A USA Today listing of the best casinos in America listed Pechanga first and I decided I had to check it out. I'm a JoB player mostly and on occasion I'll play some DDB. I checked out Pechanga on VPFree2 and was pleased to see some good pay tables for JoB at a lot of different denominations. That's a big plus for me because I tend to move up and down through denominations and I love to be able to do it at the same machine. I headed over late on a Saturday evening, arriving around 11pm. As I entered the casino I noticed a lot of people leaving but once inside I could see the place was still packed. I would guess the ratio of slots to VP is probably about 12 to 1. As I walked through the casino I noticed row after row of machines with no vacancies. I also noticed how big this place is. It's so big they have 2 slot club desks and one never closes. Signing up for their slot club was a breeze and you get a sign up bonus based on a wheel spin which is done at any slot or VP machine. Your points are also multiplied for the first 24 hours of play. I walked around a bit looking for an open machine and just checking the place out. It took me a while but I finally found a row of VP machines that had a few empty seats. I sat down at an upright and began playing. The machine seemed newer than VP machines I've been playing on Vegas with a larger screen too. I prefer slant tops to uprights but these uprights had a small shelf extension that you could keep your hand on between deals and I found it very comfortable to play. After playing a while, the machine next to me was being used by a smoker. His smoke seemed to move sideways directly at me. With few empty seats available, I decided to move and go up to a larger denomination than my machine offered. I headed over to the High Limit area. I found a bar top machine with a $5 denomination and played there for a while. These machines were older with smaller screens and some with muted suit colors. I played there for a while and decided to call it a night. With a 2 hour drive home ahead of me, I didn't want to play too long and be too tired on the road. I did make a point of stopping by the no smoking area to see if there was some good VP there as well. Unfortunately all of the machines were being used so I couldn't check out the pay tables, but there are some VP machines there. While I didn't visit any of the restaurants, I did earn enough in play for a free buffet. I'll probably make use of that on my next visit. Overall I was very pleased with my first visit to Pechanga. The casino is huge but it doesn't overwhelm you (although I did have to ask for directions to the proper exit). Being 2 hours away (with no traffic) it still is a trek but I can definitely see it being my day trip casino destination in between my Vegas visits. patcamp22