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The story of my twenty-fourth BARGE.
“Axoxicillin and seven.”

Pre-BARGE crap.

Register as Kenny. Kenny is a better poker playing name than Ken, right? Pay $53 to replace iPhone battery. OMG, cell hardly went below 80% all trip. Left shoulder aches some. Minor trouble with right foot. TMJ trouble flares up on Thursday. Friday night, I come down with a cold, but I’m fighting it off. Saturday night, it’s worse. Wreck on Sunday. Get some drugs. Feel a lot better Monday and way better on Tuesday. Sandi washes GamboMouse in Oxiclean. Best he’s looked in years.

Tuesday, July 30th.

Kris drop me off at SJC. Sandi has probably caught my cold.

28 people on the flight! I have my own row of three seats. Lady across the aisle smiles at me at least twice. Land. Uber to Green Valley Ranch (GVR), our new venue for BARGE. Check-in. Walk 900 yards down the hall to my room. Nice room!

Head down to the casino.

Dan Nussbaum and Bozo are the first BARGErs sighted.

See Sabyl to complete a drug deal. Sabyl get the coveted first hug.

Pick up my Kenny “QB” Kubey badge. Decided to switch from “Ken” to “Kenny” this year. Might improve my luck.

Talk to Deron. He won the Tuesday tournament! Awesome! Jepsen and Deron have had a few drinks. Think NFL final scores.

See old-timer Bill Turner. He asks me what I’m drinking. “At this point, mostly ice.”

Go to a ticket redemption machine to break a $100 bill. The thing spits out 20 $5 bills. WTF!!??

Wednesday, July 31st.

7:00 a.m. WebEx work meeting. If this had been any other day, I would have told my boss to get lost, but she’s been pretty cool over the years.

Strawberry Pop Tarts for breakfast. I brought lots of snacks in my suitcase. I’m worried that GVR food will be expensive and I have no idea if we are walking distance to fast food places or stores.

Pot-Limit HORSE tournament

Table…
Voltaire, Dan G., Jordan, Kenny, Christian and me.

Double through Jordan with a 76 in Razz. 3-way high-low stud hand with Crunch and Kenny (the other one). I have AA-4 and raise. Crunch re-raises showing a 5. Kenny goes all-in showing a 4. I think they are both on wheel draws, so I go all-in as does Crunch. Kenny has A2-4. Crunch has 55-5. Oh no. I catch the case ace!!! Kenny makes a 7 low. After 6 cards I have AA-4A26 so I even have a shot at the low. I bust Crunch and get a “I Busted Crunch” shirt. The Kennys split the pot.

Random comment dept.
“r00lerz, droolers and coolers.”

Kenny: “Stepping on grasshoppers - Crunchy points.” Christian: “I’m just hoping to outlast the dead stack.” - Christian Me, on a misdeal: “Only a pervert looks.”

I bust Voltaire in Omaha. He gives me a Space Dominoes deck of cards. Cool!

Oldbear walks up and gives me a nice golfer key chain.

Masa knocks me out. Notes say JJ99 99 miss all draws.

Heard that Stephen Lewin-Berlin won. Congrats. He was at one of my tables for 5 minutes before I busted out. How is it he’s only been at my table twice in five years? One of the few BARGE people that I’ve hardly ever talked to. He’s my Dave Lawless.

I see Deron and mention that I’m starving. We head to Pizza Rock and get The Butcher (all meat toppings). Fantastic pizza. Un walks up to chat. Kat, the bar tender, UN and Deron all lived in Chicago at some point so a lively discussion of Chicago restaurants and clubs ensues. Also some baseball talk.

I treat Deron this time.

Get the 20-year Best BARGE EVER card protector from Patti. This thing is really nice. Good looking, nice colors, good weight. Thank you so much Patti! I just love it. Seriously.

Len G.: “Amoxicillin and seven”

Bruce Iwamoto gives be a little coin. He knows I collect. Thanks Bruce.

ADB Craps Crawl

Mark Hughes (Oldbear) drives Un, Larry Stone and me downtown. Peter, Bingo and Bingo’s son Jacob take an Uber. Stephen Markowitz is waiting patiently for us at the Binion’s craps table.

Larry is the first shooter and makes 10 straight passes. About six 7s and 11s and four numbers. Two $15 Yos for me. I’m flat betting $5, so I’m only up about $80 after his roll. If it had come later in the session, I think we would have all made a lot more. Peter gets nearly murdered.

Un and I get something stuck in our eyes at the BJ pit behind us.

There’s a nice group of youngsters from Texas. Un tells them our names telling them I’m “Ken or QB.” As I’m rolling, one guy says “Here’s we go QB!” So cool. Only then do I remember that I’m wearing my ADB QB hat. He likes it when I explain that the DB stands for drunken bastards.

Most of the rest of us make one or no passes as the dice make their way around to Jacob. He is a craps virgin.

We are chanting “Virgin! Virgin! Virgin!” as he is about to roll for the first time.

Seven! Winner! I toss $1 on yo. Bingo does a 3-way yo (himself, the shooter and the dealers). Jacob comes right back with a yo 11. And we are going nuts! Rolls a four. People are betting heavy on the hard four (22). Jacob rolls a few numbers and then the hard four!

I cash out up $29.

We do a drive-by toking at the Binion’s poker room. Give away $4 to Maryanne, Buck and a couple of the floormen.

We then go through the secret passage. Bingo and I clink glasses as we are going through. So fun. I feel very at home at Binion’s.

Some of the guys get ice cream at Lafferts on the way to Main Street.

Learn something about Stephen Markowitz. We’ve done the craps crawl together for 20+ years. How did I not know this before? But shhhh!

First two shooters at the Main Street suck. I drop $13 in about a minute and decide quit to “lock up the win” for the craps crawl. Eat that JZK.

We all go play video poker on the 9-6 machines. I never see 9-6 machines at the casinos Sandi and I go to.

I hit some good hands and I’m up $20 quickly. 4.2 seconds later, I’m down somehow. Hit a boat to get back ahead $10 and quit.

The other guys are gambling while gambling betting on who will get a 4-of-a-kind first. I think Un was the big winner.

We call it a night and get back to GVR about 1:00 a.m.

See grasshoppers in the Luxor beam and one back at GVR.

Thursday, August 2nd.

Set my alarm and set up a wake up call for 5:00 a.m.

Rest, toss and turn. Can’t get to sleep at all. This often happens when I have to get up early. Fine. I’ll just close my eyes and relax and rest.

4:45 a.m. Cancel the wake up call and head downstairs with my golf stuff and moose. I have a few minutes to kill.

See one of my old favorite slots. White Orchid. Lose $10 very quickly. Let’s try nickel deuces wild video poker. Hit quad deuces for $50!

Saw that Mecklin did the same thing on a dollar machine to win $1000. Cool! I talked with him later about this. If he was 20X happy hitting that, I’m sure that I was more than X happy hitting mine. Probably more like 3X.

2018 QB told 2019 QB to sign up for The Death March, so here we are about to play golf in Las Vegas in August with no sleep at all. Yes!!!

The Death March (BARGE Golf outing)

Kevan, Gerry, Mark Hughes and me. The rest of the world pussied out. So glad Kevan could make it after all.

We are playing at Wild Horse.
Wow this place looks familiar. I ask Gerry if this is the place where we had to quit after eight holes due to lightning in 1997. He confirms that it is. Gerry is the Death March iron man. He’s been to them all!

Kevan gives me a button that says “Hop Hard 4” on one side and “Hop Hard 10” on the other. Very cool. Might use this as a ball marker. Later decide to use Bruce’s coin.

“Our balls our touching.”

I take a nice photo of a duck. Lots of female mallards on the course. no sign of the males. Maybe away at BARGDE?

I buy bloody Marys and beers after the 9th hole.

Mark Hughes does all the cart driving. Somehow a branch whacks me in the head as we were cruising to a tee. I still can’t figure out how this happened. Thank goodness I was wearing a baseball cap as there was a tiny cut up at my hairline.

On the closest-to-the-pin hole (par 3), I hit my best shot of the day onto the green. The other guys all miss so I win $15. Later lost back $5 to Gerry on the long drive hole.

It is much hotter this day that the last few Death Marches.

We are all fading as we get to the 15th. Mark thinks he has a mild case of heat exhaustion and wisely decides to just drive the last four holes.

Gerry, Kevan and I are really struggling on 17. Gerry especially.

On 18, Gerry hits a great drive. I hear his 2nd shot. It sounds really good. Lands on the green. He then rolls in a 12-footer for the only birdie of the round. What a great way to finish!

Okay, 2020 QB, you should go to golf.

We got back to GVR quickly.

Up to the room to drop of golf stuff, get a clean shirt.

CHORSE. Also called C-HORSE. This is a team tournament played with chips that are actually worth money.

Thanks to Ron Nutt for taking over the team Moose Cock captain position. Murray, we missed you.

Someone took my crazy pineapple drink, but Samarel/Jepsen hand me a cold beer. It works as I’m still hot from golf.

I’m playing the 7-Stud High/Low-8-or-better (E) round.

Table:
Russ, Sabyl, me, Brennan, Christian and Bremer.

Everyone is waiting on me to act on my hand as the waitress brings me a drink. Notes say “Distracted by two of my favorite things: alcohol and pretty women.” It was one of the two brunette waitresses. Can’t recall if it was the taller one that looks like a model, or the cute smaller one with the pony tail.

I beat Russ on one hand. He beats me twice. Bremer is running us all over. Christian beats me too.

Finally I get a crazy pineapple drink. BARGE really gets going for me when I have one of these.

No other notes? Oh yeah, we all suck! Got back $4. Congrats to the Arrogant Bastards who won.

Up to the room for a shower and terrific 40 minute nap.

PLO (Pot-Limit Omaha) tournament.

We each get four cards, must play exactly two, high only. Board is like hold’em. And you can bet up to what is in the pot. We have two rebuy lammers to use if/when we need more chips.

Table:
Me, Adam, Claudia, Randal, Doug G., Patrick K., Paul M., Christin Maschman.

Ed. note: I put “Me” first as I am in seat one at the table, not because I don’t know how to write.

Randal tells a story about someone secretly knocking over his chips more than once in some other tournament. Turned out it was Un.

Dealer to Adam: “Option?” Adam: “Let me exercise my option to win.”

10 minute break. I’m starving! Run over to Fat Burger for an order of fries. These save my life as I get back to the table a minute late.

Notes say:
“Mixed Drink Gaming.” Adam: “In 24 years at BARGE haven’t mastered.”

I’m sure this made perfect sense and was hilarious when I wrote it down.

Randal: “Hey, I gotta go. Sorry about that… Raise!”

On a break, I see Jordan’s long set of ribbons. It is very clever as it seems to be a dialog between the even and odd ribbons.

AKxy and raise. Flop is A-T-6. Andreas raises me all-in for a little more and I call. Andreas has A266. Turn blank. River ace! Andreas gives me Mirabel chocolates. I’m not a big chocolate guy, but these are wonderful! Thanks!

Ed. review. Did I really win this hand? Andreas had 666AA. I had AAA. Maybe one of my side cards gave me a boat.

“Yes-stradamus.”

Someone asks Jacob what Bingo has told him about BARGE. Jacob: “Some funny things and some scary things.”

Other guy: “So which of those made you come to BARGE?”

Jacob: “Yes!”

I’m rolling the PLO when we get some new players. Table: Me, Adam, Claudia, Alex Z., Jacob, Patrick K., Veach, Christin and Kent.

Alex is a very tough and wild player.

After he joins the table, I can’t win a hand.
I’m just folding away. Maybe see a flop and fold.

Finally get a hand. AA82s. Alex calls my raise. Of course. Flop is Q-Q-6. I bet, Alex raises me all-in as expected. He’s been pushing me around a lot. I decide to make a stand hoping he is bluffing. Nope. He has 6655 for a boat.

I still have my two lammers, so I’m still in the tournament.

Get the rest of my chips in from the BB in a 4-way pot with 9875ds. I flop a straight draw, but miss everything. Patrick took me out.

Oh, Patrick ended up in 4th place for $808. I noticed a nice-looking lady with gray hair rooting for him. I asked if she was a relative, maybe his mom. No, just some nice lady he met while playing in a ring game!

Regis won the tournament! WTG!

I have all my crap in a bag from Popeye’s that I brought from Sunnyvale. Three different people asked me where they could get Popeye’s chicken.

Lawful and I go to Pizza Rock. Talk with Corey and Kathy at the next table. Another good pizza and conversation.

About here I take over Nolan’s round table seat with Bruce Kramer and others. We are discussing great movies.

Bruce, here is your reminder to see “Galaxy Quest.”

Friday, August 3rd.

Wake up call for 6:45 a.m. What is wrong with me?

The BARGE Fun Run.

Six Participants:
Lawful, Eileen, Deadhead, Mickdog, Andreas and me. Eileen walked. Ron was supposed to join us, but bailed. He was also supposed to take a shower in my room after the run. I had two gallons of bleach ready and the Orkin Man on call.

Dave found a nice course for us. Big well-paved path. Nice slow pace.
Looked like Dave was having a little trouble, but we all finished fine.

2.54 miles in 36 minutes. Probably 4 minutes of that at stop lights.

I’m walking to the cafe, Ross and I play chicken walking right at each other. So silly.

Congratulate the BJ Queen. Say hi to Eric S.

A group of us met up at 9:00 for breakfast.

Patrick, Eileen, Mickdog, Bob J., Oldbear, Oscar, Grizz and me. Waitress messes up my order bringing me bacon instead of sausage.
OMG, the bacon is amazing. Forget the sausage!

Oliver and I are talking about the 20 Year Member ribbons. He says we need some +1 and -1 ribbons for people at 19 years or 21 years.

Tournament of Champions (TOC) tournament. Playing hold’em, 7-stud and Omaha-8.

I’ve played in this since 2000. Zero cashes in the previous 19 years. I suck.

Table:
Casey, Chic, Pierce, Un, Claudia, Bob J., me and Bremer.

I gave the waitress a tournament chip as a tip by mistake!

Gambo walks over to Vernon. They take some selfies together.

I’m in some trouble as the tournament goes on.
Notes say “I’m going like Broomcorn’s uncle.”

Chic talks about dating himself. Not sure I want to hear more.

7&7s and rum and Cokes are not working. Switch to Long Island Ice Teas. LIIT is about the strongest mixed drink around. If I had three real ones, I’d be on the floor, unconscious. The casino version is way weaker.

Around here cut George Wattman in the bathroom line.

7-stud. Start out with KK-K. Chic is my only customer. On 6th street, it looks like he’s made a straight, but I make a boat at the same time. He calls me down doubling me up.

Somewhere around here I give Lynsy a present. Top secret. Shhhh!

Rich needs something to eat. I have “Emergency food” with me. Some mini blueberry muffins. Rich has three, I have one.

“The raise is easy. We don’t have to have a badugi of chip sizes.”

Bust Rich with A9s vs, his A2. He gives me two rubber ice cube trays. I look at them more closely later. Nipples? No. Dice pips. Neat. We can use these at work.

Larry B. is at his 13th BARGE. His BARGEmitzvah!

I think I knock out Steve Pierce with JJTT vs his 8866.

Table with some new players:
Casey, Rich S., Samarel, Un, Sabyl, Bob J., me and Larry.

“BARGE on BARGE violence.”

Larry and I both show kings in stud. He says “Check to the real king.”

88-JxJx-x to triple up.

A269 and 3/4 a pot with board of T-7-5-8-8.

New Table:
Big Mike, Rich S., Goldie, Un, Deron, Bob J., me and Larry B.

Hold please. Break for the symposium.

See Mark Sadausky around here. He’s a TARGET player from way back. Glad he could finally make it to BARGE.

Rich Strauss, Diana, Steve Sherman, Bob H., Patrick, Jeff S., PRM and I have out little syndicate. Eileen and Slick are with us too. Diana made up Wagon Wheel Syndicate shirts for us.

The food is very good. Maybe good enough for a wedding reception.

As usual, I wrote the comments on the Calcutta sheet.
If you want any explained, let me know.

“80 from Katie.”

Russ Fox did a great job running things.
Thanks also to his spotters and cashiers.

Adam Pliska from the World Poker Tour is our speaker.
Very bright guy, he spoke well, but I was really bored.

The highlight was Sharon’s cell going off and Adam making one of his few jokes of the night.

I heard some people liked his talk. I want to laugh and/or hear some gambling stories. Can we bring JP back? He was so much better than Adam. I’d much rather hear Nolan, Patti, Un, Regis or some other BARGE people. Bill Chen? Andy Bloch?

Board Meeting went fine.

TOC restart.

New Table:
Patti, Rich S., Goldie, Lynsy, Len G., Bob J., Me and Larry B.

Goldie has a ton of chips and is moved from our table. Someone asks if he can be moved to a sister property (different casino).

Q2o and open-raise on Rich’s BB. He defends. Crap! Flop 5-3-2. He bets out. Well, he could have K4s or something. I raise to put him all-in. He has A8s. Ducks win. Sorry Rich!

We are getting close to the money.

KEY HAND

A988ds and rai. Lynsy 3-bets. Oh crap! I call.
Flop is K-K-8. LOVE IT!

Lynsy bets (I assume AA) and I raise. She calls.
Turn Q. She checks. I want to win this pot bad, but I also want Lynsy to fold. I ask if I can talk about my hand. No, No. No.
I bet all-in. She calls with AK42. Oh hell, she has lots of outs. River is a blank and I double up.

Lynsy is “the last of the fairer sex” left in the tournament.

Twice she curtsies after winnings pots from us men.

At the bubble now. No save as every player at the other table has more chips than our top stack.

Larry gets all-in in stud with 27-27 vs. Byron’s KQ-QA. Scott catches another A for a bigger two pair. Larry fails to boat up and goes out on the bubble. So rough.

We are in the money! Finally in my 20th year playing the TOC.

Maybe you don’t all know that I’m a pretty emotional guy. I get really choked up. Not quite crying, but certainly tears in my eyes and trouble catching my breath. Took me a minute or two to compose myself.

SO happy.

AA45 and have Len all-in with A2JJ. At the turn: Q-T-6-2.
River JACK! “No!!!!!!!!” Len will now be known as Mr. River Jack.

Final Table:
Goldie, Len, Bob J., Dan G., Paul Stine, Prock, Tom Bessoir, Pete Segal, me and Scott Byron. Like half the table from NY, NJ and PA.

Goldie has a monster stack. Dan is probably #3. If you were putting odds on me winning the ADB last-longer, it would be about 50-1.

25K left and I’m all-in with AQ. Goldie gets all-in with TT. Pete is also all-in with AK. This looks gloomy.

Xx-Yd-Zd-Ad. I have the Qh in hand. Brain works fast here and I say “Black Queen!” just before the deal puts out the lovely queen of spades on the river. Triple up!

Dan tosses me One Time and Bink buttons after that one!

About here I raise and Dan goes all-in. Anyone else would have called Dan instantly, but I didn’t want a coin flip here. I tank and fold.

Pete to Dan: “I live for your approval.”

AJ vs. Bob’s AQ. Jack on the flop and I bust Bob. He gives me a deck of Colorado photo cards.

We played 10-handed for 90 minutes before Bob busted in 10th. What a battle!

Suddenly the blinds are up and no one is safe.

Prock takes out Dan. Goldie and Paul Stine go out next. 6 left. I won the ADB last-longer? Wow!

J9s and I go all-in UTG. Scott B. calls with AQs. I flop a flush draw, but miss everything.

Out is 6th for $861. My biggest money cash at BARGE. So pleased.

I think I had eight Long Islands over 12 hours. And some people thought I should drink less to play better. Ha!

Prock goes out 3rd. People are distracted. No clapping?
I start clapping and other people pick it up. Prock thanks me.

Scott Byron won the tournament over Len. Congrats to Bwana!
BTW, it took Scott Byron 15 years to cash at BARGE. Took me eight. If you are on a bad streak, don’t give up hope.

Breakfast with Pete Segal.

He finds a breakfast skillet for $3.99. I get the home run breakfast for $5.49 as usual.

Pete says “Oh, you are getting the expensive breakfast.”

He tells me a story involving hookers and taking a bus. Shhhhh.

Saturday, August 3rd.

The BARGE NL (No-Limit) event. About the same number of players as last year.

Around the Table:
Joe Tall, Bruce K., Christian, Adam, Markowitz, Brenda, me, JP, Bruce I. We have all the Bruces and three players with names starting with “Br.”

Ron G. walks in with the Rocky theme playing on his phone.

Brenda is the table banker.

I order a Coke.
Waitress: “Pepsi?”
Waitress: “You have no choice.”
Me (flatly): “I have no choice.”

Group photo by Rodney. Wow it came out really well. Good job!

Marvin Raab shows up. I knew Marvin way back around 1989.
We found each other on Facebook a few years ago. He plays poker,
has a good sense of humor and knows Carol and Lori. BARGE material.
I finally got him you drop by this year.

AA and re-raise. Dr. Doof folds AQ.

New table:
Lawful, Bingo, Taki, Bob J., Michelle, Bob O., me and Sharon.

Sharon: “On no, mini-Bingo died.”

JTo. Turn the nuts with K-9-7-Q out. Michelle calls my 300 bet. River 3. How much can I bet and get a call and not get killed by Howler? Bet 900. Call. She has AQ.

QQ and bust Claudia’s AJ after a J-high flop. Get dark chocolate.

Get my first professional cardroom massage from Naomi. Worth the $20. Carol was unavailable :-(

GamboMouse kisses Sharon on the cheek.

99 vs. Dr. Doof’s AJ. Flop A-X-9. Down goes Doof.

Updated table:
Lawful, Oscar, Taki, Bob J., Ron G., Jim A., Bob O., me and Ice.

44 vs. Bob Jones’ AA. Flop the 4. Another deck of Colo. cards.

Jeff Siegal brings by some pizza. Several of us get a rectangle. Thanks!

New table:
Llew, big Mike, Kyle, Becca, me, Patti, Bob O., Dan G. and Scottro.

Dan: “That’s no witch, that’s my wife.”

3 hour dinner break at 5:00 p.m. I have 326,000.

Dinner with Paul McM., Diana, Rich s. and Kyle. I have the Cali burger.

Someone tells me there are 30 people left in the tournament. WTF? I thought it was 50 or 60. 15 places pay.

I was just totally in the poker zone. “In stroke” as Doyle Brunson would say or “In flow” as my brother, Bob, would say.

Rich didn’t eat and bails for the airport. Paul picks up the main tab.
Diana and I contribute to a 30%? tip.

Take a 45 minute nap.

Kris and Sandi (despite being sick) are at a Pitbull concert in Mountain View. Kris sends a video of Sandi dancing to the music. Looks like fun.

New table:
Jepsen, Becca, Andreas, Nussbaum, Lawful, Oliver, Bozo, me. Then… Llew, Dina, Roy Cooke, Becca, Dan N., Lawful, Oliver, Llyod and me.

Everything stalls out for about 20 seconds. Finally people tell me it is my turn to act.

“I was distracted by Becca.” Table laughter. “That’s exactly what happened.”

If you saw what Becca was wearing, you’d understand. There’s a pic on Facebook.

AK and raise. Becca calls all-in blind on her BB. She wants to roll her cards after the board is out. Sure.

Board comes out about K-T-7-5-4. I have top pair. I like it. Becca rolls over a 4. Drawing live! She turns up a useless 8. I bust her and get the book And_Then_You_Die_of_Dysentery about the Oregon Trail. I assume the game, not sure.

17 left. Amber busts at the other table. I heard later with AA. We already have cards. We can probably negotiate a save for 16th place after this hand.
John Lloyd raises UTG. Folds around to one of his best BARGE friends, Oliver who jams, covering John. It sure looks like Oliver is putting pressure on John with us right at the bubble with no save set up.

John tanks for 15 or 20 seconds and calls with AQ. Oliver was not messing around and shows KK. KK holds up. John bubbles. Rough.

Roy Cooke goes all-in. I call with AQ. He has A4. If I win this, I’ll have 650,000 and be one of the chip leaders. At the turn… 9=8-7-6. I’m thinking no 5 or 10. River 4. “No!!!!!” Down to 250,000. Ouch.

Dan Nussbaum bets “95” (meaning 95,000). I’m in the BB. My cards are 95o. I show my “95” and fold.

Diana goes out in 13th. Patti goes out in 12th.

Desperation time as blinds are at 25-50 with BB ante of 50. I have about 130,000. I need to steal the blinds and best not to do it on Oliver’s BB as he will look be up with a lot of hands.

Llew, Roy and Dan N. have been giving me a lot of respect.

Oliver folds. This looks like a good spot. I pretend to look at my cards and jam.

Llew and Roy fold quickly. Dan snap calls with AQ.
Well, I’m still over 30% to win this with T3o… Q on the flop. Ugh.

I’m out. I forgot my bust out gift, a copy of my Cartoon Trivia Book, but I have a nice IOU written up. I’m so confused that at first, I give it to Roy, but then give it to Dan Nussbaum. He says not to worry about it, but I hope to get him a copy in 2020. He’s such a nice guy.

I get my $257 payout and go wandering around the ring games. I am a little disappointed to miss the final table, but I was the only person to cash in both the TOC and NL this year. I have to be happy with that.

I have a minor dispute with someone over $1 in the calcutta payouts. We decide to toss it to the dealer.

Talk with Brenda. Glad I could score some points for her fantasy team! Oh, Sabyl was my top point getter. Glad to see her win a tournament.

Dean tells the dealer she can keep as many chips as she can grab from his stack! She grabs a good $35 from a tall stack and dumps it in her bucket. Much cheering and laughter.

Then someone points out the stack of $25 and $5 chips she could have grabbed! Oh wow!

Jepsen, Prock and Kirwan are doing something really silly.
“I declare shenanigans!”

Notes say something about Sharon and the “Boob hundred” ($100 bill).

Steve Wood: “QB, move your shit!”
I ask him how old he is. “43.”
Me: “You look like hell!”

Some funny stuff about trying to pronounce “Grand marnier.”

Pete Segal makes some remark to Travis.
Travis: “First of all… hurtful…” much laughter.

Dan Nussbaum went on to finish 2nd. Scott Harker is our new champion! Congrats! Shook their hands. Well, not at the same time.

Deron has had a few drinks and wanders off. Never returns. We send a search party. Turns out he got distracted and went to his room.

Late meal with Jepsen and Scott S. We are laughing a lot, though I can’t remember anything we said.

Randal and Travis drop by as we finish. Like 3:30 a.m. We are old and tired. They are young and bouncy.

Jepsen to Travis: “My phone is older than you!”

Finally get to bed.

Sunday, August 5th.

Breakfast with Wood, Dan, Sharon, Lawful, Pete, Un, Regis and Claudia. Learn that Sharon doesn’t like bacon! Dan says something like “More for me.”

Stephen Wood tells us about the Stations casino giving away his players card number.
Dan: “Not like they ran out of numbers.” Pete: “They should order some more from Amazon Prime.” Me: “But that’s only for prime numbers.”

This could be a sitcom. Well, a bad sitcom.

Get into a 3-6 HORSE game with Masa, Claudia, Lawful, Wood, Pete, Regis and Un.

Our dealer, Mike, wins the $150 top prize in the dealer drawing.

I get stuck $80 in no time. Narrow it to a $43 loss. Felt like a win.

Some BARGEr on the phone:
“Do you want me to hang up so I can look at your text messages?” Laughter.

Tell waitress Candace that she looks like Jennifer Aniston. I think I made her day.

Uber with Un-Lawful to the Goldman’s place.

Crazy LRC dice game with four roll-overs. Jepsen wins a pile of money.

Lots of dogs wandering around. All friendly and cute.

I go outside for 5 seconds. Damn, it’s hot. Check on cell. 110 degrees.

Do a couple of shots with Dan, Nolan and Larry S. Chris Q. joins us. Some intense conversation and stories.

Suddenly, it is time to go. Uber with JP, Heldar and OldBear.

Boring plane ride, Kris picks me up, Sandi is still sick! And BARGE is over :-(

Complaint section removed. Will post on the BARGE list.

Gambling…

craps: won $12 big 6 wheel: DNP blackjack: DNP live poker: lost $43 slots: won $30 or $40 tournaments: lost, lost (C-HORSE), lost, won and won. last-longers: won roshambo: DNP.

Hugs: Sabyl, Brenda, Lori, Diana, Sharon, Nancy, Becca, Regis, Betty, Barbara, Tanya, Connie, Gillian, Eileen, Llew, Carol, Lynsy, Sue, Pauline, Kathy and Patti. Manly hugs: Rich S., Bob H., Steve W., Mickdog, Adam, Murray, Bingo, Goldie, Nolan, Howler, Dan, Bozo, Jepsen, Siegal, Larry B and Derek.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a couple and/or making up a couple.

Some people I hardly had a chance to say a word to:
Randy, Jeanne, Aronsons, Crosons, Low, Mecklin, Jesse, Timmer, Korbin, Stevie Lowball and others.

Missed all of my friends who didn’t make it this year. A few names… Monte, Barry Kornspan, Joe Long, Ed, Troll, Troell, Tina, North Shore, MPH, Jodi, Klutchpeople, Brabecs, Josh, COC, Bree, JD, Scoop, Shari, Aaron, Erin, Moser, Rob, Bart, Bill, Rafn, Andy, John, Lee, Tracy, Pickels, Oz, Hammer, Susan, Grapes, O’Grady, Perry, Tom, Kuntz, Kim, Daniel, John, Paul, Mary, Charles, Janie, Tim, Steve, Stephen, Dave and David.
There are many, many more.

Everyone please make an effort to come to BARGE 2020. It is the best week of the year.

Thanks to Green Valley Ranch, the new Home (away from home) of BARGE.

To Binion’s… I hope we can come back for EMBARGO or TARGET.

The GVR dealers, waitresses and poker staff are wonderful.

Kubey’s 2019 MVB (Most Valuable BARGEr) Award:

It’s a TIE! Patti Beadles and Patrick Milligan.

Patti hosted the gin tasting and created the beautiful Best Barge Ever card protectors for us 20-year BARGE veterans.

Patrick has done amazing work for BARGE for 20 years now. I hope someone else will pick up the creation of BARGE pins for 2020.

Thanks to the board: Bozo, Katie, Lawful, Howler and Ron G. Thanks to the organizers: Russ, Bremer, Deitch and Goldie.

Oh, I think maybe Bremer’s luck was transferred to me for BARGE 2019. I had two cashes in the biggest tournaments. He had none all week!?! WTF?

Thanks to Un, Goldie and anyone else that supports BUTTKISS to back players.

Tech Crew: Doug G., David Low and Barry.

The BARGE Chip Committee. I assume great. I still need to look at them.

Rodney with the fantastic photos and coverage of the final tables.

Peter and Chuck just plain r00l.

All the other folks who ran or sponsored events with their own cash. Dan G., Bob O., Asya, Ben, Lawless, Sharon, Gerdog, etc.

Thanks also to all the other people who make BARGE go.

Man, those 5 days just flew by.

Can I sign up for BARGE 2020 now?