Nitty by Nature 8: Confirmed Busto TR (6/14-6/22)

Lolz

SUMMER TRIP DAY 4 (6/9/26)

After waffling over my options, I ultimately commit to the idea of playing the $250 WSOP HORSE. As it's a 3 PM start, that means I'll have an abundance of time to kill beforehand. I check out the mixed options in the WSOP cash area, but even their smallest game (20-40) still seems too big for me. I eventually make an unplanned visit to Bellagio for a brief session in the mixed games festival, where the 4-8 stakes with an open seat are almost too far on the other end of the spectrum.

I don't mind dinking around with the $1 chips, as I'm there for entertainment and education rather than profit. I get an orbit of 2-7 Razz, Drawmaha 0, Badeucy, 5 Card Double Board PLO, and a few hands of Badugi before I have to rack up for the HORSE. I had very few promising starting hands and spent most of my time at the B practicing my folding technique. I finished down $26 after an hour. We were told that poker HOFer Mori Eskandani would be arriving to our table soon, but I had to split before he took his seat.

I made it back to the ParisShoe a few short minutes before cards were in the air. The weekly $250 WSOP HORSE tournament is a relatively shallow structure where a few lost pots can put you in the danger zone pretty quickly. After dropping down below starting, I began with three to a queen high flush in stud and made my hand on the 5th card. It's always nice when you get there. I got paid off the whole way too. I was sitting on 2x starting halfway through the tournament when I was moved to a new table, where I started with AA2 in Stud 8 and was run down by split 8s that improved to trips. I had two pairs AA66 and a great low draw A246, but got scooped when the river gave me three pair AA6622. I got my last few chips in as the BB in LHE with T8 and lost to a dominating A8 BTN open. Not an ideal hand to be up against.

I had some fun with the HORSE tournament and felt like I mostly played ok. I feel quite decent in the stud variants, which are fairly intuitive for me. I could also sense that these tend to be a weakness for other players, who tend to be too passive when the board dictates they should be betting. The later streets too often became a checkdown fest. However, I'm more of a fish in O8. I've made some strides since the very first time I played it, but that's the HORSE game where I feel the most paralyzed by relatively simple decisions. I can be put in the blender in O8 pretty easily.

I don't think I'd be completely dead money in tomorrow's WSOP $1.5k HORSE, but I also don't think I'd have any real edge at this early stage of my mixed education. I got a decent mixed fix already between yesterday's TOE event and today's HORSE trial run. I don't know if I need to play the mixed bracelet event tomorrow. Looking ahead to the rest of the week, I think I actually want to fire the first two days of the Colossus and then try the Razz on Friday. I feel very comfortable with my NLHE game and a single variant tournament (Razz) will be a more reasonable learning experience than alternating between five games that I'm mediocre at (HORSE).

The tentative plan for the next few days looks like:

6/10 - Colossus 1A
6/11 - Colossus 1B
6/12 - WSOP Razz

I busted today's tournament at the awkward time of 6:45 PM, which felt too early to call it a night, yet late enough to interfere with many evening tournaments. I almost rushed over to Aria to jump into their 7PM $300 NLHE nightly, but then I realized that the 25 minute level structure would dictate a late night if I were to run deep. That doesn't mesh well with a potential 10 AM Colossus start time, so our poker activities ended prematurely this evening.

Instead of firing another event, I decided to take it easy, track down a decent dinner, and then maybe blast off in a little VP. I decided to shun my usual options and try Havana 1957, a new-ish Cuban place in the Flamingo near the bird enclosure. I like Cuban food and the decor caught my eye after the place first opened, but I never had a particular occasion to go there until tonight. I opted for the roast pork, which comes with beans and rice. It was more good than bad, a solid 7.5/10 with nice flavor. The dish was about $30 before tip.

After that I trekked back to Harrah's and attempted to get a cheap white Russian while playing VP. I don't gamble much outside of poker and sports, but a little bit of fishy play here and there is good for tier credits and potentially better room rates. Unfortunately I got my face melted by the deck. My "free" white Russian became a $32.50 white Russian. That will likely be the last VP I play on the trip, as I try to limit my play unless there's a tier credit multiplier working.

That's all I've got for today.

Tomorrow we chase a bracelet for the first time this summer, either in the Colossus or with a late audible into the HORSE.

I had the same experience Sunday night. I got food a little after busting the Monster Stack and fully intended to head over to Aria for the nightly, but while I was eating I did the math on how late it was going to be if I cashed and decided against it.

Good luck tomorrow in the Collusus or HORSE!

I feel as if I need to push back slightly. Your 6/11 plans are to have a day off, because you'll amass such a giant bag today that there's no need for a 1B!

I love that you are firing mixed Dog, such a nice change of pace from the NLHE streets. Jealous of your plan to play Razz also!

SUMMER TRIP DAY 5 (6/10/26)

I wake up with the possibility of firing either the Colossus 1A or HORSE at the WSOP. I'm leaning towards Colossus. NLHE is a far more comfortable format for me and I think there will be a lot of value in the event. It also occurs to me that I could end up playing both. The Colossus is a 10 AM start and the HORSE is a 2 PM start, so there are runouts where I bust the NLHE early and then jump into the HORSE within the first few levels. Either way, I decide to start with the NLHE.

At about 9:30 AM I light the bat signal in the LVL group chat to see if any other Colossus players want to meet up before the tournament starts. mrbaseball obliges and we have a brief chat behind Lavazza in the Horseshoe lobby before going our separate ways. Then it's time for the Colossus.

I've had decent success in mega field NLHE at the WSOP with previous cashes in the Milly Maker, Monster Stack, Salute, and $600 Deepstack Championship. However, the Colossus has eluded me. It's not from a lack of trying. I've fired more bullets at it than perhaps all the others combined. I've had a few near-cash experiences, but I've never been able to get over the hump in this one. Some of that has been pure operator error while some of it has been faulty luck. I hope to bring my A game today and find a bag in flight A. Will this be the year I finally cash this thing?

The table draw is fantastic. I don't usually snipe my opponents on the app, but I had some extra down time today, so I took a peek. I believe I had the most WSOP earnings of the starting players at my table, and my number isn't particularly high. It seemed like a relatively soft group. That proved true when the cards stared flying. The play was generally passive and predictable. I always like my chances to accumulate in this type of climate if I don't run into any gross situations.

I've built the 50k starting stack to 70k with mere seconds to go until the second break when I experience the most annoying hand of my summer so far. It folds to Tight Player 1 in the BTN. At 400/800 blinds, he opens to 1800. I am in the SB with KQo. This hand would be a reasonable three-bet, but out of position against a tight opponent, I'm fine with a flat. I flat. Tight Player 2 in the BB also calls. The flop comes K76 with one club and two hearts. I check. BB checks. Before BTN can act, the dealer prematurely puts the 9 of spades on the turn. Floor is called. The turn is retracted. The 9 of spades is shuffled back into the deck. BTN bets a moderate amount like 3k. I call. BB calls. The new turn is the 3 of clubs. Once again, I check and BB checks behind. BTN bets again, sizing up to 6k. I call. BB calls. River brings the Q of clubs. We now have top two. We lose to all sets and the open-ended 45 draw. We lose to random backdoor flushes. However, top two is a lot of hand. I think we are strong enough here to go for value. I get greedy and bet 15k. BB jams for 3.5k more. Uh-oh. BTN tank folds. At this point I suspect I'm up against a straight. I assume BB started with a 45 that made a straight on the turn, but I'm not willing to surrender such a huge pot for 3.5k more. I call and BB shows me KcJc for the backdoored flush.

Maybe I played my hand too passively on the early streets and too aggressively on the river. Maybe I value-owned myself on a board where I still lose to plenty of things, but I think you'll agree that the circumstances around this hand were tilting either way. I was poised to get value from the dominated KJ payoff hand, and instead the botched deal flipped the script to make me the banker.

That was the beginning of the end.

I continued to trend in the wrong direction after the second break. I made a hero fold with TPTK on a T722 board where a very nitty player raised my turn barrel after also calling a flop bet. It's hard to think of realistic value hands, but I also could not give this specific opponent credit for a bluff. If he somehow found a bluff there, credit to him.

I won a small flip with JTs against 66 to get out of the desperation zone before the blinds eventually chopped me back into pieces. I got my last few BBs in good with the dreaded 77 against A4. The runout was 568...8...A. Not ideal.

We had our fun on Saturday. Now we are back to our regularly scheduled programming of busting tournaments with 77. Nature is healing.

I'm not entitled enough to complain about bad luck after only just recently hitting a score that has me freerolling my whole trip, but I had hoped to make a run in the Colossus today and it quite literally wasn't in the cards. I'll say the same thing I said about my TOE run on Monday: I can't imagine anything I could've done to find a route to the payouts with the spots I was dealt today, so I can only be at peace with the outcome.

Unlike yesterday's 6:45 PM bustout, tonight's merciful execution at 4:30 PM gave me ample time to fire the evening tournament of my choice. I momentarily considered jumping into the bracelet HORSE, which was about to enter level 5. I would've had enough chips to navigate a little bit, but if I'm going to play a $1.5k then I think I want the full level 1 experience. I'm not yet baller enough to late reg the bracelet events and punt off a stack like Negreanu or Ivey. I also considered jumping back into the Colossus, but decided that level 9 was a touch too late. Instead I opted for a tournament where I could start on a level playing field in level 1, the 6PM Venetian $600 NLHE Bounty.

I previously disparaged this tournament for being nothing but a carbon copy of their $200 evening bounty tournament that runs during most of the year, which it is. At the same time, it's still a fun event to play. I often play the $200 version when I'm in Vegas outside the peak summer season. The $600 version doesn't offer anything different except elevated stakes, but it's an opportunity to get some reps at NLHE, run good, and maybe take down another score.

I demolished a Chipotle burrito for dinner, made a quick pit stop in my hotel room, and hurried over to the canals.

I was hoping to run pure and make lots of monster hands. Unfortunately, this is the only boat I found tonight.

I'll keep my recap of this tournament very brief. It was an incredibly frustrating two hours where I either made the second best hand or had to fold junk, while the guy to my immediate right got dealt the deck and notched three bounties within the first four levels. I got to be that guy on Saturday. Tonight, I was the other guy, the one heading for the showers before the first break.

Poker is one long game and if I step back to evaluate the week as a whole, I can't be anything other than thrilled despite the last three days yielding no additional cause for celebration.

The game continues tomorrow. I had Colossus 1B penciled into the schedule for Thursday. However, if I happened to bag that flight, there are potential day 2 schedule conflicts with Friday's Razz. I think I definitely want to try the Razz, so I'm leaning towards something very different. My new tentative plan is to go downtown and play the $200 NLHE at the Nugget tomorrow, play the WSOP Razz on Friday, then circle back to the Colossus for flight 1D on Saturday (assuming I'm not still busy schooling Seiver and Hellmuth).

I ended Wednesday with a cheeseburger, French fries, and chocolate shake from In-N-Out by the LINQ. I've been told that a potato with intact skin provides almost every nutrient the human body needs to survive, which is how I will rationalize this healthy meal choice. The $12 price tag also helps.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, we go downtown, where all the lights are bright.

Taters grow in the ground, right? So at least it has fewer pesticides than anything that grows on trees.

Tough break on the dealer error. I saw multiple no burns and 7th streets dealt up in the HORSE stud games yesterday, not to me luckily, but it was enough that anytime I was in a hand on 7th street I felt I had to say DOWN very firmly to the dealer to protect myself.

SUMMER TRIP DAY 6 (6/11/26)

Downtown, where all the lights are bright...

We are heading downtown today for a date with the Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series. This was the location of my first recorded live cash back in 2018. Nostalgia has been a big theme on this year's TR. I used to visit downtown semi-frequently on my early Vegas trips, often staying at bargain joints like El Cortez or The Four Queens. I haven't been back for a while. The Nugget hasn't changed that much since 2018. They still hold their tournaments in their sprawling ballroom.

Running concurrently with today's single day events was the final table of the Bar Poker Open, which had a lively rail whooping and hollering for the big hands.

I arrive for my 11AM $200 NLHE event perhaps a minute late to witness the shuffle up and deal. I have to get a fresh player card printed and pay the cash for my ticket. I don't know it yet, but I'm about to have a historic tournament session. I'm about to set a new personal record.

I've played a couple hundred live MTTs by now. To the best of my recollection, I've never been knocked out on the very first hand of play. That changed today when I experienced a set vs. set situation on my very first hand with 555 against an OMC Stereotype's QQQ. I opened UTG. He flatted a three bet in MP from another player. I call to try to spike. The Q75 board looks delicious. There's action from all players on the flop and the K turn. When the OMC min-clicks a big turn bet, I start having very bad thoughts. However, players in a $200 can easily pay off with KQ, AK, or AA here, so we just have to go with it. We went with it, and our chips went to the elderly gentleman in the military cap.

I hit the rebuy desk so fast, I could sense the cashier silently judging me.

It was unlikely that bullet 2 could fare any worse, but new chips did not ensure new luck. I encountered another sick spot very soon at my new table. A UTG player opens, picking up a call from MP and me in the BB with AcJc. We go to a flop of Kc9c9h. I don't love the paired aspect, but we have a lot of things working here. I check. UTG bets. MP calls. I call behind. I don't see merit in raising, as Kx+ likely isn't folding and the unlikely 9x isn't going anywhere. The turn is a harmless 5s. It once again goes check, bet, call. I might have folded here if MP hadn't also continued, but his call gave me the correct price to continue as well. The river brings the gin card, Tc. We now have the nut flush and only lose to full houses. It's very face-up if I lead here after playing the last two streets exactly like I have a flush draw, but this is a $200 tournament and I want to get crying calls from 9x and any possible inferior flushes. I lead for about 1/3 pot, a sizing that pursues value and prevents check-backs while also providing bet-fold possibilities. UTG tank-jams for a covering amount. MP folds and it's back on me. I tank for a quite a while before deciding that UTG's line would be suicidal with just 9x, QJ, or an inferior flush. Can he really have TT, KK, T9, K9, 99, or 55 here? It seems very unlikely, but I believe most 9x and smaller flushes just call my river bet, and it's hard to give opponents credit for suicidal bluffs in a passive $200 tournament, so I make the hero fold. He seems surprised by that, and continues to ask about the hand for the next few minutes.

I eventually tell him what I folded and he postures like I let him off the hook. Possible, but I'm not necessarily a believer.

I would go on to play several hours with this guy today. While he was an immensely unpleasant and crass individual, I didn't see him running a lot of crazy bluffs.

Maybe he value-owned himself against me with something like Qc9c and got away with it. I'll never know for sure.

Whether my fold was right or wrong, it cut me down to 20k from 30k starting.

The rest of the session was much more forgiving. I began to make some hands and chip up, notably with KQ against AK on a KQxKx runout. I was occasionally glancing at the WSOP Live app on my phone, sweating the bubble runs of TJ in the Colossus and Tony in the HORSE. I was happy to see them navigate to the cash, and hoping to do the same.

I had a healthy stack when the 40 minute dinner break arrived.

Part of my reason for coming downtown today was to get dinner at Carson Kitchen, which I remember seeing in someone else's TR in the past. However, the 40 minute break window meant I would've been very pressed for time. I decided to put a proper dinner off until later, and race over to Evel Pie in the Fremont East region for a quick slice.

I've never been wowed by the pizza options in Vegas, but Evel Pie is a favorite when I'm downtown. The quality is pretty good, they have some unique flavors, and the ambiance is fun. I like to swing through here when I have a good excuse, and I can usually find an excuse for pizza.

I rushed back to the Nugget and continued grinding after the break. Registration closed with approximately 143 entries to pay 18 spots. The level of play in this tournament was very soft, but you still need luck to run deep. I got a very favorable AA vs. AK setup to double after a table change.

I grew the 30k starting stack to 139k at my peak before the blinds began taking huge bites with every orbit.

I did what I could to find good shove spots and seek a double, but I failed to get action with 66 or JJ. It's nice when they fold, but doubles are even nicer.

I made a correct river fold with 88 against AdQd on a T7545 board that brought a third diamond on the last card. The delayed flip cost me 40% of my chips.

With 21 players remaining, it folded to me in the SB with Q7o and just 4BB in my stack. I don't love it, but we have a paint card and a sliver of fold equity.

I shoved. BB quickly asked for a count before calling with a pretty good hand, pocket aces.

I don't think he meant it as a needle, but I'm not quite sure why he needed a count. There was no one else in the hand, and I don't think AA folds for a million BBs.

I did not find the miracle suckout. I was eliminated near the stone money bubble.

Oh well. That's the game we play. Onward and upward.

Now that I was properly liberated from my tournament duties, I made the quick trek to Carson Kitchen and ordered some food.

This place has a diverse menu that I'd generically describe as new American fusion. I got a fried chicken sandwich and this funky sweet potato dish with jalapenos and an avocado cream cheese lurking beneath. In general, the menu was interesting, the food was good, and the price wasn't obscene. Under $40 before tip for two plates.

I caught a Lyft back to my hotel. Now it's time to prepare for a busy Friday.

After spending the first block of this trip at Harrah's, we'll finish with two nights in the castle. I have to get up, check out, get my bag over to Excalibur, and then get back to the ParisShoe in time for tomorrow's 2 PM Razz. I've been relatively cautious with the purse strings on this trip despite the early bink. The Razz is looking like my biggest swing of the summer. I expect it to draw about 500-550 entrants. The field will be dense with pros and regs. However, the beauty of these dense fields is that they're much smaller than the NLHE cattle calls. If I can outlast even just 70% of the field, I'll be mathematically closer to a bracelet than ever before.

It's highly unlikely that I'm +EV in this event, but I'm not paying $1500 just for an experience either. I will give it my best effort and try to win. I will try to play well enough to cash if the deck does me some favors. With that in mind, I'm going to spend the rest of this evening in the Razz lab, watching PokerGo mixed streams and trying to brush up on the fundamentals. I've played some Razz, but I'm not really a Razz player.

Tonight, we study.

Tomorrow, we start with A23, catch a Q, catch a K, catch a J, and lose to a ten.

The beautiful game of Razz awaits.

Are you walking all the way in the morning? They're predicting 164 I think.

I normally would, but this is an occasion when I think ride share at least one way is a must.

Plan to take a car over to the castle in the morning, then possibly walk back to the Shoe once I've dumped all my luggage. Might take a car both ways.

My stupid self walked all the way from Excalibur to Resorts World in summer 2024 and played like total crap in the tournament, like I was half asleep.

I've done this once in my life, at a daily Borgata $125 tournament around 2008 or 2009. Three buddies and I made the 4 hour drive from Northern Virginia that morning, and jumped into the 11 AM event. My table is 6 handed to start, and first to act puts in a standard raise. I'm next, and flat with pocket 6s. The others fold, and we see a flop of Ax6h4h. Bet, raise (gotta protect against the A-high flush draw, right?), 3bet, 4bet (wouldn't AKhh 3bet here?), 5bet jam. Uh oh, does he really have IT? Can I really fold middle set and preserve the 1/3 of starting stack that remains? I could not. I called, and was up against AA. No miracle case 6 on the turn or river, and I'm out on Hand 1. I find my buddies to let them know (what? how do you bust on Hand 1? Well, ...), and hop into a 1-2 game, while they continue to play the tournament. They all eventually bust short of the money, and I made ~$400 over four hours of play, so oddly enough, I was the only one who made money on the day.

My car has a thermometer. Wasn't quite 164, but it was 109-110.

SUMMER TRIP DAY 7 (6/12/26)

Moving day has arrived. I checked out of Harrah's and hitched a ride to the castle, where I caught a good runout in the form of free early check-in. Breakfast was a coffee and a Chelsea from Egghead in Aria. The sandwich was tasty and not super expensive. I'm going to convince myself that at least some of these ingredients are healthy. There's a slice of tomato in there somewhere.

I took a leisurely stroll through the Bellagio on my way over to the WSOP. The new conservatory display was being assembled, though I didn't stop to snap a picture.

Today's focus is the $1.5k Razz at the WSOP. I've been itching to play a bracelet event in something other than NLHE, and this was a convenient opportunity in a game that I'm at least moderately familiar with. I met with TonySoprano briefly before the tournament for a nice quick chat. Today we are hunting bracelets and wheels.

I did not find any wheels today, though I did make a 7 in level one. I got in a check raise on the river, only to discover that my opponent had caught a 6. Yikes.

Subsequent hands were a bit kinder to me, and I eventually grew the 25k starting stack to a high point of approximately 34k before the wheels fell off in the second cluster of levels. I lost a big one betting the whole way with a made 8 and routes to improvement underneath. My opponent caught a 7 on the final card. I knew he was drawing live, so I check-called a bet on the end. The idea of saving a bet is a real concept in limit poker, but sometimes it's hard not to flick in the extra chip. I'm fine with that particular payoff. I had another where I caught a 9 on the end that I probably could've avoided.

In general, I think I achieved my goal of playing well enough to be live money if I caught favorable cards. I was engaged in the session and tried some cool plays. The biggest problem is that I didn't catch much. Bluffing spots are thin in Razz. A genius player can perhaps steal a huge pot here and there, but a mere mortal is going to be a prisoner of their board most of the time. I did not run out a clear winner in the last hour of play, and that was that. When your board development is consistently trash in a game like Razz or Stud, you are going to bleed chips pretty quickly.

I was vanquished in level 7 in the sad position of being all-in blind on the antes.

Despite the disappointing finish, I had fun out there. Based on today's experience, there's a more jovial atmosphere in these limit tournaments. It was fun to sit in a field replete with pros. Buying a ticket doesn't mean you belong there, but I didn't feel completely hopeless. I've always enjoyed the stud variants in my limited experience with them. This event today encouraged me to find more opportunities to play these games. Perhaps we make another attempt at the $1.5k Razz in 2027 if the stars align.

It was 6:45 when I busted. I wanted to keep playing poker, and realized that I could rush over to Aria for their 7 PM $300 NLHE and probably be seated within the first level. I played the early TOE event at Aria on Monday, but haven't taken the opportunity to play their nightly yet this summer. What better time than now?

I caught a classic big blind special with 75 when the flop came 977 two hearts. I fast played it and got called on the flop and brick turn by an opponent. The river brought the delightful 5 of hearts, completing the flush and giving me the Danny Tanner. My opponent led for a tiny size, 2.5k into a pot that was at least 10k. I raised to 10k and he called with his flush, bringing me up to 2x starting stack.

I lost an annoying one a little while later as the pre-flop 3-bettor with AK vs. AQ when my opponent called pre-flop and called again on flop the JTx flop with the dominated hand. I checked back the turn, thinking another bet wouldn't accomplish much at that point. He led the bittersweet K river for about 1/3 pot, and even though I knew it screamed AQ, I did not necessarily believe that he would've floated the flop with that. I made a crying call and kept crying.

I took the aggressive line jamming 88 from late position vs. an early position open from an active type of player, and won the flip vs. AJ to get back near 2x starting.

Eventually I was moved to a new table, where I was skillfully dealt an AA vs. KK cooler. Poker is a game of skill.

I eliminated the same unfortunate player shortly thereafter when he got his last 7-8 BBs in pre-flop UTG. It folded around to me in the BB. I thought he might be pretty wide here and decided that Kc6c was enough hand to look him up. He had a very strong AJ, but we caught a king on the river.

Poker is a game of skill.

The mini rush brought us well over 4x starting, with a realistic route to the money places. Today's tournament drew approximately 155 entries to pay 20 places.

We bobbed and weaved as the night went on, never getting too far above or below 110k until the hand of the night occurred.

At 2k/4k blinds, I opened ATo to 8k from EP. Fun Vacation Guy from Texas with a big stack flatted on the BTN. Everyone else folds. Flop comes KQQ. It checks to me. This flop smashes my range and maybe I just need to lead here always, but Kx and Qx are never folding to a single barrel, and I believe we can credibly represent Kx or Qx on a future street, so I check behind. The turn is a 9, not terribly relevant. My opponent leads for the minimum, 8k. I view this as a very weak and contemplate an instant raise. Since he called pre-flop and made this weak bet on the turn, I believe his most likely hand is an underpair like 66. I have a lot of ways to win. I can raise right now and perhaps just take it there. However, I decide to float the turn with the intention of betting some rivers if we don't improve. I think this looks more credible than blasting off right away. Unfortunately, we do not improve. The river brings an 8. My opponent checks. I have a sliver of showdown value, but I believe he has a pair, so I don't think I can check behind and win. Instead of max pressure, I try to find a bluff sizing that looks like a reasonably milky value bet. I slide out 25k. Fun Vacation Guy stares me down for a minute and makes the correct hero call with 44. Fun Vacation Guy understandably celebrates his great call while espousing the virtues of Adderall.

Perhaps I should've raised turn or bet bigger on the river. Perhaps I was a tell box after making the bluff. Whatever the case, sometimes you just have to tip your cap to your opponent. Fun Vacation Guy earned that pot the hard way, while I dropped into the danger zone, losing approximately 50% of my stack in the hand.

Things were looking very dicey as we played down towards the stone bubble. I must have been one of the shortest stacks in the room. With just 3.5BB in my stack, I discovered the repulsive 63o UTG. Yuck. I decided to fold, knowing that I'd be pot-committed with any two as the BB in the next hand. It folds around to SB. He puts me all-in. I look down at T6o. It's another crap hand, but we just have to trust the math here. We make the call and are happy to see that we have two live cards against Q9. We flop a 6 and it holds.

Poker is a game of skill.

That's the last hand of real consequence that I played, as the bubble burst shortly thereafter on a double elimination. We made the money and I somehow found a $100 pay jump after a bigger stack was coolered at our table. I eventually got my last few crumbs in with 99 vs. AJ, losing the flip to go out in 18th for $653.

I was more happy than disappointed. Considering the boat vs. flush hand from earlier, the AA vs. KK cooler, and the T6 suckout, it shows how many things need to go right just for you just to scrape into the lowest payouts. I was happy with my decisions tonight and happy to recoup a fraction of the Razz entry fee. It wasn't my turn to run deeper.

I'm glad I seized the opportunity to play the Aria event. The 7 PM is a well-run tournament with a reasonable structure and prize pool for a nightly. The competitive level was decent, much better than the morning Nugget tournament from yesterday. I'd recommend it for someone seeking a good PM NLHE event. My only word of caution is that you'd better be prepared for a long night. It was 2 AM when I went out, and the tournament was nowhere close to over. Set your alarms for 5 AM.

I ended the night with some Shake Shack before crashing at the castle.

I'm not sure what comes next. After a late night of NLHE, I knew I would not want to wake up for the 10 AM Colossus start time. I am weighing various options. I can enter Colossus 1D later today, head back downtown to the Nugget for their noon $500 TORSE, play cash, play the $500 Wynn Satty tonight, play something else, or even just take a relaxed day where I wander around and perhaps plunk down some small sports bets. I'll give it a little while and see what I'm feeling.

Technically, this is my last night in town, but as my flight doesn't leave until about 10PM tomorrow, there's still some sand in the hourglass.

SUMMER TRIP DAY 8 (6/13/26)

I'll try to keep this short because this was the most uneventful day of the trip. I decided against the WSOP Colossus and Nugget TORSE in the morning. The Nugget event appealed to me, but after going downtown just a couple days ago, I didn't want to head back again. I spent the afternoon wandering around instead. Had the chicken parm at Parm in the Aria food court, which I had seen in another TR. Checked out some shops I hadn't been in yet.

I decided to take some smallish shots in sports betting. Took the wrong side in the NBA game. Took the wrong side in the Turkey/Australia game. Yikes. I wasn't necessarily expecting to scoop, but I figured I was good for the high or the low, and instead I got none of the pot.

Thought about max late-regging the Colossus in the evening on a shoving stack, but claimed an open seat in the Aria 9-18 mix instead. Played some funky games for an hour and dumped about $150 folding and chasing in 1-2 marginal spots. I'd say the experience was mildly educational, so not a total write-off.

That's about it for excitement. Flying out late tomorrow night, which sets up a curious dilemma of how to spend the day. I could play flight chicken with the Orleans $300 Sunday Special or the $800 WSOP Deepstack. Both should hit the bubble right around the time when I'd have to make a fight-or-flight response. I could play cash games or tap out of poker altogether. It may be another day devoid of interesting content for the TR. Either way, I'll write a proper recap when the trip is officially over.

Good trip. The aria tourney sounded like a good one. That breakfast sandwich looked damn good.

I like the idea of flight chicken if you truly can just stay another night and book another flight w out having to worry about the financial implications. I also like the idea of taking a 1 buy in shot in a bigger than usual cash game on my final day in town! That is a great way to potentially end the trip on a high note and set the stage for your next trip.

Thanks for sharing and safe travels.

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Awesome report - I’ve just binged the last three days worth…just too much going on here in LV and LVL!

Shame we didn’t get a chance to meet.
Hope you’ve had fun

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Thank you. Yes on both fronts! Sandwich was good. WSOP 8 PM will probably have softer fields than Aria 7 PM, but the Aria tournament is better.

Fills the Resorts World void well by providing an alternative in the nightly space.

I hear you. It's a buffet of TRs. Hard to keep up with them all when you're also on a trip yourself.

I caught up with a few LVL folks on this trip, but could've made more effort on that front. Part of the problem is that I'm moving around a lot throughout these days, often with an unpredictable schedule. I like to have the freedom of doing whatever instead of making concrete plans. Perhaps tomorrow. If not, hopefully in a future year.

Come play the Orleans $300 tomorrow!

I'll drop you a PM if I do! It's a possibility, but I cashed the Sunday Special in February and the time stamp on the bubble was after 9 PM, which is cutting it very close.

It's looking like maybe a maiden voyage to South Point is in order, as their 10 AM event should finish quickly enough even if I sun run.

Tentative plan taking shape: I win South Point, you win Orleans. Deal?

Sounds good, I'll take it. In all seriousness, South Point would probably be better if moving the flight is an inconvenience.

SUMMER TRIP DAY 9 (6/14/26)

The plan that I formulated over the course of last night was to get up relatively early, stash my luggage at Excalibur, play the $120 South Point 10:10 AM tournament, and then maybe hit the Pinball Hall of Fame on the way back to the Strip before finally heading to the airport. With a 10 AM start time and 20 minute levels, I knew there was no way the South Point tournament would put me in an awkward flight chicken situation for my 11 PM departure; or at least I thought so.

I've been meaning to get down to South Point for a while. The room has the reputation for being a "locals only" type of joint. They have a big poker room that spreads various low stakes tournaments that usually attract a robust turnout. As I never have a car in Vegas, the distant location from center Strip has been the biggest impediment. I had a great occasion to finally visit the property and was happy to have something interesting on the slate for my final day in town.

I got my players card printed and took a stroll around the casino. Generally it reminds me of a slightly more down market Orleans. Both venues offer a humbler, no frills gambling experience compared to most of the glitzy Strip resorts. There was cowboy memorabilia on the walls and they have a huge statue of Benny Binion, honored here for bringing the National Rodeo to Las Vegas.

Between characters like Bugsy Siegel, Steve Wynn, and Benny Binion, Vegas has some "interesting" icons.

The tournament registration line was long today, filled with an eclectic mixture of locals and random Euro tourists. When all was said and done, they got 278 entries.

Let's see if we can grow this baby 20k stack into something more formidable.

Things started very slowly for me. I spent most of the first two hours folding. Eventually I caught some of the coveted HEAT, most notably in a fun KQ vs. AA spot. A middle aged tourist guy with casual reg vibes limped in MP for 2k. I found KQ one seat behind him and raised to 6k. He flatted behind. We see a flop of KT5 two hearts. He leads into me for about 8k. This seems quite odd. I'm likely to have the best hand here and I don't necessarily like to give cheap turn cards on coordinated flops, but piling it in feels spewy. I decide to flat behind and reevaluate. The turn makes my decisions much simpler when it brings a beautiful Q. My opponent leads for approximately 10k and I jam for maybe 6k more. He calls and loses with AA, giving a big speech about how he masterfully trapped me, how he's so unlucky, and how this is why he isn't a millionaire like his friends.

Unlucky spot for him, but let's look at the hand objectively. He got greedy pre-flop with the trapping line and was somewhat fortunate that I hit the K, as I fold to many flop bets if I don't improve. I did not jam the flop after hitting the king, but waited until the turn when I was likely to be far ahead. All of which is to say that he was both unlucky and delusional about the situation. He proudly declared, "I trapped the **** out of you." I replied, "great job" while I stacked his chips.

I went on a rush to grow the 20k starting stack to 120k, where it hovered for most of the bubble. We played a brief hand-for-hand period. There were quite a few reckless plays at this stage of the tournament, with a couple guys at my table being very fortunate to survive their attempted ICM suicides.

The bubble eventually burst. We played down to the final 3 tables and then I began another rush. Almost all of the poker play was pre-flop at this shallow stage of the tournament, so all my decisions were just pre-flop decisions. Then it was only a matter of trying to HOLD. An older guy shoved UTG 6-handed for about 11 BBs. I found TT a couple seats behind. I tanked for a few moments and asked for a count, not to get a read, but just to know exactly how much he had. While he was waiting, I got the sense that he didn't love the prospect of being called. This is probably a trivial call either way, but that hunch made the decision easier. He had AJ and I was lucky to win the flip.

I didn't go looking for a game of flight chicken today, but flight chicken still found me. The reality is that even with this deep run, I still had plenty of time to finish this tournament and get to the airport for my flight. However, I wasn't exactly in love with the idea of landing at 1 AM anyway. Landing after the trains have stopped running will cost me an extra Lyft ride home regardless. I run the numbers on what it will cost to push the flight back instead, and it's a reasonable proposition. I cancel the flight and plan to stay another night, making a quick hotel booking while I wait for play to resume.

The die has been cast.

Now we head back to the felt, on a mission to maximize our payout to justify the extra outlay.

Down to the final 12-13 players, I cooler a French tourist when he jams AT UTG on 12 BBs into my AQ. That brings me to approximately 600k.

Soon we are at the final table, playing for $5k up top. My stack is mathematically average.

There are a couple eliminations that I'm not involved with. Then a short stack jams in front of me for a meager 60k and I find KK behind. I elect to raise instead of inviting more action, making it 120k. A second French tourist (friend of the first) 3-bets big behind me with a stack that I narrowly cover. We know it's probably AA/KK/AK/QQ here and we're beating that range, so we just have to go with it and hope to see anything other than a pair of aces.

We are on the right side of a cooler again. We hold vs. QQ to win a monster pot and knock out our opponent, rocketing up the chip counts to around 1.5M.

For the third time in my life, I am a chip millionaire.

I don't play many hands after this, as I'm dealt a sequence of rags. The blinds are getting quite high. I fold down to 1.1M. With six players left, the chip leader suggests we take a look at the chop numbers. The TD pauses the clock and runs the math. I don't mind playing it out, but the blinds are very high. I am 2nd in chips and I only have 20 BBs, which will soon be even less in this turbo structure. On the heels of last Saturday's win, I don't feel desperate to scrap for every last dollar. I have a number in my head that I'll be happy with, which is $2.5k. The number that I'm eventually offered is over $2.7k, halfway between 2nd and 3rd place money. I give the thumbs up. Everyone else gives the thumbs up to their numbers.

We chop the tournament six ways. Technically, I will be listed as the 2nd place finisher.

I can only be grateful for another fortunate outcome. I played well, but you need to catch cards to run deep in tournaments, and as you can see I caught a lot of great situations today. I made big hands, was on the right side of coolers, and held in almost all the big spots. If it's nauseating to see the same guy winning a chunk again, understand that I've had weeks, months, and years where it has been the exact opposite. These are the waves that we ride in poker, and right now I'm on a good one.

After cashing out my chips, I give strong consideration to rushing over to the Horseshoe and playing tonight's 7PM $1100 WSOP Milestone satellite for tomorrow's $10k Razz bracelet event. That would be the true test of whether I'm suddenly the main character in a rags-to-riches poker movie. However, I ultimately opt against it for three reasons: I'm probably not winning against the satellite field, I'm definitely not winning against the $10k field if I happen to luckbox the seat, and the money will be better spent elsewhere. Even if it's not the fun YOLO play, I can squirrel away that money and roll it into something else like next year's $1.5k Razz or 2-7 Triple Draw. That's the smarter play.

I formulate a new plan for the end of the trip, which is actually to extend the trip by TWO nights and give myself a pure leisure day tomorrow before departing at a more reasonable hour on the 16th. I'll stay at Harrah's tonight before popping over to Park MGM tomorrow for what will hopefully be a relaxing Monday. There's an $800 NLHE Bounty at Venetian and a $1600 NLHE at Aria that I could play tomorrow morning, but I think I'm actually going to take it slow until the evening and then consider firing a nightly tournament for one last poker foray before packing the bags again and actually leaving on Tuesday (for real this time).

Congrats on the deep run.

And thanks for the great poker gem: He proudly declared, "I trapped the **** out of you." I replied, "great job" while I stacked his chips.