Trip Report: Casino Morongo

[Dominic]

Last weekend, my girlfriend and I traveled two hours east from L.A. to Casino Morongo, outside of Palm Springs. We were there to celebrate my friend's 40th birthday with about 20 others.

Let me first state, I was not expecting much, as our last foray to an Indian Casino (Pechanga) could best be described as, "Ghetto Casino."

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Morongo is on par with some of the best Vegas casinos - it's modeled after The Palms - only bigger. It has a great pool, a "Rain" Nightclub, a "Nine" steakhouse, and a fantastic restaurant called, "Belly." More on that in a minute.

The rooms are spectacular. I've stayed at the Bellagio and I have to say Morongo has better rooms. Huge room, very expensive and poofy bedding (not "hotel bedspreads"), a plasma screen TV, and a gigantic bathroom with a glass walk-in shower, that has various nozzles, a bench, and a smoked glass divider between it and the bedroom. Very cool.

One thing that surprised me the most was the casino games - no California games here - REAL Blackjack and REAL craps! Okay, for some reason the craps games didn't use dice, only two shoes of cards with decks of only Aces thru Sixes. The dealer flips up two cards at once - say, a 5 and a 4 - for a 9! And so on. The odds are exactly the same. The only thing I didn't like about their craps game was they only offered 2x odds.

On to the poker room. I sat down first at a 6-12. In all my poker experience I have never been at such a loose, passive table. 6-8 people seeing the flop EVERY hand. People calling raises with third or 4th pair, all the way to the river. It was ridiculous. I was up a rack and a half in two hours!

Saturday, we played 36 holes of golf at the PGA courses up the road. 2 rounds for $138. Great course, fantastic weather.

Saturday night we ate at Belly, an east-coast-like Italian restaurant. Very upscale but comfortable. A five page wine list with nothing but Italian wines! We split a few appetizers, ordered three bottles of wine - one white and 2 red, and I had the NY Sirloin done "Al Forno" - that's with parmesan cheese baked on the top and drizzled with some balsamic. Fantastic. The desserts and coffee and cognac were also superb.

I have to say that my dining experience at Belly was perhaps the best part of the trip - easily one of the five best meals I have ever had. A week later, my friends and I are still raving about it - and we live in L.A. - a dining mecca.

That night, my girlfriend and I both sat down at the 2-5 NL game. Not as fishy as the 6-12 but close. A lot of wannabes in sunglasses and headphones going all-in preflop with AJ. It was awesome. I only played an hour and cashed out $170 up.

Sunday was spent at the huge outlet mall that's right next to the casino. Every designer and retail store imaginable. Great deals everywhere.

The only thing negative about Morongo is their player rating system - they don't seem too concerned with keeping the gamblers happy with comps. Vegas is by far an easier place to get rated.

Other than that, however, I'd have to say that Casino Morongo is a place well worth a visit.