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The story of my thirtieth BARGE.
“It feels very BARGEy right now.”

Monday, July 28th.

Attend the virtual BARGE Board of Directors meeting on Zoom.
Nothing too exciting.

Start my BARGE laundry at about 10 p.m. Huge mistake as it isn’t all dry until about 2am and I have to leave for the airport at 5am.

Tuesday, July 29th.

SWA, Uber to The Orleans at like 9am? I’m so tired.
Can I check in early? Yes, but it will cost an extra $35.
I have to think about this.

Check in and take a wonderful $35 nap.

First BARGEr sighted is Crunch, but he is walking away. Second BARGEr sighted is Dan Goldman sporting a David Letterman beard, but he is also walking away.

Eileen gets the coveted first hug.

Take a selfie with Dean. My phone’s reverse camera is awful, so I have to wing in taking a blind-photo with the front camera. It’s not too bad.

TORSE tournament. HORSE, but with triple-draw 2-7 instead of Hold’em.

Around the table:
Christian, Alex, Jeanie, Samarel, me and Aaron.
Yes, I know I should end with “me,” but we are going by seat position.

Jeannie steals GamboMouse. Notes: Gambo in Happy Place.

Aaron shows me a beautiful Franklin 50 cent piece he has with him. I reach in my bag a show him a 1964 Kennedy 50 cent piece that might be one of my bust-out gifts.

Jeannie says she is going to call MPS. MPS? Mouse Protective Services.

Mandatory table redraw. This is a new thing. I like it.

New seating order:
Aaron, me, Samarel, Alex, Christian and Jeannie.

Alex busts me in a stud round with trip 5 vs. my 7733.
I give him a giant pair of dice as the bust-out gift.

Around here I see Patti and get my 30-year BARGE card protector.
Also $30 from Fich for a 1970s Radio Shack store ashtray.
It’s a long story. Anyway, thank you Patti.

History of Poker Tournament.
This on will be 5-card draw high and lowball. Both with a bug/joker.
This is pretty much my favorite BARGE tournament.

Table:
Bremer, Jared, Carol, me, Markowitz, Bowtie.

Carol pulls out lip balm. It looks familiar. We both carry Burt’s Bees mango lip balm.

Carol: “I’m a married lady now. I’m very demure.” Much laughter.

Random Comment Department (RCD): “Anderson sandwich.”

Shannon, the tournament director was born on 7/7/77.
I have to tell her the story about the 7th race at Golden Gate Fields on 7/7/77. Of course lots of money was bet on horse #7. It came in 7th!

Chase down Kendall, one of the great cocktail waitresses, for a Lazy Pineapple drink. This is similar to the Crazy Pineapple drink. Ask Samarel for info.

Redraw:
Jared, Carol, Markowitz, Dan G., Bowtie, Kelly K. (Un’s sister) and me.

I’m forced all-in. I’m dealt 88555. Great! Except we are playing lowball. Lee (Bowtie) has a pat-10 and knocks me out. Big pair of dice to Lee.

Wednesday, July 30th.

Organizers breakfast at Blueberry Hill. Got a ride with Russ. Thanks.

The table:
Chuck, Goldie, Sharon, Bruce K., Russ, Rich B., Deron and me.

What a great group.

I get something called the Blueboy. Bacon, eggs and blueberry pancakes. Amazing pancakes.

We discuss things about the chip sets and other topics.

Champions Bounty No-limit Hold’em.
Former BARGE champions will have a mystery bounty on them.

Table:
Markowitz, me, Larry S., Jared, Goldie, Buffalo, Grizz, Ron, Tony J.

Ron is very low on chips. Flop is 8-X-Y. I bust Ron with K8 vs. his 87. He gives me a bust-out gift, but then takes it back and re-enters the tournament!

Buffalo makes two great folds. One was flush over flush.

The drinks are super weak. I take to alternating rum and Diet Cokes and shots of Jack Daniels. I just dump the shot into the rum and Diet to make an actual drink.

RCD: “$20 for my wife.”

I have AKs. Jag has AK. Larry 77. Ron KT.
Larry and Ron are all-in.

Board A-7-X-Y-Z. Larry triples up. Ron is busted… again.
Jaglarski and I chop the main. It is decided that I busted Ron… again. So I get his bust-out gift… again.

RCD: “Men are disgusting.”

Redraw:
Jag, Jared, Buffalo, Markowitz, me, Sabyl, Marcus, Ryan and DLow.

Oh, Marcus was at his first BARGE. Monte’s brother-in-law. Good guy.

Sabyl: “Red Rover, Red Rover, send a bounty right over.”

I have JJ and bust Larry and his A9.

Around here, the waitress cuts me off for one round!
DLow volunteers to order a drink for me if this happens again.
DLow is a degen’s degen.

Ryan, DLow and me in unison: “Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
I think we were finishing a song lyric.

Buffalo: “I’m and idiot, but that’s alright.”

T9o in the BB. Bex jams, Jag makes it 10K. I call hunting a bounty.
Flop Q-J-8. I flop the joint, as they say. Flop is checked.
Turn, I bet 10K. Call. River, I bet 20K. Call. win the big pot and bust Bex. She is a former champion, so I get a $116 bounty! Woo!
She also gives me a small black box. It says “Just For You.” I open it.
There’s a wiggling hand inside giving me the finger. I laughed pretty hard.

RCD: “Only a pervert looks.”

We are at the bubble. This tournament is paying a lot of places. 30 maybe? DLow and I come up with a save idea to take 50 cents off the top 18 places so the bubble gets $9. It was pretty hilarious. Trust me.

I have Peter Secor all-in. Maybe AJ vs. A7. He catches a 7 on the river. If I have to be rivered by someone, it might as well be Peter.

Redraw:
Barry, Secor, Buff, Dan G., me, Kuntz, Marcus, Ryan and DLow.

QB (probably after a JD shot is delivered): “I’m armed and dangerous.”

AQ all-in. Buffalo has 76s. Board runs out Q-X-X-7-X.
I beat Buffalo in a hand. This is sort of noteworthy. You’ll see.

AT. Dan has Q7s all-in. Board K-K-X-3-3. Bust Dan.
Oh, I get a super cool 3D-printed donkey from Dan.

Borrow a toke chip from Kuntz.
As things progress, I promise Kuntz another dollar if I make the final table.

Redraw:
Kuntz, Secor, DLow, Marcus, Barry, Buffalo and me.

75o and raise. DLow defends his BB all-in with A5s.
Flop is 7-X-Y. Brutal for Dave. River A. Good for Dave.

Peter and I chop the $90 ADB last-longer. Woo!

JJ. Barry has 77. Jacks win! I bust Barry.

Final table:
DLow, Peter, Scottro (bounty), me, Chao, Kuntz, Rich Jaglarski, Fujita, Buff.

KK and bust Fujita’s A2. He gives me and Atlantic City key chain.

Bremer and I come up with an idea where the payouts oscillate.
Like 5th might be $400, 4th $300, 3rd $700, 2nd $500, 1st $1000.

RCD: “Dirty rats!”

AQ. Scottro is all-in. Board is A——. He rolls over KK. Oof.
Another bounty for me. $114 or so.

Rich J. knocks out Low and Kuntz. Suddenly we are 3-handed!
I think another dollar to Kuntz?

A8 and shove. Buff calls with KQ. Board ——Q. Ouch.
I’m put out in 3rd for something like $650. Throw in the bounties and LL and I cashed for about $900 total.

Very happy with this result.

Go to Al’s Oyster bar with Larry S., Dan N., Sandra and John Lloyd.
I get the jambalaya. It’s really good.
Didn’t take notes, but we talked about some interesting stuff.
CCR. I made it to heads-up against Dan. He “won” so he got to pay for all of our dinners. Thank you Mr. Nussbaum.

CHORSE.
This is the 6-person team event where are chips are worth money. Three of us play different games at three tables and then the other three replace us to play three of the other games.

Kelly Kania put together a team and recruited me. I was a free agent this year since Nancy couldn’t make it.
The team: Kelly, Jeff Kania, Ryan, Cap, Chao and me.

Okay, here is the really funny part…
The people on my team are asking me for advice.

I’m playing Omaha-8.
Table:
Bremer, Meeee (David Aronson), me, Kyle, Edmund Hack, Fazio, Buffalo.
Fazio is at his 2nd BARGE and wore a shirt saying “This Is My Second Rodeo.”
Love it!

Dean is dealing and has a cup overflowing with toke chips.

Andrew Chao is new to BARGE and is very interested in the Fun Run.
He’s a very friendly guy.

Our team does okay at some tables, gets killed at others.
But we battle and stay in the game.
We manage to get about half of our money back which isn’t too bad.

RCD: “Gives a whole new meaning to ‘Busting out’.”

Oh, Cap (Joe Santagata) tells us an great story about a team pool game he played in. Ask him about it.

RCD: “It feels very BARGEy right now.”

John Lloyd comes by to ask me if the Craps Crawl is on.
It is getting awfully late, so I think it won’t go tonight.

Thursday, July 31st.

PLO Tournament. Pot-Limit Omaha High-only.
We start with T10K and have two rebuy lammers worth T5K each.

Russ delivers a Coke Zero. Thanks!
Carol is selling toke chips and also collected the ADB last-longer money for most of the tournaments. Thanks Carol.

Around the table:
Kuntz, JZK, COC, Chris Q., me, Dan G, Mickdog, Ben I and Grizz.

I note that “We have trip Chrises.”

Dan has a another cool 3D-printed donkey as a bust-out prize.

Notes: Gambo and Dan’s donkey photo op.

Around here I make a too-tight fold. I’m still mad at myself.
I blame being sober. Not kidding.

Lose my initial chips to Grizz when I miss a flush draw.
Use my rebuy lammers.

JZK and others discus the very thin and filthy $1 chips at Garden City and Binion’s. You could easily get 22 chips in a 20-chip rack. Maybe 23. I think there was a mention of Ron offering to eat a small wad of the chip crud for money. Also a mention of Perry eating a Keno crayon.

Later a discussion of great buttons. One Time, Bink, No Player, Missed Cocktail, etc.

On a break, I try to give Barbara (the TD) a chip. She refuses.
“How about a hug?” “Okay.”

RCD in the Men’s room to Len. “Your ass still looks great.”

New Table:
COC, Buff, Cap, Jim A., me, Larry B., Rick M., Marcus and Ron.

RCD: “Ron’s a jerk.”

Eric Rosenberg drops by for a couple of minutes.
Lee Jones drops by too.

Ron says he is a hemorrhoid because he annoys assholes. True, true.
Ed note: I had three spelling errors in my first attempt at spelling hemorrhoid.

Around here we learn that Lori Miller is a Savanah Bananas groupie.

New table:
Mark Seif, Jeanne, me, Bremer, Lennie, Tom B., Grizz, Ron, Len.

Len and Lennie at the same table. What are the odds?

KKxy and raise pot. Bremer comes over the top. I’m committed.
Yeah, he has AAxy. Just for fun, the flop is A-K-X. I’m out.
Rich gets a Binion’s plate/ash tray. I got three at flea market for $5.

Limit Hold’em tournament. I get backing for this one. 4:00 p.m.

Table:
COC, Bingo, Un, Eileen, Angie (Mrs. Doof), me, Doof, Lloyd and Tanya.

Around here Scottro gives me his purple chip. Thanks!

Nolan Hee to Sabyl: “You don’t need to watch this hand. Let’s keep talking about sex.”

RCD “Bag of dicks.”

Nolan H. calls hold’em “Cis Chowaha.”

5:09 p.m. John Lloyd wins his first hand.

I’m all-in with AhTh. Ron calls with KJs. Board K-J-X-Y-Z.
Binion’s tray to Ron.

TORSE ring game.

Table:
Regis, Sandra, Dan N., Claudia, Eileen, me, Hee, Meeee, Showalter.

Notes: 2025 Orleans chip lands on my shorts. It made sense at the time.

Jesse Capps is in the box! Will we all eventually work for The Orleans?

RCD: “I’m not a stabby kind of person.”

Regis: “Is this man bothering you?”

Gambo kisses Regis.

No more notes, but I won a little bit.

Craps Crawl!

We land at a $15 table. This could be a short crawl.

Around the craps table:
PRM, Tim, Steve W., Lloyd, Markowitz, me, Bremer, Bingo and Larry S.

I took no more notes at the table. The rest of the craps stuff is from memory.

I think Peter did a drive-by.

PRM and Tim start most of us off losing. Steve does okay.
John Lloyd held the dice for a while and brought us back near even.
Markowitz gets the dice and hits a couple of come-out 11s for me and a hard-8. Suddenly, I’m ahead!

Order a Harvey Wallbanger. The waitress is confused. Bremer explains it.

I hold the dice for a few minutes. I think Rich did well on my roll.

Bremer makes about 10 straight passes. A couple of 11s and maybe 3 or 4 come-out 7s. He also his a hard-6 in there for me.

The last guys shoot and we call it a night.

I’m up $150. I think that’s my best craps crawl ever. Most of us won.

Thanks to John Lloyd for keeping after us to do the crawl.

Friday, July 19th.

Cell phone alarm goes off at 6:40 a.m. Why!?!?

The BARGE Fun Run.

Three Participants:
Runners: Deadhead and me. Keith is walking.

Team sleeping in: Patti (Captain), Mickdog, Asya, Andrew, Eileen, Ron.

Andrew apologized over and over about missing the run. It’s okay, man. No worries.

Our course is basically a square around The Orleans.

We send Keith off walking counter-clockwise. Deadhead and I run clockwise to maximize meet ups.

Deadhead decides to do a “washing machine” and switch directions and mode (running vs. walking) as the three of us met on the course.

First mile in about 13 minutes mostly running with Deadhead.
Second mile in about 17 minutes. Man, that is slow, but I feel good and decide to run a third mile.
Third mile in 18 minutes? That can’t be right. 48:30 for 3.2 miles.

Thanks to Deadhead for organizing this.

Take a great shower/bath and then a nap.

Walk down to the poker room. Realize I have forgotten my hearing aids.

Start the long walk back to the hotel tower.

See Mickdog, Ben and Corey walking toward me. I want to explain to them why I’m walking the wrong direction so I point to my ear and say “I forgot my hearing aids.”

Without missing a beat they say “What? What? What?”

Peter Secor loses his phone. Peter is already seated and it would be tough for him to get back on his scooter and search so he sends me off to the bank of video poker machines about 50 yards away.

I see nothing. Others join the search. Finally we use our brains and someone calls Peter’s phone. Security has it and they later deliver it to Peter at the table. Yay.

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

Table:
SteveW, Sandra, Corey, Barry, Secor, Aaron, Jim A., me, Debbie and Connie.

Around here I deliver landline phones to Bwana for his mom.

QB: “I’m not drinking today.”

After a while, Jim finally wins his first hand, gets up and does a little celebration move.

QB: “No antes?”
Dealer: “No uncles.” Toke to dealer.

“Where did Jim go?”
Dealer: “Powder room.”

ADB photo. Thanks Rodney.

Pool discussion. The Black Widow and Bustamante.

QQ all-in. Barry has AJ. Board: K-J-2-2-Q.

Barry raises. Folded to Corey.
Barry: “No shame in folding.”
Corey: “Raise!”

Told ADB Sabyl that we will be doing shots later. Laughter.

Dan orders shots for us.

Omaha-8. I have A356. Flop X-5-3 checks around. Turn 2.
Checked around again. River blank. I have two pair and #2 low and bet.
Steve raises. What? I really don’t like it. Maybe he has Just 64. I call.
A4. Checked the wheel through. Clever play cripples me.

3:43 p.m. “Let’s focus.”

Redraw:
Steve, Sandra, Corey, Haroldson, Dan, Asya, Jim A. and me.

I double through Steve and then Asya.

AJs and jam. Corey calls with A8. Board J-T-9-7-X. Corey’s hand sends me straight to the rail. Binion’s tray to Corey.

Banquet at The Prime Rib Loft.

I am completely out of gas. I need a nice quiet table.
Patrick and Eileen wave me over. Buffalo (Andy) joins us.
We get two free drinks. Yay. Pick up another booze ticket from a non-drinker later.

The prime rib is excellent. The side dishes are great.
The dessert is way too good.

Big thanks to Sharon Goldman for setting this up.
I heard it was a lot of trouble. Best BARGE banquet in memory.

Chris Fox Smith was our speaker.

Chris: “There’s nothing in your life that can replace having fun.” Well said.

He mentions playing against some weird players and then says:
“Not like you guys ‘weird’.” Much laughter.

He also said it is important to play hands against bad players.

I was sitting close to the stage and he asked me a question.
I semi-fumbled it. Oh well.

Anyway, it was a very good and engaging talk. I’d say top 5 all-time.

I decide to skip Whammy CAR tournament.
The joker was in the deck and it was sort of a “Whammy” from the TV show “Press Your Luck.” You know, “Big Bucks, No whammies!”

Saturday, August 2nd

I decide I should forego Pop Tarts and have an actual breakfast.

Patrick K. waves me over. Meet Michael S. Heldar joins us.

There is a discussion about the odds of seeing all black cards on a Chowaha board.

I had something with bacon. It was good.

The BARGE NL (No-Limit) event. About 100 players.

Someone brought donuts. Thank you!

Note: my notes get worse and worse. Some things won’t make sense.

Around the Table:
Tim S., Larry S., me, Doof, Dan N., Jim A., Connie, Crunch and Kyle.

Later replacements: Mike Chow, Robert, Paul S., Nolan D. and Gillian.

AA and raise to 600. Everyone folds.

Dan: “I hate this table.”

AQo and bust Dan N. on and ace-high flop.

Bernie Lugar’s name comes up. The women know something about him.

At the 600 BB level, Connie open-raises to 15,000. Not a typo. I asked her later and she said she grabbed the wrong chips!

Later Crunch shows his hand with action still pending.

Larry Stone raises. I have 98s. It’s early enough that I can see a flop. Flop T-7-6. Yeah, that works. I double through Larry’s AA.

Maybe 20 minutes later I have 55. Larry raises to 5500. “Fifty-five.” I mumble to myself as I cut out a call.

Flop T-7-5. Jam it up. Larry has KK and I bust him. Ouch.

Cocktail waitress is MIA.

Notes: AQh Q-Jh-9. Tim C 3h Bet 7k 21k call 9 CJF.
If anyone knows what that means, let me know.

Robert: “I guess I should pay attention.”
Paul Stine: “It’s overrated.” Laughter.

Group photo around here. Thanks Rodney!

Carol shouts: “Goldie is still alive.” Chorus of “boos” from the crowd.

Gillian makes two wheels. Busts Kyle’s QQ with one.

New table:
Sandra, Bwana, Secor, Josh B., Fazio, Caryl, me, Jaron?? and Bingo.

Diana is wearing a t-shirt that says “I Love Shoplifting.”

Redraw?
Sandra, Oliver, Peter, JOST, Dang, Un, me, Jared, Troy. JOST?

I miss the waitress two times.

Q5s and raise. Bwana jams and it isn’t a lot more. I call.
He has AQs. I flop a 5 and bust him.

RCD: “Lick your way.”

Peter jams with AJ. Josh has KK. Peter is out.
Standing ovation for Peter Secor.

The waitress brings me two drinks! Watch out kids.

Triple jam up. Jared AJ. Troy QQ. Josh AKs.
Ace on the flop. Josh busts Jared and Troy.

New table:
Oliver, Robert, Josh, Dan G., Un, me, Russ, Rick.

Dinner Break! I don’t usually get this far.

Russ, Un and I go to Baliburger.

There’s a wonderful singer. He finishes a song. Applause.
Un: “Did he bust?”

I got a burger and fries. Very good.
Conversation was good, but I can’t remember anything.

New table:
Oliver, Buffalo, Robert, Fujita, Rich S,. Dan G., me, Len and Lennie.

The tournament is paying 15 places.

We get to the bubble. 16 players left.
I’m the shortest stack, but many others are quite short.
I ask Dan to propose a save for 16th.

Dan stands up and proposes taking $50 off the top five spots to give 16th pace $250. All agree. Rodney got a photo of us all giving the thumbs-up to the deal.

I’m just thrilled. I know everyone hates to bubble a tournament, but I doubt anyone cares about just making the money more than me.

Text Sandi that we are in the money.
After watching Cal win a football game, this is my second favorite thing.

RCD: “Koobey.”

Now I start getting cards!

AQ jam and win the blinds.
KK jam and win the blinds.
AJ and jam. Buffalo call with A9. Vision of the final table are dancing in my head.

Flop 9-X-Y. “No!!!!!”
“Jack!” Turn blank.
“Jack!” River blank.

I’m busted.

I give Buff a choice of the 1964 Kennedy half dollar or my Cartoon Trivia book.
I’m getting quite low on the books BTW. I’m pleased when he picks the coin.

I’m still a happy camper.

Reindeer games

Dealer’s Choice game.

Seat 1 calls a game, we play one round of that game, seat 2 calls a game, etc.

The table:
DLow, Nolan H., Ryan, Sandra, Eileen, me, Doug, Caryl, Samarel.

DLow and Nolan start off playing blind and winning. One wants to peak. $2.

Player: “I have a 6.”
Dealer Dean: “That’s a 5 and that’s lower.”

Doug is thinking.
DLow to Doug: “Now what, fly boy?”

Caryl (after scooping two pots in a row) “I love this game!”

RCD: “Well shit!”

Omaha-8 hand… I have nut-low 23 and absolutely nothing for high. Three of us to the river. Checked to me.
QB: “Oh no no no no no.” I bet. Fold, fold! Scooper!

Person talking to Ron… “Ronald.”

Gillian wins the NL tournament! I knew she’d win it one of these years. I shake her hand. Congratulations!

Sunday, August 3rd.

Still in the ring game.

Ron: “I’m fast.”
Other person: “That’s what she said.”

Notes say: “Watermelon sloppy seconds.”

Oh, Watermelon is the new hot game. You have to win 2 of the 3 boards to scoop.

Table update:
Kelly, Ron, Bremer, Randal, Taki and me. Sabyl and Grizz join later.

I think we have a chopped pot. Bremer notices that I have a scooper! I gave $6 back the each of the losing players.

RCD: “I’m going to bed-la-ha.”

Weird Watermelon hand…

I have quads on the middle board. Taki has a straight flush on the middle board. Randal scoops the pot winning the other two boards.

Somewhere around here Randal convinces me to order Jameson shots instead of JD. Genius.

Something about Sabyl telling Kristin it was “fun to play with her.”

Eric: “Let me know if we should call security on the mouse.”

RCD: “Eric Estraddle.”

I leave the game at 4:30 a.m.

Slick: “No clergy until you can spit.” I have an idea what this means.

Egg & I breakfast.

Sit with Kelly, Jeff and Un.
I tried to write down everyone else who was there:
Aronson, Deron, Goldie, Bruce, Fazio, Kuntz, Andrew, Carol, Caryl, Jared, Barry and Bowtie.

Kelly shuffles the paper silverware sleeves and deals them out to us.

Kelly: “I wanted to give them a wash.”

Un tells a story about being at the final table of the stud shootout with Andy Bloch.
“Can’t you see we’re busy playing Barrel of Monkeys?”

Food was great. Kelly paid. Even better!

Most of the rest of this is from memory. Some of it is probably true.

Kania’s are my drivers. We go to some casino as we need to kill an hour before showing up at the Goldman’s.
What casino? Maybe the Sun Coast?

We play some video poker slots. Bruce, Goldie and Andrew are there too.

I get ahead $1.25 and quit. Gotta lock up the win, right JZK?

Kelly and Jeff are losing, but playing really small.
I think I helped talk them into playing quarters. Kelly then hit quad 2s while playing Dueses Wild. Sorry, Deuces Wild.
Decided to leave the typo in for your enjoyment.

Now Kelly and Jeff tell me to go with Bruce, Goldie and Andrew and they will bring my bags to the Goldman’s later. Okay.

Goldman’s Hangover Party.

I have a bourbon slushie. I ate some food. I talked with lots of people. Steve W. for sure.

Only note I wrote down:

John Lloyd is getting ice cubes out of the ice bucket with tongs.

QB: “Are you the iceman?”
Lloyd: “I’m the tong master.”

Jeff and Kelly show up hours later. Yay.
They also gave Steve and me a ride to the airport. Thanks!

I’m there way too early. I decide to splurge and have a gourmet dinner at Carl’s Jr.

Uneventful flight home. Yay.

Kris picks me up at SJC.

Gambling…
craps: Won $150!
big 6 wheel: DNP
blackjack: DNP
live poker: Won. Neighborhood of $200.
slots: Won $1.25
tournaments: Lost, won, lost, lost, lost, won.
last-longers: Lost, but chopped one with Peter.
roshambo: DNP.

Hugs: Eileen, Sabyl, Bex, Connie, Gillian, Jeanne, Claudia, Regis, Caryl, Carol, Kelly, Barbara, Barbara, Sharon, Tanya, Patti, Asya, Diana, Betty, Sandra and Carol.

Manly hugs: Peter, Hack, Bingo, Rich S., Rich B., Adam, Nolan, Nolan, Dan, Michael, Larry, Bruce, Jeff, Gerdog, Mickdog, Chuck, Deron, Kevan, Randal, Goldie, Samarel, Lee, Grizz, Jim, Jared, Slick, Chuck, Steve, Doug, Dean Jeff, Len, Paul, Dan, John, Scott, Patrick, Bwana, Corey, Robert, Kevan and Un.

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.

Nancy, Chic, Ice, Sassy, Lynsy, Bruce, Howlers, Shari, Sheri, Bozo, George, JP, Siegal, Brenda, Jepsen, Derek, Joe, Ed, Tina, North Shore, MPH, JD, Veach, Moser, Rob, Bart, Bill, Rafn, Tracy, Alex, Murray, Pickels, Ross, Katie, Susan, O’Grady, Tom, Andreas, Pete, John, Mary, Charles, Hammer, Jodi, Andy, Lori, Mark, Wendy, Steve, Stephen, Dave and David.
There are many, many more.

Everyone please make an effort to come to BARGE 2026.
It is the best week of the year.

Thanks to The Orleans. We’ll be back in 2051 if not sooner.

The dealers, waitresses and poker staff all did good jobs.
The bar tenders… not so much.

Kubey’s 2025 MVB (Most Valuable BARGEr) Award:

Gillian Groves. Wins the main event during her (I believe) 31st consecutive BARGE!

Honorable mention to Sharon Goldman for arranging the banquet.
Further honorable mentions to Russ Fox and Rich Bremer.

Thanks to the board: Christian, Deron, Bruce, Bex and me!
Thanks to the organizers: Russ, Bremer, Deitch, Sharon and Goldie.

Thanks to the Tech Crew: Doug, David Low, Barry and Tim.

Thanks to the BARGE Chip Committee for a lot of work this year.

Thanks to Rodney for the fantastic photos and printing them all out for us.

Peter and Chuck just plain R00L.

All the other folks who ran or sponsored events with their own cash.
Asya, Kevan, Ben, Sharon, Dan, Cliff, etc.

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

P.S. Sorry this took me over a month to finish. A lot going on this year.

Can I sign up for BARGE 2026 now?