Just got back from playing in a couple of events there. Two suggestions for those going early:
- Sign up for your players card on an offtime. The night before around 8 there were a handful of people in line vs a mobscene the day of. I imagine this will only get worse for the main event.
- If you play a sidegame in that room, if they still have them going, dont cash out there. The lines didnt seem too long, but most people in those cashier lines were dealing with tournament slips or other business and took forever. Take the long trek back to the main cage.
- This is going to sound ridiculous, but take your bathroom break if you need one 20 minutes or so before the actual scheduled break time. Yes you will miss a few hands but the Rio is not setup to accomodate this many people. There is one bathroom near the room and the other one is a good quarter mile walk back to the casino. At the breaks, it was absurd trying to get to the bathroom, and you end up missing more hands than if you had run out before. Biggest complaint I'ved heard so far.
Overall, I was not as impressed as I was hoping to be for my first WS trip. I think the Rio has done what they could with the space they had, but it was very, very crammed in. Best poker room I played in was the new MGM room. Autoshufflers built into the table, great pager system for waiting players, LOTS of space to walk between tables (compared to a cattleyard like the Mirage) - highly recommend it, though it was built right next to a bar and is very loud. The Palms is also running a great tournament series, found their room to be good but not many games going. Mirage was a zoo as usual and I swear they put more tables in that room so you can barely breathe at certain tables.
