A few friends and I took the new car to LV to check out the new tower at Caesar's Palace. Our room was great but when you show up 12 hours before check in and there is no action that early it can be hard to find much of anything going on but WSOP side games.
After some fast food we headed to the Rio and found the Amazon room alive and well. There were all types of games going at a variety of limits; I saw 10-20 stud which I haven't seen since I used to go to the Mirage a couple years back.There were a variety of Omaha, Omaha h/l, and 8 or better limit and pot limit games going that I would attribute to the large european population there for the series. Limit holdem started at 4-8 which suprised me because I swore they spread 2-4 and/or 3-6 last year. I saw 10-20 going short-handed at one table but anything higher was going on in another area. At least half the room was playing 2-5 no limit as expected but it was 3:30am and I didn't feel like losing a big pot this early in morning to a red eyed drunk so a friend and I took a seat at one of many 4-8 tables going. Half the table was drunk and the other half were to tired or ignorrant to play. First hand I got AA and won the first of many pots cotaining 12 or more big bets. I cashed out only $133 up due to my over-aggresive approach to two nut draws but felt good for playing this early in the morning.
After breakfast we returned to find my buddy playing heads up limit Omaha high! Before he went broke we saw Jean-Robert Bellande get into it with an unknown player. The floor was called, declared Bellande was in the wrong, and he promptly racked up and left pissed. J.J. Lieu was sitting next to him and seemed never to even move.
We headed to Caersar's to try and check in early to no avail- 1800 other people were showing up for there rooms also in a few hours so we were s.o.l. Luckily the poker room had two 1-2 no limit games going when we showed up! I was hesitant as before at playin NL this early,but I was already up so why not right? two maniacs, two big stacks making good plays, a drunk, and some nervous rookies/ fish made up our table. I played very good this session- probably best all weekend- but my doubled up buy-in was no match against a set of kings versus my second pocket ace (we got it all-in preflop). After that I won and lost two small pots and cashed out -$60.
After we got our room I slept through registration of the 11pm tourney and arrived to see some of the same players from that morning still at 1-2nl after 3am! I decided to sit with a different buddy of mine at 1-2 again and try to take advantage of the lack of sleep at this table. Again more drunks (2) and TV watching fish crowded the scene. I met a Cardplayer writer and a guy from Norway both with big stacks and keen no limit sense. After many amusing WSOP stories and many multi way pots taken by yours truly on the flop,I had a nice stack nearing $500. Just in time for AQ suited. After getting 4 callers I flop top-two and got it in after a reraise heads up with QJ!! some idiot put all his money in with second pair and a perfect-perfect draw!! But poker does not reward the best player every time and my main pot ambitions were dashed with the river straight and had to settle for a $160 side pot.After that hand I had about a $100 profit for the game but I was not on tilt so I stuck around awhile and when AKsuited proved uneventful I racked up $333(from $200) around 9am.
I decided against the noon tourney because of my weak hourly at the cash games so we headed back around 1:30 after lunch. (The Caesar's food court is awesome) 3-6 limit destroyed my AA twice in an hour while I was waiting to get the 6-12 game going but I only lost about $40. At 6-12 a few players obviosly thought they were playing 2-4 but for the most part there was very little 4 betting and mostly 2-4 players to a flop. One guy was really tight, 2-3 were players who thought they were limit pros and a recycling drone of fish. I had alot of fun at this game despite losing over all. It was wierd to bluff in a limit game but you will see like I did that the pros are right when they say that playing against 'real' poker players can only hurt your wallet without the proper stategy. I tried to enter too many pots out of position for two bets, but I did pick up some hands and the majority were paid off by bottom or middle pair by the rich fish (they only buy-in for like $140 and then shot-buy for $100 18 times!). I soon realized it was time to go back to California at around 6:30 and cut my losses at $73.
I would reccommend Caersar's to anyone who wants to play poker the majority of thier trip; the staff is ALWAYS accomidating especially if you are trying to play for rewards benifits/room rates, great food right down the way and table-side, overly competent dealers (with very little exception other than 3am-7am- understandable), and an awesome room right near club PURE and the sportsbook. Thier room rate was $119 Sun-Thurs and $199 Fri and Sat- Dave helped us but anyone can provide info or help you out. Good Luck and stay away from 2-4 and $100 max buy-in nl!
P.S. if you have ever seen the DVD 'Poker Bustouts' I saw famed low-limit-grinder pundent "Cowboy" giving massages wearing a Full Tilt shirt at Rio. If you haven't seen it and an old man in an older leather cowboy hat wanders by your table stop him and ask him where the toughest limit games in vegas are... he won't lead you to the Bellagio.