Nitty By Nature 7: No Filler (6/6-6/16 TR)

Absinthe is fabulous as long as you are not offended by anything -- and I mean, ANYTHING. I love it 😉

DAY 12 - 6/17

It's moving day. My long residency at Harrah's is over. I pack up my stuff and leave my bag with the bell desk. I will be flying home this afternoon, but there are still a few grains of sand in the hourglass until then. I hope to make it an interesting half day.

I head over to Aria to meet up with TonySoprano9 and TJ before they play today's $800 HORSE. We have a nice quick chat before the tournament starts. Good luck to them.

From there I headed over to Park MGM, a property that I haven't spent much time in. I appreciate the clean aesthetic there and the smoke-free environment. I was contemplating a big sit-down breakfast, but instead opted to try a soppressata sandwich from their tantalizing Italian deli case. It didn't taste quite as amazing as it looked, but it was still pretty good. I'll give it a 7.5/10.

I then crossed the street to the MGM Grand, another property that I've barely explored outside of some bland 1/2 sessions in early LV poker trips. I was curious to see where they were holding their tournaments for future reference. It wasn't difficult to find. The tournament space is in a roped off section right across from the poker room. That might be useful knowledge for future years if I ever decide to play anything there. It looked like they had a solid turnout for today's $500 event. Maybe 150ish runners.

I visited this casino as a kid in the early 90s. It looks quite a bit different from how I remember it. I remember huge bright corridors with amusement rides and Wizard of Oz decor. Am I hallucinating or did they simply renovate everything over time? The new look is not necessarily bad. This casino is huge with a lot of amenities. It strikes me as a good one-stop shop for tourists since they have everything under the sun in here, including this bizarre Black Mirror-esque windowed room of fembot dealers streaming hands to what is presumably a global audience of degen gamblers.

I've never seen that before. After so many LV trips, it's hard to find new things, but another new experience is right around the corner. I've never been on the LV monorail before. I need to eventually make my way back over to Harrah's, so this seems like the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. I pay $6 to go exactly one stop, exiting at the Horseshoe. This is only the 7th worst self-value-own of my trip.

I pass through Flamingo and consider sitting down for some type of beverage in their swanky new Cuban bar and restaurant. If you haven't been in the Flamingo recently, this is what they installed in the corridor opposite the flamingo exhibit.

I like the vibe, but the drink prices look lofty and the menu isn't jumping out at me, so I instead grab a strawberry lemonade agua fresca from the stand next door. I'm sipping the last dregs of it as I type this post. After I click submit, I'll grab my bag and head off to the airport. Farewell Vegas. I'll post some final thoughts on the trip when I get home tonight. Then the countdown until next summer begins in earnest...

Enjoyed the TR. Thanks.

Thanks so much. Safe travels!

thanks again for the trip report and I hope you had a fun vacation

Thanks for the report! Wish we could have crossed paths.

It was nice to meet you. Have a safe journey home and hope to see you again next year.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ironically, I'm pretty sure that we were briefly at the same table for a Wynn daily back in January. I unknowingly played in the same tournament as you. Subsequently you described a hand in your TR that perfectly matched something I witnessed at the same stage of the event.

It's a small world, especially the LV poker scene.

Cheers. Good luck this summer. I'm sensing some deep runs!

I still have a couple pieces too...

Likewise. Glad to put a face to the name after all these years.

Best wishes for the rest of the summer, especially the Main.

THE LONG GOODBYE

Made it home safely. In hindsight, 11 nights in Vegas wasn't too many. Fear & Loathing never reared their ugly heads. It feels GREAT to be back though.

Now it's time to reflect and move on.

I think most people who make these annual Vegas trips to play tournaments can relate to the excitement of tracking the schedule releases, meticulously selecting your agenda, and then counting down the days until your trip. We want things to go well, but we also know in the dark recesses of our minds that sometimes it might be our turn to get crushed.

Suffice to say, when I envisioned my summer poker adventure, I did not expect to begin on an 0-for-13 cold streak. It's not an entirely new experience. I had an identical 0-for-13 stretch smack dab in the middle of last summer too. The difference is that I didn't have any positive results prior to the cold run this year, so it was just pure punishment right from the start. I came out here with high hopes and got squashed right away.

I can't say it was a successful trip from a results standpoint. However, I'm happy that I kept my chin up, kept fighting, and found a decent run to end the trip. My attitude is that if I cash even just one tournament on a given trip, I've at least avoided the absolute worst-case scenario. I can live with that. A min-cash in a $500 tournament represents only a minor financial reversal, but was important psychologically. It brought this trip from being the 42o of runouts (I didn't get injured or arrested) up to something more like the 86s of runouts. It's not the best, but if you look at it long enough, you might find some positives.

If I'm being process-oriented rather than results-oriented, this was probably a top 2-3 Vegas trip for me. I made some mistakes in certain spots. I wouldn't deny that. There were a few botches along the way. I might have cost myself a run or two with mistakes. On the other hand, I only really gave my stack away in one event (my first bullet at the RW $400 on the 14th). Otherwise I at least gave myself a chance to get lucky. I even tightened up some leaks over the course of this trip and felt myself improving in real time. My biggest problem was simply getting annihilated in the big all-in spots. I don't need to rehash all the beats and lost flips. I already documented them in this TR. It got pretty ugly there for a while.

I probably deserved better results. Unfortunately, in poker it's often true that...

If you engage with tournament poker, you have to be ready to have your constitution tested by the innate cruelty of the format. I feel like I passed the gut check this year.

Was the trip a success? Not entirely. I lost a chunk of money. That's not fun. Bricking everything right out of the gate removed some of my interesting heat check possibilities. I was toying with the idea of playing the WSOP $1.5k HORSE or $1k PLO. I wanted to play a Wynn $1100 daily or two. I wanted to play the Venetian $1100 MSPT. All of these tournaments were casualties of poor results and the corresponding budget preservation.

There is still much to be grateful for. It is a privilege just to be able to come out here and fire some of these tournaments. I don't take that completely for granted. Strange as it may sound given the unpleasant results, I enjoyed this trip. I logged a lot of hours at the tables and enjoyed the competition. Vegas itself can be fun. The excitement in the air at the WSOP is palpable. It's fun to be a part of that. I'm already eager to do it again.

Barring unexpected setbacks, I will return for summer 2026 in some capacity. I intend to finally make good on my mixed game flirtations and actually play a proper non-NLHE tournament somewhere. I also intend to keep leveling up my NLHE game, which is in a decent place, but still has room for improvement.

I'll make one last post in this TR with some scattered thoughts that are more broadly applicable and not as self-interested. Then I'll revert to TR cheerleader for other LVL posters before hibernating until WSOP 2026.

STRAY THOUGHTS

- The real MVP of this trip was not Kevin Durant's mother, but my water bottle (seen above). Most of my poker was played at the WSOP and Resorts World. Both venues offer easy access to refilling stations, as does the Venetian poker room. I managed to go 11 days in the Vegas summer heat without purchasing even one single-use plastic water bottle. Good for the wallet and the environment. If you're heading out to Vegas this summer, I strongly advise you to bring something similar. They also sell similar bottles in the WSOP gift shop.

- There was a big hullabaloo going into this summer about the WSOP+ app. I had heard good things about its trial runs in WSOP Paradise, but this was my first time engaging with it. Overall I found it to be a positive. The verification process was quick and painless for me. I appreciated the ability to register quickly from my phone. The app makes seat draws and table changes much simpler. Registration lines were reportedly much shorter. If you are someone who struggles with impulse control then the app may present more slippery slope potential to recklessly punt buy-ins, but it certainly improves convenience and speed. The "Should I Hendon snipe my neighbors?" aspect brought a new dynamic to some of my tables, where some people were obviously researching their opponents and even openly commenting on what they had found. Choosing to display your real name or GG username has a certain strategic component, as you may prefer the mysterious anonymity or the genuine article depending on what you are trying to convey.

All that being said, I do miss the sensation of having your physical tickets in hand with your table and seat printed on them. Call it the Willy Wonka factor.

- I don't have a lot of super interesting stories about table talk or characters this year. However, I did encounter an eccentric multi-multi-multi millionaire in...of all places...the 10 PM $135 mega satellite. Apparently this guy is somewhat notorious (by his own admission) for running up stacks and punting big money on WSOP.com. I would describe him as the synergy of Rick Salomon and Jeff Spicoli, an odd hybrid of psycho intensity and laid back stoner vibes. He made some big claims about his net worth and business background that would've seemed outlandish if they weren't easily verifiable via Google. The guy was exactly who he claimed to be. I can't say I expected to find Fortune 500 material in the nightly $135. I guess if you love to play, you love to play. He was grinding cash on his phone while grinding the satellite.

- On that note, a quick thought on players who bury their faces in their phones while they play. A part of me gets annoyed by it. Another part of me wants to say thank you. I had a tablemate in the Salute who I internally nicknamed Chase-y Chapman because of her distinct hair style and her tendency to chase draws (hopefully that isn't too offensive). She was not the easiest opponent, but when she was not in a hand, her face was constantly buried in some type of mobile app game. There was a very tight German at our table who played extremely patiently and never opened the betting without premiums. About halfway through the day, he opens from EP. Chasey ships over the top. The German is obviously frustrated and conflicted by the spot, but he eventually finds the call with AQ against her 33. She busted the tournament on that hand. I'm thinking to myself, 'How can you shove 33 there when you see how tight this guy is?' Therein lies the rub. She was more interested in her phone than the $500 poker tournament. If you want to distract yourself while you play then that's your prerogative, but I think many of these folks are leaving big chunks of equity on the table.

I think that's about all I've got. I was able to meet more 2P2ers this summer than ever before, which was nice, though I still missed a few.

Hoping everyone still out there or yet-to-arrive runs hot and has fun.

I'll be watching from afar and following the WSOP, especially the Main Event. Is it weird to say that Nick Schulman is so good on commentary that it puts me in the awkward position of anti-sweating his Main Event runs so he can jump into the booth with Ali? The "Night Shift" is my favorite part of watching the WSOP each year. I do not want Nick to make a deep run. I want him playing "good cop" while Nejad goes off the rails.

I hope they have the call when TJ ships the whole damn thing in a few weeks.

My friend, I sincerely hope so to!

Your ‘chin up’ mentality and reading this report really helped me as I was getting down to dust with chips and try to stay in my game and not panic, which I don’t know if it would’ve happened if I had a run of 0-10+.

I also was surprised last year that WSOP had the water cooler and even more pleasantly surprised that I’ve been able to bring with my 26 ounce refillable can that I basically live with at home and constantly refill it. It sounds simple but in my opinion that’s a huge win in a city like Vegas that seems like they’re getting every nickel, quarter and dollar at every corner.

Thanks for the TR and kudos to you for keeping it positive while running so horrible.

Especially because the waiter waters are usually lukewarm and it looks like the bottle can fit ice cubes in it. Ima have to get one now.