WSOP trip report - semi-Cliff notes style.
 

The problems with registration, funky cards etc. have been posted about plenty, so I won't repeat.

The Venetian Deep Stacks are a reasonable alternative to the WSOP. Yesterday's $330 had over 500 entries. They had a decent turnout for today's HORSE as well. IIRC the winner of the $540 over the weekend got nearly 60 grand.

Because of non-existant planning, I had to scramble for places to stay at the last second. The La Quinta on Paradise was pretty good, having a lot of freebies included, like high speed wifi, fridge and microwave, shuttle to airport, Hooters, and Harrah's.

The Rio rooms have a fridge, so you may want to stop off at Safeway for water/soda/beer.

Saturn ION's have crappy A/C. It's not very cold and the ducts are set up to blow almost anywhere except the driver.

My first WSOP satellite surprised me. I was expecting the loose players from last year and got 9 TAGs instead. It took three full levels until we lost the first guy. Luckily that situation changed a bit later.

I ran cold as ice in the cash games. Losing buy-in after buy-in, I finally got up $21 in a Venetian 1/2 after two hours and ran like a thief in the night so I could book at least one winning session. Cash players were loose as hell. It was no-foldem-holdem at it's worse (or best, if you are running good).

As cold as I ran in cash games, I ran blazing hot in STT sats. I had AA once in four days in cash games. I had AA twice in ten minutes in the last satellite I played. Weird.

Bill Chen is as nice as he seems on HSP. I annoyed him for a few minutes while he was helping someone with video poker.

To re-iterate what's been said about cash games at the Rio, if there's a list, go look at the tables and see if there are empty seats. It may be cutting the line, but in most cases the players at the table will be glad to have you. I sat at a table with three empty seats for 20 minutes that had a list. The floor there is just stretched too thin. There's probably one floor for every 20 tables.

The Venetian satellites pay in lammers that are usable forever, in any Venetian tournament. That's the way it should be.

They are also the coolest lammers I've ever seen:
http://i15.tinypic.com/6c2xjfd.jpg

Re: WSOP trip report - semi-Cliff notes style.
 

I forgot one thing. I saw Vegas PD on horseback on the strip. I've seen them on mountain bikes but never on horses. Mountain bikes don't leave land mines on the sidewalk, so be careful where you step.