Room Quality: The Nugget has tower and courtyard rooms. The tower rooms are swank - some of the nicest in town, but you'll pay for all that luxury. The have better furnishings, including flat-screen TVs. Courtyard rooms are more like a motel and appear to actually be in an old motel-style building. They are okay, just not as fancy as the tower.

	Check prices for this property with Expedia and HotelDiscount.com. Weekday $60-$80 (Courtyard) | $70-$130 (Tower) Discount Weekday $40-$70 (Courtyard) | $50-$100 (Tower) Weekend $120-$150 (Courtyard) | $150-$200 (Tower) Discount Weekend $100-$125 (Courtyard) | $110-$130 (Tower) What does discount mean?

Service Quality: The place caters to businessmen, with a huge convention facility and a business center with Internet access. In general, the employees here are the most professional and friendly you're going to find in Reno.

What You Get Bottles of in the Bathroom: You know it's a fancy place when the shampoo and conditioner come in separate bottles, and are accompanied by a little bottle of hand lotion. The soap is top-notch and the towels are big and fluffy.

Clientele: It's the businessmen and their well-coifed wives that keep this place busy. Mostly late 30s to 60s and mostly middle class to upper middle-class clients.

How's the Pool? A very nice indoor pool, which means you can swim even in the dead of a bitter winter. The hot tub is plenty popular, so expect to share it with roundish CEOs. The Courtyard section of the hotel has its own nice little pool as well.

Free Shuttle: Airport shuttle from late afternoon to midnight, running every half-hour.

Table Games: They cater to both the average gambler and the rich cats in town for big business. You'll find everything here: single deck blackjack, craps, roulette, Pai-Gow, mini-baccarat, Let it Ride and Three-Card Poker. The table game pit is one of the biggest in town.

Bet Minimums: Blackjack tables go as low as $3. They'll let you double on anything, but the dealer hits those pesky soft 17s. They'll let you roll the bones for $5. Craps has lousy double odds. Roulette chips come in 50-cent denominations, but you need to lay out at least $2 per spin. Everything else will run you $5 and up.

Machines: They have it all, from pennies to high-roller machines. Some sections are set aside for the high-roller slot players. Lots of the latest and greatest video slots. There are a very few full-pay video poker machines scattered through the casino.

Cocktails? Just about the best in Sparks. If you're playing the games and tipping a dollar a drink, you're going to be a very happy and very drunk player.

Who Gets Comps? They have a slot club that will get you a free buffet after several hours of quarter or higher slots, and also a very generous cash-back. At the tables, expect to play $15 or more per hand for them to notice you. $50 a hand for a few hours will probably get you a room.

Gabe's Pub: Raise your hand if you like microbrews and the slightly upscale sandwiches that come with them. Now, put your hands down and go to Gabe's. The deli serves the sandwiches, and the bar next door serves the hooch. It's all conveniently located in the basement, right beside the fine sports and race books.

John's Oyster Bar: Fast seafood, lots of shellfish in batter, in a shanty-themed restaurant with ship's wheels on the walls. There is also a menu of reasonably-priced stews and sandwiches.

Noodle Hut: It's sort of a hut, maybe, located off of Trader Dick's kooky polynesian restaurant. This place serves decent noodle dishes from Asia, Italy and anywhere else noodles come from. It's pretty clean and healthy for the most part, so you won't hate yourself afterward. At least not for what you ate.

Orozko: A Spanish/Mediterranean restaurant with an emphasis on meaty meat. The meals, like prime rib, sturgeon and all kinds of chicken usually run $15-$25, and the fancy Sunday brunch is about $20. Orozko offers an extensive, costly wine list. The bar out front has a piano player sometimes.

Rosie's Cafe: The coffee shop, open 24 hours a day with a big menu, but limited late night. It's good and the portions are hearty. Even late at night, this place ain't cheap.

The Rotisserie: Guess how they prepare some of the meat here at the buffet. If you guessed steam-broiled, you aren't too bright. But, if you guessed charbroiled rotisserie, you win the prize of chicken or beef. They cook a different special every night, and Friday night means seafood for the Catholics. The ambience is claimed to be "French country" but when we ate with Stinky, the ambience was "greasy American pig stuffing his face and grunting." This is a very good buffet and besides the rotisserie there are many seafood selections almost every night.

Steakhouse Grill: So as not to confuse anyone, they have named the steakhouse "The Steakhouse." They serve steak for the going rates. It's not the greatest meat on Earth, but better than an Outback and the service is very good.

Trader Dick's: Apparently Dick was a trader in Polynesia, where he exchanged goods for a wide variety of steak. seafood and tropically and Asian prepared dishes like duck and lamb. The decor is cheesy cocktail-tropical, with more tiki torches than customers, and the many different tropical drinks come with umbrellas. Trader Dick's also serves as a lounge with live music or DJs, and we've actually seen people dancing. People other than us. We danced here even when there was no music. Heck, we dance anywhere at anytime. That's what Jake Leg does to a fellow.

Branding Irons: There is a cool display of branding irons behind glass of the casino floor. It is branding irons from all over Nevada, and the display is impressive and comprehensive. This is in the most northwest corner of the casino.

Rose Ballroom: They get just about the biggest names that Reno casinos see. Lots of radio stars of the 70s and 80s as well as Broadway-style shows like.

Skywalk Arcade: A massive arcade above the casino with pinball, video games, and lots of pool, foosball, air hockey and billiards. What intrigued us the most, though, was the vending machine that sold french fries. Sadly, it's gone now. We guess they had a hard time keeping a pimply teenaged fry-cook and deep-fat fryer in such a small contraption.

Trader Dick's: Get out on the floor and shake it to the live music. But for God's sake, be careful if you're going to dance with your drink. Those little toothpick umbrellas can put out an eye!

Number of TVs: The race book is bigger than the sports book. Forty-two TVs for racers, two of which are big, and thirteen TVs for the sports lover, two of which are big. This doesn't include the TVs in the bar area.

Number of Seats: This is where the real bias toward the race bettor comes in. 111 comfy green leather club seats at desks plus another 100 seats at 15 booths and ten tables for the pony boys. Also about 100 seats for the sports fans, arranged lounge style.

How Many Betting Windows? Eight race and six sports with electronic boards for posting odds and games.

Snack Bar? Why, yes they do, thank you for asking. Just off the sports book is Gabe's Deli, a wonderful place for a deli sandwich and a Dr. Brown's root beer.

Minimum Wager: $5 for the sports bettor, $2 for the race cats.

Other Notes: The race and sports book are separate rooms, but they are next to each other in the hotel's basement. Both are very plush and comfy, one of the best places in town to watch a game or race.

Number of Tables: Seven tables and there is usually some action.

Comfort of Chairs: Nicer than anything at an elementary school - even better than the teachers' seats!

Closed Room or Open to Casino? The room is open, but not too noisy. It's sort of tucked away.

Game Spreads and Limits: Hold 'Em for $3-$6, and $4-$8 sometimes. On weekend evenings there is a low stakes No Limit game. We couldn't talk them into dealing our creation Dogs on the Table because they don't allow canines into the casino. Yeah, just wait until they start televising Dogs on the Table and this place will be all over it.

Beginner Games or Classes? No. If you want to play here, you have to know what you're doing. Or, fake it like we did. Just fake it better than we did because someone laughed at us.

How Crowded is the Room? Some weekend nights, you might have to wait about 20 minutes for a spot at a game, but for the most part, you'll get in quick.

Comps? A whopping 50 cents an hour in comps. Play 8 hours in a day and they'll reward you with a room discount when available. Eight hours? Good God, that's a job. We can feel the allergic reaction already.

How Good Are the Players? You'll find mostly tourists at this place. Very few locals except in the tournament. Tourists (present company excluded, of course) tend to be looser at poker, so go clean their clocks.

What Else Do I Need to Know? It's a small room but friendly. We wouldn't make a special trip out here just for poker, except to play in the $15 daily shootout Hold 'Em tournament. They have high hand jackpots.