[mxp2004]

I stayed at the MGM Grand for a week in September, and I loved it. I was a little nervous about staying there at first because I like to try out different cardrooms during my poker trips, and so I usually stay somewhere mid-strip (like Mirage or Bellagio). Since the MGM is at the southern end of the Strip, I thought it might be tough to get around. However, the MGM was great.

First, like you, I'm a low-stakes player. The 1/2 NL games at MGM were great action and always available. I wound up playing more at the MGM than I even expected.

If you're a limit player, there wasn't a great selection at MGM. It definitely did not spread 5/10, but I'm pretty sure that 2/4 and 3/6 were always available.

The MGM has a monorail station, and I found that it was a cheap and fast way to get to the other major cardrooms on the Strip, including all of the major mid-Strip rooms (Caesars, Mirage, Venetian, Bellagio). Only the Wynn was kind of chore to get to. If you will be there for 10 days, buy a 10-trip or a weekly pass. I think that the 10-trip ticket was like $40, and it took care of my transportation for the week.

I did visit some of the other poker rooms near the MGM, like Hooters and Luxor. IMHO, they were awful and not worth visiting. Although I didn't play there this trip, you can also walk to Mandalay Bay, but it is not really a low-stakes room.

As far as food goes, you'll have a lot of choice at MGM. It has a food court, and so you can eat pretty quickly and cheaply if you want. It has two Starbucks to grab some coffee in the morning, and it has both a Rainforest Cafe and a coffee shop for other relatively inexpensive, sit-down, meals if you want.

If you feel like splurging, you'll have even more dining options. In fact, MGM has a pretty good Wolfgang Puck restraunt that isn't even that big a budget buster if you want to try something nicer at least once during your trip.

As far as tournaments go, I didn't think that the MGM had any good ones. Sure, they were cheap, but they were all-in fests within an hour because of the low-starting stakes, short levels, and doubling blinds. All in all, I thought the best value for a low-stakes tourny was the 7 p.m. at Caesars. It costs $125, but you get a lot of chips and the levels are long.

As you can tell, I really liked my stay at MGM. I would definitely go back, and I can't wait to make it back to Vegas.