WSOP Distractions At the Rio's Sapphire Pool

The video/photo prohibition at the Rio's Sapphire Pool left us with precious little to put up here, so here's a rather misleading promo image. (Image from sapphirelasvegas.com)"]

In our efforts to bring you every aspect of life in Las Vegas during the WSOP, we took one for the team and headed down to the new Sapphire Pool at the Rio. Tantalizingly separated from the rest of the pool area by a ten foot partition, the pool is being hocked incessantly around the Rio by scantily-clad females handing out free drink coupons. So, we thought, why the hell not, we'll chalk it up to "research."

After paying the steep $20 entrance fee - $30 on the weekends - we claimed our free drink tickets and headed through the mystical gap in the fence. What we encountered on the other side was absolutely mind-blowing. They they were, in all their glory, a bunch of dudes and just a couple of female stragglers with their bathing suits fully attached, covering their naughty bits. What?!? We don't necessarily feel like we had set our expectations too high, the pool is sponsored by Sapphire Gentleman's Club, but this was, in a word, disappointing.

Ever the troopers, we sat down to enjoy our free drinks only to find out that they don't serve Fat Tire and the coupon only applies to domestic beer. Ugh. By this point, the wisdom of our pool choice was coming severely into question. Then, help desperately tried to arrive in the form of two ladies in thongs and little pasties. However, before you start getting jealous or happy for us, these two should've thought twice about leaving the dim backlit confines of the strip club, the revealing daylight was a little more than they needed.

About twenty minutes after we ordered them, our lukewarm domestic beers showed up and we struck up a conversation with a security guard (rock stars, that's what we are) and it turns out that the pool is "presented" by Sapphire but no girls are actually paid to be there; they come out to "lounge" on a voluntary basis. What self-respecting stripper comes out to lounge and be gaped at for free? Not the highest earners at the club, you can bank on that. Apparently, the draw of the pool is actually to "be secluded and away from the kids," quoth the guard. They could definitely use an infusion of Bodog Girls.

We wonder if Sorel "imper1um" Mizzi feels the same way; he showed up right as we were leaving. Maybe he was just looking to take a break from his limit holdem sessions with Team Bodog's Maria Ho. We're not kidding.

Stay tuned for what will hopefully be more satisfying excursions for the Beat in Vegas during the 2008 WSOP. Boo.