Nitty by Nature 6: The Nit Stays in the Picture TR (5/23-6/28 and beyond?)

Nice work bruh! Good ****! Way to battle and finish strong with a nice cash!

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Great job!

Must feel good to break the curse at the Wynn.

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Buy something shiny and eat it!

Summer of the Dog

Absolutely. The ironic thing is that it might be my favorite place to play despite all the horrible nights I've had in there. It's a great venue and I'll stand by what I said going into this trip: They have the toughest fields relative to price point of anywhere in town. If I've improved at all over the past few years, part of that has been driven by facing tough competition at the Wynn. Even their regular dailies and nightlies that the run throughout the year will draw some pretty strong fields, which makes it a good place to get some poker lessons for not crazy prices.

DAY SIX - 5/28

There are 61 players returning to the Venetian for day 2 of the $1100 MSPT event to play for the $90k first prize, and I'm one of them. I've played a few day twos by now in my poker "career", so the nerves weren't quite what they would've been in the past. My mindset was just to play my game. Whatever happens, happens.

What happened early was getting AA vs. 88 in a BTN vs. blind spot. I opened, older gentleman 3-bet, and I elected to just call. Flop came rags. He bet, I raised big, he jammed. No folding here. I call and hold, bringing me up over the average stack. The rest of the first few levels were uneventful. I'd either get punked with the bottom of my range pre-flop or just miss the board and have to give up on hands.

Eventually our table broke and I'm moved to a new table with the 2022 WSOP Colossus champion and a bunch of other players who I don't know. I'd like to give you some interesting HHs, but mostly I was bet/folding or just bet/winning here. I eventually jammed JJ for maybe 15BB in a raised pot with 1 caller. Opener folded, caller called, and I held vs. a raggedy Ax. That was the big drama of the middle of the day. My new table was broken and suddenly we're down to the final 27.

There are two big problems at this point:

1.) Even after the JJ double, I still don't have enough chips to really mess around.

2.) I'm being dealt the bad part of the deck, consistently looking down at the likes of Q3o and 75o.

In all honesty the rest of the session was pretty uneventful. I won a small pot against Colossus with 99. When I was really short I doubled by jamming TT. I survived long enough for the big blind to become the starting stack of the tournament, a fun milestone to think about. We were basically playing 500/1000 NLHE at this point, albeit with short stacks. That's a wee bit higher than the 1/3 I typically play. Paradoxically, I felt no pressure or nerves because my decisions were only push-fold, and I'm comfortable with that.

With my stack dwindled down to 7.5BB, I got the opportunity to open jam J9o from LP against another player on the low end of the chip counts. Unfortunately she had much better than a random hand with Ah7h, and I could not spike anything to pull ahead. OUT of the tournament for medium 4-figures.

If I had survived a little longer and binked in the 5-figure neighborhood, I think I quite literally would've walked straight over to Paris and bought my main event ticket then and there. Landing in the middle ground makes it more of a dilemma. Do I pocket this money, roll it into a few medium MTTs, or finally fire the big one? It's something I'll be mulling over today and maybe beyond. Whatever the decision may be, it's a good problem to have.

After the bustout, I walked back to Harrah's, where I've extended for an extra night. I could've made the trek over to the WSOP in time for the 8PM $200 turbo daily deep stack. The thought crossed my mind, but it's been a whirlwind few days of poker, and I don't know if snap-firing another event would've been a sensible choice. Instead I took a little bit of time just to decompress.

After a short rest, I did eventually visit Paris, quickly eyeballing the setup and the $5k NLHE field, which was sprinkled with notables like Merson, Seidel, and Seed. From there I continued down LV Blvd and had a post-cash celebration feast at 5 star Michelin spot Earl of Sandwich. My big splurge was buying the first alcoholic beverage of the trip, a Shock Top tall boy.

There was a point on day 1 in the 2023 Monster Stack where one of the players at my table mentioned "the biggest nit at the table". To my amazement, he wasn't talking about me. It was a proud moment, knowing I had graduated from ultra-nit to merely mega-nit. I may not be such a nit on the felt anymore, but I'm still a life-nit. For all the time I've spent in Vegas, I don't think I'm very good at Vegas-ing. If I'm not playing poker then I'm probably not doing anything interesting.

On that note, I thought about playing flight chicken again and firing the $500 WSOP event today (5/29 now), but opted against it. I don't want to extend again. I'm ready to be back home for a few days. My flight is set to leave around 8PM. In the mean time, I might play some poker and do some banking. Do we deposit our newfound funds or maybe make a withdrawal, say...something that brings us to a nice round $10k? Decisions, decisions.

Congrats on the two cashes. 😀

Another nice run, congratulations!

DAY SEVEN - 5/29

After checking out of the hotel and stashing my bags, I walked over to the Wells Fargo branch in the Howard Hughes Parkway and deposited most of my excess cash, leaving myself a mini bankroll to play some 1/3. My thinking was to head over to Paris and play some cash at the WSOP, something I haven't actually done since 2019. There are plenty of better rooms to play, but I wanted to officially participate in something WSOP-related before I skipped town and figured that the fast-paced $500 NLHE event running simultaneously would yield many frustrated players to populate the neighboring seats.

I ran very good in two hours of play. To give you an idea of what type of session it was, an older woman limped in front of me in EP. I made it $15 with 8d7d. It folded around to her. She called. Flop came Qd7h2d. A pair and flush draw. Fantastic. She checked. I bet about 40% pot. She called. Another 7 hit on the turn and she led (???) into me for $25. This actually confused me a lot since I couldn't imagine how another 7 helped her hand, so I just called. River was a brick. She bet $50. I decided to raise to $125. She mucked. It was that type of day at the office. I never won a monster pot, but only lost one hand that I opened and cashed out +$141.

I immediately walked over to Mon Ami Gabi and had my first real splurge-y meal of the trip, ordering the steak frites. I've eaten at Mon Ami Gabi two times previously and this was definitely the best dish I've had there. Would recommend. The view was also phenomenal. Great people-watching on a nice sunny day.

When you're grinding poker with your head down, living and dying with the latest results, you can lose sight of all the "other" stuff going on in Vegas. Today was a nice opportunity to soak up the good vibes. One thing I noticed as I looked around at the crowds on the streets and in the casinos today is how happy most people are to be here. Lots of smiles and excitement everywhere. Not everyone is fuming over their latest bad beat or cooler.

After the late lunch, I took my customary stroll through the Bellagio and checked out the latest conservatory installation.

The Bellagio is probably my favorite property in the city. It has great vibes. On a good day or night, it feels like the center of the universe. More than any other property, it conveys the feeling of what I want Vegas to be. I try to do a lap through the casino at least once on every trip.

My flight is set to leave in a few hours, so I'll be heading to the airport soon. That puts an end to my pre-WSOP WSOP trip. I'll probably add some final thoughts at a later time, but overall it's been a great few days. I've been out here many times and this trip ranks near the top. If I maybe sound a little too smug or self-satisfied in that sense, just know that I got my ass totally kicked out here the last two summers and dumped thousands. It's nice to be on the other side.

One way or another I'll be back before the end of the World Series, but for now I'll head home and try to catch up on lost sleep.

While I'm away, I'll be sweating all the other TRs on 2+2, wishing good luck to all posters and readers.

Great TR. really enjoyed it.
Safe travels and hurry back

Every time I walk through Bellagio, I hear the music from Ocean’s 11 in my head.

…Then I picture myself as a cross between George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

“George Pit” or “Brad Cooney” take your pick!

Good start to the summer DogFace. Hope your future trips will exceed your expectations.

How do you know? Was he wearing a t-shirt, or do you have a weird memory for faces?

Mega satellites. Just before the Main they fire off all sorts of satellites. Even a single-table where they just deal out the hands and whoever has the best hand wins the satty, no betting. I think they also do a sort of Steps satty where it's a few hundred to enter, winner gets an entry into the $1100 mega. They have a lot of imaginative satellites just before the Main. If you can get 10 guys to agree on something, they'll run just about anything.

I forgot the obvious - sell yourself on stake kings or whatever it's called. You probably have an impressive Hendon Mob, right? Trooper sold enough at a high enough mark-up that I think he was freerolling the Main.

I play some poker, but I'm also a poker nerd. I semi-frequently check Hendon Mob to look at results from major series. When the WSOP is going on, I will sweat the chip counts and see who's making deep runs. It's impossible to know all the good players in poker because there are hundreds and hundreds of them, but I have a pretty big mental reference file. If I'm sitting with a "pro" player, there's a decent chance I will recognize them. Not always.

In this case I had actually watched the Colossus final table on PokerGO that year. Both the 1st and 2nd place finisher have continued to stack up results since then.

As for the WSOP Main, the satellites look really fast, which adds a lot of variance. I don't love the idea of spending thousands of dollars on a chance at a chance to win money. Selling action may be a more realistic option. My Hendon Mob page is nothing to brag about, but trending in the right direction.

A guy like Trooper is a unique case because he has a vlog with an audience who will back him even though his results on paper don't justify it. Most players aren't in that situation, so will need stronger results to convince anyone to invest.

Thanks for the TR, DogFace. Safe travels.

Your Mon Ami Gabi reminded me of my 50th birthday. Went there, had steak frites. Was also at one of those tables on the rail across from the fountains. Strange coincidence.

Man, you ARE a nerd. Every pro poker player I recognize, I could count on one hand. Not including youtubers.

Yes, satties are going to be fast. They can't have them last all day. But even the cheapies that I play, like a couple hundred bucks, go for 3 or 4 hours. I would imagine the Main satties would go for a little longer. Other than the one hand ones, where people don't even bother to sit down.

If I were in a situation like yours, with about 7k and determined not to raid the piggy bank to play the Main, I'd look at it as a binary event. You're either playing satties or you're not playing the Main. And if you REALLY want to play the Main, the only choice is to throw a few thousand at satties.

On a side note, if I won a satty I'd take the ten large and run. :-) It would be fun to play. At the start. It would become not fun (for me) before we even hit the money. Four days? Ugh.

WRT selling action, I think I've seen where people say "If I can't sell X amount I won't play". You could figure out how much to sell and throw out the fishing line and see if you get a bite.

If I play it, the route will be to buy in directly and sell action, probably 50%. I won't decide for a while. I don't see myself messing with the satties.

You can win on your first try or play 12 and fail. I don't like the uncertainty.

that's what I would do. I never sell for events to my non poker friends but for a Main Event attempt, I'd be offering pieces to my real life buddies. It's such a famous event that there's bound to be a load of your friends who want to have a sweat

5/30 - LEG 1 RECAP

I landed late last night after another uneventful flight. I'm going to post a few final thoughts before ducking out of the way for a few weeks.

First, I'll reflect back on some of my pre-trip comments:

When I looked at the summer schedules, the multi-day Wynn $600 and Venetian $1100 were calling out to me as the perfect balance of moderate entry fee, challenging field, and quality structure. Cashing both events makes this trip a resounding success, even if the money wasn't life-changing. Before the day 2 restart at Venetian, I took a few minutes on the balcony out front to enjoy my morning coffee and admire the view. Tournament poker is oceans of disappointment sprinkled with a few islands of joy, so I think it's important to practice gratitude when things are going well for you. Overall this trip was very good to me.

By and large, I like how I played and I like my mindset throughout the journey. People on the outside of poker tend to view it as a pure degen gambling game, but part of what I enjoy about it is the psychological challenge. This game puts you in a lot of tough spots and dares you to tilt off. Resisting defeatism seems like a crucial element of long-term success. I like that I was able to eat that gross AA < JJ beat late on my first bullet at the Wynn and not let it define the trip. My comments that night:

I'm not a poker pro and I'm not qualified to give lessons, but one thing I feel strongly about is maintaining a calm and determined mindset. I see a lot of people at my tables succumb to nerves, frustration, or impatience and punt off equity. We've all been there. I had several events in 2022 where I gave my stack away. Poker is a hard enough when your opponents are trying to kill you, so it's important not to become your own enemy as well. Whether you're sun-running on 30x starting or card dead on a nub, it's all about the next hand. That's the best generic advice I can give. This is a strategy game, yes, but it's also a test of mental fortitude. Fight like a honey badger until you're dead.

OTHER STRAY THOUGHTS:

- I've seen various celebrities around the WSOP over the years like James Woods, Jose Canseco, and Norm MacDonald. However, I'd never seen any famous faces just strolling through a venue until this trip. On my first day playing at the Wynn, Vince Vaughn walked right past our tables by the Encore Beach Club. On that note, for some reason the Wynn seat draw RNG almost always situated me right near the Beach Club facing the line. It was a little strange to be focusing on poker hands with an endless parade of flesh in the immediate background. Lots of players were gawking, but sometimes the fishbowl flips around and the party crowd rails some of the poker action with mild curiosity. I can't tell if they look upon the poker players with intrigue or pity.

- It feels like $2k is unofficially the barrier for what constitutes a (relatively) high stakes MTT, as fields tend to be a lot smaller and more reg-dense when you start creeping much beyond that price point. The $500-1500 range that I most often play is an interesting middle ground because you get some weak-ish recs, yet you're liable to encounter some absolute killers too. My four days at the tables had it all: numerous WSOP bracelet winners, GPI top 100 monsters, WPT champions, November Niners, and foreign crushers. Lions, tigers, and bears. From a learning standpoint, it's nice to be able to rub elbows with the upper crust of the player pool without risking insane sums of money. I got to play with Qing Liu, Stephen Song, and Eric Baldwin. They're great players, but by far the toughest opponent I faced this week was the Harrah's shower. There's no beating that guy.

- Apart from the showers, Harrah's is a solid option for the budget poker tourist. Step outside and you're almost at the Venetian. WynnCore is a 20 minute walk. The ParisShoe is maybe 10 minutes away in the opposite direction. You have reasonable access to Caesar's Palace and Bellagio if you want to dabble in cash there. Aria and Resorts World are more of a hike, but doable. The only major knock against Harrah's is that its on-site amenities aren't amazing. The restaurants and food options don't stack up with the likes of Aria and the rooms are merely fine, but for long days grinding poker, you get a bed in the center of the action. Good enough. I stay there more than any other venue.

- I think I've spent enough time on the moving walkways outside Venetian over the last few years to have internalized the obnoxious audio promos for Madame Tussauds. I hear Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson say, "Here we go..." and it's like a Pavlovian cue that poker-playing is imminent. "What's poppin', fam?" "It's Lizzo and I'm feeling GOOD AS HELL!" The whole thing is garish and irritating, but I've heard it so many times that it has now become like an old friend welcoming me back to town.

That's just about wraps it up for now. I'll bump the thread eventually when I'm getting close to my Vegas return, but in the mean time I'll be at home sweating the WSOP from a distance and following the TRs on here to sunrun vicariously.

Great recap.

Until you return!!

glad you had a good trip

find a way to make that ME happen imo

For me, it's the automated message that plays when you walk past Casino Royale, on the way to Venetian, costantly talking about "sign up for player rewards" etc. Staying at Harrah's, I'm sure you got to hear that one a lot of times too. Always fun with these constant annoying reminders that tells you where you are - especially since you wouldn't want to be anywhere else 😀

And although I don't follow my own advise and instead end up avoiding Vegas during WSOP every year; life is short - go play that Main Event!

Hmm, I haven't been in Venetian or in front of Casino Royale in a couple years. Wonder why that is? Oh yeah, I remember now, I run like dog poo at the Venetian.