I just came home from the final day of BARGE. This is the most fun event of the year for me as we play a lot of slightly strange poker games and a number of low buy-in tournaments. The players are typically very good to excellent, with several major tournament winners, notesd authors and other strong players there to compete and have a great time. Buy-ins are low but prestige is high. I made the final table in two events (Charity Pot Limit Omaha and Draw Lowball) out of five. You can learn more about BARGE at the BARGE website if you are interested.

If you are a frequent player, professional or not, it is not only useful to take some vacations away from poker, it is also nice to actually find a way to have fun with poker, so it does not become just a repetitive way to make money. BARGE works for me; something else might work for you. But try to have fun with poker sometimes.