As much as I enjoy playing Bingo a lot of the fun depends on the hall and the callers. Donna and I are regulars at the Irvine Saturday night event, but decided to give the new one in Hawaiian Gardens a try.

Called The Bingo Club, the new building is an improvement over the previous hall, near the casino, according to everybody who used to go there. It's clean with a separate closed-in section for smokers, so you don't have to breath in second-hand as you do in some halls. They also have a decent food & beverage stand, with free coffee, tea, water & ice. Unlike most halls, the play is continuous for ten hours or more. Rather than having the typical buy-in you buy each game for a dollar, by leaving a bill on the side for the next as you play the current game.

Anybody familiar with what is sometimes called 'speed bingo' will have a general idea of how the callers operate and how quickly each game progresses. Donna and I, along with our friend Jean, were there for around two and a half hours, during which over fifty games (plus some special pull-tab games) were called. I gave up after #40 and the ladies played another ten. After that we were all wiped out and it was time to head home. I think we'll be sticking to a more normally paced games for a while.