Based on all these posts about the kicker kicking the ULL out to sea, I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding of what a "kicker" really is and what role it plays.
Some extra vorticity behind the main low doesn't really act to "kick" it east. The main issue is wave spacing.
If spaced far enough apart, there's little or no effect... the ULL is on its own and may or may not close/neg tilt depending on the overall trough/ridge orientation and/or any upstream blocking if any.
If spaced close enough though, they begin to phase and pull the ULL north, as has happened on 1/25/00.
But if they are closely spaced but not close enough to phase, i.e. poor wave spacing, the flow becomes flattened in between, making it harder for the ULL to deepen.
I think we've went over this before. It's not so much of a "kicker" but wave spacing.