My son Chris and I left New Orleans on March 26 for 5 nights in heaven. We've had our trip planned since last October so by the time last Weds. rolled around we were doing the pee-pee dance big time. I don't think we needed the plane to fly out to Vegas but it was probably quicker.

Luckily we found this site several months ago and it has not only kept us entertained while we waited but it is a great source of info. We spent several hours going over the reports, the tournaments and room rankings in order to make out a schedule. We put all the tournaments that looked good to us on a spreadsheet sorted by time so we had a handy guide. Sadly there were more of them than we could try but that just gives us an excuse to return sooner than later.

We both play quite a bit in the Biloxi area as well as New Orleans so we have quite a bit of experience playing live games. My son is a lot better than I am, but we enjoy banging heads at the tables and once in a while the old guy wins.

We stayed at the Monte Carlo since it's well located and a great place to stay. It is reasonable and you don't have to pack a lunch to get from your room to the casino. We booked our rooms when they had their fire sale and got some pretty good rates. We had dinner Diablo's, Cafe' and even tried the Buffet. All were very good.

We arrived around 9 in the evening on Weds. and had dinner at Diablo's. Very good Mexican food and an even better wait staff if you know what I mean. Stayed away from the Tequilla since we'd had a few pops on the plane. We played in a $2-$4 cash game at the Monte Carlo that evening to warm up a bit. After 3 hours or so I was closing in on being up 24 hours so I called it quits, Chris came up a bit later. No damage one way or the other. The poker room was well run, the dealers were very competant and personable and the management was great. It was a very friendly atmosphere and it was enjoyable meeting the other players at the table. There are lots of Europeans visiting right now since the US in on sale compared to the Euro. The comaraderie is about 75% of the reason I like to play in small limit games. It's fun to flip chips and get to know people and not worry about losing your house in the process.

Thursday morning it was up and at 'em to Caesars for the 9 AM tourney. I was real impressed with their room, it was gigantic and very well done. Another plus is that is was a lot quieter than most that we played in. It is completely seperated from the casino by a hallway and there are no distractions. In my opinion the room at Caesars is as good as it gets. WE both busted out fairly early in the tourney with no remarkable hands to discuss.

We played in a cash game there on Friday as well and had a blast. The dealers were very good and we ended up playing a full kill on a $3-$6 game. The service was outstanding from the cocktail and food service people as well. Just a quick 2 cents worth, I am pretty sure that these casinos don't make money on the poker rooms, it isn't too hard to do the math and then look at the space, personnel and other ingrediants and come up with that conclusion. It's nice to get premium drinks but I can understand a bit after seeing what they offer.

After taking a dive at Caesars we hightailed it over to the Venetian for their noon tournament. One word for this one--awesome. $150 for 7500 chips and 30 minute levels. There were just over 100 people so the pot was pretty spiffy although I don't remember the exact payouts. I took my normal dive although I did manage to at least warm the chair up, but Chris made it to the final 2 tables. In 3 hands he caught Big Slick twice and lost both hands so that was it for him as well. The room, the staff and the management were all excellent here as well. I guess I may not be hard to please but these guys were good.

We finished up the day playing at Caesars and had a great time with a couple of brothers from Boston. The chips were flying in a $3-$6 game that went to full kill. We both had to re-buy before we left but it was so much fun we couldn't escape.

We had dinner that evening in the Cafe' at the Monte Carlo which was very good and ended up playing the little cash game again. Nothing notable, just good times, plenty of libations and a lot of fun.

This one is getting long so I'll hang it up, but tomorrow we have a our first cash so stay tuned for part two.