2007

Complete results for 2007

The story of my twelfth BARGE. “Oh No.”

Full results from the 2007 HOE mixed tournament, 79 entries.

Full results from the 2007 NLHE tournament, 137 entries.

Full results from the 2007 Seven Card Stud tournament, 37 entries.

I've been based in Chicago and it seemed not too far from Atlantic City, at least compared with San Francisco, and I decided to try to get to all 2007 *ARGE events, so I made plans for my first ATLARGE. I bought tickets into Newark so that I could visit my parents who live in Central Jersey (exit 109) right on the way to/from AC. I got my rental car and made sure that work only had me scheduled till noon on Thursday as I had a 6pm flight from ORD and was hoping to make the flight two hours earlier. Ah, no plans are safe when ORD ground control is involved... I finished my work meeting right on schedule in Madison Wisconsin and showed up around noon for my 2:25pm flight to ORD ready to go standby on the 1:20pm flight or rather the 11:10 flight which was delayed till 3pm... oh well, plenty of time to make the 6pm Newark flight still right? The fact that all but two flights from MSN to ORD were cancelled should have tipped me off to the fact that nothing would go as planned. By 4pm they had pushed the scheduled departure of the 11:10am flight (which I got the last seat on) to 6:30pm "if it takes off at all" is what they said. At this point, knowing I'd miss my 6pm flight I started worrying about missing the last flight to NJ two hours later... so I decided to rent a car and drive the 130 miles to ORD to make sure I got there and got to AC before Friday. That plan went pretty well. I got to ORD about the same time as the flight I was holding a boarding pass for. Both were about 10 minutes too late to catch the 6pm flight which was probably the only flight that was only 40 minutes late out of ORD, everything else was at least 90 minutes late. As was the last flight of the day which didn't leave till close to 11pm and had me in Newark at 2am. Bad beat number one, as making the 11am start the next day was in danger. I'm not a big fan of limit, and I don't like stud and I'm not much for hi/low, but I was going to play for the fun of it... Luckily ATLARGE doesn't collect entries in advance so I'd be able to play it by ear. I was rooming with Joan who wasn't getting there till the next day and Tracy checked us into our room at the Showboat earlier Thursday night so as long as I got to AC safely I just had to pick up a key and crash. Even though it was raining heavily there was no traffic and I made it to AC okay and was crashed out at 4:30am with no alarm set (on purpose). I actually woke up at 9:40 and decided that I should sleep instead of playing so that I could have more fun the rest of the weekend. Good move! Too bad I didn't know about the 12:15pm NL tournie that the Taj spreads, I only missed that one by 15 minutes or so. It was good to see old friends and meet new people. I've only been to BARGEs and ESCARGOT so there are a lot of non-traveling East Coast ARGERs I hadn't met before. I can't remember any of their names (except Joan and Tracy :) ) but give me a couple of more ATLARGEs (and FARGOs!) and I'll get 'em. I played some 5-10 limit and lost about $200. As I explained I lost about $100 because of stupid things I did and I lost another $100 because of stupid things my opponents did. So we were even!!! I also sweated Goldie for a while - man, that guy is a luck box! He didn't even mention the hand where he was in a capped pot with 99 saw a flop of JTx, decided it was worth to stay in for another small bet (hey, with me watching it would have been worth to stay in for more!) then turned a set and rivered a boat. And got paid off from two places! The banquet was fun, I got to catch up with Jerrod and Michelle whom I haven't seen since ... ESCARGOT banquet! Nolan was funny! Nolan don't quit your day job! :) Funny thing happened in the Taj card room at one point. I was passing an Omaha table and recognized one of the players as someone I was friends with about twenty years ago (for bridge players, this was Robin Kay) back when we both played bridge a lot. Of course I haven't played much since the early 90's and it turned out she hasn't either and she now lives in AC and plays poker. Pretty much all the time. Sure 'nuff she was there the next two days as well... We caught up some. I don't remember much else -- I did hang out near the pink chip game which seemed like it was a lot of fun but there was a long wait and I was pretty exhausted so I turned in early. The next day was the No Limit hold'em event. We started out with 2,000 in chips and the blinds were 25-25 to start with so I was going to last for a while! I won a few small pots and was a convincing chip leader at my table with about 2,500 when I picked up two aces UTG. I raised to 100 and everyone folded to this guy who showed me no respect by reraising 300. I decided to push all in because I had a feeling he had a legitimate hand he'd call with, and he did, he had the other two aces. As we faced our hands someone at the table said "Why even bother dealing out the cards for the board"? The dealer demonstrated why by dealing four spades which was not the suit of one of my aces and suddenly I had about 450 in chips left as the blinds went up to 25-50. To make a long story slightly shorter, I eventually got my chips in with a medium ace which got called by a big ace behind me and IGHN. Joan, Terrence and I went to get some food where we ended up with a group of about six at the Rim Noodle Bar - not bad. After that Joan and Terrence and I drove to Borgata which I heard a lot about but hadn't been to. Last time I was in AC was probably in 1991 when the bridge nationals were there. I don't even know if any of the card rooms we were in were there then. Anyway, Borgata is HUGE. I mean the poker room of the casino is bigger than most California card rooms I've been to! (like, not quite as big as The Bike, but close to it!) That place was crazy. Apparently Saturday afternoon is a very busy time for poker rooms in AC. After getting back to the Taj I got on the ridiculously long list for the $1-$2 NL game ($300 max buyin) but they had it going on so many tables that it actually went quickly and I went from 30-something on the list to sitting at a table in about half an hour. And that's where I stayed till about midnight. This game was fun. It was almost all young guys, not quite of the cap and sunglass variety but close to it. It was a very lucrative game. About +$600 worth of lucrative or so. And I never doubled up - I did bust a few smaller stacks, twice my opponent went broke against me with J8. Once it was by flopping trips against my boat the other time it was by making the non-nut straight against the nut straight. These guys were lamenting about their bad luck -- how can you not go broke with those flops! I'm thinking "how about not playing J8?" I was getting ready to leave and decided to play "just one more orbit" and was rewarded by this hand. I'm in the big blind and the solid guy on my left raises to $12. A couple of people call and a maniac from middle position reraises to $30. The rest fold and I peek at two aces. I make it even $100 and both call. The flop is T 4 2 rainbow and I bet $200 which is what the maniac has left. UTG puts his remaining $20 in with the resigned sigh of a man who was dealt a big but not big enough pair and the maniac goes through contortions of a man who wants to call but who's already bought in four times and doesn't want to have to buy in again (or maybe has no cash left). Eventually he shows a ten and folds. Probably had T9 from what I'd seen of him. Sooted. UTG shows me kings, I show him aces, they hold up and I pick up another $200 and change in profit... I went by the hospitality suite and lounged around for a while with Terrence. There was a lot of beer there, Goldie, but no one to drink it! I was buy the hospitality suite earlier in the day while there were a few people there, it was definitely under utilized! On Sunday I slept in again, got up, got my crap, checked out, went by the poker room and said good bye to friends old and new. I drove up to Red Bank to visit with my folks before flying back to Chicago uneventfully, in the sense that the flight was, of course, late. I had pretty good luck with flights in 2006, so far 2007 has been horrific to make up for that, I guess. Thanks Goldie for a fun weekend, I look forward to being awake for more of it next year!

Day -1 (Thursday 3/1) Drop N off at nursery school so we can finish getting ready for the trip.  See that an email from mav600  had come across the ATLARGE list.  He is looking for backing; for $250, the backer gets 50% of his action in the pink-chip ($7.50-$15 limit hold-em) game Friday night which he will buy into for $500, 10% of his HOE tournament action, and a Haurex watch.  :-)  I talked it over with J and emailed him, and agreed to the backing.  That would be the first of my luckbox moves this weekend. Picked N up from nursery school and got on the road.  N was fabulous in the car; this was his first long trip since potty training, and he did great; no accidents, though he was a bit difficult during the stop for lunch about going to the bathroom. You expected actual poker content in a trip-report? We stopped twice on the way; lunch and a bathroom break.  Arrived at J's mom in Princeton around 5:30.  Yummy lamb stew for dinner and an early bed for me. Day 0 (Friday 3/2) Up and on the way out, try to fix a surprise car-seat in the back of J's mom's car but no-go.  It's not safe the way it is installed; I try to put it in correctly, but it's still not great.  Useable in a pinch.  Over to J's dad's to get the mattress N will be sleeping on Saturday night up from the bedroom, and to put our car seat in his car.  He will also be taking N ice skating this morning.  Say our goodbyes and head out. Get to the Taj around 10:30; can't check in to the room until 1pm, so leave the luggage with the bell captain.  Get on line to register for the HOE tournament, and mav600  is standing right there!  Give him the $250 and J and I register.  And 4 hours later, I break my streak of 5 straight ARGE mixed-event tournament cashes.  Other than flopping the nut flush twice in an early Omaha/8 round, I didn't get many hands.  I lost almost every stud/8 hand, including 3 times starting with suited babies 6 or lower.  The one memorable hand I did win was a silly one; I have 557 in the bring-in, it got raised and called before me.  The antes and level were high enough for me to call.  I make two-pair on 4th street and keep betting it, as the raiser had raised coming in with a dead Ace and bricked, and the other caller didn't look to have a scary board either.  I checked the river and scooped! J had been out a bit earlier and had picked up some food, so we shared it up in the snack bar, and then went to check in and try to grab a nap, since N was up early the last two mornings. No luck on the nap.  J hadn't been to the Borgata since they opened the new poker room so we headed over there. We signed up for a $120 SitnGo, but it looked like it would be a while till it went, so we got into a 1-2 no-limit game.  Nothing memorable, up $12 in a little over an hour; I think J was up about $125.  We left to go back to the Taj for the banquet.  Food was decent.  Gift presentation to hgfalling  and billandmatt   (in absentia) of Geek Logik.  Nolan Dalla was the surprise (to me) guest speaker.  His attempts at humour were not so good, but when he answered real questions from the audience  about some behind-the-scenes stuff with the WSOP and Harrah's that was very interesting; he should have stuck to that.  Back down to play some p0cker  Pink chip game list is long.    J and I sign up for a $140 SitnGo; Taj has a weird prize payout $1000 for first and $200 for second.  Get into a 20-40 stud game while waiting.  Nothing memorable, but I drop $78 in 1/2 hour before the SitnGo starts.  Besides J and I, Jordan "Fellknight" Devenport is in as well.  Some young kid wants to do a $20 last-longer, and Fellknight and I agree.  Young kid plays like a lunatic.  Nothing too interesting for a while.  Fellknight is the first last-longerer to not last long enough.  I finally bust the lunatic young kid, and so am up $40 on the last-longer bet.  It's now down to me, J, local "wiseguy" Tony Soprano-wannabee to her right, and some quiet guy to his right.  Quiet guy made a ridiculous fold earlier to young kid, when he was in SB to young-kid's BB, and young kid had only about 1.5 BB's left after putting up his blind.  Quiet guy folded to him from the SB with plenty of chips.  J and I give each other a WTF look.  Now the weird stuff starts happening.  I get short-stacked and start jamming a lot; like 5 times in a row, taking the pot uncontested every time.  I had a pair every time as it turned out.  Mr. Wiseguy starts getting annoyed at me for jamming every hand.  I finally build up a decent sized stack, and this time Mr. Wiseguy raises and I have 88 and jam again.  He calls flipping over AK, and turns his Ace and of course starts needling me.  I say "Well, I had the best hand again" and he gets really pissed and says "What?  You think 88 is better than AK?"  He is acting like he totally has it in for me, and honestly I was nothing but pleasant to the guy.  Now the weird stuff really starts.  I have junk UTG and fold, folded around to Wiseguy, who jams.  J folds and as the dealer is pushing him the pot, I put my BB out.  Wiseguy counts his chips from the pot and starts going apeshit that he got shorted as my chips were in also.  I say no, I folded UTG, and everyone at the table and the dealer agrees.  He then says I had my chips out in the pot and they are his.  I again say, no, I folded and was putting my BB out while the dealer was pushing him the pot, and again the dealer agrees with me.  He then gets even more pissed and says "I wouldn't have jammed if I knew you weren't in the pot!"  I tell him, you just got pushed a pot uncintested, what are you complaining about?  The dealer finally tells him to STFU in effect. Now watch why tilting is bad for your game.  Mr. Wiseguy is short-stacked and gets involved in a hand with Mr. Quiet Guy.  I forget the pre-flop action, but there's an A on the flop and Quiet Guy goes all-in. Mr. Wiseguy SHOWS AN ACE AND FOLDS!  How great is that?  He obviously wants to stay in long enough to bust me (afterwards, everyone agreed that was the only "logical" explanation).  J eventually busts out in 4th; she did a great job playing her short-stack.  It's down to the three of us and I take care of Mr. Wiseguy shortly.  He limps  from the SB, I have T4o from the BB and check.  The flop comes 842.  Mr. Wiseguy checks, I bet, he jams, I insta-call.  He has A2, and doesn't improve.  NHS, WP!  I thought he was really going to lose it when I called with the T4, but to his credit he kept his mouth shut and walked away quietly.  At this point, I'm pretty tired and offer a deal to Mr. Quiet Guy.  We setlle on me getting $800 and he getting $400 (I was up about 2-1 in chips and wanted $750/$350, but since I was tired and was up the $40 from the last-longer, I agreed). I toked the dealer the $40 from the last longer. I check in on mav600  on the way upstairs and he's up a bit.  I tell him to give my share to Joan when he leaves, and head up to bed. Running ATLARGE total: Backing: -250 ( + whatever the watch can be sold for; looks like around $100-$200; just ignoring for now) since he's still in the pink chip game and didn't cash in the HOE tournamentHOE tournament: -1201-2 no-limit: +1220-40 stud: -78$140 SitnGo: +660 (last-longer $40 went to the dealer) Total: +224 Amusing postscript to the Mr. Wiseguy story:  I was at Foxwoods last week (3/19-21) for the Foxwoods Poker Classic.  In one of the games I played in, I was playing with a guy who looked awfully like Mr. Wiseguy.  But he was really pleasant to me, and figured it couldn't have been him after this little episode.  The next day I'm playing in a SitnGo and have my ATLARGE sweatshirt on and one of the guys in the game asked me if I was just recently at the Taj as he thought he recognized me.  I told him yes.  And then Mr. Wiseguy lookalike i salso standing around, and he said he remembered me also (again acting totally pleasant).  I then realized that he was in fact Mr. Wiseguy!  I jokingly reminded him of our incident and he apologized.  His buddy who was with him said something to the effect of "How do you think I met him?".  Pretty funny.  I did tell him I thought for sure he was going to hit me in the head when I busted him.  :-) Day 1 (Saturday 3/3) N has us well-trained, so despite the 1am bedtime, we are up around 6:30am.  Ugh.  Go get some breakfast and J tries to go back to sleep.  I go to play some 15-30-45 OE.  njchick  sweats me for a bit, and hands me my winnings from backing  mav600 ; net of $426, woo-hoo!  Not much luck in the OE game, but I manage not to get buried as I tend to brick my hands early and can get away from them.  I get 3 suited babies in E 3 times, win none of them; worst one was starting 236 suited I make an 86 on 5th, and by the river I have a 64 low and a pair.  I get scooped by a rivered wheel.  That's basically how the whole hour-long session went.  I call up to the room to wake J and I pick up down 151. Not much to report in the no-limit ATLARGE tournament.  I just about doubled up in the second level wen my JJ held up against Hideyuki's AK, to bust him.  Yet I received no bust-out gift from him.  Ok Hideyuki, you can owe me.  I get almost no hands and miss every flop, and I'm out after about 2 hours, and J busted right after me. I get into a 2-5 no-limit game, and again, don't get much in the way of hands, which is too bad because there are some horrible players donating their stacks.  I play one hand badly that costs me about $150 trying to bully someone.  I pick up down about $350, almost half of it because of bad play on my part. J does some makeup shopping and I waffle back and forth about going out to dinner with a bunch of people.  Initially I feel to tired to socialize, but after J and I unsuccessfully try to get into anywhere at the Taj, we decide to go with the original plans.  We go to Mia at Ceasar's Palace.  Group includes Warren, Jodi (notice your name is spelled correctly in my blog) her bf Oscar, Dave F, Buckshot, Nolan, Rebuy, Art Reber, and actionbobnj .  Food is absolutely amazing, and even with all the wine, appetizers and desserts, the bill is only $100/person.  Really fun time. Head back to the Taj to play a little more before bed.  J and I get into this awesome 2-5 NL game, which has a young kid playing like a lunatic.  First hand J is in a pot with him (after she was watching the game a bit and saw how he played), he tries to bully her off her hand.  She has 99 and flop is Jxx, and basically she does not let herself get bullied and takes down a nice pot.  She finishes the hour-long session up almost $500, I finish up $55 and we call it a night. Running ATLARGE total:Previous balance: +224Backing: +426 (again, not counting the watch)15-30-45 OE: -151ATLARGE NL tournament: -1202-5 NL: -3522-5 NL: +55Total: +82 Day 2 (Sunday 3/4) J is not playing the stud tourney as she is heading back to Princeton to hang with N.  I finalize plans with Dave F. to get a ride back.  He's going over to the Borgata, and I will drive his car over and get him when I am ready to go.  I get into some games before the tourney. The first is a 2-5 NL where one guy is absolutely lighting his money on fire.  I still can't get any hands.  He finally goes broke and leaves.  The game is now short-handed and the other players all seem to be good players, so I pick up after a round or two, down $22. I get into a 1-2NL game and this has 3 total maniacs.  Here was one very interesting hand.  3 players limp, including young kid (YK) to my right who seems to know what he is doing.  I have AJs on the button and make it $15.  Everyone folds except YK who calls.  Flop comes T9X rainbow.  YK checks, I bet $20, called.  Turn comes a J putting a flush draw on board.  YK checks again, I bet $50, called again.  River comes an A putting a flush on the board.  YK goes all in.  I have about $150 behind and there is about $170 in the pot, plus his $150 bet, so I am getting over 2-1 on my call.  Now I am not a big fan of making pretty big calls like this on the river, but I fiigured it this way:  What hands could he have that I am beating?  Smaller 2-pair, AQ, maybe AK, pair with a missed straight (i.e. a bluff) .  We could also have the same hand.  If he had the straight or a set on the turn, I think he would have either bet out or check-raised me.  If he has the flush, so be it.  I call and we have the same hand.  Everyone at the table is shocked by my call, but I have asked some good players about it, and they agreed that the odds were there for me to call.  I won a bunch of medium size pots for a nice win of 278. Stud tourney was really frustrating.  Right off the bat I took 2 beats from Siona who chased down both my split AA and KK with an under-pair, and made 2-pair while I didn't improve.  get a call from J's dad who can't remove the car seat from his car; good thing he's a theoretical physicist and not mechanical engineer.  ;-)  Then I won a big pot with AA against KK, and Siona was also in that one.  I made trip aces while the kings did too, and my trip aces held up.  Then it was up and down for a while.  I lost about 1 third of my stack with AQ5 of spades against KK(of spades)x, when we both caught spades on 4th, and I paired my queens on 5th while the KK caught a third spade.  I didn't make my flush, and the KK made trips on the river.  I forget my bust-out hand.  Call Dave F, and head over to the Borgota to pick him up.  Say hi and bye to Buckshot and Rebuy, and we head back to Princeton.  Get invited to the F's house for dinner, get dropped off at J's mom's house.   Over to J's dad's house to bring N's bed back downstairs and switch the car seat back to our car.  Say our goodbyes, over to J's mom's house to pick up N.  Head over to the F's for pizza; they give us a bunch of L's toys for N.  On the road by 7 or so, and uneventful trip home.  N sleeps most of the way, then wakes up about an hour before we get home but is really well behaved, and gets to sleep pretty quickly once we are home.  His time with his grandparents went really well, and he had a really good time.  Good to know for the future. Good to be home. Final results: Previous balance: +822-5NL: -221-2NL: +278stud tourney: -120Grand total: +218 + Haurex watch(Post a new comment) ...

[Sorry for the length of the post, and to Neil since he may have to read through some stuff he doesn't care about to get to the part that affects him, hmm...] The rumors of my closeting have been greatly exaggerated. I didn't make it over to ATLARGE until Saturday afternoon--I mean the tourney was at 11am. At 9am in bed after a hectic week and three hours sleep, it was time to decide whether to get up, take a shower, and drive down to AC. I didn't yet have the Geek Logik book [1], so instead I went with my gut which said "if you get out of bed, I'll kill you." Anyway on Saturday met up for dinner with Patty, Jerrod and Michelle, Terrence Chan, Matt Matros and Ivy and later that evening with Nick Matros and Jodi Neufeld and her beau. So like in the late afternoon Jerrod was on the computer and shouted over "hey, you know Neil says the bet is off!" So I must have responded, and Jerrod diplomatically translated. My thoughts are essenitially what Jerrod wrote and what I posted from my Treo. That I feel the bet was on when we both said "the bet is on," and that Neil can decide whether it's for $800/1200 or $1000/1500. So Jerrod and Michelle skipped karaoke at Planet Rose and went to their room to "turn in" after dinner (which apparantly after you're married is code for going to sleep). Anyway after Tomatoes, Planet Rose, Red Square then to the Borgata checking out Murmur and Mixx I decide to send a message on the Treo to the list, sorry for top posting. My excuse, good wine at dinner, 1937 port for dessert, shot of Louis XIV at Murmur, I'm turning into Ice--I may never drink cheap booze again (this will actually save me money, BTW). Then of course the Stud tourney, where our fearless leader Goldie presents me with a T-shirt and the Geek Logik book, which apparantly he already gave another copy to Jerrod. It's awesome BTW, formulas for some of life's more important questions like "should you quit your day job" and "do you have a snowball's chance in hell with her/him." As expected my coworkers and fellow quants are having a blast with it. One of them just returned it to me with the page turned to "Should you date a coworker" with some of her values penciled in. I didn't think too much of it before realizing I should have changed the page before giving it to my supervisor. BTW thanks to Goldie for organizing this year, sorry I wasn't able to make it to most of the festivities, see you all at BARGE.

First of all - thanks to Goldie and the Taj staff for having ATLARGE. I flew to Philadelphia on Wednesday night so I could be there in time for the smoker. 2 years ago I took the train - that sucked. This year I took the bus - that sucked as well. Note to self - no more publish transportation to ATLARGE next year. Thursday I enter the daily tournament at the TAJ and see Rob Catlett. Structure is pretty fast at one point before I bust 5 straight hands someone was all-in before action got to me. I end up busting shortly after that. Rob and I (Matt - Rob's friend but not in ATLARGE) play in a 2-4 game and it was a lot of fun. At one point Rob limps in UTG with 72o - surprised he did not raise - I forget what I had but I ended up winning the hand. I was in the 3 and Rob in the 8 seat so we were talking across the table at that point the man in the 4 seat went off. He had dumped quite a bit of money at this table and started yelling at us to "act our age" we were "acting like 4 year olds" and his right ear was sore due to my yelling. Shortly after that he left the table. That night I go to the smoker and the food was very very good. I am not sure how the price came up however - with the table level appetizers and salads but thought $100 was a good price for the meal. I entered the H.O.E. and my first table busts after about 5 hands and then move. Only really interesting hand I remember at this table was against 8-2 Cactus Kev in the Stud hi/lo where I had a 7 high straight and got scooped when he had an 8 high straight and an ace for a better low. I then move to another table and got into a hand with David Kuznick (I always seem to be short stacked when I sit at his table) during hold em where he raised and I had q10 in the big blind and I called. The flop was q10x - he had KK and I build my stack again. After this I move to another table with Chic on my right and I got to hear the "rubber ducky" song for a few hours. I went up and down - and amazingly added chips during omaha and then busted during the stud. The banquet was pretty good and Nolan's speech I thought was very funny. After that I went back to a 2-4 game and it was pretty lively. At 1am I was getting tired and John (a former 8-2er) was sitting down and heard it got wild after that but I was too tired to stay up. The NLHE event I got lucky a couple of hands early - flopping a set vs Rebuy's QQ and then making a full house with a6 against someone else with AQ. I then move and then get to hear the rubbie ducky song again. I manage to lose a lot of chips with KQ when the board ended up q4jxq to Curious's 44. I move and bust shortly after. I play in a game for a little while in at the Taj and was amazed at the hands I saw win - gut shot after gut shot. One guy at my table lost a lot of $$ with KK, AA, QQ, AK, JJ in about 10 hands and lost all of them. I then go to Borgata and end up at a table with Ken W, Mitch (ADB BFB) and Tiger was to my right. I had never met Tiger before just had heard about him....from my experience he was a really nice guy, funny , personable and seemed to be a pretty good poker player. One highlight at this table was one guy kept moving seats after losing big pots. The first time I check-raised him on the turn and he moved - he did this a couple other times and left a couple of times to get more money - fun table. Sunday I play in the stud tournament and that seemed a very fast structure. I busted 20th when the levels were 600-1200 where the average stack was about 5500. Was fun - but again I busted out of the money. I then walked to Caesar's via the boardwalk (figured I should see the boardwalk at some point in AC) and found that was a mistake. Even on Sunday I was freezing by the time I got there but I was able to register for the circuit event on Monday and am very glad I did on Sunday. On Monday it was a zoo - 940 seats sold out with 160 alternates. The line to sign up was insane. I did not make the first break when I ended up all in with AK (of clubs) with A1052 (2 spades on the board) and two callers - one had KQ of spades and the other AJ - a J hit on the river and I was done. On Tuesday I played in the $500 circuit event and managed to get to 12k in chips by the first break - mostly on a hand with 108 on a flop of 10108 and another player had 88. After the 2nd break I had QQ and raised - another player raised me at this point the floor came over and said we were breaking this table (not sure if this impacted my decision or not but there was a lot of commotion going on at this time). If I call it would have been about 50% of my stack - if I fold I still have 8k with 200/400 blinds. Instead I jam - he calls with KK and I bust. I was done with tournaments at this time. On Wednesday I wander to the Taj poker room and see open seating in a 5/10 stud game so sit down - not remembering how long it had been since I was in a stud cash game. I think outside of me the average age was about 75 at the table and was wondering if it would be a bunch of rocks - but rather the opposite. It was a very loose/passive game and was a talkative table so was a lot of fun. All in all - zero cashes in tournaments but the cash games made up for a lot of it. Had a very good time while there and look forward to seeing everyone in Fargo later this year. Ken (Gatormet)

Id 1st like to start off by congratulating Chic on an amazing performance over the weekend. Two 2nd place finishes in these events is absolutely an amazing feat and you should hold your head up high I promise to make the race for best over all ARG as exciting as I can just for you And I Will have a t-shirt saying Chic's #1 FAN ..lol I love yah Thank you to Goldie as well for an excellent show.!! As always perfectly run! As for my trip, we arrived late on Thursday night and met up with a few people that I met last year in Atlantic City for a couple drinks and then it was off to bed. As far as the H.O.E tourney was concerned it was absolutely terrible for 3 full levels. Either being card dead or coolerd to dump my stack down to 400 chips. And No lie ask anyone that I played with I was down to the felt 6-7 times for all my money in the earlier levels.. Till eventually I hit a nice stud 8 level. Pretty much scooping 4 huge pots in a row to have a chip stack again. I played some great poker to the final table as pretty much the chip leader. Play battled back and forth with some amazing hands thrown in the mix to see my chip lead vanish to Chic. As the final table whittled down I basically tried to lay low with everyone at the table having very few chips to in retrospect to the blinds. Till the Limit Holdem round where I felt was my strongest game in the rotation and I would be able to play Poker more than playing hands. My strategy worked to my advantage as I once again amassed the chip lead. Im pretty sure at one point in hold em I had raised 5 straight hands uncontested. As things turned out Chic and I ended up heads up. Not really knowing Chic all that well before this year. Id have to say I met one of the most sincere, caring individual with some crazy antics. Man I Love the duck card protector and the quacking I never had so much fun playing poker in my life. Chic is so awesome. He truly symbolizes the epitome of what it means to be an ARG player in my mind, A great card player a great person and even a better friend Being relatively close in chips we decided to chop even money and play for plaque.. Being that neither of us had a full 10 big bets I was assuming that it would end in omaha no matter what happened.. But boy was I wrong We started off with I believe 18 min left in the omaha level.. Played all of omaha all of stud 8 and about 15 min of holdem before it was over. Talk about an intense short stacked heads up. Chic played fantastic. Only one real major hold em hand sticks out that may have been the major swing of things was my Kh 10h vs his KQ neither of us had a pair or a draw but chic was very aggressive and played his hand perfect. If I remember it was raise and a call preflop with chic on the button . Flop came all low cards no hearts. I checked to him and as he should he bet. I honestly felt he missed this board also.. So I called to see either A I could hit my hand or B I can see if the turn card is bluffable. So out came another small card. Im pretty sure the highest card out there was an 8. I check to chic again and now he bets 12k .and I make it 24 he thinks for a few min and calls. Now the river comes a J another great bluff card for me and I lead out on the river and he thinks I feel that he may still believe his hand is good but he really cant make a call here with K high so Chic folds KQ face up. Usually I wouldn't show a hand at this point but I felt Showing my K10 was ok. And would give me the confidence in my play. After that he was left with only 4 bets we both traded blinds till the hand when Chic flopped mid pair and I flopped an open ended strait. And well my J9 got there so did his 2 pair . And that was all she wrote. Chic Played amazing heads up poker I was very impressed. He deserves a trophy and will get one at BARGE I know how it feels I now have 3 2nd place ARG finishes myself. A pairs, A NL holdem and a Stud As for NL goes I played very well to get about 7k in chips till My QQ ran into AJ for an 8k pot then left with 3000 chips I was UTG with the great J9 I had to win the night before and pushed got called by AK as sick as it was I flopped a strait and well he turned a flush and Good Game Bob at about 80th place..lol.. I ended up going to dinner with my friends who went down with me ate had a few drinks at the bar and came back to watch the final table of the NL tourney.! and who was there none other than CHIC!!! Man this man is amazing!! Also a shout out to rich another HOE final tablest who also is an amazing player!! I decided to stay and watch my Man play amazing NL poker at the final to a heartbreaking 2nd place finish again!! God bless you Chic you played amazing a hell of a weekend!! Then came stud.. Now don't get my wrong I have a clue how to play stud.. Well a small clue. Ok a very small clue... Just kidden.... I was telling everyone that!! But probably learned so much over the course of Sunday that will make me play so much better. As things went some how I pulled running 9s for quads to crack aces full. Hey I had a flush draw and 9s in the hole! LoL and got there! Ok so I take that back I HAVE NO CLUE.. But somehow I got to the final table with a decent chip stack . I looked around to see some of the most amazing players Raydon and Jarrod alike. Clueless and saying in my head well here goes nothing I tried to use as much poker sense as I have..to pick up pots based on my reads on them. Or at least that is what I was pretending to do I managed to win a few pots in stud and at the levels we were playing no one had even 8 Big bets so chip counts meant very little it was pretty much pick a hand an go And I guess I picked wisely Made it to 3 way when we cut a deal everyone took 2nd place money and play for the rest and the trophy Raydon dominated the whole final table and played great stud I feel I learned so much from just watching him play and talking to him that in the course of the few hours at the final table my stud experience greatly increased. Id like to think him for my complete Butt kicking heads up And I knew it was coming But Hey a 1st and a 2nd in one weekend is great for me So now in 4 out of 6 ARG events this year I have a 5th in pairs a 2nd in NL from FARGO a 1st in HOE and a 2nd in stud from ATLARGE Ok so I guess I am the luckiest guy in the world. Im going to do my best to be at BARGE I love Vegas and from all of you who I talked to about BARGE its like ATLARGE and FARGO on steroids. MAN that sounds great Im also planning to try to win another seat to the main event on poker stars as I did last year. Hopefully I will see many of you out there for that..(if I get in).. If not I know ill be playing a few of the smaller events and some supers for the Foxwoods events coming up Id also like to thank Goldie - Amazing as always - I had a blast I love you guys its so much fun every year to come out and play - BARGE 2k7 ill do my best to be there - God Bless all of you - And may all your flops be with you - Best of luck - Bob Lauria - SCSUHockey - aka CHICS#1 fan~!!!!!!