My BARGE Geek Code

In the old days, I played poker for fake money on IRC. This was the original "online poker", years before the monster that we have now. I played probably from 1993 until about 1997 or so. I actually attended BARGE (Big August Rec.Gambling Excursion) in 1996 in Las Vegas with my wife. Our seminar was conducted by the Mad Genius of Poker, Mike Caro. Some of the attendees are now professional poker players or people well-known in poker circles for other reasons, such as Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, Perry Friedman, Rafe Furst, Kim Scheinberg, Barry Tanenbaum, Patti Beadles, Abdul Jalib M'hall, Lee Jones, Steve Jacobs, and Steve Landrum. It was a blast. They held a no-limit WSOP-style tournament at Binion's Horseshoe. We played in a blackjack tournament and a video poker tournament. We met some fun people and learned to play craps, the "heroin of gambling", as they put it. One event was trying to get banned from the Barbary Coast for counting cards at blackjack. We were surprised to actually be winning but just couldn't get thrown out. I even almost circled a Tiltboy. Perry Friedman, wearing a leisure suit, walked by me. I dropped a chip on the floor and said, "Did you drop that?" while making a circle with my thumb and forefinger. He turned around, looked right at it, and said "That's not below your waist." Doh! So close!

From http://zbigniew.pyrzqxgl.com/bargegeek.html, my BARGE geek code is: A+ G+ PKR PEG+ B+ TB ADB M+

I would like to attend another BARGE, but I assume they've gotten out of hand as far as attendance goes. In addition, I want to attend the WSOP every year, and I just don't have time for two trips.

- schneid