m sweating many friends. After Rich Strauss busts out in the low teens, we stop watching. Brian and Ione give us a ride back to the strip for more sight-seeing. I finally get to see the whole pirate show at the TI. Well worth it. Play BJ and get on a roll. Win over $100 betting no more than $10 per hand. Sandi gets AA, splits, catches a 10, another A, splits, 10, 10. Three 21’s on one hand!

Rocks & Beer. A lot of fun. If we had gotten reasonable cocktail service, it would have been a blast. Jennifer and Darse took over the bring-in duties. One dealer dealt hands of: Five-Draw, Black Moria (Chicago), Spit in the Ocean, and Indian Chief! There was a great joke involving “Rumplemintz” being the guy that stole some wheel spinner’s first born. The other ROTFL moment was when someone handed Tom one of the girlie brochures from the strip. Tom (in Tahajian-speak) said something like “exCUSE me, must GO TO RESTroom NOW.” We actually had a player rolled up this year. Unfortunately, he had the bring-in with 55-5. He got showered with $1 chips. Dealers made much money during R&B.

Later I get into the Chow-aha game. Get R00LED by many pro Chow-aha players and get angled into making many straddles. Somewhere around 7:00am there are two dealers in the game and we convince them to play Thermo-Nuclear Chow-aha. Five cards in hand - play 0-5, same board as Chow-aha. Keith Miyake wins the first ever hand of casino Chow-aha over me. One hand, I have AKK63. There’s a K on the flops. It checks around on the river. A couple of people have boats. Confused, I table my hand. Peter Secor finds that I had flopped Kings full! I take pot and go to bed.
Kubey’s Fundamental Law of Poker: When in doubt, show your hand.

Sunday, August 3rd

Win $9 at KENO during breakfast. I get in 10-20 HORSE game. Sandi wanders off to play BJ. She comes back every hour to tell me how much she’s winning. I’m also winning at HORSE. WORLD CHAMPION Razz player Linda Johnson joins our game.
On one hand of razz, she opens for $3 with a K showing. Folded to me. I raise to $10 with 3 low cards. Folded back to the WORLD CHAMPION. She folds. Yes, I beat a WORLD CHAMPION!

We see Quick at the airport. Amazingly, he is still coherent after being awake for 35 hours. Watch Dodger’s lose to the Cubs on a two-out two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th inning. YES! WGHN.

Final Thoughts:

Sorry I missed all the great craps rolls. However, I believe that a different person at the table making bets will change the stickman’s delivery of the dice to the shooter and therefore influence the roll. A great craps roll is a team effort. No way does Shan Ni roll for an hour with a different group of players at the table.

Tokes:
Rocks & Beer - 50 cents per hand is fine. $1 per hand is very generous.
BARGE Poker Tournament - build the dealer toke into the buy-in.

Mike and Chuck, you guys R00L!

I had a terrific time. Hope to see you all again next year!