Day 2 of the $5,300 WSOP Super Circuit Main Event in Cyprus was basically a masterclass in stress management. I came back with a workable stack, but as the day went on I got handcuffed into short-stack mode while the room tightened up around a massive $10,500 min-cash bubble. With the field full of aggressive pros (straight up sickos), my goal became simple: survive. I talk through what that feels like in real time—heart pounding, nausea jokes that are only half jokes—and how I’m thinking about shove/fold spots when every decision has real money attached to it. The big headline is the bubble war: I’m down to around 13–20 big blinds, I’m using my time banks strategically before hand-for-hand, and I make a super controversial decision to fold pocket tens under the gun with nine people left to the money. I also get a crucial shove through (QJo for four blinds) that buys me another orbit and keeps the dream alive. We do make the money, and I lock up the $10,500 cash—huge for my $20,000 bankroll challenge—before busting later. The takeaway: tournament poker is hard, volume matters, but if you stay patient and don’t punt on the bubble, you give yourself a chance to run it up.