re: What's it like spectating at the WSoP Main Event?

I happened to be in Vegas one time when the Main Event was going on (shitty time to be in Vegas actually) so me & a friend of mine went over to the Rio to watch some of it. This was the year Joe Hachem won it (2005 I think?) and it was also the last year that the final table was at Binion's. Greg Raymer had won it the year before and was still in so the room was buzzing about the possibility of back-to-back wins.

Anyway, this was on a Thursday and the final table was going to be Saturday. They were down to maybe 10-12 tables at that point. They had roped off areas where you could stand and watch the regular tables and then there were bleachers around the feature table. We sat in the bleachers for a while but it was really boring so we decided to go play some poker instead of watch it. Later that night, there was a big money table playing triple draw low. There was probably a few million dollars worth sitting on that table. I saw a huge pot go down between Eskimo Clark and some guy I didn't recognize. One guy had the second nuts but Clark had the goods and took down hundreds of thousands in that one hand. There were a lot of poker celebrities (e.g., Mike Sexton) standing around watching that game. That was a lot more fun than watching the WSOP.

The next day we went down to Binion's to play in a tournament. The WSOP was down to 3 tables and was being held in the upstairs room (forget what it was called). While I'm sitting there, I see Raymer coming down the escalator looking bummed and correctly assumed that he had busted out. After I busted out of my tournament, I walked up there to see what was going on. It was down to just 2 tables by then and Hachem's mates from Australia were there. Not long after I walked in, Hachem won a pot and all of his railbirds erupted with "AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE....OY OY OY!!!!" Freaked me the frick out at first but I started talking to those guys and they were a lot of fun. After a while my buddy came up after he busted out and we watched for a while then left. We thought about coming back the next day for the final table but ended up finding other stuff to do. Like strip clubs.

So tl;dr: overall it's pretty boring but worth watching at least for a while. The side games are way more entertaining.