Flurry of Activity

I thought this schematic might be helpful to understand the layout of ballroom being used for the World Series. Remember that this is a collection of rooms similar to other Vegas hotels (hotels in general, but due to the high number of conventions, Las Vegas is particularly adept at this). The ballrooms are connected, able to be opened into one large room which is currently housing the World Series of Poker. The walkways are in black. None of these areas are labeled or identified, so I'm making this up to help with orientation.

1. ESPN Final Table: The final table area ihe final table has two small bleachers that you might find at a Little League baseball field. At the bottom of this area is the Bluff radio guys, as well as some computers. The money and bracelet sit in the bottom right with guards.
2. I call this the Day 2 area as it is where the big events play down to a final table. It normally starts with 10-12 tables then gradually work down to Tables 119 and 120. Staff haven't been too disciplined about letting railbirds take over tables to sit and watch folks. At the bottom of this area is a railbird aisle along with the bottom of section 3. The goal when you start an event is to find yourself here to begin Day 2.
3. Day 1 Ending Area: Players get shuffled eventually here to end the day, and the aisle lets railbirds catch the best views of players. You can touch the players in the 7s and 8s (although too much touching will probably get you escorted away).
4. Day 1 Launch Area: Players get consolidated here before breaking down to #3. When this dries up, you'll often find either no play or some late satellites.
5. Satellite Central: The home of dreams. After tables are broken down from the day's big event, this becomes the home of SNG's and the large satellites. There is a line often at the top of this area, and there are railbird areas at the top of both #4 and #5, as well as along the aisles.
6. Ring Games: Big events start here (this is where I started and finished), but these are the tables broken down first and converted to cash games. The biggest games are in the bottom right corner, and the signup board for play is middle left.
7. Cashier: This is actually a design flaw in my opinion. The following activities occur here: buying into a tourney, buying chips for a cash game (there are chip runners, so this is rare), cashing out of a cash game. What this means is that you'll always have to wait to either buy into a tourney or cash out. I understand the cash and security issues of a temporary cashier area, but I think they should have a second area or something for tourney buy-ins. Players cashing from tourneys have a couple of cashier windows available to them on the far right of this area, and the far left of this area has an area for lock boxes for the big hitters (when you're facing the cashier, these are reversed).
8. WSOP Cash Processing: What a dream it would be to stand in line to sit down for processing after cashing in a tourney. There are several steps in this process from what I can gather, and the line can be long at times depending on where in the tourney they are. The line heads out of the room into the corridor, so once you get in you fill out stuff, then take a left and sit down, filling out more stuff. After you're done, you head to the cashier to get your cash or check.

Below are five photos standing in the aisle on the far left between areas #5 and 6, so I work my way left to right.

Area #5. Sorry that it's dark, but you can make out satellites finishing up in the morning.

Areas #5 & 4. You're looking into the very back of the room.

Up the aisle to Area #1, the ESPN Final Table. You can see the tips of the following areas (from bottom left and clockwise): #5, #4, #1, #3, #6. You can also get a sense of the aisle and area for railbirds.

Area #6, and you're in the far distance is #2 (last tables if you squint and look between two guys in foreground). You can also make out the door leading from the ballroom (bottom of schematic).

Areas 6 & 7. You can't really make out #8 (is left of the photo), but you can clearly see the Tournament Registration signage. Players still in cash games from the night or getting a little play in before these tables are converted to tourney tables.

A different photo to give some perspective. This is from the very end of Area #4, looking down with ESPN Final Table barely visible to the left (lighting can be seen, as well as red ladders still under construction). The end of this room is #3 and 2.

Played a bit late last night, just donking at low NLHE tables. Don't have the energy right now to really play, so I don't mind goofing around a bit. Not exactly like Negreanu and the Grinder at the re-buy tourney (8 and 20 re-buys respectively), but it was relaxing just playing a bit. The PokerWorks articles are very time consuming to do, -EV for sure, and I really have to start cranking on the sales/business development pipeline for my company. Still a struggle to do my best on the WSOP work while trying not to be just sucked into the poker vortex. I haven't really figured out how to combine these two passions, my company and poker. I still may make a run at some of the poker sites regarding customer loyalty or marketing, but I'm not sure if the fit is there.

Anyways, I hope the schematic and photos are helpful. I think it makes it easier to visualize everything going on, especially as we're now playing four events almost daily.