BARGE
Big August Rec.Gambling Excursion

"There are no strangers here, just friends you haven't met yet"
- Peter "Foldem" Secor

Blog Post

Why I Love Going To BARGE

  • By Barry Kornspan
  • 18 Jul, 2017

A newbie's first impression of BARGE...

Posted by: Eric on July 17, 2014

The year was 2003. A couple of friends of mine and I had just arrived into Las Vegas from Los Angeles and we were looking to play some poker. One of the friends, having never been to Binion’s Horseshoe before and having watched countless repeats of Chris Moneymaker’s victory the year before, wanted to head over as soon as possible which meant we traveled past our hotel and got right off the freeway into the Binion’s parking lot and into what was then the mecca of poker.

I had been the driver, so I wanted to stretch my legs a little and use the restroom while my friends sat in on their first hands. As I wandered around the casino I happened upon a poker tournament in progress, although this was unlike any poker tournament I had ever seen before. I had been around poker for almost a decade at that point and was fond of saying that I dropped the median age of the room by a full decade the moment I walked in the door. This group was different, though. Instead of every table taking their game seriously and trying to win, there were people shouting out insults to one another from across the room. People were bounding back and forth around the tables with glee and gusto. People were, for lack of a better term, having the time of their lives.

I noticed that the tournament clock was winding down towards a break so I made my way quickly over to the restroom. As I glanced over across the tournament section my eyes caught several well known at that time poker players that I had recognized. I took care of my business as the restroom filled up. As I was standing at the wash basin to wash up, I looked to my right and who was standing next to me but Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller fame. I asked “What the heck is going on out there?”, to which he responded disbelievingly “It’s BARGE.”

This was my introduction to what eventually came to be one of the most fun and looked forward to events on the calendar for me each year, although it took a few years for me to finally attend as a participant.

BARGE stands for Big August Recreactional Gambling Excursion and stems from the earliest days of the internet, long before what we would come to know as the World Wide Web. There was no such thing as a graphics browser and websites were still in the future. The things we take for granted online were simply dial up modems and text back then. Among the places that one could go was what can best be described as the precursor to the modern day message boards you might find on any given site.

A community had developed in one of the corners of that message board that was called Alt.Rec.Gambling. Long story short, a bunch of people on the internet from this group decided to put on a get-together in Las Vegas once a year which was labeled BARGE.

These folks have been doing it for many years. This is group of people that first and foremost love gaming and gambling, but more than that, treasure each other’s company. These are people that, no matter who the person is, welcome the new folks in with open arms. In many ways, this is like a small town community that is open to the world.

Coming up in a few weeks, there is another BARGE happening at Binion’s Horseshoe and I will be there, not as a poker reporter, as I would normally be, but as a participant. Why? Because this is something that I will not miss under any circumstances and something that I do not want to waste my time working. I want to participate, and I want to enjoy myself.

If you would like to know more about BARGE, and have an interest in any sort of Gaming, I highly suggest that you head over to BARGE.org, check out the list of events, and see if there is something that you might like to participate in. Events include poker tournaments, of course, but there are also craps tournaments and craps crawls, blackjack tournaments, video poker tournaments, and just about any sort of gaming participation that you can think of.

As far as the poker tournaments are concerned, they are what I like to refer to as the absolute toughest $100 tournaments you will ever play.  And yet, despite them being that tough, or even moreso, they are an absolute blast.

Oh, and one other thing. BARGE has what are refered to as ‘Reindeer Games’ which are essentially poker games, but something that you just have to see to believe. These are open to anyone, so if you are reading this between the time that registration closes and the time in which BARGE happens, you can head down to Binion’s and participate in that. I could rattle off a list of names of the games that are played in the ‘Reindeer Games’ but it would be meaningless and useless. Just believe me when I say, you’ve never played some of these games before and you will be dying to play some of them after you get a chance to in the future.

So, head on over to BARGE at Binion’s starting on July 30th through August 5th (but if you want to participate in the tournaments you must register at BARGE.org by July 21st) and be prepared to have the time of your life. And be sure to tell them that you heard about it on PokerTelegraph. Maybe we might get a chance to meet! And it’s a great way to introduce yourself to one of the most fun group of poker players that you will meet. And I almost guarantee you, if you show up and participate, you will be hooked, just like I am, on BARGE.

See you there!

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