VEGAS: 20th August (General)

Day/Night 4: Saturday 20th August (General)

With no sleep but still buzzing and with the time at 9:30AM, I thought I'd venture on over to the west side of the road to see what the Bellagio was all about. Well, in my book, it's certainly the most stunning, tasteful and outright gorgeous of the casinos visited so far. The immaculate poker room also wins hands down for wow appeal - but there was a no show at the famous Bobby's Room.

As I wandered around the immense but quiet and virtually deserted corridors that surround the pool area, it felt like a totally different world to the other side of the street that I had been on half an hour earlier. Wynn was posh, for sure, but this place - with its sophisticated and ornate architecture, fittings and design - trumped it in every way in my opinion.

Later, soon after my thoroughly satisfying session at O'Shea's (Session #7) it was back to Harrah's for a recharge of the batteries and out again at 2PM for some upmarket cuisine - we're talking a $1.99 foot-long hotdog in the food court of Casino Royale - Yeh baby!

Flamingo was next on my agenda but with a 3-player waiting list I couldn't be arsed to hang around and so shuffled over and tried the thoroughly awful Imperial Palace for an 80 minute cash game poker session (Session #8) and a wander around their totally average casino floor. I noted the location of Hash House A Go Go, which I read so much about on the internet, and this is really the only reason why I'll be coming back to this particular casino.

After this and with the time at 4:30PM, it was a can of Fosters to help me get some shut-eye back at Harrah's.

Six hours later, and not too happy about sleeping through most of the prime-time poker slot of the week, I thought it was about time to get my feet wet in one of the bigger poker rooms of the strip and give the Bellagio a try (Session #10) - but not before popping into an hilarious 2 hour session (Session #9) at Flamingo. Still, I tell ya, it doesn't get a lot better than sitting on the low wall outside Bally's on a warm but refreshing evening, listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" and sipping a bottle of Heineken while looking up at the gargantuan Caesars Palace and at all the eye-candy pass by on a Saturday night before heading off to The Bellagio to play some poker, I can tell ya.   

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OK, Bellagio may have the most stunning looking poker room on the strip but with the time at 4:30AM and after a decidedly dull session at said room I make my way back over to the other side of the road to mingle with those at the other end of the social spectrum (the college degenerates near the back of O'Shea's by the food court with their beer-pong and screaming) and I pick up a nice Subway sub and it's a saunter on back to base. 

Even though you can't beat Bellagio for style I have to say that I do feel it's a bit "out-of-the-way" and I have to say I've had a lot more fun at the dumpier places for sure.