Vegas Trip Report (Multiple parts poker content on the way)

[boudge7]

I just made it back home after 3 1/2 days in Vegas. I went with my college golf team so unfortunately most of my time during the day was spent on the golf course, but that's why the hours from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. exist.
We arrived at 2:30 Vegas time, and after claiming our baggage, we had to go rent a couple big vans (luggage, golf bags, and 9 college kids) needless to say we were a little crowded. We made it to the Palace Station around 4:00 with plans to head to the Rio for their buffet. Before heading out, I went to check out their poker room. I was not impressed, and this was the 1st poker room I have ever seen, so it wouldn't have taken much to please me. I'm only 20, but appear much older, and their shift supervisor was trying very hard to get me to sit. They were running 2 $2-4 tables, 2 $4-8 tables, and 1 Omaha $3-6 which wasn't bad considering their room only had 9 tables.
Anyway, 5:15 rolled around and it was time to head over to the Rio. The plan was gonna be to sit at a blackjack table with my friend that just turned 21 and looks a couple years younger than myself to pass the time, or until I got carded. About halfway through the casino they had an area roped off and there were a ton of lights. When I got over there it just seemed like a regular tournament was going on until the 1st table I see in seat 8 is Howard Leaderer. Awestruck at 1st I start scanning the 15 or so tables. There's Freddy Deeb sitting right on Howard's left. Next table, there's Negreanu continuing on there's Hellmuth, then Cloutier, then Scotty Ngyuen (sorry if that's mispelled), then Ted Lawson, then Ivey. You get my point, it's the who's who of the poker world. They were all there for what was an ESPN WSOP Circuit Event with a $10,000 buy-in. I decide to watch Hellmuth who turns out is getting ready to go give a speech in about an hour just to have his blinds and antes posted while he's away. Nothing major happened in the hour or so I watched, and it was time to eat. After dinner, we stuck around to watch the show in the sky which was nothing spectacular before heading back to the Palace for my 1st night of poker. More to come shortly...

[rusty090]

Yeah. I found the poker room at the Rio to be a bit lack luster. I don't know if this is the norm, but the way there was no dividing wall between the poker room and the sports book seemed really weird to me. It felt like the poker room was a last minute add on, with no real fore thought. The tables were a bit too crowded together for my liking, making it difficult for the cocktail waitresses to get around without forcing everyone to scoot in.