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

That's a good point. They used to have a free shuttle a few years ago. I just checked and it looks like it was shut down in the spring. Opponent quality is not very good at the Orleans tournaments. You can 3 bet pretty good and still get called. I haven't played a tournament at RW.

I played one of the Orleans Friday nighters last year. Had a decent stack, guy raised in front of me, I 3-bet with queens, he called. Flop AQJ, his spr was about 1 so I jammed with my set. he called with KT. Yes, he called a big 3-bet with KTo.

The very next hand, same thing happened except I had AA. I flopped a set, he flopped Broadway, I was out in just 2 hands after building a good stack.

PART 3, DAY 2 - 7/04

Will the 4th of July bring fireworks on the felt?

The day starts with another Sbarro veggie slice. What can I say? I'm a creature of habit. Unfortunately one of my recent habits has been bricking poker tournaments. After a great start to the summer, I've been missing everywhere. I'd say I'm determined to reverse that trend as I venture into the cavernous Horseshoe Blue for another attempt at this $1100 mega satellite, but I know I'm going to need a lot of cooperation from the deck. These satellites move fast. You need to run very pure.

Things get off to a promising start when a player punts his whole stack to me with AQo on a JTx board. My KK holds through the turn and river. Suddenly I'm up to 30k from 15k starting. This is a great start, but the early momentum doesn't last. I mostly tread water for the next two hours. I survive into level 8 (1000/1500 blinds), where I have about 20k when the following hand takes place.

I am in the BB with 77. EP player opens to 3.5k. I could rip here, but I think we're never getting called by hands we dominate. I prefer to flat and reevaluate. Flop is a not terrible Qh8d6h. I suppose we could think about donk jamming here, but we only get called by hands that crush us or have great draw equity. I check. Villain checks behind. Beautiful. Turn is a 5d, which we like. I'm open-ended and the flop action leads me to believe that my hand is good. The question is how much to bet. We want to tax the two flush draws and overcards. In hindsight, jamming is probably good here to tax the maximum. Instead I elect for nearly full pot, leading the turn for 10k. Villain flats. River is the Kd. Not a card that we like. Some overcard hands will have hit that K, and it also brings home the diamond flush. I opt to check. Villain puts me in for my last 6k (4BB). I really hate this spot, but there's soooo much money out there and I convince myself we're probably priced in to look up bricked heart draws (though maybe those continue on the flop). I tank-sigh-call and am shown Jd6d for the diamond flush. Ick. We are OUT in the blink of an eye.

I'm not going to say I played this hand phenomenally well, but my opponent put in 13.5k with the second best hand to get 6k more on the river. A lot of times the river is a brick and we win a big pot here. On this occasion we lose and I'm left to wonder if a turn jam would have been the better sizing.

I take a short break before trekking over to Resorts World to take another crack at their nightly $200. Did I mention that I'm a creature of habit? Prior to the tournament, I hit Junior's for a third time this summer. This time I go for the turkey reuben, which ranks below the corned beef reuben and above the chicken salad on the Junior's sandwich hierarchy. After I wolf down my dinner, it's time to hit the tables and devour my hapless opponents.

Predator quickly becomes prey when I lose 30% of my chips by building a pot and missing with AdKd. I'm sitting on 15.2k from 25k starting at 200/300 blinds when a key hand occurs. I open 55 from EP to 800. Middle-Aged Guy to my direct left makes it 2k. It folds back around to me. I would fold for almost any bigger sizing, but 1.2k more to set mine in level two seems good. I call. The flop is a promising 467. We're open-ended and we've dodged all the significant overcards. I check. Villain sticks 15k in the middle. WTF? It's a terrible play, but that doesn't mean he's weak. I assume he mostly has spazzy overpairs here and maybe a thin slice of AK/AQ-gone-crazy. With about 5k of dead money in the middle, we need to pay 15k to win a pot worth 35k. We should have ten pure outs here: the two remaining 5s in the deck and both sides of the straight. It's a very borderline spot. Honestly, I should probably sigh-fold here if I believe I have a healthy edge over the field. Perhaps still a little frustrated from the AK spot and the recent runbad in general, I elect to gamble. Villain shows me JJ. I miss my outs and am eliminated from the tournament after about an hour of play. This is not ideal.

I march out of Resorts World and start hiking back towards Harrah's. Plan C is to fire the 10PM $135 mega satellite at the WSOP. Crowds are already assembling for the forthcoming fireworks show, which I've heard is set to begin around 9PM. Any good trip report writer would find a nice vantage point from which to enjoy the show and snap some pictures, so I just keep walking until I'm back in my room. I experience the fireworks show as series of faint pops through my closed drapes.

The show has ended by about 9:15. There are still DENSE crowds on the streets at 9:35 as I'm making my way over to the Shoe. It's so congested on the bridge between Flamingo and Horseshoe that it feels dangerous, like someone could get trampled. Fortunately there's no carnage on the walkway.

There is, however, plenty of carnage in the Normandy Ballroom. I get a dream spot early when I win AIPF with JJ vs. AK vs. AK to triple up to 30k from 10k starting. You need 100k to cash out and I'm well on my way. Then disaster strikes. I fold in a spot where I probably need to find a call. I call in a spot where I probably need to find a fold. Suddenly I'm back down below 10k at 500/1000 blind level. My last 5.5BB go in with KQo. BB calls with Jd5d and flops two pair. Curtains. I'd complain about this bad beat, but my demise in this event was largely self-inflicted. I made some suspect decisions and suffered the consequences.

That brings me to 0-for-3 in tournaments for today, and 0-for-5 on this leg of the trip. If I were a baseball player, they would send me down to the minors, and that's effectively what has happened. I'm not going to play any more satellites for the WSOP Main. It was a fun flirtation, but after two tries at the $1100, I can conclude that these are reg-heavy and not great value. Several of the players at my table today said they were going to play the Main regardless of whether they won the satellite, and I don't think they were bluffing. There are some pure shot takers in these fields, but a significant chunk of the population consists of strong players who just want to grind out the value. I took a couple swings at the big time and struck out. I'm at peace with that. It wasn't my year.

I still have four full days in Vegas and there are plenty of smaller events to play. I'll keep hacking away.

Ride share trick:

Shop between Lyft and Uber to find the cheapest deal.

Say you are planning a trip from Shoe to Orleans:

I would ask around if anyone is planning a ride to Orleans and tag along with them and pay half.

Friday evening Orleans is the best value. On the same lines don’t forget SouthPoint.

GL in the tournaments, remember you can buy into ME if you have a good run in any of these events. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t, just enjoy the other valued events around town.

During close decisions go with your first instinct, if you are wrong so be it, but, first instincts in general have the highest probability of success.

Don’t keep a running total of 0 for X, as you know you only need 1 positive to turn the whole thing around!

77 with ~ 13bb has to be a jam there, right? Granted if it is a milestone satellite and J6s guy had a lot of chips and was willing to gamble for the win he may have called anyway, but I really feel like flatting was the worst of 3 choices there.

Thanks for the info about the lack of shuttle - am staying at Orleans in August but thankfully am happy to do a lot of walking😮

I'll add: Being a creature of habit is great when you're winning. Ever hear of anyone wearing an unlucky shirt, one that they always lose in? Quit with the pizza one time and see what happens.

Maybe that's the right play, but the raise came from early position and he hadn't shown a lot of bluffs. I assumed he had a pretty strong range of hands, one that's either flipping or crushing 77. If he had raised from SB or BTN then I would've been a lot more likely to rip. Pretty lucky to be up against just J6 and unlucky that it found a winning runout.

Thanks. Yeah, that's the plan. Still some interesting stuff out there on the schedule. I keep finding myself putting Resorts World at the top of the list in the lower stakes because it's a nice room and the rake is great. They are only taking $40 out of every $300 for today's daily. WSOP takes $50 out of their $250. I'll probably stick with RW for the next couple days. If things go well there then it can open up some other doors, though probably not any $10k-sized doors.

I've actually never played at Orleans or South Point. I need to cross them off the list eventually.

On the ride share topic, in my early years coming to Vegas, I think Lyft and Uber both offered a "shared" option, which was the cheapest choice on the menu. I remember using that quite a bit. It seemed like many people would choose it and then back out if they actually had to share the car. If I'm not mistaken, Uber and Lyft eventually dropped it as an option that you could select from the menu. I guess it wasn't worth the trouble on their end. That doesn't mean you can't still find someone to split a fare with on your own.

FWIW i just ran it in gto wizard out of curiosity and in every set up (ICM using different %s of field left, chip EV, him UTG and UTG2, etc.) it’s a pure jam. I have hold em resources calculator but haven’t figured out how to use it yet to try to run the exact spot - maybe this hand is a good one to learn on.

Even a tight EP range is going to have hands that fold - this is the floptimal chip EV output which should be looser than ICM, at 15bb stacks:

116 hand combos fold: suited Aces below AT; suited connectors below KJs; KQo; AJo-QJo and ATo are all supposed to fold to your jam.

Even though pairs below 55s aren’t supposed to be in that range a lot of people play all pairs for a raise; you may get calls from pairs below you.

48 combos call and we are flipping.

42 combos of pairs call and we are dominated.

1 combo of 7’s calls and we likely chop.

6 combos of 6’s we are dominating

That's good to know. I can probably be more aggressive with small-medium pairs on a short stack in general.

They are both relatively big rooms, who's most impressive aspect is how busy they are. The Orleans room resembles the Flamingo room in many ways. You'll care a lot more about the money you win there than how "nice" it is. Sort of how the Bellagio room is - without the crusty felts and garbage littered floor of the Bellagio.

South Point is similar but a little cleaner and newer.

PART 3, DAY 3 - 7/05

I'll keep today's recap short and to the point.

Once again jumped into the $300 daily at Resorts World. Most interesting hand was this: I open 2.5x from the button with A9o. Older gentleman in the SB flats. Flop is 983 with two hearts. SB leads (?) for 3k. I struggle to deal with these donk bets because they look so weak and scared, yet it's been my experience that they can actually be very strong from certain players. Still, 983 is one of the best flops for A9o. I could maybe raise here, but I elect to just flat for now. Turn is a total brick. 4c. SB leads for 5k. My thinking in the moment is that he most likely has inferior 9x, 8x, or some type of combo draw with hearts and/or overcards. I'm not generally inclined to go crazy with just top pair, but this seems like one of the best boards for doing so. No pre-flop 3-bet would seemingly make TT+ unlikely, so not much really beats us and we want to get value from draws and weaker hands. I decide to raise for 15k. He jams for about 10k more. I didn't raise the turn with the intention of folding. I call and am shown 88 for middle set. I can't hit the two outer on the river and lose about 80% of my stack in the hand. I submit this one to the jury. Is it a blastoff, a cooler, or a bit of both? It's pretty hard to give him credit for TT+ or two pair given pre-flop action. I feel like we lose to almost nothing besides 33 and 88, while we're doing well against a lot of stuff. Shrug.

After that I built back up to starting before getting busted set-under-set on a board with no flush or straight. That was unpleasant.

I took a break and got dinner at Grand Lux in Palazzo. I've eaten at the Venetian location many times, but this was my first time trying the Palazzo location. What I like about Grand Lux is that it's a pretty consistent 7 or 8 across the menu. I've never had anything horrible there. Today I opted for the garlic chicken, which was right in the middle of that range. I'll call it a solid 7.5. Good portions for the price. Reasonable quality.

I registered for the 7PM at Resorts World and had an up-and-down session. I had about 1.5x-2x starting when the blinds started getting very high. I opened AT and AQ in consecutive hands, got action from the overwhelming chip leader, missed the board, and could not get him to fold. That brought me down pretty low. I got my last chips in with AK and lost the flip to 33. I went out around 40th out of roughly 110 entries. It wasn't the worst session, but I ran bad when it mattered most. That's not the recipe for cashing tournaments. The positive I can take away from this event is that I like most of my decisions. I just didn't make hands at the end.

Been a slow start to the week, but there's still lots of stuff to play, so I'll make like all the Deadheads in town and keep truckin'.

Plan is to play the $300 Resorts World daily yet again on Saturday before jumping back into the WSOP on Sunday with flight 1A of the $600 Ultra Stack.

SPOILER ALERT

Spoiler

Show

No bagging possible in a one-day event, but that's a final table stack.

Persistence pays off. 0-for-13 cold streak ends with a nice run in this event.

Let’s GO!

Nice! late reg main 2D here we come! 75BBs and two hour levels gives you plenty of time.

Replying to sub-looking forward to reading your TR. With the number of posts, it seems epic!

PART 3, DAY 4 - 7/06

I arrived at Resorts World just in time to crush a chicken gyro from the Mediterranean place in Famous Foods and sit down for the 12:05 $300 daily event.

My starting table was full of passive older folks, but I soon drew the short straw to got moved to a new table consisting primarily of aggro late-regging young Euros who were eager to 3-bet and bluff with their fresh starting stacks. Luckily I ran good here and avoided any tricky spots. I found a full double with AA vs. KQo on Q high flop by taking a tricky line on the turn. I hit a straight on the river with QJ in a BB vs. SB spot after a T97 flop. The Euros cannibalized each other and eventually I was thrown into a whirlwind of table roulette.

There comes a point in this tournament shortly after late reg closes when the blinds get very high and tables start breaking at rapid speed. Within a few hands of getting my new seat, I got a gift from the poker gods. A short stack ripped from the BTN with JTo, I found TT in the SB, shoved over the top, and held. I was moved again just a couple hands later. At my next table I got to witness an aggro player from Cyprus 4-bet rip Q9s over an EP player's open, get snapped by AA, and hit the club flush to win piles. The table broke shortly thereafter.

I'm at yet another new table when a few more big hands come up. After raise-folding middle of range several times against 3-bets, I open As8s from the BTN. SB rips for about 10BB. Here we go again. It folds back to me. I decide that I've done enough folding for a while. His 40k represents a significant chunk of my dwindling stack, but I call and am up against Qd8d. I hold for a nice pickup. A short time later I get a dream spot when I open QQ and flop a set on AQ9 against a late position flatter's AK. We get all the money in on the turn and I hold for a full double. I'm moved to another table.

As the bubble is approaching, I have about an average mathematical stack, meaning I'm probably slightly above the median. I run a failed bluff against Cyprus (who is also at my new table) and drop down below average. On the stone bubble, I flat a MP raise in the BB with QJ and call a shove on a J98 flop. I am up against 77. I hold. The bubble breaks on the same hand at a different table. After several nightmarish days of poker in a row, we are in the money.

When you are running bad, it seems almost impossible to get down to the final 10-15% of the field. You feel like you could play a thousand tournaments and never cash again. It was a relief to break my cold streak and lock up a positive result, but my focus was on maximizing the run and trying to posture for one of the big payouts.

I proceed to run pretty good at the final two tables. We get down to 15 players quickly, but the journey to the final 9 is a lot slower. Minutes are ticking off the clock, which will become very relevant later. Nobody wants to bust. That will be a theme of this tournament. Eventually there's some carnage at the neighboring table and we are down to 9. We redraw seats. What's notable here is how even the stacks are. Usually at final tables there will be 1-2 overwhelming chip leaders and a few people who are just hanging on, but almost all of us are stuck in the middle tonight. There's $13k up top and anyone can win.

My thinking is that if I take 1st or 2nd, I will immediately race over to Paris and register for the WSOP Main Event. This tournament at RW might end quickly enough for me to jump in at the tail end of day 1, or I can potentially show up on day 2 with a starting stack and be ahead of all the people who ran bad on their day 1.

As it turns out, action will not be fast and furious at this final table. It's more of a parking lot. Nobody is getting eliminated. Everyone is playing cagey. It would be a good environment to turn up the aggression, but the blinds are getting so high that any commitment to a pot puts you in extreme peril. We eventually lose a player, but there are still 8 of us without about even stacks. Shorties keep surviving all-ins. Nobody gets coolered drawing dead. As the next break is approaching, the average stack at the table is a ludicrous 12BB. A nitty woman jams from late position with TT. A covering stack calls with 55. The board comes 67T...4...3. Yuck. She is out in 8th.

We're on a break now with 7 players left. Blinds will be 40k/80k when we come back. Average stack will be about 800k. I'm on the short side with about 550k. At this point we start talking about a chop. Chopping 7 ways is ridiculous and I think most of us would be opposed to it under normal circumstances. However, we all recognize how insane this situation is. We're playing push-fold poker with tiny stacks. It's basically $13,000 bingo. The TD throws out the ICM chop numbers. Cyprus demands $5k, which would mean everyone else kicking out $100 from their payout. Otherwise there are no major objections. I could've put my foot down here, said I'm only interested in 1st or 2nd, and forced us to play it out.

However, I was 7/7 in chips at this point. Walking away with better than 4th place money seemed like a reasonable compromise between possibly going out next or running it up to the top. It's not the sexy decision, but it was probably the practical one. After three days of bricking events left and right, I'm back in the black for this leg of the trip.

I officially will not be playing the Main Event this year, but now I'm in great position to finish the summer on a high note regardless of what happens from here on out. It's a win, even if it's not the win I was dreaming of.

I was in a TI tournament where everyone had almost the same amount of chips except the blinds. We went about 5 orbits of just transferring blinds to each other until everyone had only 4 bigs left, when we called it, due to the ridiculousness of the situation.

Hey now, you still have enough to take one or 2 epic shots at a satellite. They often get weird just before late reg ends, like ten-way flips. That was when they had STT's, so who knows now, but they have a history of spreading whatever the players want, and WSOP doesn't care as long as they get their rake.

What better way to find out if it was meant to be than to flip for ten (or eleven) grand?

edit: BTW, congrats on the near-bink.

PART 3, DAY 5 - 7/07

You know it's probably bad news when I am posting a daily recap at dinner time.

I took my time getting up today since the $600 WSOP event wasn't set to start until 2PM. I swung by Alexxa's around 12:45 in search of a late breakfast, but they seemed to have a long line, so I tried my luck with My Friend Gabi instead. I got immediate seating inside, which was nice and cool in contrast to the scorching temps outside. This is my fifth time eating at Gabi and every time I've gotten something different. Today I went with the French toast, which is effectively just two big pieces of bread, a blueberry sauce, and some whipped cream. Pretty good quality, albeit not huge portions.

I made my way over to the ParisShoe, which I haven't seen for a few days. It felt good to be back. The Ultra Stack tournament is an interesting one. It's only 30 minute levels on day one, but you get a 60k starting stack at 200/100 blinds. If you bag up and make day two, it shifts to a slower 40 minute level clock. The main downside is that it's 10-handed poker, which is not my favorite. I don't enjoy how narrow the ranges are and I especially don't enjoy being crowded around the table, which already feels tight when it's 9-handed.

For all intents and purposes, I only played two real hands in this tournament. Very early on I got QQ in the SB. It folds to BTN, who opens standard. I 3-bet to 3x his open, BB folds, and BTN calls. Flop is AA6. Most of the time I'm still good here, so I lead. He raises me a moderate amount. I call to see what he does on the turn. Turn is a brick. He bets very small. I can't fold yet. I call. River is an 8. He bets again, this time significantly bigger. I fold and he shows me A7s. I drop down to 50k.

About two hours later we are on the cusp of the first break. I open 99 in EP to 1.3k at 500/300 blind level. One flat in MP. Next player pops it to 5k. I don't love this, but I think we can flat here for the combination of set mining and possibly being good against AK/AQ type stuff. MP folds and we go to a flop HU. Board is T84 with one diamond. As flops go for 99 in 3-bet pots, this is a pretty good one. I check. Villain makes it 4k. At this point I have to mention that Villain gives off major bluffy maniac vibes based on appearance, table demeanor, activity level, and past hands shown. For that reason I don't give him credit for an overpair and conclude that I'm probably good here. I check-raise to 12k. He flats, which I don't love. Turn is the Qd. Not a good card for us, as some of his floats get there. While I can't assume he is ahead yet, I think it's time to check and see what he does. I check. He piles. Now I have a decision. IMO some overpairs try to play for it all on the flop, lowering the weight of those hands in his range. The main things I'm considering here are his image and sizing though. This guy is the most active player at the table and has already shown a wild bluff. Beyond that, the sizing screams "please fold". Even the manner in which he put the chips in suggested that he didn't want a call. So I stick in my last ~30k with 99 and am shown AdKd. Nice. I'm ahead. That lasts until the river brings a low diamond, giving my opponent the nut flush.

I'm out of the tournament before the first break, but I feel like I played the hand well. I get a "nice call" or two from the table as I pack up and leave.

On some level, I'm not too upset about the early bustout. Now I have an excuse to head over to Wynn and fire tonight's $500 7PM satellite to win a seat into their multi-day $2200 shark fest. After yesterday's good result, I had been thinking about buying into this tournament directly tomorrow. Instead I'll leave it up to the card gods. If I win a seat, I'll play day 1B at Wynn tomorrow. If not, I'll try day 1B of the WSOP $600. If I'm unable to bag either of those, I'll finish the trip with a single day Aria $800 on Tuesday.

The last thing I did before retreating to the hotel room for a break was throw down some small bets on the upcoming Copa America matches. Argentina are heavy favorites over Canada while the bookies have the Colombia/Uruguay match as near an even split. I opted to risk $100 on Messi and friends to win $35. Terrible odds, but I just can't see Canada keeping it level for the full 90. The gap in quality is vast, even if Argentina have looked flat lately. I also threw down $50 on Colombia to win in regulation, which is more speculative. Colombia have looked strong while Uruguay have looked lethargic, but I don't feel like the price for any of the options is great. I'm just playing a hunch. Part of the rationale for making these bets is for the CET perks. I don't play pit games or slots at all, so sports betting is my only chance (besides poker) to do some splashy whale stuff to potentially get slightly more favorable room rates. And of course it's always fun to have a sweat.

It's a thought and certainly I could've pursued satellite options today to try to get into day 2B tomorrow. Part of the reason why I didn't go that route is because, while I would've been willing to buy into day 2 if I'd won the $10k outright, I think it would be a slightly less valuable experience than playing from day 1. I'm not saying I think I have some huge edge over that field. The reasoning is more like if I'm paying $10k to play a tournament then I want to get full time value for my money and maximize my hours in the chair.

As much as I talk about the Main Event, my FOMO about not playing isn't extreme. They've been showing the PokerGO coverage on some of the TVs at Resorts World while I've been playing there the last few days. There is a faint voice inside my head that says, "I sure wish I was there." That voice is a whisper, not a scream though. My FOMO level is maybe only a 3 or 4 out of 10. I took some shots at the Main this year. I played the two satellites and was in a bunch of MTTs where I theoretically could have binked the entry fee. It didn't happen and I wasn't terribly upset about that. It's something I wanted to do, but not a life-or-death thing.

I've been on the road and not following things. That seems like an exceptionally generous starting stack.

😉 Congratulations!

Makes sense. There's another school of thought that says the weakest players in the tournament will be knocked out on Day 1. Why not get some of their chips?

Well, maybe getting felted early in the Ultra Stack was a blessing in disguise. I binked the Wynn milestone satellite.

You start with 20k in this event. The goal is to reach 120k.

I was folding for a long time before a couple big hands came up against the same Aggro Player. I had previously seen him 3-bet A9o against my EP open, which destroyed his credibility with me. Shortly thereafter, he opened to 2k from MP. Player in the SB called. I woke up with AdJd in the BB and 3-bet to 10k. Aggro Player ripped for about 25k. I called and was up against 88. Brick, brick, brick, brick, Barry Greenstein. Ace on the river. Later I made a boat with TT on a JT88 board. After leading the flop, I checked the turn, which backfired when he checked behind and the river brought an ugly second jack. Ugh. I've been counterfeited. Any Jx beats me. I nevertheless snapped his river bet and won.

Once I decided this guy was full of ****, I played at 100 mph against him. Against other players I find some folds in these spots.

From there I held steady around 50-70k for the next couple hours until a sequence of big hands came up.

I won a shove against a shorty with AA vs. Ac3c.

At this point about half of the 15 milestones have been claimed and the tournament is starting to become a pure survival mission.

That's highly relevant background information for the next hand. I get AhKh on the BTN and open to 8k at 3k BB level. Nitty old man in the SB raises to 27k. In a normal tournament you would snap shove or at least call here, but this is an insanely gross spot at this specific stage of a milestone tournament. There's actually very little incentive to play a huge pot against a tight range, even with a hand as strong as AKs. So I think through my options and actually decide to muck it. I believe it was the correct ICM play. I still had about 50k after the fold. Plenty of chips to keep playing.

Another bizarre spot comes up against the same player almost immediately. He looks at his cards UTG and his hands are quaking. I can tell from his demeanor that he has a monster. Sure enough, he opens UTG. It folds to me in the BB and I look down at KK. In my head I'm thinking, 'Are you serious? They really dealt me KK vs. AA in this spot?' But we're going nowhere yet. I just call. The flop comes Kxx with no real straight possibilities. Phew. I check. He checks behind. I lead turn healthy. He calls. River completes a runner-runner heart flush, but I still have to go for value and puke if he raises. I lead big. He calls and loses with QQ. Now I'm on the cusp of the milestone.

Here I realize that I probably made a mistake on the last hand. I was close enough to the milestone to bet a little bigger on the river without committing my entire stack, and still lock up the necessary 120k. If I had been keeping track of the numbers exactly, I could've known this and executed better. It was a small error.

All the same, we're in a great spot now. The tournament is down to the final 10 players, with 9 spots paid. The 9th place finisher will get $540 while all the other survivors will get the $2200 seat. Someone busts immediately and the final two tables are consolidated. I'm in a great ICM spot here because there are two ultra short stacks while I'm one round of blinds + antes away from hitting the milestone. Opening any two cards here is printing. It folds to me in EP with 63o and I open this monstrous holding. Everyone else is handcuffed by the dynamics of the situation, so they fold. I hit the milestone and cash out. Sweet.

I'll be playing flight 1B of this Wynn $2200 tomorrow. It will be the highest buy-in I've ever played, but paradoxically there's no pressure because it's effectively a $500 for me. I'll take it as an opportunity to sit with the killers, study their habits, and maybe luckbox my way to a score. Considering that this entire summer adventure began at the Wynn, it seems fitting to potentially end the journey in the same location. There's a $2M guarantee in this event. Let's try to Wynn all the money one last time.

On a very small side note that I only mention because this is 2+2, one of the first players to hit the milestone in tonight's satellite was none other than forum legend Doug Lee. I've played with Doug a few times in the last two years. He is an action player and seems like a nice enough guy. The "toolbox" reputation is inaccurate.

Good luck at the Wynn $2,200!!

Nice job DogFace.

See when you get knocked out in one, you have an opportunity to excel in the next one!

Run pure in the shark infested waters of Wynn and WYNN the trophy!