Tuesday night was the start of BARGE (Big Annual Rec. Gambling Excursion).

The first poker tournament tonight was the History of Poker which alternates between 20 minutes of draw high & 20 minutes of draw lowball. I like this tournament (which they started three years ago) because it is the only chance I get to play any draw games which I played a lot of in Gardena before moving to Las Vegas in 1980. I also came in 4th in the first tournament in 2000.

BARGE is being held this year at the Horseshoe as it has been most of the last few years. This year we have the entire upstairs room (where the WSOP is held) all to ourselves since they have taken Bingo out. So, as I make my way to my table I am saying hello to people I have not seen since last year & getting ready to play. As I look down to count my tournament chips I see we are using WSOP & Hall of Fame buy in chips from past years! Not only that, but they are years I do not have. We started out using three which were the 1999 (baby blue) which if I remember correctly was never used that year as they used the orange chip (pictured below) instead. Also the 2001 (off white with darker blue inserts) which WAS used in 2001 & the 1997 Hall of Fame chip. Again, if I remember correctly this chip was not used either because their last Hall of Fame tournament was in 1996. Towards the end of the tournament they had picked up the 1999 & 2001 WSOP chips & we were using the Hall of Fame chip as a $100 chip. They had brought in the WSOP buy in from 2000 (tan with brown inserts) to use as a $500 chip.

So now I can account for all the Hall of Fame & WSOP buy in chips for ALL years EXCEPT for 1998. I know they are in the cage, but have never been released for whatever reason.

As it turns out I WON the tournament tonight & was lucky enough to get a "set" of the four chips above in addition to 1st place money ($900) & a WSOP jacket from this year.

Now it's on to the next tournament which starts Wednesday morning at 10 A.M. If I find out anymore about the chips I'll let you know. It seems they are watching them very closely & want to use them for tournaments instead of selling them in the Gift Shop as in past years. Andy - Las Vegas