Harrah's casino sent me a three-day stay in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and not ever having been there, I thought it would be a fun trip. It was!

I found New Orleans to be a fun city, and I enjoyed having crawfish, gumbo, PoBoys and oysters on the half-shell.

New Orleans is definitely a less expensive place to be. For one, in the poker rooms in Las Vegas a massage at the table costs $2 or $2.50 a minute. In New Orleans it was only $1 a minute. When you sit at a poker table as much as I do, massages become a mandatory business expense. I'm not sure if the IRS would see it that way, but I sure do. It's taxing on the neck, shoulders, and lower back to be sitting with your head angled downward towards the table for hours and hours and hours.

Another surprising thing to me was that, at the airport, I got a dozen raw oysters on the half shell for $7.99! And these were very good quality. In Vegas it's normally $18 or more ... not only was the price incredibly low, but it was at the airport. I don't usually expect to get a good deal buying anything at any airport.

The gambling in New Orleans is only the Harrah's casino. Since they have no competition there are a few differences. One difference was no comps in the poker room. No need for them to offer them. If you want to play poker, you can play at Harrah's or drive an hour and a half to Biloxi.

Harrah's did have good blackjack with doubling after split, and standing on all 17s... player-friendly rules that are harder and harder to find in Las Vegas. They also offered many machines from $1 and higher of 9/6 JoB, which is a low house-edge game with perfect play. It's nearly impossible to find this game in any Harrah's property in Las Vegas and, for those who'd like to get a Diamond card, it's a pretty good route to go.

New Orleans also had a ton of history. I found the museums fascinating with stories about the Louisiana Purchase, where we bought tons of land from Napoleon, and other stories such as the War of 1812, where a battle near New Orleans played a pivotal role in our keeping our independence from the Brits.

Mardi Gras was absolute madness. While Tuesday is the big official day, parades and parties start the previous Thursday. Bourbon Street on Friday night was in the words of a fellow blackjack player "wall-to-wall drunks." Walking Bourbon on Saturday afternoon, you couldn't help but notice the strong stenches of a wild party such as urine, vomit, and stale beers, Hurricanes and other cocktails.

All in all, New Orleans moved up to one of my favorite cities I've been to other than Las Vegas. The gambling was good. The food was excellent. The history, the coffee, the beignets, and the lovely Southern belles sealed the deal.

I'll be back there for sure.

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