Rebecca's Recommendations - May 26, 2006
Day 1: Monday
Bright and early Monday morning, I drove up to Montreal with my boss and our two poker reporters in just under five hours. Upon arrival, I checked in to the incredibly swanky Travelodge (that was a joke) and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with my good friend, the affiliate program director of Casino Tropez, Titan Poker, and more. Actually, he almost had to cancel his trip due to all the new promotions and casinos his team has been working on and will be rolling out soon- stay tuned for details! Later that night, I joined a bunch of people from the Bodog team for dinner, and after some post-dinner bar hopping down the streets of Montreal, I peeled off from the Bodog crew and joined up with the "usual suspects"- my tequila loving friend from Royal Vegas and Vegas Palms, the very charming Bingo Cafe and Bingo Liner boys, and more folks from Casino Tropez, Titan Poker, and Cameo Casino (a new casino for the ladies, by the way!)
Day 2: Tuesday
After a refreshing four hours sleep, I got myself together for conference registration, booth setup, and a nice lunch with the English Harbour and SuperSlots team. We ended up at some random Mexican place, and before getting down to business, we ordered a round of Caesars (bloody marys with clam juice...only the Canadians...) to kill our hangovers. Three hours and about 100 stories later, we went our separate ways and I met with my Hammers Casino and Vegas Red Casino contact, a lovely lady who I have not seen since September of 2005! After a drink and some sushi, I made my way to the Delta Hotel bar to meet my Hot Pepper and Fire and Ice contacts for the very first time. What a pair these two are- such a riot. As GreedyGirl from Gone Gambling once stated, these two are adorable. Great people too. After concluding the last meeting of my day, the whole Casino City team headed to the "opening night" GIGSE party, sponsored by Poker Room and Casino Room, for which we were handed five drink tickets. FIVE! Mind you, this party is about 1.5 to 2 hours long. Talk about encouraging alcoholism...my god...anyway, I finally met up with my Spin Palace and Ruby Fortune friend and main contact and we had a great time working the crowd. At this point I was feeling pretty good and was incredibly excited for a dinner meeting with Main Street Vegas Group, the folks behind Twin Aces, Las Vegas USA, and more. After an extremely tasty and fun meal, we made our way to a few more bars and parties before calling it a night (or a morning, depending on how you look at it).
Day 3: Wednesday
After a nice breakfast meeting and gossip session with my contact for Piggs Online Casino and Mummy's Gold (offering $500 on the house and 1 hour of free play right now!), I made my way to the exhibit hall. A few hours later, I was treated to a delicious lunch at a French restaurant by my 50 Stars and Swiss Casino contact who I was meeting face to face for the first time. Stay tuned for much, much more from these casinos- special offers and promotions to be revealed shortly. After lunch I banged out several more meetings and finished up at the Bodog Conference booth to meet with my Bodog Casino contact. Ok, you should have seen this ridiculous "booth"- strategically placed in the center of the expo hall, this structure included two floors, flat screen monitors, beer, wine, and a DJ. Over the top, as always. Speaking of Bodog, the Casino City team joined the Bodog team that night for a media event that included wine, appetizers, wine, wine, dinner, wine and more wine. I must have had 50 glasses. I'm not even joking. During this event, I had the pleasure of meeting the Gambling 911 Founder and President, Chris Costigan, who was kind enough to include me in Gambling 911's GIGSE coverage in the Jenny Woo Blog. After dinner we headed to the infamous GoldenPalace.com Online Casino party (one of my favorite online gaming companies, might I add- amazing people) and watched a lovely bikini contest. Seriously! After leaving the party, I hopped into a cab (thanks for the Canadian dollars, DS) and met up with Calvin Ayre for some drinks and plenty of Bodog related stories at a bar on Crescent Street. By the way, Calvin is the Bodog Founder and CEO. It's OK if you did not know- he likes to keep a low profile. (That was another joke).
Day 4: Thursday
Ok, this is when things started to get painful. Lucky for me, it was my last day. So...I started off with attending a panel discussion on the impact of I-gaming which was mediated by the CEO and President of River City Group, Sue Schneider. Believe it or not, this one hour talk was thoroughly entertaining. The highlight was during Q and A when one individual told the panelists to "stop dressing like mobsters"- I have never laughed so hard in a panel discussion in my entire life. At the conclusion of the session, I enjoyed a nice lunch with my Crystal Palace Casino contact, put in my booth duty hours, and got myself ready for a dinner meeting with the lovely Purple Lounge girls. We met for dinner at a Brazilian restaurant where the waiters walked around with different types of meat on huge skewers and sliced it on your plate until you begged them to stop. This was quite an experience, as I'm sure you can imagine. During dinner, I heard all about the new Purple Lounge Casino in addition to the amazing promotions that Purple Lounge Poker will be offering players shortly- more details on the way! After dinner I went to the closing night party sponsored by the team behind Pink Lady Casino and Pure Slots Casino and met up with my Caribbean Gold, Europa Casino, and Bodog friends. The whole group of us finished up the night at Electric Avenue, an 80's dance club, and seriously tore up the dance floor to Madonna, Duran Duran, and some other beauties. It got ugly, let me tell you.
Day 5: Friday
I got up (reluctantly), packed my things, and got on the road at 9am. Once returning to Boston, I unpacked and immediately repacked for CAP Spring Break in Miami, a completely different experience than Montreal. Get ready for some Miami stories next week, including how I managed to pull off winning an all expenses paid trip to New Zealand, courtesy of Kiwi Casino and Fast Win Casino. I am not kidding.
I hope you enjoy the picture below from the Bodog media event (totally grabbed this from Gambling 911), and don't forget to check out my featured sites of the week below- I met with all of them in Montreal as well!
