Dave.
Last year the cash at the rio was loose and profitable but soooo badly run. There were no waiting lists, no system or anything, you just had to hang around the table until a seat became free and everyone scrambled for it - it may be better this year but i would go elsewhere. In general the Rio was a total circus, the staff are unfriendly and i found the whole experience of the Rio infuriating. - AVOID!!!!!
There are a lot of card rooms with good cash action but alot of them are predominantly limit cash - which i found dull. There are good NLH games at the Orleans, which has a huge card room. The mirage is nice but the card room is quite small as is the one at the alladin.
For tournamenets, the palms ran a mini-festival during the WSOP and the orleans also run one toward the end of July with buy-ins from $100 - $1000 with daily sats.
Bellagio is the place where everyone wants to play for cash and tournies. The room is also small and is populated by the better players. The waiting lists are huge (sometimes hours) and the tournamnts sell out about 3-4 hours prior to start (they had a daily $500 and a once a wekk $1000) comp.
There are comps all over vegas and the best thing to do is spend the first few days looking round and picking up a schedule from each room. I would reccomend the orleans though for cash as the players are not too great and there are about 30 tables so you aren't waiting to long - if at all.
Prepare for poker overlaod and possible burnout! - good luck
how did you manage to convince them that you were old enough to be allowed entrance.do you have forged i.d
we all know you are only 15