Finally, Mercifully in Vegas

Well, as you can probably tell from the lack of posting here just lately, actually getting out of New York and finding my way to Las Vegas was an absolute misery, so much so that I don't even want to think about what it took for me to make it here, but at long last here I finally sit. I an doing the free wifi thing in my room at the Rio, where I will be staying tonight until my upgrade to the penthouse at the MGM starting on Wednesday evening. I am happy to report that, after registering earlier this week for the low-end suite at Rio, I went through with my plan to further test out the $20 trick, which once again worked like a charm. $20 to the front desk lady, and not two minutes later I had been upgraded from the regular suite to a Masquerade Suite at no additional charge. This is a room the Rio website quoted me at $1200 a night when I first booked my plane tickets maybe 3 months ago, but one can only assume that business has not picked up at the Rio heading into WSOP time, because they were all too happy to upgrade me now for under $100 total, which is a pretty sweet deal given how nice I think the Masquerade Suite is. It is basically an 850 square foot, three-room suite with a massive bathroom, a bar area, and a large bedroom and large living room area equipped with most of the latest amenities and technologies. And with the floor-to-ceiling windows running all across the bedroom and living area, it really makes for a great place to start my visit, and was well worth sending $20 the registration lady's way.

The first thing I did after dropping off the bags up in the room was of course to head to the convention area to register for the WSOP. And I am pleased to say that, unlike last year, I will actually get to play in the World Series this time around, as I succesfully registered for tomorrow (this) morning's $1500 buyin donkament at noon, which is less than 10 hours from now. Here are the stats from my regisrtation materials, for those of you looking to meet up or who might be in the area of the Rio on Wednesday afternoon:

WSOP Event #8
Wednesday June 2
Yellow section, Main Room
Table 141, Seat 8

Seat 8 is pretty much one of my least favorite spots, as I hate being far away from the flop where it can be hard to see exactly what is going on on the board. Just once I would like to enter a live poker tournament and be seated right smack in the middle in Seat 5. No dealer tip box sticking in your gut, no corners where the space between players always seems to be a bit more limited, and the flop reveals itself basically right smack in front of you. But this time around, I will be starting in Seat 8 at my table, and I will be in the main room which is definitely what I prefer to really get the whole World Series of Poker experience going.

After I sit down to play the WSOP tomorrow, one of the things I love about this particular trip is that I really don't know what the plans will be after that. My brother and the rest of the entourage are coming to town late on Wednesday evening, so if I don't last long in the WSOP on Wednesday then I might stay at the Rio in this fatty suite (she offered me an even lower rate if I stay another night) in the afternoon and hit up the juicy cash games in the Amazon room, or alternatively as I see it is supposed to be about 97 degrees and sunny on Wednesday afternoon, I might also head over to MGM early, register as early as I can for my room there, and then spend the afternoon hanging in the MGM pool, which I have always maintained is my favorite pool area on the Strip. I'm a big lazy river guy, and the MGM has hands-down the best lazy river in the city, plus several slides, waterfalls and multiple pools to choose from. So that is another option, depending on the timing of everything tomorrow.

I guess that's it for now. I am supposed to be meeting some friends for breakfast at the Mandalay Bay buffet at 8am, although with every passing minute tonight the likelihood of me being awake and ready to eat at that hour seems to diminish further and further. But I should probably try to get some sleep now, not having slept much at all on the tiny bench with armrests that Delta apparently calls a "seat" on their airplanes. The plan is to blog from the hotel wifi as much as I can throughout the trip as always, probably mostly in the evenings but I will try to update as much as I can. I say this every year, but ultimately these live trips to play in the WSOP are to me what this entire thing I've been doing for the past 5+ years is all about, and I look forward to blogging about these experiences almost as much as I do to living them, and hopefully this trip should be no different in that regard. So on Wednesday it is WSOP at noon PT, and I will try to get an update or two in during the day depending on my progress. See you then!