Just got back from our annual trip. Without a long narrative, here’s the basics of the trip (in no particular order).

Pros:
1. Poker tournament at Plaza. 30 players at $100 wasn’t that great, but solid local players.
2. Poker tournament at Sahara. More players. Nice structure that allowed me to play a couple hours even though I had 2 A’s and a pair of 10s the whole time.
3. Poker tournament at Aladdin. Friendliest Poker Room. About 100 players, middle structure was slow enough you could lose a few hands without being eliminated.
4. Barry Manilow. Great show even though we were in the last row. A little loud but a great mix of songs.
5. Mac King. Also a great show, and for the price of a drink I can’t believe we haven’t gone before. I bought his book and T-Shirt afterwards.
6. Downtown. Went during the day this year and it was a lot less scummy than at night. $3 BJ at a lot of casinos.
7. Battistas (behind Flamingo). Nice Italian food. $8 to share a meal and both get all the ‘extras’.
8. Red Ginger (in Flamingo). Great Asian food. Everyone loved it.
9. Aladdin Breakfast Buffet. Very good but shouldn’t eat it before a poker tournament…

The bad:
1. Green Valley Ranch. $35 cab ride and it wasn’t anything special. Wife spent about 45 minutes shopping at the District.
2. Poker tournament at Luxor. $300 in chips. If you don’t win your first hand you’re in trouble.
3. Flamingo. Room was OK, gambling bad.
4. Chocolate Souffle at Ventuno (in Flamingo). Waited all year but it wasn’t nearly as good as previous years.
5. Pinoy Pinay (on Sahara 1 mile east of strip). Wanted a Philippean restaurant for my new sister-in-law. Not good.
6. Imperial Palace. No more $3 BJ. We usually spend most our time there when we stay at Flamingo but no more.

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