Nitty by Nature 6: The Nit Stays in the Picture TR (5/23-6/28 and beyond?)
Is it too early to post this? Yeah, I think it's too early to post this. I still have 12 days until my trip, but I'm sitting here trapped inside on a Saturday with a mild cold and a growing case of poker fever. We're entering summer TR season. Reading through the other entries is getting me excited for my own annual sojourn to the desert, so please forgive me for the premature etripulation.
Honestly, I didn't know if I'd do a TR this year. When I first came out for the WSOP in 2018, it was my first trip to Vegas in 5 years and my first time EVER being in town during the series. It was a very special occasion for me. Everything was fresh and exciting. After five years of doing these, I've begun to feel a bit like the jaded old-timer. I've played over 100 MTTs in Vegas since that 2018 trip. I've seen all the sights and played all the rooms. I've achieved a lot of my initial (modest) poker goals.
What's left to do? What's left to see?
One of the ironic things about poker is the paradoxical diminishing and increasing returns. Hear me out. On that first trip in 2018, I played a $110 nightly at the Nugget. Low stakes, low pressure, low prestige, but...this was possibly going to be my first ever recorded live MTT cash (I had cashed a couple small untracked events at the local tribal casino in college). When we went on break near the money bubble, I was so excited that my hands were shaking. Now I can be sitting at a final table playing for a decent chunk of money and feel almost nothing. That's what I mean by increasing and diminishing returns. My skills have gradually improved with experience, while the excitement that I derive from the game has dropped. For the most part, the tense spots no longer affect me very much.
You can see how so many players fall into the trap of always trying to play bigger, like a junkie chasing that first initial high.
Ultimately though, bigger is not always better. While I do yearn to level up and play bigger (more on that later), I still find poker intrinsically rewarding, even if the adrenaline spikes have waned. Like a lot of poker players, I enjoy the puzzle and strategic aspects of the game. I've found that you can have as much fun in a $200 event as you can in a $1k if you focus on the process and not the extrinsic rewards. Likewise, the process of writing these TRs is enjoyable for me, even if there's not necessarily a lot of fresh ground for me to break. I like writing them. I like going back and reading them.
With that mind, I guess Nitty by Nature 6 was never really in doubt. Hence the title of this year's entry:
"The kid stays in the picture!"
Before I look ahead and discuss this year's plans, I'll start by looking back.
BACKGROUND
Like a lot of people in my age bracket, I'm a Moneymaker baby. I played poker sparingly in high school before catching the fever in college. The early WPT seasons on Travel Channel and ESPN's constant reruns of the 2003 WSOP kicked my curiosity into overdrive. I began splashing around live and online, first in LHE and then later moving on to NL. I eventually became a prolific 180 man SNG grinder on PokerStars in the late 00s. I wasn't winning a lot of money, but I was winning, over a huge sample size.
Black Friday hit, other life priorities took precedence, and poker took a backseat. I effectively quit the game for most of a decade, though I would still sweat the WSOP every summer with intense pangs of FOMO. Finally, in 2018, the stars aligned for me to visit Vegas during the summer and fire my first official WSOP event (the $365 Giant). I didn't cash, but I was hooked. I've been back every year since.
In the next entry, I'll take a quick stroll down memory lane, covering some of the highlights from my first 5 years attending the WSOP.
nice cash - keep battling......cashing is the first step towards breaking through in one of these things! Lessssgo!
DAY FOUR - 5/26
The big excitement for today was the Wynn restart, which I already wrote about. While it was disappointing not to run deeper, I got to play for a few hours on day two and laddered up a little bit. It wasn't the dream run I had hoped for, but the modest score helps eliminate most of the financial downside from this leg of the trip.
The rest of the day was a calm one that doesn't offer much fodder for a TR. The only other interesting thing I did was take a last tour of the Mirage. I know the Mirage was an important poker venue at one point in time, but I can't claim any real nostalgia for the place. I have vague memories of seeing the lobby on a Las Vegas family trip as a kid in the early 90s. I think I played an hour or two of limit hold 'em in the poker room back around 2013 on a random stop in town. I saw Love in 2018 on my first WSOP trip. I've been to the Mirage a few times over the years, but overall it's not a property that holds much meaning for me. If we want to put a positive spin on its demise, Hard Rock seems pretty active with poker in Florida and reportedly plans to build a poker room here on the strip. It could eventually be another good option for players.
After I left the Mirage, I thought about heading over to Resorts World and trying to play some mixed cash, but ultimately opted for the boring route of crashing early and trying to catch up on sleep. Next up is the Venetian $1100 flight 1C today. If I don't play the WSOP Main or win any big satellite seats, this is likely to be the highest buy-in I'll play all summer. I expect a tough field dense with regs and pro types. It should be a fun challenge. Let's see if we can try to navigate the minefield and find a bag.
Agree with the positive addition of the hard rock, regarding poker.
The Tulsa Hard Rock has a nice poker room and runs good events. The WSOPc made a stop there this year, turnout seemed pretty good.
The rest of the day was a calm one that doesn't offer much fodder for a TR. The only other interesting thing I did was take a last tour of the Mirage. I know the Mirage was an important poker venue at one point in time, but I can't claim any real nostalgia for the place.
To me, the important thing about the Mirage is it put Steve Wynn on the Strip. Plus, it resulted in Treasure Island, one of my favorite Vegas hotels. Or used to be, anyway.
I have vague memories of seeing the lobby on a Las Vegas family trip as a kid in the early 90s.
The lobby with the giant fish tank might be the best thing about the Mirage.
Next up is the Venetian $1100 flight 1C today. Let's see if we can try to navigate the minefield and find a bag.
SPOILER ALERT
Spoiler
WTF is even going on here? Back-to-back bags. Another day 2 tomorrow @ 11.
I'll have more to say eventually, but the summary of the day is that I ran white hot in the first few hours, hovered around 4x starting for much of the day, had a fairly big hero call late in the night, and kept getting enough good hands near the bubble to coast to the end.
The stacks are fairly short in this thing, so the carnage tomorrow should be quick and fierce. 61 players left. Let's win this thing.
Killer stuff dog.
Smash em all
Nice! 17 days until I head out to the wsop and this thread is making me very envious / excited!
Well done and good luck tomorrow. What number does the bubble burst at and what’s your stack in bb and vs average
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In reference to the Chinese zodiac signs, this should be a Year of Dog (DogFace to be precise). I think they should change from Dragon to Dog.
Wish you a White Hot Run on Day 2!
Well done and good luck tomorrow. What number does the bubble burst at and what’s your stack in bb and vs average
Bubble last night was 35/311. Everyone who bagged is in the $$$. Now they combine days 1A+1B+1C and pay jumps start.
We were at 4k/8k blinds for the bubble, but looks like 1A may have only been at 2k/3k, so we may be rolling it all the way back to that.
Either way, I'll be middle of the pack to start.
Make lots of jumps, until there's no more to be made. Good luck, run and play well.
So happy for you.
DAY FIVE - 5/27
Listen, here's the thing. Poker is an easy game. You just run really good and win.
After another intense HU battle with the Harrah's shower aka the bathroom flood machine, I walked to Venetian around 10 AM to buy my ticket and get breakfast, which turned out to be an egg sandwich at Fatburger in the Venetian food court. The food wasn't notably bad or good, but the price gouge was real. After the tip, nearly $20 for a meager egg sandwich and two wedges of deep-fried potatoes. Is this a bad omen? The tournament hasn't even started yet and I'm already value-owning myself.
The tournament eventually starts and I'm relieved not to recognize anyone at my table. I see a few of the killers sprinkled around the room, but my table is unknowns (for now). The early table draw rungood is mirrored by actual poker rungood when I make middle set with 88 vs. two pair A6 to double up within the first hour of the event. I'm feeling confident, maybe too confident, because I soon make a classic poker mistake: I try to bluff an old guy.
I open AhKd UTG. He 3-bets. Uh-oh. If stereotypes are to be believed, old guys don't bluff, and they especially don't 3-bet bluff a UTG open. Still, my hand is too strong to fold. With alarm bells ringing in my head, I opt to flat. Flop is a paired rag board with two hearts, we'll say 966. Not great, but having the Ah is relevant here, as it opens some backdoor possibilities. I check. Villain bets. Maybe this is just a pure fold, but that Ah is working for us and I want to see what he does on the turn just in case he also has AK, AQ, KQ, AJ, etc. I call. Turn brings the 8h. A good card for us. I check to him. He bets again. At this point, I'm about 99% sure he has an overpair, as most players of this type are not going to double-barrel without the goods, especially when the flush draw gets there. I should be folding my hand. Instead I find myself reaching for chips, grabbing more than enough to call, cutting out a chunky raise to apply max pressure. He can't be thrilled that the flush got there, and if he does find the call, there are still lots of good rivers for us. It takes him a while to make a decision. I'm something of a nervous wreck while I wait, which probably doesn't help me tell my having-it story. The longer I wait, the more jittery I become. After a minute or two, he finds the call. River is a brick. Damn. I wave the white flag and check. He checks back and shows QQ to drag a big one.
Although I'm still above starting stack after the bluff-gone-bad, I dumped about 40% of my chips in the hand. It wasn't the worst idea ever, but I didn't need to take that spot. I could've folded turn or maybe just gone for the pure call to try to hit. However, it seems like my reckless aggression has impressed the poker gods, because they swiftly reward me with an incredible rush of cards. Suddenly I'm picking up huge hands left and right. I'm getting all the big pocket pairs. I'm hitting sets. I'm flopping a wheel against an overpair. I'm trapping with KK and getting the perfect flop to stack my unsuspecting opponent. Before you know it, I'm sitting on 100k chips from 25k starting, probably one of the early chip leaders in the room. I know that if I can play okay and not get unlucky, I now have an excellent chance to bag.
The middle stretch of the day is less eventful, as I mostly hover around that 100k mark. My early table draw rungood fades and eventually I find myself surrounded by poker-famous faces. At one point my 9-handed table features Ryan Laplante, Kenny Hallaert, and Cherish Andrews. Not ideal, but this is what we signed up for. When you play a $1k in Vegas, you will eventually come up against some pro types. At this point I'm just trying to focus on fundamentals, play ABC poker, and not give my chips away.
A notable hand develops. I open AJo. Ryan, who has been active, raises. In my head I'm thinking this is a good 4-bet spot. He has been aggressive today with some dusty holdings while I've been blown off a couple hands already. He's probably light here. However, before I can do anything, a player behind both of us shoves. Now I have a clear fold with AJ, which turns out to be a stroke of luck, because Ryan snaps it off with KK and is up against...AJ. The poor sap had the same idea as me and paid for it by shipping a full double. His sacrifice will not be forgotten. I mention this spot because it's an example of how luck factors into these tournaments. This guy getting out of line with AJo saved me from doing the same, which was a huge relief.
I get another huge relief when our table is broken and I'm moved to what seems like a calmer, gentler table. The bubble is maybe 2-3 hours on the horizon when the spot of the night comes up for me. Young UTG player opens standard 2x. I make it about 5x with KK, perhaps going a little too small on my 3-bet sizing. He calls. Flop brings Qd9d and an irrelevant brick. Not a terrible flop. I lead for maybe 40% pot. Too small on a wet board? Maybe. He calls. Turn is the Ah, which isn't exactly a card that I wanted to see. I check. He checks behind. River is another irrelevant brick. I suppose I could lead this river, but what worse hands are calling us? KQ? QJ? It's a pretty thin value spot on this board and the pot is already large, so I opt to check. My opponent slides in a big bet, roughly in the neighborhood of full pot. What does he have? It's hard to say. He can have AQ and take this line. 99 is a possibility. Maybe he floated with AK or AJ and got lucky on the turn. AdXd is out there. Lots of stuff beats KK on this board. However, lots of stuff still loses to KK. Since my 3-bet was on the small side, it's not impossible that he called it with something like 77, 88, QJ. I've checked two streets, so it's obvious that I'm not super strong here. If he's an aggressive player, that's going to invite bluffs. After a semi-long tank, I decided to make the reluctant call with KK, thinking the price is still just too good vs. estimated range. He shows KJ for a busted gutter and nothing else. I drag a huge one.
Usually tournament runs hinge on just a few big hands, and that was the key hand of the night. Had I lost, I would've been crippled. Instead I had a strong stack to navigate the bubble. I wasn't deep enough to play the role of table captain towards the end of the night, but I was never in the danger zone. In the final hour or two, I was able to win uncontested pots with AA, KK, and JJ to stay healthy while others were eliminated. After a very brief hand-for-hand period, an unfortunate soul busted in 36th and the remaining 35 of us bagged up our chips for the night. I'll return to day 2 with a playable stack, though nowhere near the top.
I was already happy from cashing the Wynn event. Making it back-to-back cashes by bagging this Venetian event puts me somewhere between cloud nine and cloud nine thousand. I've locked up another decent payday, but it's also important not to become complacent. There's a tendency to be relieved when you've survived the bubble, like the hard part is done. However, the real money in these things is at the top, so I'll try to live in the moment and play my best game on day 2 until they finally kill me. Then I'll celebrate a little.
On that note, we now have an interesting game of flight chicken unfolding. Day 2 starts at 11 AM. My flight is set to leave after 7 PM. Do I reschedule my flight and extend my stay, or do I just wait and see? Luckily Southwest is very user-friendly when it comes to rescheduling and canceling, so I think I'm going to live dangerously and see what happens. I'll either be on an airplane this evening or bathing in a bath tub full of money, which is preferable to a Harrah's shower.
Rooting for bathing in the bath tub full of money.
Fantastic job on Day 1!
Spin it up to the top today!!
Very small update:
Decided to extend my stay one night and push back the flight a day.
Didn't want to deal with the headache of potentially rushing to the airport with pockets full of cash.
No regrets, even if I bust early today. I'll have extra time to wander the WSOP and do other touristy things.
If you get a pay jump, spend tomorrow night at the Venetian.
Very small update:
Decided to extend my stay one night and push back the flight a day.
Didn't want to deal with the headache of potentially rushing to the airport with pockets full of cash.
No regrets, even if I bust early today. I'll have extra time to wander the WSOP and do other touristy things.
is it a 2 day or 3 day tourney? hopefully you need to push back again!
Busted the MSPT inside the top 25 for over $5k.
Not exactly the mega bink you dream of, but still a solid result that I'll happily take. I don't think there was an obvious route for me to finish higher today. I played the spots I was given, and don't have any major regrets about anything.
I got some early rungood when I was able to trap with AA vs. 88 and get a full double on a favorable runout.
The rest of the day was mostly uneventful, with mainly raise/win type spots or obvious push/fold decisions. It was actually a much easier day than yesterday in terms of hands and decisions because I didn't play many flops. Mostly I was just folding junk hands all day, though I did double with JJ and later with TT.
I tried to 3-bet bluff exactly once today with 9d8d and got ripped on. Doh.
For my bustout hand, I was in late position with J9o and 7.5BB when I ripped on another short stack in the BB, who I thought would only call with a very strong hand. Unfortunately they had Ah7h and I could not improve. End of the road.
It's always bittersweet when you make deep runs without landing in the big money spots, but I can only consider this a great outcome overall. I wasn't even going to play this tournament unless I cashed something at the Wynn on this trip, so cashing this event and making a run at the final table is the AQs of all possible runouts. It's not quite the nuts, but you're thrilled to see it.
With the two cashes on this trip, I'm now in a much more realistic position to possibly play the WSOP Main this year, which is something I'll be contemplating in the coming days...
Nice to get a couple of good results early on. Well done and sorry you couldn’t run deeper
Congrats on the back to back cashes. Good luck with the rest of the events.
This is definitely a confidence booster.
