Nitty By Nature 7: No Filler (6/6-6/16 TR)
Summer TR season is upon us, which means it's time for another chapter in the annual nit saga.
After endless flip-flopping on different booking options, I think finally found "the one".
I will return to Las Vegas in exactly two weeks to triumphantly obtain complimentary coffees at various poker rooms. I am posting my premature statement of intent today. Then I will retreat into the shadows and become a cheerleader for other TR writers until it's my turn to play.
BACKGROUND
I'm a former PokerStars $4.40/180 SNG grinder who took a long break from the game after Black Friday before renewing my interest with a debut WSOP trip in 2018. Since then I've been making frequent trips to Vegas and gradually rebuilding my NLHE skills. Along the way I've hit some fun milestones like first WSOP cash and first poker trophy (a mini Wynn for the win).
2024 was something of a banner year for me. I had my best summer by a wide margin and finished the calendar year with a healthy profit across 58 live MTTs. After a successful 12 months, I contemplated going even harder at poker in 2025, but other commitments have dominated my attention so far this year. After going to Vegas 8 times in 2024, I've only made one trip in 2025. These days you're more likely to see me on a milk carton in Clark County than occupying a seat at the Venetian or Wynn.
I don't know if they've been missing me in Vegas, but I know I've been yearning to return. Even as I've been occupied with other pursuits, I've always kept one eye on the calendar, waiting and saving for the next summer adventure. The time is nearly upon us. The Ecstasy of Gold beckons us to the desert for another treasure hunt. I've stashed away a Fistful of Dollars, which I hope to exchange For A Few Dollars More. Whether I succeed or fail, The Man With No Bracelet will be here to narrate the action, including all The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
PLANS
I've booked the budget-friendly Excalibur and Harrah's for the following combined window:
6/06 - 6/16 (10 nights)
I'm a NLHE tournament specialist in the sense that 95% of the poker I play is NLHE tourneys. $200-1500 is my preferred buy-in range. This is the sweet spot for me where the prize money feels significant while the entry fees don't feel prohibitive. I've found some good options in this window.
My trip will kick off with flight 1D of the $500 WSOP Colossus. I'll fire at least one bullet at the multi-day Venetian $1100 MSPT. I'll play one or both of the $1500 WSOP Monster Stack and $500 WSOP Salute. I enjoy deep, slow events that allow maximum flexibility to leverage edges and hunt big paydays. Collectively these tournaments should scratch that itch.
In addition to the slow multi-day lotteries, I aim to play some smaller one day stuff that offers more realistic routes to the final table. Resorts World has the best low budget summer dailies on the Strip, so I'm likely to play a few of those. If any of my early tournaments go well, I can add a Wynn $1100 daily to the slate. Aria, MGM, Nugget, and Orleans loom as backup options.
The overall goal is to pack the schedule full of quantity AND quality. Unlike past years, I don't have the option to extend my stay or book additional trips in June and July. I must make the most of my highly finite time. Hence the name of this year's trip report. "All Killer No Filler" is the mindset. Let's make every minute count and hope there are a few extra greenbacks to tally when the clock strikes midnight.
THE BIG ONE
When I wrote my first trip report in 2018, it was from the perspective of a naive rookie who had almost zero experience with live poker in Vegas. Merely being at the WSOP was newsworthy to me. After several years of frequent Vegas visits, there's less and less new ground to break.
That left me to ponder whether I should continue to write these TRs. The TRs have intrinstic and extrinsic rewards. I enjoy writing them. The engagement is fun and I enjoy going back to revisit old entries. My old trip reports provide a vivid memory log of past trips while also offering opportunities to recognize growth. However, I do think there's a natural endpoint for this series.
Like a lot of poker players in my age bracket, I got hooked in part through ESPN's telecasts of the WSOP Main Event in the 2000s. I must have watched the reruns of Moneymaker's iconic win 3 or 4 times apiece when those episodes were airing. The desire to eventually play "the greatest tournament in the world" was successfully implanted deep in my psyche like Inception. Two decades later, it's still down there.
The Main is really the only tournament on my lifetime bucket list. For various reasons, it was never a realistic possibility until recent years. I came within a pay jump or two of firing it last summer, but ultimately opted against it, instead choosing to try (and brick) some of the $1.1k satellites.
I still hope to eventually play the Main, but I don't expect that to happen this year. The reason for that is very simple: The timing conflicts with anticipated work obligations, meaning I won't be able to play it even if I have sufficient funds. If I run great and bink a big score this summer, we can talk about playing the Main Event...in 2026.
When I finally play the Main, that will be the culmination of my journey from pretender to contender, and the conclusion of my TR-writing exploits. Until then, I'll savor the intermediate steps and the process of sharing the journey with anyone who cares to follow along.
TROPHY HUNTING
These days I don't like to set specific poker goals on my trips because that doesn't jive with the luck-driven nature of the game. In poker we must strike a balance between believing we can control our long-term fortunes while understanding that most of what happens in the short-term is outside our control. As Brian Rast said at a recent WSOP (I'm paraphrasing), "You don't get to pick which tournaments you run good in." On any given day it may be your turn to lose an 80/20 for everything, run cold for hours, or be dealt an unavoidable cooler. In the midst of a profitable summer last year, I went on an 0-for-13 tournament streak. As cold streaks go in MTTs, that's not particularly notable. Any MTT player is going to hit a lot of those patches. With maybe 15 events on my slate this summer, I know that it's possible for me to brick my entire schedule. I have limited control over the results. All I can do is try to make consistently good decisions and put myself in position to benefit. I surrender to my uncertain destiny with a zen-like calmness.
With that being said, I still thought it might be fun to create some tiered trophies to track the outcomes. These range from "pretty likely" at the first level to "not in a million years" at the end.
BRONZE TROPHIES
- cash a tournament
- make a day two
- consume a Sbarro slice
SILVER TROPHIES
- finish the summer in profit from poker
- make a final table
- eat 3+ Earl sandwiches
GOLD TROPHIES
- bink a 5-figure score
- make a day 3
- sample the house coffee at 5+ poker rooms
PLATINUM TROPHIES
- bink a 6-figure score
- make a final table in a WSOP event
- eat at Wynn or Bacchanal buffet
I budget my trips with the assumption that I'm going to brick everything and lose the max. Typically, I'm relieved if I cash anything whatsoever. I'm happy if I make a proper run or two and turn a profit. Only time can tell what awaits in 2025. If my destiny is bronze or silver (or worse) then I can live with that, but let's dream bigger and keep the more precious metals in our sights. A wise man once said, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will be among the min-cashes in the WSOP 8pm $200."
LOCALS ONLY
Although I haven't spent much time in Vegas this year, that doesn't mean I haven't been playing any poker. In lieu of Vegas trips, I decided to explore the regional circuit for a change. I put some extra miles on the car and tried my luck in a handful of tournaments at venues throughout the northwest. I had a podium finish at the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Classic in Lincoln City. A RunGood Reno trip found me underwater in Atlantis until a surprise high hand bonus at the Silver Legacy LHE game promptly wiped out my losses like a miracle ore strike. In April I visited cowboy country to play two tournaments at the Spring Poker Round Up in Pendleton, where I was unable to lasso a payday. Beyond that, I've spent some hours testing the chairs in my local card room.
I've enjoyed my time on the regional circuit. It's been fun trying some new venues and encountering different types of players. In general, I've found the level of play to be a bit softer and more erratic than in Vegas, which required some adjustment. Playing softer games against more casual opposition can breed some bad habits since you can get away with things that wouldn't fly in a tough lineup. However, it provides a different type of challenge as well because there's less of a coherent logic to the decisions people are making, which in turn can make it harder to understand their process.
While these backwater forays may not sharpen iron quite like battling the Wynn regs, the sporadic practice has done a reasonable job of keeping my mind in poker shape. Apart from finding semi-regular opportunities to hit the felt myself, I've been re-watching various tournaments on PokerGO to keep poker concepts in the foreground. In general, I feel like my game is in a decent place, though I'm more out of rhythm with poker than I was a year ago. I will not arrive in Las Vegas in peak poker condition, but I hope the level of rust is negligible.
THE BIG ONEThe Main is really the only tournament on my lifetime bucket list. For various reasons, it was never a realistic possibility until recent years. I came within a pay jump or two of firing it last summer, but ultimately opted against it, instead choosing to try (and brick) some of the $1.1k satellites. I still hope to eventually play the Main, but I don't expect that t
I know I am supposed to want to play in the Main Event. And I suspect somewhere down the road I might. But right now I have no desire to do so. For the price of the Main Event, I can instead play almost every day at the WSOP for like 12 days (and that includes re-entry fees for all of those events). I would rather get to play the volume I have scheduled instead of the Main where there is greater than a 0% chance that I'd get knocked out on Day 1 (yes, I know it is a deep structure). For now, I want the guarantee of daily WSOP action for a dozen days.
But that's me. I get why others want the bucket list experience of playing the Main. For me to play the Main, I'd want to have the money to not only play the Main but to also play in other tourneys if I get knocked out early. That's more than I care to put in my annual WSOP bankroll right now. Something to dream of down the road.
How is that one? I used to play at Venetian a lot. Then I started running bad there, it was brutal. Haven't played there since.
In addition to the slow multi-day lotteries, I aim to play some smaller one day stuff that offers more realistic routes to the final table. Resorts World has the best low budget summer dailies on the Strip, so I'm likely to play a few of those. If any of my early tournaments go well, I can add a Wynn $1100 daily to the slate. Aria, MGM, Nugget, and Orleans loom as backup options.
Are you old? The WSOP has a Seniors Daily Deepstack every week on the same day.
I still hope to eventually play the Main, but I don't expect that to happen this year. The reason for that is very simple: The timing conflicts with anticipated work obligations, meaning I won't be able to play it even if I have sufficient funds. If I run great and bink a big score this summer, we can talk about playing the Main Event...in 2026. When I finally play the Main, th
There's still time to make the 50 hour "freeroll". It's Tuesday, so you've got 3 full days to get 50 hours in. I keep going back and forth about going for it and not. I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago to get as many hours as I could. After the first day I was sick of it and almost gave up poker. Of course now I wanna do it and kinda pissed at myself for watching youtubes and sleeping for 2 days instead of playing.
They're giving away 25 seats to the Main...
I know I am supposed to want to play in the Main Event. And I suspect somewhere down the road I might. But right now I have no desire to do so. For the price of the Main Event, I can instead play almost every day at the WSOP for like 12 days (and that includes re-entry fees for all of those events). I would rather get to play the volume I have scheduled instead of the Main wher
There's a lot of sense in that, and that's effectively why I didn't play it last year. I went on a mini heater right at the start of the summer and could've shut things down and rolled all my poker money into the Main, but I wanted to keep playing in the interim.
I've seen so much stupid stuff at the tables over the years that I've developed kind of an anti shot-taking philosophy. It's better to fire ten bullets into $1ks than risk everything on a $10k where you can just get flattened by one unlucky spot. Volume is the cure for variance.
I think your high volume approach is completely sensible. I'm in a similar frame of mind. That's why I likely won't play the Main until I get a mega bink elsewhere. I'd be happy to play it with "found money" eventually. I'm not looking to cobble together $10k from scratch to fire a Hail Mary at it.
That all being said, the Main is paradoxically considered the softest $10k in the world, and is something that most of the strongest regs should be playing. They can credibly sell action for it because there's so much value in the event. They don't have to blast the full $10k out of pocket. I'm not really at a level where I feel like the applies to me yet. Maybe someday. In the mean time I'm happy to keep building the resume and hunting deep runs in other events.
BRONZE TROPHIES- cash a tournament- make a day two- consume a Sbarro sliceSILVER TROPHIES- finish the summer in profit from poker- make a final table- eat 3+ Earl sandwichesGOLD TROPHIES- bink a 5-figure score- make a day 3- sample the house coffee at 5+ poker roomsPLATINUM TROPHIES- bink a 6-figure score- make a final table in a WSOP event- eat at Wynn or Bacchanal buffetI bud
Do you have to do all 3 things for a trophy or just one?
Do they have to be all the same year?
Do I get honorable mention if I got at least one item out of all four trophies? I'm not baller enough to eat at the Bacchanal myself, but I used my Diamond $100 dinner on it last Thanksgiving.
I think your high volume approach is completely sensible. I'm in a similar frame of mind. That's why I likely won't play the Main until I get a mega bink elsewhere. I'd be happy to play it with "found money" eventually. I'm not looking to cobble together $10k from scratch to fire a Hail Mary at it.
Pssst! There's a freeroll Tuesday for 25 Main Event seats. You can sell action and make a profit no matter how far you get.
I don't know what I would do if I got close to winning a seat. Lose on purpose so I can get a seat in a cheaper tournament? I can't sell action in the Main, I''m a nobody with quite a lame Hendon Mob entry.
That all being said, the Main is paradoxically considered the softest $10k in the world, and is something that most of the strongest regs should be playing. They can credibly sell action for it because there's so much value in the event. They don't have to blast the full $10k out of pocket. I'm not really at a level where I feel like the applies to me yet. Maybe someday. In the mean time I'm happy to keep building the resume and hunting deep runs in other events.
Pssst! There's a freeroll Tuesday for 25 Main Event seats. You can sell action and make a profit no matter how far you get.
How is that one? I used to play at Venetian a lot. Then I started running bad there, it was brutal. Haven't played there since.
I played it last year and happened to run pretty good. Made the top 18 out of 500+. I can say with confidence that I definitely wasn't one of the top 20 players in the field. I had a pretty soft table draw for the start of my day one and then just picked up enough hands to mostly coast from there, though there were a couple tricky spots late on day one. I got to sit with some stone cold killers, and even played briefly with Stephen Song at the end of my starting flight.
It's a good tournament with nice stack depth and 40 minute levels. It has the proper prestigious feel that I like in a multi-day event.
I expect it to be a little softer this summer because V has beefed up the guarantee to $1M and will be streaming the FT on PokerGO from their new in-house studio. That's going to pull in more entries. I'm eyeballing flight 1A and flight 1C. I expect those to have the biggest and most casual fields, though you're going to see a lot of crushers late reg all days to try to bag. Late day 1 and day 2 starting tables are going to be tough. Whoever wins that will likely have to run the gauntlet.
Are you old? The WSOP has a Seniors Daily Deepstack every week on the same day.
I'm still many years away from seniors eligibility.
They're giving away 25 seats to the Main....
I'm operating under the assumption that I will have work obligations in July, which is the biggest hurdle. I don't expect to be able to play, even if I were to win a seat.
Do you have to do all 3 things for a trophy or just one?
Do they have to be all the same year?
Do I get honorable mention if I got at least one item out of all four trophies? I'm not baller enough to eat at the Bacchanal myself, but I used my Diamond $100 dinner on it last Thanksgiving.
I suppose I could bring the list back for future years, but for now it's just this year.
Each bullet point is its own trophy.
The last one in each category was meant to be tongue-in-cheek and not as serious as the actual poker achievements.
I splurged for Bacchanal in 2022. Enjoyed it. I know that if I'm comfortable blowing ~$100 on a dinner at any point on this trip, it must mean things are going well for me because generally I'm a cheapo food nit. No diamond dinner option here. I'll be lucky to hit platinum again in 2025.
IN for a DogFace TR!
Which Monster Stack flight are you firing?
I’m gonna play Flight C.
I suppose I could bring the list back for future years, but for now it's just this year.Each bullet point is its own trophy.The last one in each category was meant to be tongue-in-cheek and not as serious as the actual poker achievements. I splurged for Bacchanal in 2022. Enjoyed it. I know that if I'm comfortable blowing ~$100 on a dinner at any point on this trip, it must mea
Ah!
Well I've:
had a slice of Sbarro
finished a summer in profit from poker
made a Day 3
ate at Bacchanal
IN for a DogFace TR!
Which Monster Stack flight are you firing?
I’m gonna play Flight C.
It really depends. Early schedule is looking like:
6/7 - WSOP Colossus 1D
6/8 - Venetian 1A
6/9 - WSOP 800
6/10 - Venetian 1C
6/11 - ???
Monster flights are 6/11-6/14.
There's a huge number of permutations depending on how things go. If I get killed in everything, I might not even play it. If I find a cash somewhere along the way, maybe I play flight 1A and/or 1B. If I brick all my early tournaments, I probably play RW dailies 6/11-6/13 as unofficial satellites. If I hit a cash in any of those, maybe I turn around and play the Monster the next day. There are other runouts where I prioritize Wynn 1100s and target the 6/15 Salute instead.
So literally could play any flight 1A-1D or no flights at all. It's very fluid. The hope is that I have enough good results to unlock it.
Really all I can say today is that I will play Colossus 1D, WSOP 800, and at least one Venetian flight. Everything else is contingent on other results. I'll know more as results come in, and I'll be updating the TR after each day to reflect that.
Hopefully I can squeeze it in because it's a special one. If I bag it and run super deep, there starts to be some uncomfortable flight interaction on late day 3, but that's definitely in the "good problems to have" category if we get there.
A Clint fan. A man after my own heart. Looking forward to reading about you throwing down The Gauntlet and being The Enforcer, rather than The Mule. [emoji3] GL
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If you can complete the first option in any of your categories then dinner is on me at Wazuzu!
Had to pick an option where I can enjoy it too 😀
Replying to sub and follow along!
In Vegas now, trying to grind the friggin' freeroll hours. Made the PAT by playing the 15 hours all on Saturday starting at 3 pm with a couple breaks and ending at 6:30 a.m. I do not recommend it. Didn't set up the alarm right on my crappy flip phone and got up a half hour late. Only played one hand seriously, pocket 6's jammed pre into queens, and that was it. Ten minutes. Still have 8 hours to go on the 50 hour freeroll.
There are some odd college gatherings, resulting in the casinos looking like stripper conventions. Also like a giant bikini contest. Including a couple chicks with Paris Hilton-like getups so skimpy you could tell if they had been recently waxed, if you know what I mean.
There are some odd college gatherings, resulting in the casinos looking like stripper conventions. Also like a giant bikini contest. Including a couple chicks with Paris Hilton-like getups so skimpy you could tell if they had been recently waxed, if you know what I mean.
Is this a complaint or a humble brag?
My freeroll results and WSOP UPDATES.
Long story short, I had enough chips for two orbits and I think we'd make the money in four orbits. Even so, I'd delay shoving until the very end unless I got a real good hand. I get AK, there's a raise in front of me, and I can't even minraise. I shove, and he's got AJ, about the best I can ask for. Jack on the flop and I'm done.
I wander around the WSOP, which opened today, and there are lots of people that didn't get the memo on WSOP+, because they are standing in the registration line. The good news is that there IS a Diamond registration line. The line extends out into the hallway.
The Kings room, or whatever it was called, is gone. Replaced by a whole big deluxe cash game area. Every size game gets to luxuriate in there, even 1/3. It has nice looking adjustable seating with wheels, no crappy convention chairs in there. I suspect you cash game players are going to spend a lot of time in there if Aria, etc has their usual 2 hour long lists.
You people that know Kevmath might not recognize him when you first see him. I didn't. I hadn't seen him in a few years. He's trimmed down a lot.
My freeroll results and WSOP UPDATES.Long story short, I had enough chips for two orbits and I think we'd make the money in four orbits. Even so, I'd delay shoving until the very end unless I got a real good hand. I get AK, there's a raise in front of me, and I can't even minraise. I shove, and he's got AJ, about the best I can ask for. Jack on the flop and I'm done.I wander ar
My condolences. Getting it in good and losing. Yes, that sounds like poker.
I'm not a big cash player, but that sounds like a positive change re: the cash game situation. I'm wondering if GG wants to eventually distance themselves from King's Casino, which seems like a strange bedfellow for the WSOP brand. They may have different ideas for what the WSOPE is going to look like in the future.
