Philly has it's own casinos now. I assume most the the AC crowd is from NYC now. I live in MD and haven't been to AC in years since closer options opened up. If they ever allow casinos in NY Atlantic City would just close for good.

This sounds mean, but it's a sincere question: How can you win at poker if you can't anticipate that vague questions will get you unsatisfactory answers? Glad you clarified some of the factors that matter to you. Anyway, I think too much about how people interact with message boards.

Purely for poker, I'd go to LA. NLHE is not my game of choice but those games seem as gambly as limit or PLO games. Elsewhere in California (I'm often in Sacramento) has soft NLHE games too.

Good luck on your trip. Hope you find lots of good games as you define that.

Can't tell if this is sarcastic or not, but Vegas traffic is annoyingly bad although certainly no LA.

Rake is high in CA... Vegas has low rake but no beach. I'd suggest Forida. I spend about 2 months a year playing there each year and the games are good.

Here in CT, we have Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Both are great places to play 1/2NL and beyond. Where the casinos are located, it is a short drive to nice beach areas. The shorelines of Rhode Island and even Connecticut can be very enjoyable.

May is definitely a great time to visit the North East.

Both casinos get their fair share of visitors coming in on buses from Boston and New York City.

Overall, The casinos and the beaches arent overly "touristy". Nothing like Vegas or Atlantic City. The beaches arent exactly like Miami or California either, but I still enjoy the area very much. Its laid back and peaceful. Misquamicut State Beach is Rhode Islands "famous" beach. I used to drive up there every weekend. Love that place. Theres also camping all over and very affordable motels that allow you to travel to both casinos with ease.. Foxwoods rooms are very affordable though as well.

Sort of. Mandalay Bay and Green Valley Randh have beaches at their pools. Lake Mead and Lake Havasu have beaches.

It depends where are you going. If your going to the beach then Miami is the one for you. If your going to the popular gambling city then the Vegas is the one with lots of casino to choose from. Atlantic City also has a good casino.

My opinion is that the rake (which is high) is a drop in the bucket compared to how good the games are at $20/40 limit, $5-5 NL and higher. Willing to be convinced otherwise.

I haven't played in FL in a long time but based on descriptions, I think it's probably a better destination than CA if you play the basic poker variants (mostly NLHE). I don't love FL's culture outside of Miami but that's a matter of taste.