Shuffle up and deal!

I managed to get over to the Rio for the opening hand of the world series main event. It was a madhouse there, you literally could not move through the aisles that divided up the 200 poker tables.  There was a constant background hum of chips being riffled and you could feel the tension in the airspace over each poker table as everyone had their gameface on.

I hung around for a few minutes after they started, half expecting to hear a dealer yell out “seat open!” Indicating that someone had busted out in the first hand, but it didn't happen.

I headed back to our room at the Venetian, if you could call it that. More like an apartment!  I had heard some people (dave caputo I think) mention to tip the front desk clerk when checking in. So I did that, nervously flashing a $20 bill while asking what the best room available was. Turned out that for my $99 priceline.com reservation, she was willing to upgrade me to a 1500 sq ft suite overloooking the strip. 2 washrooms, 3 TVs, living and dining room, jacuzzi tub and a great view.  I'll have to try that one again soon.

Once I get internet access I will post some pictures.  The other down side of being too cheap to pay 10/day is that I have no idea how the first day went.  You readers probably know more about what happened than I do!