I played back in 2007 in one of the $1500 events, but did not cash. If I had cashed the plan was to parlay that into a main event buy-in. The cash games @ the Rio in the amazon room get crazy even if you don't plan to enter an event. I saw 2 guys sitting at a $5/$10 limit hold-em table with over 50k each on the table! No-one else had more then $300-$400, I was told they had been sitting there 3 days. Serious poker marathons.