BARGE 2001

Downtown's "Glitter Gulch" in particular that always has this effect: It's energizing at the beginning, tiring toward the end, and completely enervating when I begin to wend my way home. Maybe it's none of the above. Who knows; there are far too many variables to figure it out with any certainty. BARGE itself may even be the responsible culprit. Perhaps Binion's Horseshoe, the host casino, might be the cause. After all, the average Binion's dealer has the same quirky sense of humor possessed by most BARGERs, and after hosting every BARGE but one, they understand us, they "get" us, and they like us.

That Tom McEvoy is the new poker room manager at Binion's hurts not one whit, either. Tom is a regular participant on RGP, and was the perfect host, right down to being one of the first five players eliminated in each of the tournaments he played.

BARGE's gifts are large. There's the unmitigated joy of being with old friends – many of whom are the brightest and best minds to be found at poker tables anywhere. As fun as they are to compete against, it takes every bit of mental agility to keep up with the pace.

I write about BARGE every year, but for those of you who might be new here, the acronym stands for "Big August Recreational Gaming Extravaganza," and it's an annual gathering of poker players who have come to know one another originally through the Internet newsgroup rec.gambling.poker. If you've been reading my column for a while, you know about BARGE, as well as some of its regional spin-off gatherings, like Los Angeles' ESCARGOT, Mississippi's MARGE, ATLARGE in Atlantic City, and FARGO – which isn't held in North Dakota at all, but at Foxwoods in Connecticut.

One of BARGE's charms is that there is not nearly enough time to do all that you'd like to, so sleep deprivation seems to hold us all hostage to its usual manifestations. Toward the end of the three-day stint, we are simultaneously wired and tired, having consumed too much fast food in combination with too much high-quality single malt whiskey, played too many games, and lost track of the real world that awaits most participants just outside the casino doors – or at least at the arrival terminals when their departing flights touch firmly down at home.

This year's BARGE featured a "History of Poker" tournament, comprised of draw and lowball, two games that almost no one plays anymore. But I love these events for that very reason. BARGE is not your run-of-the-mill poker tournament, by any means – it is an event with a capital "E" – and doing unusual things with people whose company you really enjoy is loads of fun. The tournament had played down to a few tables when I picked up a hand I liked – a one-card draw to a 6. To be precise, I was dealt 6-5-4-A-Q. My opponent, who was first to act, stood pat. Players who stand pat could have anything – from an unbeatable "wheel" to a complete bluff. But much of the time, pat hands seem to be more pedestrian than that – a made 9 or an 8 is typical – and the holder doesn't want to draw a card unless the bets and raises lead him to believe he is up against at least two opponents who are drawing to better hands.

Although we were heads up, it made no difference to me. I had to draw a card, and I didn't mind at all. As the dealer slid a card toward me, I was convinced that a deuce or trey would win the pot for me, and that a 7 or 8 might be a winning hand, too. When I saw the deuce in my hand, I was elated, and I was all in, to boot. But my elation was short-lived when my opponent's pat 6-5-3-2-A bested my 6-5-4-2-A. It was a squeaker, to be sure, and although I could not have asked for more than a 6-5-4-2-A to commit all of my chips, the suddenness of the end was shattering.

But that was quickly mitigated by a trip from Binion's Horseshoe to the Mirage, where all the BARGE attendees met to enjoy the buffet, renew old friendships, and make a few new ones, too.

The following day brought my favorite BARGE event, the team C-HORSE championship. C-HORSE is alternating rounds of crazy pineapple, hold'em, Omaha eight-or-better, razz, seven-card stud, and seven-card stud eight-or-better. Eighteen teams took part in this event, with one complete orbit per game. There were six players on each team, and at any given time, two members per team were in play – one at each of the two tables.

My team, the Coney Island Whitefish (if you don't know the derivation of that name, ask anyone who grew up in Brooklyn), finished in the money each of the first three years this event was held, but not this year. We wound up near the bottom of the pack, although I was fortunate to come out ahead for the event by virtue of a few "last-longer" bets and a fortuitous roll of the dice.

During a break in the action while we waited for the players at the other table to finish their orbit, fellow columnist Nolan Dalla, not wanting to allow even a minute to pass by without being in action, asked Don "Bingo" Rieck if he wanted to shoot some craps – not at the craps table, mind you, but right there at the poker table. To make a long story short, Nolan lost a few bucks to Bingo – it's not the money that matters at BARGE as much as the bragging rights – and Bingo kept woofing about it. So, the next time there was a break in the action while we waited for the tables to equalize, I asked Bingo to break out the dice. He did, and I won the money Bingo took from Nolan.

Because you are on the rail two-thirds of the time during team C-HORSE, it's a terrific opportunity to socialize with other players, as well as sweat your teammates when they're in action. Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time, and this year I witnessed one of the oddest plays I'd ever seen at a poker table. Russ Rosenblum, one of my Whitefish teammates, was next to the cut-off seat and raised when it was his turn to act. The cut-off player folded, and K-fish, the player on the button, turned to Russ, saying, "What are you raising with, J-9?" As he said that, the small blind folded, and the big blind's hands moved forward in an attempt to prevent the small blind from folding before K-fish acted. After deliberating for about 30 seconds, K-fish folded, and Russ, thinking both blinds had folded, revealed his bluff to the table, saying, "I had J-5, not J-9."

Joan Hadley, the player in the big blind who hadn't really folded at all, then called, as Russ muttered, "Uh-oh, I can't like that." The flop was J-9-X. Russ said something about having top pair, and muttered to Joan, "I'm going to bet unless you plan to check-raise me."

Hadley raised all in as soon as Russ bet, but her all-in bet was a small one, and not nearly large enough to force Russ to fold. He called, feeling for all the world as though he was beaten. After all, he had shown his cards to the table. But, Hadley had K-9 and lost to Russ' top pair when the turn and river provided no help.

Hadley later explained that she was too short-stacked to push Russ off his hand before the flop, and had planned to come out betting on the flop, but a jack fell. "With only 40 chips left," she said, "it was just plain time to get lucky. By check-raising all in, at least my team could go home with a story!"

It's fitting, I suppose, that the team C-HORSE championship is much more about fun, smack talk, and bragging rights than making money, because if this hand belonged anywhere in a series of poker tournaments, it belonged here, late at night, with tired, going-on-sheer-adrenaline players who normally wouldn't do these things, but are excused because it's in the spirit of BARGE.

The next day was BARGE's flagship event, the no-limit hold'em tournament, and I don't really want to talk about it. I made a small raise under the gun with K-Q suited. It was folded around to the big blind, who anguished over his decision before calling. The flop was Q-9-7 of mixed suits, and I bet to try to win the hand right there, only to face a raise that put me all in. I would have been severely short-stacked had I folded, so I called, hoping he was trying to run me off the pot with something like A-9. Instead, he had called my preflop raise with 9-7 and flopped two pair, and I found myself drawing very slim. Only a queen or king on the turn or river could save me, and the rags that fell eliminated me from the tournament.

So, I treated myself to lunch and joined a rollicking, raucous HORSE game, where I got to trade barbs and wisecracks with Nolan Dalla, Peter Secor, and a bunch of other BARGERs whose company makes this event so wonderfully rich in memories that I find myself wishing it would never end.

But all things must end, and all I can do now is bide my time until November, when MARGE will bring me to Biloxi, and February in Los Angeles, when it's time for ESCARGOT. And there's always next year, too, so mark this on your calendar now: BARGE, the first weekend in August at Binion's. But who looks that far ahead, anyhow?

Following are results of the three main BARGE tournament events:

$50 History of Poker Tournament

Entrants: 112 o Prize pool: $5,050

1. Andy Bloch $1,660

2. Sean McGuiness 1,110

3. Spencer Sun 710

4. Thomas Hummel 510

5. Bob Ogus 350

6. Ming Lee 250

7. Michael Wiesenberg 200

8. Steve Daniel 150

9. Steve Markowitz 110

$50 BARGE TOC-Style Tournament

Prize pool: $9,710

1. Frank Jerome $2,120

2. David Crosen 1,415

3. Connie Kellers 850

4. Jazbo Burns 525

5. Chuck Weinstock 425

6. Tom Sims 295

7. Monty Christiansen 215

8. Kevin Un 175

9. Tom Overton 175

10. Joan Hadley 140

$70 no-limit hold'em

Prize pool: $12,440

1. Russell Fox $4,320

2. John Fleming 2,280

3. Don Rieck 1,695

4. Nathan Hess 1,130

5. Peter Caldes 775

6. Mark Trombley 565

7. Bob Herlien 425

8. John Murphy 355

9. Dave Roemer 335

10. Gerry Peterson 280

11. Bob Wilson 280

Visit my website at www.loukrieger.com. Poker for Dummies is available at major bookstores everywhere, and all of my books are available online at www.ConJelCo.com and at www.Amazon.com. My newest book, Gambling for Dummies, will be in your neighborhood bookstore this October.

Photos courtesy of Darryl "Razzo" Phillips