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Posted by on Oct 21, 2014 in Blog, General Poker, Personal, Travel | 2 comments

A Very Different FARGO Experience

 

FARGO-poker

(L to R) Steven “Ice’ Eisenstein, Steve Goldman, Rich Korbin, Nolan Dalla, Chris O’Connor at Bobby Flay’s in Mohegan Sun Casino — attending FARGO 2014

 

FARGO isn’t what you think.  It has nothing to do with North Dakota, although you might see a few “Big Lebowski” types in the group.  FARGO is an acronym for the “Fall” version of “BARGE,” which is the largest and longest-running poker annual convention that attracts different kinds of people to the host city for the purposes of two things — to play poker and have fun.  What happens at FARGO stays at FARGO.

 

Who knew that a casual trip to the local Starbucks followed by a conversation out in the parking lot would result in me flying to Connecticut for five days to attend an annual poker gathering where I was invited to be the guest speaker.

That’s exactly what happened as I recently attended my first FARGO event in 13 years.

FARGO probably isn’t what you think.  It has nothing to do with North Dakota, although you might see a few “Big Lebowski” types in the group.  FARGO is an acronym for the “Fall” version of “BARGE,” which is the largest and longest-running poker annual convention that attracts different kinds of people to the host city for the purposes of two things — to play poker and have fun.  What happens at FARGO stays at FARGO.

The parent group called BARGE formed 25 years ago.  It now has about 250 regulars.  FARGO, which is its close cousin in the northeast, has taken place since 1997.  There’s even an Atlantic City contingent called AT LARGE, which also meets every spring.  As I said, I went to the first five FARGO events, but haven’t been back since I moved west.

I had no idea all the fun I was missing.

For one thing, FARGO is now held at Mohegan Sun Casino, about an hour’s drive from Providence, Rhode Island.  Conveniently located in between New York and Boston, it’s mostly a New England poker festival.  However, increasing numbers of people from around the country also attend.  All ages, male and female.  The only requirement is loving poker and wanting to have fun.

The first thing I noticed about Mohegan Sun was how much the resort had grown since the last time I’d visited.  Way back in 2001, the casino did not even have a hotel.  In 2003, the poker room was even taken out.  Well, let’s just say times have changed.

Mohegan Sun far exceeded my expectations.  I knew it had grown and there was much more to do than just the casino, which was filled with dozens of restaurants and shopping outlets.  But I had no idea how big Mohegan Sun had grown.  I could have stayed there for a month and never gotten tired of all the food outlets, which included everything from a soup kitchen to Pepe’s Pizza, from sports bars to barbecue joints, to top-notch restaurants catering to every taste.  I also found the customer service to consistently be friendly and helpful everywhere I went.  As the casino industry has grown rapidly, that’s not always the case in the places I’ve traveled.  But Mohegan Sun picked their employees well.

As for poker and the poker room, let’s just say this is one of the best places I’ve played cash games in years.  Josh Zuckerman, the poker room manager along with Becky Carabino, the tournament director have done a marvelous job with the facility.  In the five days there, I never saw a glitch — other than having by pocket aces busted a few times.  I tried complaining to Josh about that, but he wouldn’t listen.  He wouldn’t even give me a comp.

But Josh did buy me dinner one night, which was a lot of fun.  That farewell dinner included Tracy Becker, who is the hard-working, always-smiling FARGO organizer.  Rich Korbin, of PokerStars fame, also attended.  More on that to come.  But first, allow me to give you a rundown of my long FARGO weekend:

ron-lyons-nolan-dalla

With Ron Lyons…..in “the Lyon’s Den.”

THURSDAY:

The first official FARGO event is the Heads-Up battle, where players must go through a series of flights in one-on-one matches.  Nice job with organizing and running the event by Rick Becker.

In my first match, I drew David Kluchman.  He’s one of the 2 or 3 people in the room I am at a decided disadvantage against.  David not only plays much better than I do (which isn’t saying much), he also went really deep in the WSOP Main Event Championship a few years ago, where I think he finished like 60th out of 6,500 players.  Amazingly, I get lucky and beat him heads up.

He sucks.

IMAG0826

Playing against David Kluchman in the Heads-Up event at FARGO

Oh, wait.

David goes on to wipe out the rest of our group and even manages to cash in the event.  Somehow, he was able to shake off the shame of losing to the lowly Nolan in the first round.  Call it his wake-up call.  Meanwhile, I get slaughtered in my next two matches and get eliminated.

Quick Edit:  David Kluchman doesn’t suck.  I suck.

Here’s a list of all the people who didn’t suck at Heads-Up poker on Thursday — Paul “Bugsy” Chakoian (winner), Tom Bessoir, Paul McMullin, David Kluchman, Gus Ruggieri, Barry “Mr. Raise” Kornspan, Rich “Omaholic” Bremer, and Tom “Aardvark” Hummel.

FRIDAY:

Friday was the pairs event.  We were partnered up and played a rotation of two games.   I was paired with Doug Grismore.

He plays Omaha High-Low Split, very well I might add.  I get responsibility for Limit Hold’em.  Doug must feel like J.C. Watt, having to carry the rest of the lousy team entirely on his shoulders.  We manage to take fifth in the event, good for most-satisfying cash.

Here’s the way the pairs event turned out:  Louise Russell–Chris “Wolf12004” Richards (lucky winners), Paul “Bugsy” Chakoian–Tedford “T4” Armistead, David “Meeee” Aronson–Caryl Aronson, Meredith Holtzman–Tom Bessoir, Nolan “ADB Darkside” Dalla–Doug “@dgr” Grismore, Katie “Power of V” Baxter–Karl Zipple, Chris “Tick” O’Connor–Mike “BIG MIKE” Klein.

Cashing in any BARGE-related event is always a cool thing.  But for me, the highlight of the day was playing a cash game later that evening.  I wrote up a report about the incident that happened at the table late at night in a $2-5 cash game.  I won’t go into that again here.  But please check out the link.  It’s an interesting take on things and an inspiration.  A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS AT THE POKER TABLE

The other highlight was dinner at Bobby Flays with Steve Eisenstein, Steve Goldman, Rich Korbin, and Chris O’Connor.  Ice and Goldie know I’m a wine diva, so they insist on buying and pouring two bottles of Turley Wine Cellars “Rattlesnake Ridge” Zinfandel.  15.2 percent alcohol.

One word review:  Outstanding!

Thanks, Ice and Goldie!

 

turley-wine-cellars

 

SATURDAY:

This is the day of the Main Event, the big one, the championship — the tournament everyone wants to win.  Supreme bragging rights for the group. No-Limit Hold’em.  $120 buy-in.  Pays ten players.  About 90 entrants.

The day was long, so it’s mostly a blur now.  I came in somewhere around 17th place, losing a late-race with pocket jacks against two overcards held by Regis.  She hit her ace.  That bitch.

At least I would get my revenge on Regis the following day.  More on that shortly.

Here’s the FARGO’s best of the best:   Alpo Kallio (winner, so he’s no dog), Regis Donovan, Russell “Messenger of Doom” Fox, Steven “SMR” Rosenblatt, Joyce Ciotti, Brandon Drexel Gerson, Chris “Tick” O’Connor, Jim “jimpepper” Rogers, Jeanne “Den Mother” David, and Len Parness.

The banquet was held on Saturday night, which was the main reason I was invited to come all this way and attend.  Actually, I don’t care much for public speaking.  I’ve never felt particularly comfortable in the role of entertaining a live audience.  I was talking to some colleagues later about this, and while I almost never get nervous in big events like the World Series of Poker when I sometimes speak in front of large crowds, the smaller more intimate group is a bit more intimidating.  I think it’s just self-pride and wanting to do well in front of so many friends and people I have come to respect in poker.

My speech wasn’t planned particularly well.  I write some notes and use that to go through a mini-roast of several people in the audience.  Everyone is a good sport, although I do manage to butcher some names.

One funny moment was when someone in the audience ordered a bottle of wine for me, with a single glass.  This was placed upon the podium as I spoke.  I guess someone had seen my videos and was expecting a rant.  I didn’t rant too much and only dropped about three F-bombs.  So, the UNDER got there.  Cash your tickets.

I also pull off a comedy routine that falls a little flat.  Sensing this was the weakest part of the presentation, I opt to go straight into the more serious part of the speech.

I hope to use this platform to give a little history but also to inspire.  I decide to go with the rough working title of “Ten Life Lessons I Learned from Working in Poker.”

The only trouble is — I was writing out the “lessons” and then ran out of time by “Lesson #7.”

The first part of the presentation went well, I thought.  I talked about the importance of our own history, families, and told stories that made me who I am (politically speaking — not so much the psychological issues).  About midway through the list, I detoured off the main road and went completely off the list and then free-wheeled the final 15 minutes of the talk.  I even forgot what number we left off at, but by that time people in the audience didn’t seem to care.

I was just about to wrap up my speech when I saw someone yawn.  I’ve always heard that if anyone in the audience yawns, it’s time to get off the stage.  Pronto.  So, I quickly bolted to an imaginary “Life Lesson #10” plucked out of thin air.  That final lesson was one of humility.

It was an honor to speak to the group and be considered worthy another to be considered as the keynote speaker.  I hope I honored that occasion properly.

We stood around and talked afterward, and even took a few more pictures.  After it was done, since I hadn’t eaten all day long (I won’t eat when nervous), I went to a sports bar with some of the guys and we watched the Florida State-Notre Dame game.

nolan-dalla-fargo-speaker-2014

Let there be light! In the darkness of FARGO 2014 as keynote speaker

 

SUNDAY:

Today is NFL Sunday.  It’s also the time of the final FARGO event which is a mixed tournament of Badugi and a five-card variant of Omaha High-Low Split called “Big O.”

I vow never to do anything during the NFL games, but this is an obvious exception.  Several highlights on this day include knocking out the brilliant poker writer and radio personality Ashley Adams (“House of Cards”).  Talk about class.  As a bust-out gift, he gives me an out-of-date but antique poker strategy book written for foreign service diplomats (seriously).  Remarkably, I never knew this existed.  Nice gift from a great guy who does a lot for poker.

Speaking of those who do a lot for poker, let me give shout-outs to Doug Hull, one of the co-founders of the strategy and coaching website called Red Chip Poker.  I love their motto — “Poker is more fun when you win.”  Check out Doug’s site here:  REDCHIPPOKER.COM

The day is an emotional roller coaster.  NFL games all over the place.  My iPad is always within sight.  Screams of “yes!” and “no,” alternate as I’m torn between what’s going on in various NFL stadiums and my fate in the poker tournament.

This was one of the most enjoyable tournaments I’ve played in quite some time.  Lots of thought about strategy as opposed to the all-in and pray approach that much of poker has become.  I get into a number of interesting hands which I think I played well for the most part but certainly erred on occasion.

I managed to get my revenge against Regis.  She had knocked me out the day before, and I somehow return the favor.  She didn’t even call me a bad name when she got eliminated.  As I said, that’s class.

I end up fourth in the tournament, which was won by everyone’s favorite poker accountant, Russ Fox.  The results:  Russ “Messenger of Doom” Fox, Claudia Mastroianni, Tom “Chaos” Bessoir, Nolan “ADB Darkside” Dalla, Steve “Crunch” Daniel, and Bob “scsuhockey10” Lauria.’

The play of everyone at the final tale really impressed me.  We went 90 minutes during the bubble phase.  Regis was the unlucky finisher.  In particular, Claudia made quite an impression, to my left.  She was a thorn in my side the entire time.  Tom somehow never had more than about a third of the chip average at any point, yet managed to coast to a third-place finish, which was no small feat.  Then, there was Russ Fox who is always tough, mixes his game up well, and deservedly won the “Best All-Around” award for FARGO 2014.

A fun weekend was capped off by dinner as Tuscany, the Italian restaurant located under the waterfall in the main hotel lobby.  Josh Zuckerman invited us as his guests and we all enjoyed a final farewell feast.  Zuckerman really gets poker, knows poker players, and is a strong advocate for the game.  He’s known from his ten years spent previously at the poker rooms in Jacksonville (Florida).  Now, he’s making major strides in the Northeast.  I expect some bigger things from Mohegan Sun in the future.  As long as he and Becky run the room, poker players are in good hands with them in charge.

A final note to Tracy Becker, the wonderful organizer of FARGO.  One word to describe Tracy and the job she did — awesome.  I cannot say enough good things about her and the red carpet treatment we all received at Mohegan Sun.

I know I have left out a good many other people whom I met, played with, and talked to.  If you weren’t mentioned in this report, it’s only because I ran out of space and time.

Hopefully, I can attend FARGO again in 2015.  I encourage anyone who loves poker and having fun to consider attending, not just this event, but the BARGE gathering in Las Vegas every summer.  For more information, please visit the BARGE HOME PAGE here.

nolan-dalla-fargo-banquet-2014

(L to R). Jeanne David, me, Brandon Gerson, Steve Nelson down under…and a good time was had by all — FARGO 2014

2 Comments

  1. Thanks for this post – exactly what I was looking for being a terminal hero an all! Much appreciated!

  2. Thank you so very much, it was just beautiful and so moving, music was perfect

    Your appreciated so very much for everything

    Healthy and Happy New Year

    Sandi Joy

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