kenjisan

Atlantic City

(Sure, I'm filing you under "travel")

My first time in AC and the inevitable comparisons to Vegas were immediately raised. I wanted it to be like the desert gambling mecca, only on a boardwalk. Sadly, it was not. More spread out, seedier, and much more expensive, I'd pick Vegas over AC any day but for one amazing little discovery I made: I love poker more than any other table game.

Sounds obvious for those of you who know me, but that's only because poker is the most home-friendly of the table games. No one wants to come over and play blackjack, and craps has that whole table/felt/dice thing going on that makes it tough (although there was once talk of building a table). I always thought that craps would be top dog in the casinos--it's exciting seeing all your money out there, all at once. Due to the stiflingly high price for all the of table games, I braved the poker room for the first time.

Eight hours later, I stumbled into the 24-hour diner and ordered a bacon cheeseburger because we all know that zombies like cheeseburgers and bacon, and that's precisely how I was feeling right then. It was five in the morning.

So back to the AC-Vegas comparison. For almost everything--poker and travel to and from--Vegas is cheaper, cleaner (imagine that), and generally more entertaining. And yet, if all I'm going to do is sit there and play hand after hand of poker, who needs the strip and its $6 yards of just about anything?