(As sent to the BARGE mailing list. Subscribe now!)
The story of my twenty-eighth BARGE.
"Barnyard mayhem."
Sign up for BARGE as Ken. I've been using Kenny which has seemed to
bring me luck. Oh well, I'm trying to get over this superstitious stuff.
Monday, July 17th.
--------------------
Attend the virtual BARGE Board of Directors meeting on Zoom.
Welcome Deron and Bruce to the BoD. So long to Patti and JZK.
Wednesday, July 19th.
-----------------------
Sandi drops me off at SJC about 80 minutes before my flight.
I give her $20 as Uber would certainly be way more.
I take an early aisle seat. Later realize it is row 4. I try to avoid 4s
as they are bad luck, but I'm trying to get over this stuff.
Sandi made me two delicious sandwiches. Destroy one pre-flight and
the second in Vegas.
Check-in. Get the 4th floor. I'm trying to get over this superstitious
crap so I just roll with it. The room has not been remodeled.
Very few electrical outlets, but it does have a bathtub which I like.
Great view of the new sphere thingie from my room.
Head downstairs.
First BARGER sighted is Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
First hug goes to Linda Llew. Quickly followed by many others.
Get my badge and get ready for C-HORSE.
I'll be playing Crazy Pineapple. Similar to hold'em.
Nancy has recruited me back to Team Moosecock.
Months ago, I bought two Moose Beanie Babies at the flea market
and they came in handy here.
Around the table: Kyle, Kathy, D-Low, Chris Kl., Doug and me.
Larry comments that he is on "Team Going To Bed Early."
D-Low has the low. We are all chanting "Muck his hand! Muck his hand!"
Gambo says "Hi" to Sammy the Squirrel, a friend of Ron Lyon's.
Sharon, after Chris turns off her ring: "You're not sparkly anymore."
Somewhere in here, Samarel orders a bunch of those crazy pineapple drinks.
Awesome. I buy one for him later.
RCD (Random Comment Department) from one woman to another:
"As long as you don't kill him, you're going to heaven."
Chris says "Wake me up."
Doug: "Before you go go."
Bex is carrying a bucket. I ask her if she is trick-or-treating and then
I toss a $1 chip into the bucket.
Dean is rockin' the mushroom hat.
I toss a chip to the dealer. Dealer: "What's this for?"
Me: "You laughed at my dumb joke." Dealer: "Appreciate it."
RCD: "I do what I want, bitch. You can't stop me."
RCD: Biggest lie in Wyoming: "I was just helping the sheep over the fence."
---
I really didn't write down any hands!?!? Yay!
We lost a little at C-HORSE. Thanks to Nancy for organizing our team.
Thursday, July 20th.
-----------------------
3-Hand Hold'em tournament
Each player gets six cards. Arrange them into three 2-card hands.
Discard on hand after the flop and one after the turn.
I'd estimate the 8% of the players are wearing masks.
Table: Bob H., Mickdog, Chris K. and me.
Heldar notes that Ron's squirrel is "gathering the nuts."
Quickly to a new table: Me, Deadhead, Kuntz, Dan G., Christin M., Gillian.
Gillian: "So Dan, how does this work?"
Deadhead: "Dan puts out chips. People take 'em."
Keith comes by to take a selfie with Gambo and me.
Dan calls me "Ron." Wow, that's freakin' harsh, man.
Another new table: Grapes, Chuck S., Christin, me, Byron and Grizz.
Note: I put "me" in the middle as that is where my seat was. K?
Grapes (about Chuck S.) "He's my mortal enemy." Laughter.
QQ and flop the other two queens. Win a few chips.
Christin: "I didn't want to work 9-5 so I work 24-7."
I get all-in on a flush draw with Ac4c. I'm hoping for the 6c on the river.
The river is the 5c. Pretty close. I make my flush, but Grizz has queens
full of 5s to knock me out. He gets a chip magnet as my bust out gift.
---
Ron gives me a Coke Zero. This seemed important at the time.
Patti: "I don't go on tilt, but I went on tilt as Costco."
We all do, Patti. We all do.
Crunch explaining Korean poker: "It's triple draw and at the end
you cross the border."
Ben (a dealer) shoots a wadded up structure sheet at the trash and sinks
in from 14 feet out.
---
Dealer's Choice ring game:
Regis, Steve W,, Lloyd, Claudia, Bowtie, me Kuntz, Chris Kl., Dan N.
RCD: "Big, small, I like 'em all."
---
Pot-Limit Omaha tournament.
Four cards. Must use two cards from your hand and three from the board
to make your best poker hand.
We have two rebuy lammers. A player can go broke and redeem a lammer
for 5k in chips.
Table: Empty seat, me, Bex, Dan, Tim Sh., Regis, Kuntz, Kelly, Larry.
RCD: "The more I drink, the better I get."
Tootsie roll from Larry. Candy. Wow you have a filthy mind.
I start drinking Jameson. Grapes inspired.
Bex has a jar of Fucks. So she *does* give a fuck.
Dean approaches likely to take the empty seat.
Me: "No! No! No! No! No!" and then "At least I'm drawing live to win
the tournament. Laughter.
---
I can't read my notes here.
Something about Dan G. and Kamikazes.
Dan says "No." to Randal.
Waitress Beverly says "Wa, Wa, Wa."
Regis seeing some R-rated stuff between Bex's chicken and GamboMouse:
"Barnyard mayhem."
Showalter tells me to write down that "Tim was at my table."
---
6:47 p.m. notes say "Feeling very loose."
Walking back from a break, Nolan and I are laughing about paying off next
year's sports bets in a photo in front of the urinals.
Kelly calls someone a "Fuck face." Much laughter.
Kelly is a BARGE rookie, but shows a lot of promise.
RCD: "Bex is a bad influence." More laughter.
Flop is 7-7-7. Dealer gets three tokes.
River is the 4th 7! More tokes.
About here I bust Dan G. He gives me a very cool 3D printed
Easter Island figure that doubles as a glasses holder.
Un: "Where's the mouse?"
Someone else: "He's choking the chicken."
Dean wins a pot. The table boos.
Regis: "Thousands of chips cried out."
Sabyl: (about the chicken and Gambo) "Not on the table for Christ's sake!"
Editor: OMG, I'm laughing at this yet again.
Larry: "These are my friends. You can imagine what my enemies do to me."
"Suck re-suck"
Christin and/or Christian: "That sounds like my kind of party."
---
New table:
Dr. Doof, me, Greg, Sabyl, Keith, Rick M., Kuntz, Cap and Chris Kl.
KKxy and bust Rick. I get a bottle of maple syrup. Thanks.
Knock out Cap. He gives me a deck of Doyle Brunson cards. Very cool.
AAxy beats Sabyl KKxy.
---
Final table:
Hammer, Bremer, Russ, me, Kuntz, Corey, Kathy, Paul and Patrick.
Editor's note: This is a brutal final table.
The tournament is paying 7 spots. There are 9 of us.
Likely there will be a save for 8th if I can hang on that long.
I'm getting low on chips and the evil BB ante looms.
AJT4s in spades and raise all-in. I'm just hoping to survive another round
or two. Kathy calls. I have a bad feeling. Kathy is a very good player
and she (and Caryl) hold over me almost all the time on Deadhead's
CraftPoker site. Kathy has a very strong hand. KKxy double suited in
hearts and diamonds. I just need an ace or some spades.
Sadly the flop is all hearts and I'm drawing dead.
I fling my bust out chip magnet across the table I think smacking
Corey's chips. Apologies to Corey and Kathy.
I know you think *you* hate bubbling tournaments. I'm pretty damn sure
I hate bubbling tournaments even more. A couple of friends look
like they want to console me as I walk away. I kind of give them a
little shake of my head to tell them "not now guys."
It is painful even now typing it all in. Ugh.
Friday, July 21st.
--------------------
Cell phone alarm goes off at 6:40 a.m. Why!?!?
The BARGE Fun Run.
Five Participants:
Runners: Deadhead Mickdog, Asya and me. Bob Herlien is walking.
We all have water bottles with us.
First, I want to acknowledge the untimely passing of runner and good friend
David Lawful. Just a great guy. A BARGEr that everyone liked.
Last year, it was in the 70s. Today, in is 91 degrees at 7:00 a.m.
and probably got to the upper 90s by the time we finished.
Mickdog and I take off jogging.
A little under 14 minutes per mile pace.
Deadhead walks with Bob early on. Later he loops back to run with Asya.
It's getting hotter and hotter as Mickdog and I are chatting and running.
After two miles, the chatting turns into "How are you doing?"
"Are you holding up okay?"
As we approach the Westgate, Mickdog decides to walk the last few hundred
yards. I finish the run at the Westgate entrance. Hey, did I win?
41 minutes, 26 seconds.
I walk back to look for Mickdog. I can't find him!
Minutes later, Asya and Deadhead come running up.
Deadhead runs off to find Bob who may have taken a detour.
Asya helps me backtrack maybe a 1/4 mile to make sure Mickdog isn't
collapsed in a bush somewhere. We chat a bit about diet and exercise.
I listen carefully as Asya looks very fit these days.
We meet up with Bob and Deadhead back at the entrance and take a photo.
Mickdog and I figure out that he must have walked up a driveway
behind a hedge as I walked down the main driveway. Woo!
Thanks to Deadhead for organizing the run. Hope to see more people
next year if it isn't 112 degrees.
---
Take a great shower and soak in the tub.
---
BARGE BOD/Organizers breakfast at Bagelmania.
Russ drives Chuck and me over.
Chuck is walking with a cane. No, not due to his recent knee replacement.
Some blisters on his foot/toes. Ouch.
Table:
Doof, Goldie, Bruce, Russ, Rich B., Patti, Chuck, Deron and me.
Some good discussions.
I get the brisket sandwich. Delicious.
We talked about some stuff I can't divulge and had a free breakfast.
Thanks BARGE!
---
Back to the poker room.
Online Calcutta bidding ends around here.
I did all of the touts/comments for the Calcutta.
If you need any explained, let me know.
I bought Stillman/Samarel, Grout/Chic, Asya/Caryl, and Kuntz/Kania.
Showalter's bidding AI failed to outbid me.
Thanks to the people who set this up and special thanks to David Low
who had to make many last-minute changes.
---
Tournament of Champions (TOC) tournament.
Playing hold'em, 7-stud and Omaha-8.
Table:
Me, Dan N., Regis, Oliver (the new one), Caryl, Ice, Byron and Brandon.
The Floorman reminds me of an actor. Josh Duhamel. He also says Mr. Bean!
---
I decide to not drink for this one.
Mostly had Diet Cokes and Sugar-free Red Bull.
---
7-stud. A couple of players are having trouble seeing the cards on
the other end of the table. Jay, the dealer starts announcing the upcards!
This is such a great idea. Perhaps this should be a rule for our
stud tournaments.
---
Regis: "There will be a quiz later."
I river a diamond flush to beat Caryl in a stud hand.
Noteworthy because I rarely beat Caryl in any type of poker.
Ice: "Ken, your cards were blank."
RCD: "BARGE gets more BARGEy every day."
Me: "I win one hand every half hour and everyone complains."
Dan N.: "My wife is too hot."
Regis declares a "Cocktail Emergency!"
And then makes the ambulance sound "Woo woo woo woo."
O8 BB A246. Board is 3-5-6-6-J and I scoop!
Dan: "We broke the dealer."
Dan knocks me out in hold'em when his KT hits a K vs. my J4s.
He got a deck of "Omaha for Dummies" cards.
---
Brandon and I played a couple of interesting hands.
After I busted I talked to him on a break about the hands.
I'm not sure we've talked much before. Good guy.
---
Lunch at the snack bar/grill with Crunch and Prock.
I got the Philly Cheese. Can't recommend it. 20% discount helps.
We talked about BAAP and even some politics.
---
Give the dime to JZK. This was from a Facebook photo of one of my
slot cars with the dime for perspective. JZK commented that he'd
rather have the dime.
---
Settle up dumb bets and backing refund with Bremer.
---
Lee: "I have a good 'Fuck Grizz' story."
---
Craps Crawl!
I believe this is the first official Craps Crawl since 2019.
The Westgate holds a table for us in the High Limit area.
The dealers, box men and box woman are very friendly and get us.
I'm coaching John Lloyd as I am a craps expert having lost several
thousands of dollars playing this game. My estimate in $10,000
mostly in my 20s.
First thing we discuss is that you don't say the word "seven" at
the craps table. You don't think it. You don't say things like
"Come on 6 or 8." as the craps gods will average that to a 7.
Around the table: Bremer, Showalter, Kuntz, Oliver, Steve W.,
Randal, Kluchman, John Lloyd and me.
Bremer is the first shooter. 2, 12, 6, 7.
Nice work Rich. I'm stuck $38 before we've even ordered drinks.
Waitress arrives. While I'm famous for drinking 7&7s, this is
tantamount to treason at a craps table. For craps, I drink
Harvey Wallbangers. We are banging dice against a wall, so it works.
Bremer and I try to order Wallbangers. The waitress does not know
this drink! OMG. How old am I? I explain what it is and I think
the bartender got it right.
---
Showalter is betting the Don'ts a bit. All of us are losing badly
as none of us can hold the dice for more than 2 or 3 minutes.
I think I rolled a come-out 11 to stem the tide.
I'm down about $150 and I'll quit if I lose $200.
Oliver finally puts together a roll. He makes four passes and rolls
a lot of numbers to help out the place bettors.
We are high-fiving Oliver.
---
I hit a couple of passes and bet a "Horn High Yo" in Kevan's honor.
I roll the 11 for a $20 pass line win and $27 from the Horn bet.
---
John Lloyd gets the dice and goes on a nice run. I lost track, but
I think he made 6 passes with a come-out yo in there.
Many high fives with John as everyone is digging out of deep holes.
I count my chips. I'm up $8! This feels like a $150 win at this point.
I just stand around as John keeps rolling and winning money for everyone.
I toss out a $1 yo and a couple of $1 hardways.
Finally, I quit up $5. Yes JZK, I locked up the win.
I checked back maybe 40 minutes later and it looked like everyone
was losing again. Saddenz.
Someone tell me if I'm wrong, but I think I won the craps crawl.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun and John and Oliver are my new heroes.
---
Dealer's Choice Ring Game
Table: Dan N. (is he stalking me?), Patrick, Tony, Carol, Sandra, Sam,
me and Lee.
---
John Lloyd suggest that we should have a Monte Blackjack tournament.
I add the twist that it is a "Must Drink" tournament with the drink
choices being Manhattans, Newcastle, Patron shots or Double Stoli-crans.
Organizers, please get on this stat!
---
Ron has a breast implant on the table. A "bust" out gift. Groan.
Caryl: "See ya Tamara." It was hilarious, trust me.
Around here I meet Salim. A super nice guy that I played with on
CraftPoker.com but had never met live. Good to put a person with
the online name.
---
Tony (to Ron): "We are fighting over who gets to tell you to fuck yourself."
RCD: "They're real and they're spectacular."
Secondhand RCD: "I'd rather show you my tits than my cards."
RCD: "A thruple maybe?"
RCD: "Mistress of the placards." and "That's what she said."
We start playing Tic-Tac-Toemaha. You can use two of your cards
with any column, row or either diagonal. The board ends up
like a tic-tac-toe board.
Patrick: "I'll take Charlie Weaver for the block." Much laughter.
Lee and Ron are drinking Kentucky Mules. Not bad.
QB (after 22 drinks): "I have not yet begun to drink."
Trust me, it was hilarious.
Ron: "Let's have a round of applause for Rick Blemer."
QB: "Just badugi?"
Grizz: "As opposed to unjust badugi."
Someone orders a Diet Cocaine?
My notes fail me. It was a Diet Coke and something else.
---
Badugi round.
Sam and another player are pat on the 2nd draw. Sam calls.
Both are pat on the third draw. Player bets, Sam folds an 8!!!!!!
Other player shows a 7. Holy crap. I told Sam he really should give the
other player $8 as that is an impossible fold.
Sam loses with another 8. Yeesh. Unlucky.
Sam check-raises Lee after the 2nd draw. Lee calls.
Pat-pat. Sam bets, Lee calls.
Sam shows a 7. Nice! Lee Crocker rolls over a 6 to win the pot.
I see monsters under the bed all the time, but I would have thrown
in one more raise with a 6 badugi.
I told Sam that that was the worst luck I had ever seen someone have in
one round of badugi.
---
I actually booked a $75 win in this game. Yay!
---
Grab a Reuben sandwich on the way to the room. Yum.
Saturday, July 22nd.
--------------------
Meet Rich Strauss for breakfast at Sid's.
Whatever I had was really good.
One good thing about dining with Rich is that you are bound to get some
extra food that he can't eat. Extra toast this time.
We discussed baseball and Cal sports. We figured out that we were
both at a 1969 Cal basketball game where Cal took undefeated UCLA
(with Lew Alcindor a.k.a. Kareem) to overtime.
---
Around here Randal sings a few bars of a Beatles's song for me.
What a voice!
---
The BARGE NL (No-Limit) event. 98 players. Up 15 from 2022. Take that R.
---
Around the Table:
Kevan, Sassy, me, JZK, Lee, Scottro, Sam, Prock and Hack.
I'm wearing a custom Hawaiian shirt with photos of Taylor the Dog on it.
I note that except for Sassy, we all have a "K" in our names."
Sassy is very hoarse. Thank goodness for my new hearing aids.
Sidebar: Sassy (Stephanie) has been coming to BARGE for many years.
I don't think I had said more than 20 words to her before this trip.
It was nice to get to know her after all this time.
She had very pretty chrome green nails. See my Facebook pics.
---
Kevan: "Chic wouldn't even call this." as he sadly mucks his hand.
JZK: "Only 10,800 more to you."
Me: "I'm still in?" Much laughter.
Discussions include $2 bills, motorcycles, and car engines on fire/melting.
---
Around here Russ gives me two chilled cans of Coke Zero.
This saves the day when the waitress goes into witness protection.
---
Actual interesting hand (1 of 2):
Dealer exposes a Q dealing to Sassy.
I have QQ in early position and make a standard raise to 1500.
Scottro makes it 5300. Wow.
If it were a lot later, I'd shove here, but with one queen dead,
I decided to fold. I show the QQ. Scottro shows KK!
Dodged a bullet there.
---
Kevan posts a blind from the cut-off?
QB: "Australian Rules hold'em?"
Sassy: "Like the toilets." making a circular motion.
Kevan: "That's where all my chips go."
---
BARGE group photo around here. Rodney did a great job as usual.
---
Actual interesting hand (2 of 2):
AJ and make it 4600. Sam calls.
Flop J-T-9. I bet 6500. Sam calls again. Hmm.
Turn is a 5. I have 22,000 left. I'm never folding, so I just jam.
Sam goes into the tank. Well, at least it wasn't a snap call.
I have him on QJs. Top pair, open ender.
He says "It's hard to make a pair." So maybe he thinks I have AK or AQ.
When someone goes into the tank, I pick some object on the table
and stare at it. This is going on for a *long* time.
I say "It's getting hard to hold my stare this long."
Sam finally folds after 2 minutes. QTs. Good fold.
---
Kevan: "That's no lady. That's Gillian." Ha!
Patti: "KevON, why are you calling me."
Kevan: "I've never called you KevON." Laughter.
---
Flop T-6-2. Sassy and Scottro jam it up.
She has 66. He has TT. Youch.
---
I ask for blues (chips). Patti starts singing a blues song. Nice.
Table update:
Kevan, Grout, me, Patti, Steve Jaleus?, Kramer, Sam, Andy Bloch, Hack.
---
Larry joins the table.
I jam UTG with Q6o. Larry calls with A8s. Not the worst spot for me.
Flop J-3-3. Lights are dimming.
Turn A. Larry gets a signed copy of my cartoon trivia book.
---
I usually feel awful when I bust out of the main event at BARGE, but
I actually feel pretty good this time.
---
Not 30 seconds later applause erupts as Goldie busts out.
Dang. Lost a $10 last-longer to Goldie too. Sigh.
---
Patti wrote something in my notes. I can't mention it here, but
I was laughing hard for a good 10 or 15 seconds.
---
I'm a railbird now.
Ross needs some toke chips. I know I have a bunch in my bag.
I'm digging for chips. Grapes sees this and asks "Drugs?"
I get about 10 chips for Ross and find two orange DayQuil caplets.
Grapes pops them to help with a minor headache.
---
Dinner at Fresco (the Italian place.)
Table: Caryl, David. A., Russ, Deron, Jodi and me.
I had the Chicken Marsala and it was very good.
We talked about first jobs and using punch cards at college.
Anyway, thanks for inviting me along.
---
Back to the poker room.
Slick has a concealed carry permit for his suspenders.
---
John Grout is my best horse, but he just misses the money.
---
Get called for the Chowaha game.
Table: Asya, Hack, Ben, Claudia, Regis, Aronsons and me.
I fold two hands and then get called for HORSE.
QB: "I didn't win a single hand at this table."
---
HORSE game.
Table: Betty, Doof, Laurie, Dean, Scottro, Bex, Stewe W. and me.
I get called for the Dealer's Choice game. Rack up and leave.
---
Dealer's Choice.
Table: Me, Christin M., Lee, Randal, Crunch, Sandra, Samarel and Eileen.
Gambo meets Poldi who is Chritin's mascot.
D-Low slow-rolls Doug. Not on purpose, but it was really funny.
RCD: "We are playing traditional Inception."
---
Applause from the other room. Rich Bremer wins the main event.
Nolan Dalla to place. David Kluchman to show. My chips made it to 4th
with Larry. 5-10. Sheila, Doug, Len, Bruce, Eric S. and Mickdog.
Rich walks into the poker room to a standing ovation and people
chanting "Rich! Rich! Rich!"
---
Sabyl takes Christin's spot next to me. Gambo waves to her.
Sabyl starts talking about taking Gambo home to Kai and Steve.
And then starts bouncing Gambo on the rail and doing "rat speak."
Saying "Ruh, ruh, ruh, Steve. Ruh, ruh, ruh, Steve."
There's no way I can do this justice in writing.
Gambo then gave Sabyl a kiss on the cheek. Flirty mouse!
---
Someone to Scott: "Don't listen to them."
Scott: "Trust me, I'm not."
---
We play Anaconda! 7-pass 3, pass 2, pass 1. High-Low Roll your own.
The passing is to the dealer to avoid collusion.
Lee wins a monster with 5555 vs. two big full houses.
It looked like he had lock low after 4 cards. Nice pot.
Notes say "80 seconds." Oh! I know what that means.
Katie Baxter appears. She flew in to get a little taste of BARGE.
Sunday, July 23rd.
-------------------
About 1:00 a.m. Our game and the Pot-Limit Binglaha are still going strong.
It has actually gotten louder in the poker room after midnight.
---
Around here Sam asks if I have notes on that horrible run at badugi.
See above kiddo.
---
Someone busts Sam in the Binglaha game. The other players applaud
as we do in the tournaments. This was quite funny.
As I mentioned in a text, Sam has great degen bloodlines.
He fits in with us very well at the advanced age of 22.
RCD: To a whining player "Aww, you only lost $100 at BARGE."
Randal: "I'm here to drink and have fun."
Ed Baker, we need T-shirts. L for Randal, XL for me.
RCD: "Once you've had meth, Adderall just doesn't cut it anymore."
We play River of Blood. Extra river cards as long as the last card is red.
Heart and diamond flush draws are always live.
Dan G.: "Here's the thing about poker... nobody gives a shit."
There was something about lap dances and Hammer. Oh, the humanity.
Sabyl squeals as she scoops a big pot in Binglaha.
Hammer votes me off the island. Sad.
Our game breaks at about 3:30 a.m. The Binglaha went until 8:00 a.m. or so.
Good job people!
Oh, our last dealer was a blonde lady with a great smile.
Reminded me a lot of Tina. Again, see my pics on Facebook.
---
Another Reuben from Fortuna on the way to the room.
---
Come down to the poker room around 11:30. Watch Ron torture the locals
in an NL game.
Bruce asks if I want to go to Pizza Rock. For sure.
---
Pizza Rock with Bruce, Asya, Ben, Kenny and Jodi.
We ordered way too much food. The Motorhead pizza was the best.
Exchange between Asya and Bruce: "Gimme. No gimme. No gimme."
We play CCR for the bill. It comes down to Asya and Ben so I think Asya
paid. Thanks!
---
We Uber to the Goldman's for the after party. Uber, brought to you by
Kenny and Ken.
Take photos of the four sweet dogs. OMG, the dogs just loved Ben and Asya.
Talked with Deadhead about rescue rats.
I talked with Ice, Tim Stine, Rodney, Nolan and a bunch of other people.
My alarm goes off. Without thinking much, I order an Uber to the airport.
Ack! I have 3 minutes to say goodbye. I run around waving and
saying "Happy BARGE!" to about 30 people.
---
Lady driver was a crack up on the way to the airport.
---
Window seat for the flight home.
Guy next to me ordered a cocktail. They finally get us our drinks
and then not two minutes later they start coming through to pick
them up. We drank up quickly.
---
Kristina picks me up at SJC and we pick up $5 boxes at Taco Bell
on the way home.
---
Gambling...
craps: Won $5
big 6 wheel: DNP
blackjack: DNP
live poker: lost. Neighborhood of $100.
slots: DNP
tournaments: lost, lost, lost, lost
last-longers: lost
roshambo: DNP.
Hugs: Llew, Nancy, Barbara, Kathy I., Sabyl, Bex, Gillian, Jeanne, Claudia,
Regis, Betty, Sassy, Sandra, Caryl, Carol, Katie, Sharon, Jodi and Eileen.
Manly hugs: Rich S., Rich B., Adam, Nolan, Dan, Larry B., Gerdog, Corey,
Bob, Hammer, Steve W., Chuck, Eric, Deron, Kevan, Martin, Randal, Goldie,
Dean, Scottro, Jeff and Un. Men, men, men, men.
I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple and/or making up a couple.
---
Missed all of my friends who didn't make it this time.
Peter Secor, Bingo, Bob O., Perry, Bozo, Patrick, Diana, George, JP, Howler,
Sue, Bruce, Lynsy, Murray, Markowitz, Siegal, Tanya, Jordan, Brenda, Jepsen,
Derek, Mecklin, Joe, Ed, Tina, North Shore, MPH, Sheri, JD, Scoop, Veach,
Barry, Shari, Erin, Moser, Rob, Bart, Bill, Rafn, Lee J., Tracy, Alex, Murray,
Pickels, Oz, Susan, O'Grady, Tom, Andreas, Oscar, Pete, Taki, Masa, John,
Mary, Ellis, Charles, Janie, Mark, Steve, Stephen, Dave and David.
There are many, many more.
Everyone please make an effort to come to BARGE 2024.
It is the best week of the year.
Thanks to the Westgate. The home of BARGE.
The dealers, waitresses and poker staff all did good jobs.
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It felt very BARGEy this year. Like 90% back to normal.
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Kubey's 2023 MVB (Most Valuable BARGEr) Award:
Rich Bremer! Wins the main event for the 2nd time.
Did a ton of work as an organizer. Honorable mention to Russ Fox.
Thanks to the board: JZK, Christian, Patti, Bingo and me!
Thanks to the organizers: Russ, Bremer, Deitch, Sharon and Goldie.
Thanks to the Tech Crew: Doug, David Low and Barry.
The BARGE Chip Committee. Uh... some work to do.
Perhaps one 10 or 12 chip sampler set to cover the missing years?
Rodney with the fantastic photos and printing them all out for us.
We just can't thank you enough.
Peter and Chuck just plain r00l.
All the other folks who ran or sponsored events with their own cash.
Asya, Ben, Sharon, Dan, Cliff, etc.
Thanks also to all the other people who make BARGE go.
Rest assured, I will be doing way more superstitious stuff next year.
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Can I sign up for BARGE 2024 now?
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Ken Kubey [email hidden]