Cindy and I survived a four day trip to New Orleans this past weekend. I managed to visit all four N.O. casinos and the two in Baton Rouge. I have attached a scan of some of the slot cards I got on the trip and am not sure if any are new or not since I have not been keeping up lately. The all white card is from Ballys and it is not just a misprint since I got several. They are blank on the back also so I guess they may have run out of printed ones. The hardcount card is apparently from a slot tech. I didn't discover any new chips, in fact a lot of the chips are getting very worn. They do have some nice roulettes on the table at Treasure Chest but I didn't get any since no one was playing.

As far as the casinos go Harrahs land based casino is incredible. It reminds me of the MGM Grand. The casino floor is so huge that one of the guards gave me the wrong directions on how to get back to my car. I got sticker shock when I found out they wanted $10 for valet parking. I asked if there was a regular garage some where and used that - only to find out they get $5 for it. Unfortunately on Friday evening they only had one $5 table which was of course packed and a few $10 tables with the rest $15 and up. The high dollar tables went empty while I wandered around trying to find a game to play at a reasonable minimum. Needless to say they didn't get any money from me except for the chips I brought home. The other casino I was reasonably impressed with was Boomtown. It is out in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the river. But at least it had low stakes tables available and a nice layout similiar to the better Indiana riverboats. I wanted to thank whoever gave the suggestion to sign up for the slot card. You get a free coupon book and from it I used the coupon to get a free drink (two coupons were offered), a free deck of cards, a $5 and $25 BJ matchplay and a $5 and $25 craps matchplay. I played BJ for a while and won a little. I won the $5 matchplay but lost the $25 matchplay. As I was leaving I went to the craps table put down my $5 matchplay on the comeout roll and the shooter hit an 11. I then put down the $25 matchplay and the shooter threw another 11. The guy next to me made a comment about using the coupons and all I could think of to say was that I was leaving anyway for dinner and figured I would let the casino pay for it.

If you have never been to New Orleans I guess it is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. Narrow one way streets and "no left turn" signs every time you wanna turn left. I never get lost but I had a heck of a time navigating thru those streets. Even getting on and off the freeways is difficult. If you are going to head that way I would stay in Biloxi (2 hours away) and just visit N.O. on a day trip. Bourbon Street was OK but dirty and very smelly. Lots of overpriced antique stores including one with chips from a few of the N.O. illegal clubs all at high retail price. I did manage to buy a small bag of old Harrahs $.25 tokens from before the closing at the French Quarter flea market.