A friend and I are starting to get more into playing poker in Las Vegas, on the Strip and downtown. Could you recommend a few books on poker that might be helpful and entertaining? Those we've looked at are too detailed for our level of experience and written in a pretty dry and boring style.

The Dunes, Sands, New Frontier, Sahara, the Desert Inn are all iconic Vegas casino names that regrettably are no longer with us, but which still retain a strong nostalgic pull for many Vegas visitors. With new resorts in the pipeline with eyebrow-raising names like Resort World, I wondered if you could update us on who owns the intellectual property rights to the names of those (and other) old classic Vegas casinos and the likelihood that someone might resurrect one of them in the near/distant future? Thanks!

I saw that The D has a mechanical horse racing game. Do you know if they have any thing planned for the Kentucky Derby with this game? Only the Tropicana. It's near the race and sports book.

On the drive from Las Vegas back to California, there’s an exit sign for an unpronounceable town by the name of Zzyzx and I’ve always wondered where on earth that name came from (and how do you say it?) Can you help? Thanks!

The recent fire at Key Largo reminded my of my own question: The property had an unrestricted gaming license. Do you know why they never did the "Trailer Station" deal to preserve that license? Seems like the property would be worth a whole lot more. I do believe that they also have a building height restriction for redevelopment?

I live in the Dallas area an hour away from the tribal Winstar Casino, which lays claim to being the "second-largest casino in the "world." What is the largest? Is it in Las Vegas or Macau?

PART II follow-up to the QoD that originally ran 4/22/13, and which asked: "Wasn't there an Asian-themed hotel/casino planned, perhaps just off the Strip on Sahara? Is this project still in the pipeline?"

Does Las Vegas have any live streaming webcams?

I was wondering if there are any hints you could provide about how to handle cabbies in Las Vegas? How do you know that they are taking the quickest route for that time of day? I was told that if you informed the driver to take the "direct" route he/she had to get you to your destination in the shortest possible time, allowing for traffic. Is there any truth to that?

How much does each deck of cards cost the casino?