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Trip Report

by George Wattman

This was my fourth RGE event, two BARGE's, one FARGO, and this my first ATLARGE. Although short, it was probably my best. As BOBBY D put it in his trip report, everyone is so welcoming and fun to talk to that you are comfortable as soon as you arrive. All hail Jazbo for excellent coordination and event planning!

At dinner Saturday night, Nolan and I talked about why these are so much fun. I told him that I thought each one was an investment in the next event as the more people you know, the better each event becomes. It is great to sit down at a table and be familiar with several of the folks there. Although your EV may drop due to the skills of this group, the fun factor increases!

I arrived Friday about noon and went to the Taj to build up the bankroll. Noon on Friday is nothing but the local rocks that continually trade dollars and know each other. I, the ever-present rookie, picked up a couple hundred for ATLARGE. One guy had such a classic reverse tell it should have been in CARO's book (if he had only been wearing 1960's clothes). He would get excited when missing and feign disappointment when hitting. Thanks for the donation.

About 3pm, I went over to the Trop to sign up for the limit holdem tourney. Checked in and put my stuff in the room. Went down to sign up for 5-10 and 10-20 before the tourney. I got into the 5-10 game at 4pm thinking I wouldn't play due to the tourney beginning immediately. Got seated by PRM and found out that the tourney wouldn't start until 4:15. Won the first two or three hands and cashed out late for the tourney up $65!. Sat down and found that I missed the first several hands, didn't have to pay blinds yet and had Bwana, Jaeger, and Peter Segal at my table. OK, I also found out the hard way that it was no limit when the guy in #1 went all in against me about the fifth hand. I called and my QQ held against his JJ, and set me up for the day. I got broken out to another table soon there after and didn't have to play these tough guys for long. Did pretty well in the games, finishing tenth, to much in the way of sympathy of others. You can't imagine the fun of knowing half the tourney and doing fairly well, it's like being famous! Thanks Tom Mc Hugh for giving me the hang tough speech! The downside is that I played until about 9:45 and totally missed the smoker. Damn, I was looking forward to that!

Went pretty much on tilt in the side games after that, pissing away a couple hundred and going to bed at 3am. Played with some great guys, gave away a cigar to Bobby D, talked with PRM again, and met some RGE newbes that were surprised that the group wasn't a bunch of geeks. Far from it.

I got at a tough table in the ATLARGE tourney, LLEW, ADB BK among others. Did fairly poorly, got no cards and watched LLEW put on a tourney winning demo. Hey LLEW my chips gave you the edge at both FARGO and ATLARGE, I need a percentage for BARGE this year! Tilted around after that and played some negative EV table games to pass some time. Considered just going the hell home, but got into a 10-20 game about 1pm. After a while, Tom McHugh, Bruce Kramer, Scott "Bwana" and Russell Rosenbloom came and left. In the last hour or two, Russell, Bruce and I went on a total combined rush and tilted the local rocks to the tune of cashing out at banquet time up a combined $2300. Bruce, way to go for reaching one of your poker goals with a big win! I guess we exceeded the one big bet an hour rate!

The more poker I play, the less interest I have in table games. I guess this is all part of my continuing gambling education. I tell you, I learn more at an RGE event than a year of books and self-analysis at the tables. I wish I had a strong local home game to learn from, but a quarterly visit to the AC rocks doesn't help much. Thanks again to all of those who discussed strategy, playing conditions, places to play and how to attack situations. I especially want to publicly again thank Nolan for answering my emails about where to play, how to approach others in the RGE community, and hopefully reassembling the TEXAS team at this year's BARGE. Lets raise the stakes and make it winner take all!

I had a great ATLAGE dinner, not so much the food, but the company. Sat by Muriel and Nolan, Bruce, Mitch, Foldem (Peter, thanks again for the drink), and Peter, among others. What a great group to discuss the finer points of keeping track of wins, where to play, when and all that other stuff no one else in your life understands. I got home and started telling my wife about flopping the nuts in the big blind with a flush draw and no full houses possible and her eyes glazed over immediately.

There are about exactly a hundred other people I talked to, played against, and helped me over the one and one half days that were all fun, accessible and a better group that you usually see in AC. I feel like my continuing poker education was improved this trip. I can't wait for BARGE, looking forward to seeing all these guys (and obviously gals) and more there. Who cares the location, it will be great!

George