Back to the Rio....

Since I left the ranks of being an employed physician and decided to go into the wonderful world of private practice I don't get to take much time off. Signing up for the WSOP on Memorial Day weekend was a great excuse to do so. My plan was to clear my schedule from Thursday to Tuesday. Somehow even when I plan time off it doesn't seem to pan-out. Although my "staycation" officially was to begin today I spent the entire morning in a hospital board meeting and earlier this week an opportunity sprung to meet this afternoon with a local health insurance company that I could not pass up. I also had arranged for another physician to cover for me on Friday, and due to unforseen events I found that it fell through at the last minute.

Since the board meeting ended early I had a couple of hours to kill before my next meeting. So I called the Rio and found that the will call booth was now operating. When I got to the booth they had flyers with a schedule of all the upcoming events, including ones that were not published on the WSOP site. I was excited to see that they had nightly $100 buy-in tournaments. Since my wife is coming to the Rio with me, I figure if I bust out early she might find this entertaining. Although my wife has played poker with me, and enjoys it, she has not really caught the bug yet. I am excited to see her get into the game as she is infinitely brilliant in addition to being a clinical psychologist.




I found the ad on the other side of the flyer amusing but yet smart. They use Darvin Moon, not Joe Cada, to advertise the WSOP. Clearly he was a good choice to capture casual players with, as he is a better "this can be you" face than Joe Cada. The bottom of this flyer was cut-off accidentally but also had an advertisement for Jack Links beef jerky...the official snack for the WSOP??? It was a great product to have below this guy because you know he eats beef jerky.







I had a much better experience at the booth this time and quickly received my tournament receipt with my table and seat assignment.

Across the hall was the Pavilion that I poked my head in a few days ago. It was a bit busier today and there was a small area of gaming going on in the far back left of the room that I assumed was a satellite based on the schedule I saw. The size of the room again took me. So I took a video to try and better capture the size of this poker room.

Shortly after I decided I would find my table and seat so I would not be scrambling on Saturday.

The place was so well organized it took me less than a minute to find table 206 seat 8.

My only disappointment is that the tables do not have betting lines. I remember a couple of years back when I first played in the Rio poker room noticing this and thinking "WTF?" This is the home of the WSOP and they have no betting line. I mean its the WSOP? Isn't that like having an NBA game with no midcourt or free-throw line?

At any rate I still had some time before my next meeting and went to the main poker room to play a little $1/$3 cash game. I left quickly as I found myself getting bored fast. Lately I have had tournament fever and have not found cash games as enjoyable.

I made it early to my next meeting with Teachers Health Trust insurance company. One of my medical specialties is weight management...a service that is generally not covered by insurance companies. Teachers Health knew of the multidisciplinary approach my wife and I had with our weight management program and were interested in contracting with us for our services. It is a pretty big deal since they cover 15,000 teachers in all of Las Vegas. After about 30 minutes it was clear that I nailed the contract for us that should take into effect in 2011. So now I have a back up plan if I don't win the WSOP. Hmmmm??? Whats wrong with me?