BARGE


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, Matt Matros, Linda Johnson, Phil Gordon, Paul Phillips, Andy Bloch, William Chen, Doyle Brunson and many others.
BARGE is formally open to "members of the rec.gambling" community, but registration must be done in advance over the Internet. BARGE organizers include Russell Fox, Rich Bremer, Jeff Deitch and Stevan Goldman. Former organizers include Chuck “Enabler” Weinstock, Peter “Foldem” Secor, Michael "mickdog" Patterson, Nick Christenson, Bree Goldman and Mike Zimmers.

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, and nine players participated. Since then, BARGE has been held at various Las Vegas locations. Attendance has grown steadily, averaging about 200 participants.
In its earlier years, BARGE attendees were interested in Blackjack as much as they were in
Poker. Some famous Blackjack players 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. Since then BARGE has returned to its traditional 1st weekend of August.
BARGE is the progenitor of all the other annual "ARG" events, including ATLARGE, ESCARGOT, FARGO, MARGE, EMBARGO and others.

BARGE traditions

Traditions are extremely important to BARGE. For example, Scottro 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 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 Craps Crawl, a Sushi outing with Sake tasting, the Unofficial BARGE Smoker and Bourbon 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, first spread at Binion's in 2003, 'Must-drink, must-toke HORSE', and Lowball. Many games from attendees home games are also played. Murder, Oklahoma, and many other games are common.
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. Many players also bring a "bust-out gift," which they give to the player who busted them. These are typically small, memorable tokens, but have included such gifts as a decoupage "Last Supper" featuring Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and an iPad.
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, 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: