Touring the World Series of Poker – Part III

Posted by James on September 6, 2008

Before leaving the Amazon Room, take a look around at the banners hanging from the walls.  The banners are all the past Main Event winners and the past Player of the Year winners.  Starting with Johnny Moss through the eventually winner of this year’s Main Event, you can see the history of the Main Event with a quick glance.

Now, let’s exit out the doors between the blue and green sections.  When you walk out, you may notice a few more booth or poker displays.  You will then notice two other things.  One is a sign for Registration and one is a sign for Satellites.  You will want to remember the registration room location as you will go there for all registrations for both bracelet events and nightly tournaments.  Nightly tournaments start at 7 pm and cost $330.  These tournaments are setup as normal freezeouts and usually only pay out cash.  This year, players playing in these events earned Player of the Year points towards titles such as Bluff, Card Player, and Pokerpages.  The WSOP Player of Year points can only be earned through qualifying bracelet events.

Now let’s enter the satellite room.  The satellite area is located in the Tropical room.  Much like Brasilia, there are dozens of poker tables in this room as well.  The main difference is that these are all single table satellites of all varying sizes and games.  The predominant game is naturally No-Limit Holdem, but the staff will run satellites for other bracelet events depending on demand and also if there is a bracelet event in a mixed game that day or the next day.  Satellites run from $125 to $1,000.   The only satellites that are not held in the Tropical room are Mega Satellites and satellites to the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E.  Those are held either in Brasilia or the Amazon room.  The locations of those two satellites vary, so you will want to ask when registering.

After leaving the Tropical room, turn left and you will arrive back to the cross section that includes the Total Rewards desk.  Take a right and enter the first door to check out the gift shop.   Unlike the stands you see in the hallway, this shop is exclusively WSOP merchandise.  You will find items in here you will not see in other areas including key chains, mugs, specialized poker sets, and various WSOP clothing.  You can also purchase snacks, food, and beverages in this shop.  For those of you that play at other Harrahs properties and have built up comp money on your Total Rewards card, you can use that card in this shop to purchase items.  I personally had $200 in comps from another property and was able to use it to purchase WSOP merchandise.

Once you leave the gift shop, hang a left and walk all the way to the end of the hall and head outside.  This is the location of the poker kitchen.  Here you can buy burgers, subs, pizza, fruit, and other items.  The food can be a little pricey, but you can usually buy a meal for around $10 to $15.  If you play in a WSOP event, you will get a $10 comp towards the poker kitchen.

At this point you have been around to the major areas at the World Series of Poker.  Of course, if you get lost, you can always ask someone to point you in the right direction.  Another trick is to follow the masses of people walking around.  Eventually you will end up where you want to be.  Now go out and try and win yourself an entry into an event.  Good luck at the tables.