Bigger Than the Biggest Thing You’ve Seen
Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
When folks ask me what the World Series of Poker is like, the thing I struggle with is describing the sheer size of it. A lot of people think that the World Series = the Main Event, and when I tell them I’m going to be in Vegas for seven weeks they gawk and say “The tournament takes SEVEN WEEKS?” No no, there are 57 different tournaments during those seven weeks. Even Dick Cheney would consider a single seven-week long poker tournament inhumane.
Then there are those who think that the WSOP conducts one tournament at a time, that the Amazon Room empties and grows quiet as the final table plays out. Uh, no, as one tournament field is thinned a brand-new event is shoehorned into the abandoned space. Once the WSOP spools up there are always multiple events going on at the same time, and at times this year there will be seven different tournaments simultaneously at play. The logistical challenge of keeping all these balls in the air is a daunting one, and Harrah’s has done a very good job of making sure dealers rotate through the room, chips are properly colored up, tables break according to schedule, etc. Add the fact that poker players aren’t known for their even-keeled acceptance of unforeseen changes and it’s a miracle things run as smoothly as they do.
And helping to smooth things along even more is the expanded room the WSOP has this year. First and foremost there’s the Amazon Room, the biggest of the tournament areas and where the final tables are held and bracelets awarded. It’s a big, big place, too big to wrap my camera around in a single shot. This is long-wise:
And this is, uh, width-wise:
Damn, those overhead lights are bright. Anyway, these two shots don’t even give you a proper perspective on how big the Amazon Room is. Nor, alas, does this photo of the Brasilia Room, which was used during last year’s Series and is back in heavy duty this year:
This pic also doesn’t show the scale of the space–across that wide aisle to the right is another cluster of tables just as big. Between Amazon and Brasilia that’s a great whopping bunch of tables in use…and that doesn’t even include the Miranda Room, just across the hall from Brasilia and in use at the WSOP for the first time. No more will poker players be exiled to the Rio poker room or the empty space outside Buzio’s restaurant. Instead players will have the wide open spaces of the Miranda Room to do battle:
There are two tournaments going on right now–the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 event and the restart of the $40,000 No-Limit event. Piece of cake. Tomorrow is the $1,000 Stimulus No-Limit event, and they’re expecting a field perhaps in excess of 5,000 for that one. Tomorrow is when we’ll really start to feel the pressure of the poker masses pressing at the Rio’s seams.
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Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, brasilia room, miranda room, Rio, rio world series of poker, world series of poker, WSOP
May 29th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
A great track for those photos ..big Frank ..fly me to the moon…Class A best o luck to PH and AD
May 29th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Did anybody ever play at Bodog …its like a disco without good music.
June 1st, 2009 at 10:52 pm
[...] wrote a post the other day trying to explain how BIG the World Series of Poker is. The Amazon Room is the nerve center of the [...]