On August 29th, I attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Casino of the Wind at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. The opening of the 64,000 sq ft casino is first phase of the Project Horizon, the third major expansion since the Mohegan Sun opened in 1996. Along with the additional gaming space, the Casino of the Wind includes Jimmy Buffet's Margaretville Restaurant which will open later this month. Project Horizon will also include additional retail space and a new hotel tower which is slated for completion in 2010.

The Casino of the Wind added 28 table games and 650 new slot machines to the present inventory but the biggest attraction was the new state of the art 42 table poker room which brought poker back to the Mohegan Sun after a five year absence. The Mohegan Sun closed its original poker room in 2003 leaving neighboring Foxwoods casino with the only poker room in New England.

Within one hour of the opening, the poker room was almost filled to capacity and by evening there was a waiting list for all of the games. All of the players that I spoke to were happy to see poker back at the Mohegan Sun. I played my first live game of Texas Holdem at the Mohegan Sun poker room in 2000 and when I sat down at the table in the new room it felt like coming home again.