BARGE
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BARGE, the Big August Rec.Gambling Excursion, is a yearly convention held in Las Vegas during the first weekend of August. It consists of a series of tournaments both of poker and other gambling games, as well as a banquet and a host of informal social and gambling activities organized by attendees. Some of the well-known poker players who have participated either as speakers or players in the no limit holdem tournament include: Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth Jr, Greg Raymer, Mason Malmuth, David Sklansky, Mike Caro, Steve Watanabe, Lou Krieger, Linda Johnson, Phil Gordon, Paul Phillips, Andy Bloch, William Chen, Jerrod Ankenman, Andrew Prock, Sabyl Landrum, Doyle Brunson and many others.
BARGE is formally open to “members of the rec.gambling” community,[1] but registration must be done in advance over the Internet. BARGE organizers include Chuck Weinstock (emeritus), Peter Secor, Michael “mickdog” Patterson (starting in 2007), Nick Christenson (starting in 2008) and Mike Zimmers (emeritus).
BARGE History
The first BARGE was an informal gathering of a small number of participants of the rec.gambling newsgroup in Las Vegas in 1991 during SIGGRAPH, a computer graphics convention. The next year, many of the same players got together and had a poker tournament at the Mirage. The poker tournament was No Limit Hold’em (as it still is, while additional poker tournaments have been added), and nine players participated. Since then, BARGE has been held at various Las Vegas locations (see below for a list). Attendance has grown steadily, with up to 300 participants expected for 2008.
In its earlier years, BARGE attendees were interested in Blackjack as much as they were in Poker. Some famous Blackjack players (card counters) who have attended BARGE include Andy Bloch, Stanford Wong, Arnold Snyder and ‘Mr. M.’ Since around 1998, BARGE attendees and BARGE activities have centered much more around Poker.
In 2006 BARGE was moved to later in the month of August due to a conflict with the World Series of Poker as some attendees participated in both events.
BARGE is the progenitor of all the other annual “ARG” events, including ATLARGE (held in Atlantic City), ESCARGOT (held in the Los Angeles area), FARGO (held at Foxwoods), MARGE (held in Biloxi), and others.
BARGE Traditions
Traditions are extremely important to BARGE. For example, Scottro (a prominent BARGE participant) denied that his much-washed originally red hat was actually pink, resulting in dozens of players wearing pink baseball hats at the 2006 BARGE, held at the Venetian. “To Throw Down the Pink Hat” has subsequently come to mean “to challenge someone to a heads-up poker match.”
Perhaps the most famous BARGE tradition is “Presto!” as a nickname for a hold’em hand of pocket fives. The term was originated by Frank Irwin (as slang for a blackjack) but its poker meaning is far more widespread, making appearances on multiple sets of commemorative chips, badges, etc.
Other BARGE traditions include multiple poker tournaments, a blackjack tournament, a video poker tournament, the Official ADB Darkside Craps Crawl, a Sushi outing with Sake tasting, Karaoke night, and the only known Chowaha games played in casino settings for real money. Chinese Poker has also been played at BARGE for many years.
After the BARGE banquet on Saturday evening, another tradition is played out. ‘Reindeer games’ — various exotic poker games — are spread. These games include or have included Chowaha, first spread at Binion’s in 1997; Binglaha (a variant of Omaha, in which whether the game is played high-only or high/low is determined after the flop betting by a roll of a die), first spread at Binion’s in 2003, ‘Must-drink, must-toke HORSE’, and Lowball.
Whenever anyone busts out of a BARGE tournament, they are given a round of applause; not as an ironic gesture, but as a thank-you for participating in BARGE.
The winner of the No-Limit tournament is traditionally tasked with designing a set of chips for next year’s BARGE, with some sort of commemorative design. These chip sets are then sold the next year. The BARGE Chip Committee, currently headed by Patrick Milligan (circa 2008), helps the winner with the logistics and artwork.
BARGE Guest Speakers and BARGE locations
Each year, the Saturday night banquet features a guest speaker. Past speakers:
2010 – Binion’s – Barry Tannebaum
2009 – Binion’s – Doyle Brunson
2008 – Binion’s – Tom Schneider
2007 – Binion’s – Gavin Smith
2006 – Venetian – Phil Gordon “Being Highly Overrated”
2005 – Plaza – Wil Wheaton
2004 – Binion’s – Greg Raymer
2003 – Binion’s – Howard Lederer
2002 – Binion’s – Linda Johnson – Steve Lipscomb “World Poker Tour Preview”
2001 – Binion’s – Phil Hellmuth
2000 – Binion’s – Chris Ferguson
1999 – Orleans – Mike Sexton
1998 – Binion’s – Mike Caro
1997 – Binion’s – Arnold Snyder
1996 – Binion’s – Mike Caro
1995 – Binion’s – Mason Malmuth
1994 – Luxor – none
1993 – Rio – none
BARGE No-Limit Hold ‘em Champions
2010 – Chuck Humphrey
2009 – David Heller
2008 – Dan Chevrie
2007 – John Pickels
2006 – Mordecai Schwartz
2005 – Don Perry
2004 – Gavin Smith
2003 – Paul Person
2002 – Mike McBride
2001 – Russ Fox
2000 – Jeff Bartoszewicz
1999 – John Harkness
1998 – Lee Jones
1997 – Steve Brecher
1996 – Mike Zimmers
1995 – Tom Sims
1994 – Dave Hughes
1993 – Roy Hashimoto
1992 – Steve Jacobs
Notes
Links
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