Absolutely! Last year was my first, and I wouldn't miss it. Bring your extra chips for the trading sessions and as much cash as you can possibly scrape together. The most interesting part of the whole convention is finally being able to put a face with these names you read on the board or buy and sell chips with. And it's also a lot of fun to volunteer to help out if you can.

My wife and I volunteered to work the building fund table and had an amusing incident happen.

A VERY elegant looking woman, immaculately dressed and very beautiful, was sort of standing around in front of the table, looking rather impatient. We started chatting and she asked me, "So.....you collect these....CHIPS??"
I nodded, that yes, I too collected these little round things that were piled on tables filling the huge ballroom.
She shook her head and said, "Well, my husband.... now he's got LOTS of chips.... He's got all these BOOKS just filled with CHIPS. A whole SHELF of thes BOOKS of CHIPS! Just BOOKS and BOOKS of CHIPS! And, of course you can't DO ANYTHING with them. You can't SELL THEM..."
It was apparent that she thought her husband was the only person in the world crazy enough to collect casino chips--even though she was standing elbow to elbow with a crowd of several hundred who did the same thing.

We just sort of nodded and listened to her go on for a while, with my wife kicking me underneath the table the whole time.

Needless to say, since June, my wife has used the "My husband has all these BOOKS of CHIPS!" line quite often.

As for hotels, we're planning on staying at the Riviera because it helps the club, but mainly because of the convenience. If you stay anywhere else, you're moving around out in the June heat, lugging whatever you just purchased or you brought from home to trade. It's also easier if you need to rendezvous with anybody you take with you.