For twenty BARGE events, the BARGE Chip Committee ensured there were commemorative chips available for attendees, and that the winner of the Main Event got a chip set to take home for their home game. This page discusses that history.
The BCC was one of the more consistent parts of BARGE, and predates the founding of BARGE, Inc., the 501(c)(7) corporation that organizes our fun.
BCC History
In March 2001, the Barge Chip Committee was formed. At that time, it appeared that the BARGE 2000 NLHE champion was unlikely to participate in the creation of BARGE chips, so a group of RGPers took the reigns and formed the BCC. The founding members were Randy Collack, Scott Harker, Andy Hughes, David Lawful, Patrick Milligan, Tom Sims and Paul Stine.
The BCC mission in 2001 was to get the process back on track and to make sure that a set of BARGE chips is produced every year, with or without participation from the current NLHE champion. They created, marketed, and distributed the chips sets for 2000 and 2001.
Tom Sims left the BCC shortly after the initial chip designs were completed in late April 2001. During his short time as a member, he provided the perspective on how the BARGE chips were made in the early years. He was replaced by Tim Stine as a member.
Russell Fox and Mike “Howler” McBride joined the BCC after helping to make their chip sets.
Starting from the 2012 BARGE, chips continued to be produced by the BCC but were now usually designed by Michael Brennan.
The members of the BCC continued to evolve. David Lawful took over as Chairman somewhere around 2017.
End of the BCC
A lot of things didn’t happen in 2020. For instance, for several months, you were not allowed to have fun in Las Vegas, or pretty much anywhere else. BARGE even happened virtually. The BCC stalled out through this time, and no chips were produced in time for any BARGEs through 2024.
2001 BCC Team
In 2001, the BCC fielded a CHORSE team, complete with hats (modeled by Patrick), badges, and team chips.