Vegas Baby!

Just got back from a long weekend in Vegas where much fun was had by the 9 of us. We stayed at the glamourous Gold Spike hotel.

An excerpt from this review: "On the plus side, the smoke won't choke a horse like it used to. It'll just give the horse a hacking cough. Trust us, we bring horses in here all the time."

And it did live up to it's reputation. Getting checked in was a hassle of mammoth proportions: taking 45 minutes to get checked into a hotel with only one other guy in line has to be some sort of record. After that though, it was fine. You get what you pay for and when you pay $30/night for a a room with 2 beds... you aren't staying at the Bellagio.

We ended up spending most of our downtown time at The Plaza. It's a nice enough place and the table games suited us well. Burg attempted the "Big Daddy Burger Contest" but predictably fell short when he claimed he "thought it was only going to be 8 pounds".

I played at a few other places downtown including Binions. With the history that this place has, I really wanted to play some poker there - I'm glad I did, but I don't think that I really need to go back. The dealers were way under par and the room wasn't all that great - except for the history...

Most of our play on the strip was at Caesars. We watched 2 days of the NCAA tournament there, as well as playing some in their poker room. Our other NCAA games were watched at Mandalay Bay.

There was some more poker played in the very nice room of The Mirage. Not only was their room nice but they had action on Monday when it was hard to find elsewhere. One of the highlights of the trip was playing here on Sunday night with Tom Geer, a couple from the Napa Valley (who fit every stereotype there) and a completely intoxicated, muscle shirt wearing, "computer dude" from California who had stories on everything from his mormon ex-girlfriend to the lack of ice fishing in California.

All in all a great trip. Lots of fun and we'll be back again next year!