bdypdx
05-13-2004, 02:05 AM
From: Lee Jones <xx>
Subject: Executive summary BARGE trip report
0. As always, the people were wonderful. As always, that was the best
part.
1. I've really had it with the smoke. Thirty minutes after starting playing
in the Binion's poker room, I had a headache. I really don't know how
people do it. JZK and I were saying that we've really lost our tolerance
for carbon monoxide after 2.5 years of smoke-free poker in California.
2. Highlight: Chris Ferguson playing Chowaha for *far* longer than would
have been necessary as a courtesy - like 3-4 hours. And pretty much
crushing the competition in the chip castle contest. IMHO: there's too
much emphasis on size rather than style. I'd recommend a limit of 6-8
racks. Jesse Rogers, a floorman at Garden City, has been in Card Player
with his chip castles, and they never seem to contain more than 500-700
chips. They are stunning.
3. Highlight: The reception that we gave Chris and Spencer both at the NLHE
tournament and the banquet. How rewarding it is to have two of our own
win the (arguably) two most prestigious events on the tournament trail.
4. Highlight: delightful non-poker conversation with many old friends
(TES, Kevan G, Scott B, et. al). Only wish it could have been more with
many others.
5. As we were watching the Chowaha game after the banquet, I mentioned to
Martin Veneroso that there were a couple of Vegas locals who seemed to
show up every year so they could play Chowaha. "Yeah," said Martin, "but
they're easy to play against. Just your typical by-the-book S&M Chowaha
For Advanced Players types."
6. Thank you to Bruce Kramer for teaching me an important lesson. I had
toked the omelet guy at the buffet [1] a purple whale chip, and was
disappointed to learn that somebody had bought it from him. I mentioned
this in Bruce's presence. He took me aside and explained that he, in
fact, had bought it from the guy, realizing that the cash was more
important to him than an Official BARGE 1999 Purple Whale Chip. Bruce
then made that chip his bounty in the NLHE tournament. I needed to be
reminded that my utility function is not the same as everybody else's,
and if you're a short order cook, your utility for a purple BARGE chip
may be substantially lower than the $2 Bruce offers you for it. Bruce,
you're the nuts - thanks.
7. I have been disappointed the last couple of years to see the pot limit
game(s) get so huge that nobody can test the waters in big bet poker
without risking a couple month's rent. I understand that there are
some people that want to play big, but couldn't we have a small game
for those that don't? The first BARGE pot-limit game was two $1 blinds,
$2 to go, first raise to $6. And we didn't allow straddles. I would
really like to see a game of that size so people could sit down with
$100 or $200 and have a real shot at playing some big bet poker. As it
was, $500 was a small buy-in, and many pots were $100+ before the flop.
8. Yes, I made a couple of stupid plays against Paul Phillips in the
aforementioned game. That isn't correlated to my feelings in the
paragraph above - I'm actually happy to play in a $2-5 game. But to keep
BARGE as egalitarian as possible, I would love to see a $1-$1 $2-to-go
no-straddle PLH game at BARGE.
9. Golden Nugget vegetarian dinner at banquet: I am dead serious that we
should receive a significant rebate on that. Just because we wanted
vegetables doesn't mean we didn't want flavor. Or presentation. Or
protein. I mean, I know that when one travels from NorCal to Las Vegas,
one is changing light-years in sensibilities about "vegetarian" cuisine.
But this is a big hotel with a huge catering operation - serving tasty,
creative vegetarian meals should be within their comfort zone, and they
blew it. I think we should get a rebate of (essentially) the entire
meal cost for all vegetarian diners who stuck with their originial
choice (some veggie-choosers decided on the fly that they wanted real
food).
10. The staff at Binion's couldn't say enough about us, and that's always
great to hear.
Regards, Lee
[1] What a disaster. The omelets were one of the few edible things up there.
Oh how my heart breaks thinking about the WSOP buffets of old
Subject: Executive summary BARGE trip report
0. As always, the people were wonderful. As always, that was the best
part.
1. I've really had it with the smoke. Thirty minutes after starting playing
in the Binion's poker room, I had a headache. I really don't know how
people do it. JZK and I were saying that we've really lost our tolerance
for carbon monoxide after 2.5 years of smoke-free poker in California.
2. Highlight: Chris Ferguson playing Chowaha for *far* longer than would
have been necessary as a courtesy - like 3-4 hours. And pretty much
crushing the competition in the chip castle contest. IMHO: there's too
much emphasis on size rather than style. I'd recommend a limit of 6-8
racks. Jesse Rogers, a floorman at Garden City, has been in Card Player
with his chip castles, and they never seem to contain more than 500-700
chips. They are stunning.
3. Highlight: The reception that we gave Chris and Spencer both at the NLHE
tournament and the banquet. How rewarding it is to have two of our own
win the (arguably) two most prestigious events on the tournament trail.
4. Highlight: delightful non-poker conversation with many old friends
(TES, Kevan G, Scott B, et. al). Only wish it could have been more with
many others.
5. As we were watching the Chowaha game after the banquet, I mentioned to
Martin Veneroso that there were a couple of Vegas locals who seemed to
show up every year so they could play Chowaha. "Yeah," said Martin, "but
they're easy to play against. Just your typical by-the-book S&M Chowaha
For Advanced Players types."
6. Thank you to Bruce Kramer for teaching me an important lesson. I had
toked the omelet guy at the buffet [1] a purple whale chip, and was
disappointed to learn that somebody had bought it from him. I mentioned
this in Bruce's presence. He took me aside and explained that he, in
fact, had bought it from the guy, realizing that the cash was more
important to him than an Official BARGE 1999 Purple Whale Chip. Bruce
then made that chip his bounty in the NLHE tournament. I needed to be
reminded that my utility function is not the same as everybody else's,
and if you're a short order cook, your utility for a purple BARGE chip
may be substantially lower than the $2 Bruce offers you for it. Bruce,
you're the nuts - thanks.
7. I have been disappointed the last couple of years to see the pot limit
game(s) get so huge that nobody can test the waters in big bet poker
without risking a couple month's rent. I understand that there are
some people that want to play big, but couldn't we have a small game
for those that don't? The first BARGE pot-limit game was two $1 blinds,
$2 to go, first raise to $6. And we didn't allow straddles. I would
really like to see a game of that size so people could sit down with
$100 or $200 and have a real shot at playing some big bet poker. As it
was, $500 was a small buy-in, and many pots were $100+ before the flop.
8. Yes, I made a couple of stupid plays against Paul Phillips in the
aforementioned game. That isn't correlated to my feelings in the
paragraph above - I'm actually happy to play in a $2-5 game. But to keep
BARGE as egalitarian as possible, I would love to see a $1-$1 $2-to-go
no-straddle PLH game at BARGE.
9. Golden Nugget vegetarian dinner at banquet: I am dead serious that we
should receive a significant rebate on that. Just because we wanted
vegetables doesn't mean we didn't want flavor. Or presentation. Or
protein. I mean, I know that when one travels from NorCal to Las Vegas,
one is changing light-years in sensibilities about "vegetarian" cuisine.
But this is a big hotel with a huge catering operation - serving tasty,
creative vegetarian meals should be within their comfort zone, and they
blew it. I think we should get a rebate of (essentially) the entire
meal cost for all vegetarian diners who stuck with their originial
choice (some veggie-choosers decided on the fly that they wanted real
food).
10. The staff at Binion's couldn't say enough about us, and that's always
great to hear.
Regards, Lee
[1] What a disaster. The omelets were one of the few edible things up there.
Oh how my heart breaks thinking about the WSOP buffets of old