Room Quality: All rooms are well-decorated but most are smaller than average unless you book a deluxe or higher. The rooms are light colored with creams and beiges. Cream-colored armoires nestle 19" TVs, and match the rest of the bland furniture in the room. You get your choice of two queens or one king. The Petite Economy rooms are downright tiny and cramped, but also cheaper. Bathrooms are standard bath/shower combos, with one sink. There is track lighting near the floor-to-ceiling windows in the Virginia Tower. All rooms have an overpriced mini-bar and a free safe large enough for a small laptop.

	Check prices for this property with Expedia and HotelDiscount.com. Weekday $60-$90 Discount Weekday $40-$60 Weekend $90-$150 Discount Weekend $70-$120 What does discount mean?

Service Quality: Good service. There is a little bit of snooty attitude here, but not nearly as much as at Harrah's. Check-in is quick and they respond to requests fairly quickly.

What You Get Bottles of in the Bathroom: Shampoo, conditioner, lotion, mouthwash and a shower cap with enough elasticity to stay firmly on our heads even when faced with those strong winds on Virginia St.

Clientele: Upper-middle class, mostly 40s and up, but that's considered young in Reno. The people here don't flinch at paying for $5 blackjack, maybe because they don't know that's as much as we pay for a pair of dress shoes.

How's the Pool? There's a small pool and jacuzzi on the roof of the casino. It's between the towers, so it doesn't get a lot of sun and is closed in the winter.

Free Shuttle: A shuttle will pick you up from and take you to the airport. It runs about once every half-hour until 1 a.m. We don't know what time it starts in the morning, because we never schedule morning flights -- you know, because of the hangovers.

Table Games: All the usual suspects, including a usually hopping baccarat table. You'll find blackjack, craps, Let It Ride, Pai Gow, roulette, that Reno staple, Three Card Poker and a few oddball games, too.

Bet Minimums: They're dealing a horrible 6:5 blackjack game for $3, and this should be avoided at all costs. Real BJ starts at $5 and more than one deck. Most other games have the $5 minimum, including Let It Ride, pai gow, Three Card Poker, and craps with 3x4x5x odds. Roulette has dollar chips. Baccarat starts at $10 and there can be some thousand-dollar players there.

Machines: A very weak selection of VP, but slots are plentiful, including lots of quarter and dollar machines, and many more nickels than next door at the Silver Legacy, along with coinless penny and nickel machines.

Cocktails? Great cocktail service. It seems like they're at your table every 10 minutes with another cold or hot one, and they'll serve a wide range of beer and drinks to us lowlifes.

Who Gets Comps? It's a harder comp than most in Reno, though there are mailers for the loyal players. At the tables, if you're playing dimes, you can ask for a dinner comp in the winter when it's slow. In the summer, break out the green chips.

The Brew Brothers: Their version of the ubiquitous yuppie brewery/grill is average in every sense. Sandwiches under $10 are fair and include fries. The beer selection is good with many regular microbrew, and one seasonal feature brew.

Buffet: A good buffet, probablyas good as they get on Virginia Street. A large selection, including Mongolian grill, some nice meats and especially fine desserts. Friday night is Seafood night, so don't come here if shellfish make you swell up like Violet Beauregard.

Golden Fortune: Hong Kong style cuisine. Sadly, that doesn't mean Jackie Chan serves it to you, it means that the food is a little more "gourmet" than the average Chinese restaurant. Entrees cost around $15.

La Strada: The best Italian restaurant downtown. Most entrees run $15-$35. After some sublime tiramisu and a drink, figure $25-$35 per head. Check out the Early Bird special, a full meal for cheap from 5-6 p.m. weekdays.

The Prime Rib Grill: A reasonably-priced steakhouse with meals anywhere from $10 (for lightweight grass-eaters) to well over $30 for the Alaskan king crab. Most of the satisfyingly thick slabs of meat are about $20. We would give the Grill two thumbs up, but we're too busy using our hands to shovel porterhouse into our mouths.

Roxy's Bar and Grill: Pretty pretentious Snootyville, USA. Just because they have a piano player doesn't mean they can expect us to get all gussied up and pay more than we want for a fancy dinner. The average diner will pay $20 for an entree. Oh, yeah, this place boasts 102 different martinis, which is intended to lure in all the Northern California wannabe sophisticates.

Tivoli Gardens: A very good coffee shop. They have Italian and Asian on the menu in addition to all those greasy American favorites. The desserts are our favorite part because the bakery bar is fantastic.

Brews Brothers: Live blues and rock every night. Come on, let's be honest, it's almost always rock, and you ain't likely to see real blues here.

Roxy's: Live piano jazz at night that we find a bit too pretentious, but if you like martini bars it might be something you'd enjoy. They offer over 100 types of martinis, and a good selection of wines, but none of it comes cheap

Showroom: They have lots of big touring production dance shows that come through, like "Menopause: the Musical," which is a comedy for middle-aged women. Other semi-Broadway shows play a month or so and move on.

Number of TVs: Eleven, all of which are medium-sized. For the most part, they'll be showing racing feeds, unless there's a particularly exciting sporting event on.

Number of Seats: Around thirty. Wear comfortable shows, or bring a beach chair if there's a big game going on.

How Many Betting Windows? There's room for four, but don't expect them all to be open, especially on weekdays.

Snack Bar? No, but you can get a drink at the "Ringside" bar near the book.

Minimum Wager: Standard $5 for sports and $2 for race bets.

Other Notes: The book is located right off Virginia Street so you can pop in and lean on the rail for a short look. They use the awful TV displays with violently contrasting colors to list the lines.

Number of Tables: Twelve, with at least four usually going, often more. This is probably one of the two liveliest poker rooms in downtown.

Comfort of Chairs: Not a lick over average.

Closed Room or Open to Casino? It's closed off but loads of slot machines clang away just outside the entrance.

Game Spreads and Limits: Hold 'Em is usually $3-6, occasionally $4-8, both with a kill. They deal Omaha 8 if they can get the interest. And they have No Limit most of the time.

Beginner Games or Classes? Nope. you sink or swim on your own. They told us they would give us a form with the rules of the games and basic poker ettiquette, but that's because they thought we looked like rubes. By the way, they were right.

How Crowded is the Room? There are lots of players, a lot of tables, and a lot of wait at night.

Comps? You get $1 in comps for each hour of play, up to $7 a day. Pretty good by Reno standards.

How Good Are the Players? There is a good mix, but beware of the No Limit game. It draws good players from the California rooms. Otherwise, this room usually has a higher caliber player than others in town.

What Else Do I Need to Know? They've got high hand bonuses every couple of hours midweek, and there's a progressive bad beat for all games. A couple times a week they host a popular no-limit Hold 'Em tournament. Better get your name on the list very early.