From: jmd1@ix.netcom.com (John M. Davis)
Subject: John Davis's BARGE 2001 Trip Report
Date: 24 Oct 2001 00:11:00 -0700

 "I can't help it if I'm lucky" -- Bob Dylan, _Idiot Wind_

Typically, when I go to Vegas, I get adequate sleep, rise early,
exercise, do some activity, then (soberly) play poker -- Well, I went
oh-fer-Barge in all clean-living categories.

It was Thursday night after a long session at Bellagio, where I got my
Barge initiation playing in a 4/8 Horse Game with Mitch and Sabyl
among others. In between shots of various spirits, Mitch ran over the
table. He was kind enough to entertain us by (among other things)
asking the dealer the question on everyone's mind, "I have a very
personal question for you: what game are we playing?" Or during Omaha,
"Were this five card draw, note my use of the subjunctive, you'd need
to deal another card... unless we're drawing, in which case you're
fine, and I'll take one." There was also some Woody Allen-ish ethnic
humour, something on the order of, "Don't think I haven't noticed how
when you pretend to ask 'you raise?' when you're actually saying 'jew
raise' -- I object to your anti-semitism."  (Although, maybe this
particular item was from someone else.) Anyway, when all the laughter
died in sorrow, an early morning rally still left me stuck over a
hundred dollars. It was also during this game that I developed a not
too modest intoxication that I nursed through the weekend.

Friday night Andrew Prock and I sat down to Omahi with Nolan "Call if
you don't like money" Dallah, Scott "they're playing on a different
level", et al. The entire table had the giggles, and the play left
much to giggle about -- more than once I had to wipe tears from my
eyes and my abs hurt for a week afterwards. At one point, the dealer
got caught up in the merriment, and wanting to participate started to
relate an anecdote, "I was in a tourney at Orleans a week ago and..."
He was immediately interrupted and asked, "Is this a bad beat story?
Cuz I'm not interested."  "No", he answered panic stricken, already
having lost his audience. Maybe you had to be there. It was
priceless. I still have a tough time not convulsing in laughter as I
remember it.

Other silliness in that game included Nolan and I betting on the
number of people who would see the flop. I won three in a row, after
each Nolan screamed "Noooo", looking pained and stopping just short of
insinuating collusion. He won it back when I gave him 3-1 on the last
round. Something wacky happened in that hand that I was laughing too
hard to gasp the story out to Nolan at the time. So Now It Can Be
Told: I forgot where the straddle was and miscounted, and discarded a
playable hand to win the prop when I saw that the one seat liked his
hand... Well he was already in and I counted him twice... "Nooooo".

Saturday afternoon found me enjoying myself while playing poorly in
the 4/8 HORSE, getting chopped up by Tiger and Ken Kubey and others. I
was annoying Tiger (and Ken and others), I think, the lack of sleep
and alcohol had left my already wanting personality less charming than
usual -- but I'll always remember Tiger's counsel to me fondly, "The
problem with your theory, John, is that you didn't have four fours."
I stayed in the game for a long time as it evolved into CHORSE-L and
somehow got lucky enough to book a small loss rather than set a record
for a 4/8 loss.

At one point, not having Mitch (or Nolan) around to ask the dealer
what game we were playing, a funny thing happened. In Stud, it was
brought in for a full bet, a nine raised, and Sabyl looked down the
table and half chuckled, "The nine raised? Re-raise." Well, you can
guess the rest, Sabyl eventually ended up knocking the nine off his
big pair, most of the while thinking that she was playing Razz. The
nine was not as amused as everyone else at the showdown. Lucky for
Sabyl she had actually caught bad for Razz and was kind of blustering
through the hand (based on the other guy's poor Razz board) -- but she
did find out what game we were playing in time to drag the pot.

Sunday & Monday, again at the Bellagio, again very lucky there in
low-limit stud and holdem. Let me describe one hand: AKs, 7-way, I
raise and re-raise before the flop. The flop misses me. So I jam. By
the turn it's apparent that I'm drawing dead. So I jam. On the river,
I check-raise without a hand into four people who are at this point
concerned that I may have three cards and who all have me badly
beaten. Okay, so I lost that one. Anyway, Andrew Prock stops by to say
hello to some other BARGE acquaintance sitting across from me who'd
just sat down and seen the hand. When Andrew says hello to me, the guy
says with disbelief, "You're with BARGE?", he asks, clearly skeptical
that I'd ever played poker but absolutely certain he was looking into
the eyes of a maniac. I actually had a very big night, and I've
decided to refer to the butchery as an image play that may be
appropriate against weak opposition over which you have control on a
night where the deck hits you over the head -- this play is only for
beginners.

Overall, Vegas was kind to me despite many butchered hands. A lot of
good cards, rolled up back to back in stud, 4 times total in one long
session that also featured a straight flush. Yep, I'd rather be lucky
than good -- of course, most of all I'd like to actually be able to
choose between the two... I'm usually extremely tight (an
unimaginative rock) and varyingly weak (note the importance of varying
one's play) -- but during Barge I experimented with several other
strategies, maniac, calling station, annoying drunk, etc.

I also played in all the tournaments (unexceptionally), and nothing of
interest happened outside my excellent IRCSOME teammates carrying me
into the money in the CHORSE (I played crazy pineapple for a small
profit but left more chips on the table than I care to confess).

This was my first BARGE and I lurk on rgp more than post, so I was
quite the unknown and went with some trepidation. The good will and
cheer from so many made the trip memorable, and I've resolved to make
it an annual outing. The efforts at welcoming virgins (a topic I've
seen discussed here) was much appreciated -- I think it a good thing.

(After all this talk of trip reports, I decided it was finally time to
get this out -- I hope it meets the approval of the style police.)

Cheers, jmd