Questions:

(1) If you are UNC, and you win the NIT championship tomorrow night, do you raise this banner? Related question: Is the banner for the one they raised in 1971 up there?

(2) If the answer to number (1) is "yes", and you are a UNC fan, are you actively rooting for them to lose?

Second Annual Beer Run Bowling Match

Last year in Vegas, we discovered the wonders of the Gold Coast, including the 70 lane bowling alley contained on its second floor. We had a 5 on 5 bowling competition, where the losing team had to go make a beer run for the group. Two games, total pins.

The beer run is no small task - it involved walking to a mysterious gas station / beer store around almost a half mile away, with each person carrying back two 18 packs of beer to the hotel room. Then you have to ice the beers down. This task can take quite awhile. Nobody wants to do it.

Last year, my team got off to a slow start, but eventually won going away against Goozh's team. This year would be a different story.

The teams (not everyone participated due to wanting to watch basketball or other tomfoolery):

Evan / Ben / James / Taylor

Goozh / Gibbs / Miller / Wes

Our team got off to a pretty fast start, and we had a comfortable lead through the first seven frames. We felt confident that Goozh's making the walk of shame would be inevitable. And then, kablammo.

We only got one mark in the 8th. And Team Goozh friggin rolled a STAR FRAME (all strikes).

Star frames are not common. Even when I was back in high school on my somewhat above average bowling team, I think we got a star frame like twice. And these were people averaging 160s or higher. Somehow, all four of those guys rolled a strike. It killed our morale. And at the end of the first game, we were down by 27 pins.

Evan: 143
Ben: 179
James: 116
Taylor: 123

Total: 561

Goozh: 149
Gibbs: 136
Miller: 152
Wes: 151

Total: 588

Momentum was clearly not on our side. My thumb was hurting, Taylor's initial hot streak was a distant memory, and that gas station with the beer was getting further and further away. Things didn't get any better when I went [9 -] on my first frame, while Goozh hit a very difficult [8 /].

But we fought. James kept us in the match by just killing the first half of the game. Ben, after rolling 3 straight splits, managed a fourth split (a mini one), and nailed it.

This is not to say that Team Goozh was not rolling. They hit a couple awesome splits of their own. In all, four splits (two mini, two actual) were crushed by the teams, in an exhibition of Vegas bowling mastery that is unlikely to be matched in any of our future trips. Everyone was bowling great, except for me and Goozh. Gibbs turned into a spare machine, Miller put up a decent average, etc.

The turning point came in the ninth frame. Ben was working off a strike and began his approach. As he threw the ball, he fell. It was not a graceful fall. But the ball continued down the lane ... towards the pocket .... STRIKE! A double! We needed it in the worst way.

As the tenth frame arrived, our estimates were that the teams were basically tied in total pins. Every pin was crucial! Goozh and I basically canceled ourselves out, each hitting a spare, although I threw up a stinker 6 on my final roll while Goozh had a strike. Those four pins could prove crucial.

Ben followed with a critical strike to turkey, while Gibbs only went [7 2]. James threw a decent shot that left him with an ugly split, while Miller clutchly filled his tenth. That left Wes and Taylor. Goozh ran some numbers.

The teams were EXACTLY TIED going into the last shooter. And both Taylor and Wes were working off of spares, so again, the teams were EXACTLY TIED. Unbelievable!

Everyone was amped up. Who would go first? Wes did not want to. Taylor, returning from somewhere, just strode up like it was nthing. He rolled. The ball was looking good. Seemed to be slightly off pocket, but good enough. And... an UGLY split remained. The 8 was nice enough, but with no hope for a mark, Wes could send us to the gas station with one good shot.

It didn't happen. Whether it was the pressure, or the beer pong at 5:30 that morning, or something else entirely, Wes fell apart. He rolled a 5 on his first shot, and then a 2 (needing a spare to win) on his second. Game over. We won by 4 pins!

Second Game Results:

Evan: 154
Ben: 172
James: 158
Taylor: 111

Team Two Game Total: 1156

Team:

Goozh: 158
Gibbs: 154
Miller: 139
Wes: 113

Team Two Game Total: 1152

Get to steppin!

Three of the final four in my bracket. Duke, West Virginia, and BUTLER! Not too shabby.

Too bad I didn't enter it into my office pool.

Cracknamara

This was ol Cracky's third Vegas trip (I think), and he certainly made it a memorable one. James basically crammed an entire Vegas worth of partying and stories into the last Saturday.

He started it off early. We decided to do our fantasy baseball draft in Vegas, so we all brought laptops. 7 of us were able to do it in the same room. For some unknown reason, the draft was scheduled for 10:30 AM Vegas time, which was a bit early. Still, we got it together and prepared for our first somewhat "live" draft.

While everyone was sipping a morning beer or two, James proceeded to kill a six-pack before noon. Why? Noone knows the mysterious ways of ol Cracky, but he has his reasons. He continued along this pace and appeared to be fairly drunk by the early afternoon.

We started up a beer pong tournament, and drunk Cracky put up a performance for the ages.

In the quarterfinals (versus Ben), Cracky was down 2-1. It was his turn. He went ONE-TWO to outright win, giving Ben no redemptions. Ben was shocked, to say the least.

In the semifinals (versus Wes), James was down 5-2 after Wes hit four shots in one turn. James rallied to 1-1 and then promptly sunk one. Wes, undeterred, hit a redemption to go to overtime. In an unprecedented and frankly devastating sequence, James went ONE-TWO-THREE to defeat Wes, never even giving him a shot in overtime.

In the finals (versus Me), James took me to 1-1, but was unable to seal the deal. However, he was not finished. He challenged me to twenty dollars, one cup, first one to hit it makes it. I couldn't refuse that offer. And soon enough, my twenty dollars was in his hands.

So going into the RPS tournament to decide the steakhouse bet shooter, everyone wanted James to roll. He had a lot of Cracky power going for him. 13 cards were distributed, and Goozh set up some complicated steakhouse bet RPS bracket. I don't remember what happened in the earlier rounds, but James, Miller, Wes, and I ended up in the semifinals. James defeated me 2-1, while Miller took out Wes to make his unprecedented third straight RPS finals. It was James v. Miller for the steakhouse bet roll. Miller, after losing the steakhouse bet two years ago, did not want the dice. But its RPS, and the RPS gods decide.

They decided quickly. James 3-0ed Miller, and he was our shooter.

Everyone tossed in the money. Yet somehow we ended up short 50 dollars. I'll chalk it up to someone being too drunk. Regardless, it was BAD mojo going into the steakhouse bet. But we couldn't stop now. Everyone threw in 5 more dollars and we headed down to find a table.

No table was completely empty. So we strolled up to a mostly empty table and started rooting for the current shooter to seven out. He hit a five point, infuriating us. But we were patient, and he sevened out shortly thereafter. It was all on Cracky.

$650 on the pass line.

James nonchalantly grabbed the dice.

He rolled. (click for video)

KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!! Forty-three! Front line winner!!!!

The cajun rib eye and truffled mac and cheese at Smith and Wollys, as usual, were INCREDIBLE.

STEAK! STEAK! STEAK!!!!

A quick break from the usual post-Vegas week programming.

Imagine the following situation. On a random day at a particular high school, all African-American students are attacked by caucasians. We'll say oh... seven of those African-Americans are hospitalized as a result of the attacks, and many others were injured in some way but did not require hospitalization.

Like, the world would basically explode right? We would have 24/7 news coverage of that school, we would have commentators coming out of the woodwork to mourn the sorry state of racial affairs in our country, the caucasian students involved would have the book thrown at them, we would have politicians passing new laws mandating 20 year minimum jail sentences for anyone who commits a "hate crime" in a public high school, etc. Right? I doubt anyone disputes that there would be a HUGE reaction to something like that happening.

So why is this the first I've heard of this December 2009 incident?

Legendary Craps Rolls (Part 1)


There were some truly epic craps rolls that we witnessed / were a part of on the trip.

The biggest, and unfortunately one we were not part of, came on the morning after the first night. We were checking out of Harrahs and walked past a craps table. There was a whole lot of commotion going on. And for good reason.

A guy had hit four separate point numbers already.

And SIX PEOPLE WERE BETTING THE FIRE BET!!!!

The fire bet is a tricky bet. I've only ever seen it hit once, and even then it wasn't in its entirety. The premise is somewhat complicated, although it is easier if you know craps. Basically, the shooter must hit four, five, or six individual point numbers. If he does, it will pay 25-1, 250-1, or 1000-1, respectively.

The key is that it doesn't mean you hit six consecutive point numbers (which is hard / rare enough). So if you establish a six, hit a six, establish another six, hit another six, and do that a hundred more times, you will be a very wealthy shooter, but you will have only hit "one" individual point for the purposes of the fire bet. No, to win the fire bet, you must establish the 4, hit the 4, establish the 5, hit the 5, etc. Not in any particular order, but to get that big big 1000-1 payout, you must establish and hit the 4,5,6,8,9 and 10.

Once, we saw someone hit 5 individual points. That pit boss was NOT happy.

On this table, four points had already been established, and somehow 6 people were on the fire bet (five people had bet five dollars, and one person had bet a dollar). He needed an 8 and a 9 to complete the fire. And his come out roll?

An 8!

The table was quite happy. His next roll?

EIGHT!

FIVE points! Each 5 dollar bet made paid 250-1. And he wasn't done. They all had a shot at the 1000-1 payout. The pit boss was on the phone with the higher ups. His 10 dollar craps table just lost 6500 dollars. It could be more. We could only watch in amazement.

The shooter had the 9 point left. He of course had to establish it first, and then hit it. His come out roll?

3. Then an 11. Then a 3. Then a 12 (or something). He rolled four times and didn't establish one point. Then he rolled a non-front line decision.

It was a 9!

If he rolled another 9 before a seven, all the fire bettors would win 1000-1. The table was going crazy.

He wasted no time. He took the dice and chucked them down.

NINE!!!! Right off the bat! Insanity!

The casino lost $26,000 on the fire bet. That'll throw off the drop. The pit boss demanded to see everyone's IDs. We shook our heads and walked away in shock. WOW! The chances of any shooter hitting all six points is .016 percent. Approximately 1 in every 10,000 shooters will do it. It is fairly likely I will never seen this again.

Wild Man

His name was "Wild Man."

Well, that wasn't really his name. But Gibbs declared him "Wild Man" and it stuck.

We left Caesars around 2:00 AM or so on Friday night / Saturday morning. There was a tough time getting a group to go out, which was understandable. Those of us who arrived on Wednesday had just had two straight 5:30 AM nights (vegas time), so energy was running a bit low. But four of us headed out to see what kind of trouble Vegas held. Turns out, the trouble was for Wild Man.

As we walked out the front door of Caesars, Wild Man made his first appearance. He looked like a roid head who wasn't quite big enough. His face was also marked up heavily, as if he had been in numerous fights in the last week. And as we walked out the door, we saw him hurdle himself into a taxi pulling up to the hotel.

He threw himself onto the hood and windshield and pretended to be hit. He screamed "OHHHHH SHIT!" Nobody bought it, including the taxi driver. Wild Man laughed and walked away.

Two girls who he was apparently friends with screamed "STOP IT! THERE IS A COP ON THE SIDEWALK!"

Wild Man was a bit perturbed by this. He snuck into the crowd on the sidewalk walking towards the strip. Right in front of me. He made shushing noises to everyone in the crowd.

And then two minutes later, he queried to nobody in particular, "WHERE'S THAT COP?"

With no response, he then immediately threw himself into yet another taxi pulling up to the hotel.

We continued to walk towards Las Vegas Blvd, and Wild Man apparently grew tired of attacking taxis. He decided that humping a tree would be a better idea. This was the result (picture taken the following morning):



"That guy's going to jail in about ten minutes," Ben remarked. We all laughed. Vegas!

We waited for the light to change to let us cross the strip, and it couldn't come fast enough for Wild Man. The second it turned, Wild Man sprinted across the street while screaming nonsense. Why? There was a red SUV waiting at the light. And Wild Man wanted to hurdle it.

He didn't quite make it over the hood. He sort of hurdled it and fell. A friend of his sprinted after him.

We laughed and then contemplated following Wild Man around. We decided against it, despite the hilarity that would be involved, so we headed to O'Sheas to try to get some craps in.

The tables were pretty full at O'Sheas (and somehow 15 dollar minimums despite O'Sheas being... O'Sheas). Out of boredom and for hilarity, we sat down at a Casino War table. Yes, WAR. Ben and I laughed it up while betting five dollars a hand, Gibbs stood and watched, and Laird went to the bar.

At the bar, Laird saw an interesting sight. Wild Man! He was, unsurprisingly, picking a fight with a guy. But the guy wasn't having any of it. Wild Man got annoyed and walked away.

While this was going on, Ben and I made a small profit playing the hilarious game of war. And then, out of nowhere...

Gibbs: Holy shit! A fight!

Gibbs witnessed Wild Man walk up behind a blackjack table, pour his beer all over a guy and the table itself, and THEN PUNCHED THE GUY IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD. I guess if you're unable to get anyone to fight with you, just punch them and see where it goes.

The results were predictable. A ginormous security guy put Wild Man in a headlock while the punchee's friends held him back. Yellow shirted security came running up and threw Wild Man out of the casino. A couple police officers arrived.



A paddy wagon soon rolled up, and Wild Man and his buddies were not only handcuffed, but placed in full chains. They were out there for about an hour, and Wild Man's night was now done, although we'll remember his antics forever. After reliving the exploits of Wild Man a few more times, we headed back to Caesars.

Wow.

That was easily a top 3 Vegas trip. It had a lot of everything. Hilarious insults at random people. Unlikely craps bets coming through. A truly epic bowling match to decide the beer run. A group of guys getting handcuffed, searched, and then getting the full chains treatment for transport via paddy wagon.

And we even have a video of the steakhouse bet roll this year.

My body is quite angry with me right now.

Tournament Preview

Everyone is saying that this is the year of parity in the NCAA, with no clearly dominant team - only a mass of mediocrity. Vegas agrees, setting some crushingly low lines for matchups that, in previous years, would be 7 or 8 point differences. Behold:

Vanderbilt (4) -2.5 v. Murray State (13)

Purdue (4) -4 v. Siena (13)

Notre Dame (6) -2 v. Old Dominion (11)

Xavier (6) PLUS 1 v. Minnesota (11)

This perception of widespread mediocrity, whether it is true or not, dictates that money lines are not really the way to go this year. I'll also be more inclined to take a favorite that just isn't getting the respect it deserves.

LOCKS of the Tournament:

Texas (8) v. Kentucky (1)

I've been saying this the whole year - I'm going to load up against Kentucky in the second round match. I just am praying that it is not Wake Forest, a team which has cost me more money over the last 8 Vegas trips than any other team. Kentucky has two losses but seems vulnerable to basically everything. John Wall is obviously an incredible freshman, but it is easy to imagine seeing him throwing up some stinker and not caring because here comes the NBA. DeMarcus Cousins and his 60 percent foul shooting / 120 percent craziness could also be a big factor. And let's not discount Texas, which has shown the capability to beat any team on any given night. Take the money line on this one if you're feeling brave, but definitely take the points at the very least.

And if Wake Forest somehow wins the first round matchup, run away as quickly as you can.

Murray State (13) +2.5 v. Vanderbilt (4)

I have to stick with this, even though the line (1) is incredibly low; and (2) has actually moved from +3 yesterday. Everyone loves Murray State, and with good reason. They went 30-4, and have won 22 of their last 23. They have five players who average double digit points, so if one of them gets into foul trouble it isn't really a big deal. And if this wasn't enough, now they have a feel good story attached to their team, as one of their player's mother passed away in a car crash yesterday. Vanderbilt had more turnovers than assists on the season, and coupled with the frenetic Murray State defense and pace of play, you could make this a pick em and I'd still have to go with Murray State. Don't be surprised if this drops to +2 by game time.

Xavier (6) +1 v. Minnesota (11)

Talk about insulting. I cannot recall a 6 being a dog to an 11 ever. Yet here we are. Minnesota only got into the tournament because of a good streak in the Big 10 Tournament, and then they got absolutely annihilated by Ohio State in the finals. Talk about a "happy to be here" team. Xavier led the A-10 in scoring and was 22-2 in games where they scored over 70 points. Minnesota likes to run it up as well, as they were the highest scoring team in the Big 10, which is sort of like being the tallest Asian in the room. Minnesota fans can go back to lamenting the loss of Joe Nathan and the imminent loss of Joe Mauer after this beatdown. Take over 142 as well for a nice little parlay.

Kentucky (1) -19.5 v. E. Tennessee State (16)

Just seems way too low.

Houston +9 (14) v. Maryland (3)

Houston burst the bubble of a lot of teams by winning the Conference USA tournament. Houston (unknown team name, wait just looked it up it is "Cougars") has the number one scorer in the nation in Aubrey Coleman, and my assumption is that they don't have much else. The reason Houston is the pick here is because of Grevis Vasquez. Vasquez is the definition of high variance, and while he is seemingly unstoppable at times, other times he will be a huge burden to his team. Vasquez could easily get into a pissing match with Coleman, much to the detriment of the rest of his team. "I'm ACC Player of the Year, who does this guy think he is?" Take the points and root for another Gary Williams failure.

And as for second round Duke v. Louisville / Cal?

PF / BTM: Back Duke or back off!
IG: Can I take the "off"?

On the way back from a nice dinner at Sofrita's, we decided to stop in a Blockbuster to rent Law Abiding Citizen. I could not remember the last time I had actually been in a Blockbuster; we generally just buy movies on demand instead of making the 5 block trek (twice). But Law Abiding Citizen was strangely not available on demand on Time Warner, so I got sick of waiting. We stopped in, planning to spend the 5 or 6 dollars it costs these days to rent a dvd.

Instead, we spent THIRTY EIGHT DOLLARS. How?

It all started when I walked by a bin of used video games. There were some pretty good and affordable games in there - Fallout 3, Smackdown v. Raw, etc. But what really caught my eye was Guitar Hero World Tour. I never got the game, only borrowed it from Gibbs. But I like a lot of the songs on there, and paying $14.99 for like 80 songs (considering a three song pack is like 5 bucks on XBox Live) was an absolute steal. I picked a copy up and we were on our way to spending approximately 8 times what we planned.

The next stop was a display of movies that were 4 for 20 dollars. This rack contained such megahits as 12 Rounds, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Madea Goes to Jail, Street Fighter (with Kristin Kreuk). I was content to not purchase anything, but then Kim found this random movie about a Vietnamese family that escapes Vietnam on a boat and comes to America. I have NO IDEA how this movie found its way onto this rack. But regardless, Kim wanted it badly. Since all of these movies were listed as $9.99, this meant that we HAD to find three other movies to buy so we could get the 4 for $20 deal.

Here is what we ended up purchasing:

Reno 911!: Miami

I've seen this movie like 4 times courtesy of Jesse, and it actually is pretty funny. I don't even watch Reno 911. The Rock also makes a cameo appearance, and although he doesn't even beat anyone up or throw 2x4s or anything, it is entertaining. This was the only movie I picked out.

Notorious

Kim actually made me see this in the movie theatres when it came out. This was a pretty low point in my life, as I was in the midst of my 35 straight day work-fest. The movie didn't help things, but Kim insists on its greatness. We now own a copy.

You Got Served Special Edition

While most of these movies had multiple copies in the rack, I did find one lonely copy of You Got Served hiding near the bottom. Knowing Kim's love for this movie, I snatched it and showed it to her. It was a no brainer pick, as long as you ignore the "plot" and focus on the battling.

We had our four movies to purchase (20 bucks), one rental (5 bucks), and one video game (15 bucks). But for those of you savvy in the math, this adds up to over 40 bucks after tax. How did we spent only $38?

When the Blockbuster guy scanned Guitar Hero World Tour, he told us that it was actually TEN DOLLARS! KACHING!!!!

Law Abiding Citizen was awesome, too. The law was even correct (I think).

Video games have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. There have been peaks and valleys, and right now we're somehow at a peak again.

When I was really little (think mid-80s), I had this weird thing of computer chips and a cartridge. I would plug the chips into the cartridge, pop the cartridge into some system, and bingo, video games. I think some of the games were somewhat popular. I'm not even sure how we got this; I assume my Dad created it or bought it off of someone. I'm sure it was of dubious legality. Regardless, I had a ton of early video games and played them a fair amount.

Then, Nintendo arrived.

Man, did I want a Nintendo bad. It was of course the hottest thing. I begged and pleaded with my parents for a Nintendo, but it was $200. That was / is a lot of money. Eventually they relented, and I was soon content to waste my days blowing into cartridges and the system, hoping beyond hope for the new game I just bought / rented would finally work. My favorite games were River City Ransom, Startropics, Final Fantasy, Super Dodge Ball, and Bubble Bobble.

I also bought a Game Boy. I shudder to think how many AA batteries I went through on that thing. There were some truly awesome games on it though, more than just Tetris. I recall Final Fantasy Adventure being particularly engrossing. The rest is kind of a blur.

Shortly thereafter, the first great console wars erupted. Super Nintendo v. Sega Genesis v. Turbografx 16. My best friends down the block had a Genesis (along with Joe Montana Sports Talk Football and NHL 93), while I eventually got a Super Nintendo. I say "eventually," because my brother in law at one point got me an empty Super Nintendo box as a gag birthday gift. That was DEVASTATING. However, I did eventually get one, and I played Street Fighter II and NHL 94 for hours and hours on end. I LOVED one-timers.

My next console was the Sega Saturn. Most people don't remember this 32-bit console, and truthfully, I forgot about it too (I had already moved to the Dreamcast and Playstation 2 part of this blog post). I bought the Saturn for a game called Nights. It wasn't all that great, but Virtua Fighter II and Virtua Cop were incredible. I won't hesitate in saying that the Virtua Fighter games are the best fighting games out there.

The next generation of consoles inspired some somewhat questionable choices on my part. It was basically the Nintendo 64 v. Sega Dreamcast v. Sony Playstation. At this point, Sony was a relative newcomer to the console wars. New = bad! I ended up purchasing a Nintendo 64 (mainly because of this game called Perfect Dark, but I purchased little else for the system). I then made the big purchase of a Sega Dreamcast.

To this day, there are still many supporters of the Dreamcast. You could actually play games on the memory cards (VMUs) as if they were minature Game Boys! When you played fighting games, little characters fought on your VMU! I don't recall what inspired me to purchase the Dreamcast, as the only game that sticks in my mind is one of the best 2-D fighting games ever, Marvel v. Capcom II. I don't regret the purchase of the system, despite the clear victory for Sony's Playstation during this fight.

It was around this time that I graduated high school and headed off to Duke. Back in college I did not have a video game system in my dorm. I had the Sega Dreamcast at home, which was awesome, but for whatever reason I didn't bring it along. I probably feared it would make me even less social. So while I would occasionally play NFL Blitz on James's Nintendo 64, my involvement in video games was limited. My four years in college were strangely the least video game oriented of any I have had in my life, although senior year we did have some epic Xbox football games (I don't even remember the game) on Roth's Xbox.

After college I found myself working and living at home. Hello disposable income! I bought a Playstation 2, which I played until the middle of 2008. I think its pretty safe to say that the Playstation 2 is one of the most successful consoles of all time. Grand Theft Auto, God of War, NFL 2K5, Virtua Fighter IV, etc. NFL 2K5 was pretty much the greatest football game ever made, and it really is a shame Madden was able to acquire that exclusive NFL license. Anyway, you can still find these games in stores, which is amazing considering that the XBox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3 are the current generation of systems.

Which leads us to today.

Since leaving law school, I have slowly but surely gotten back into video games. It started with the Nintendo Wii. Kim was okay with that, as it is the most female-friendly video game system ever made. Then, we decided that the PSP was a bit too advanced for her 6 year old nephew (his uncle had gotten it for him for his birthday), so I "borrowed" it and we bought the nephew a Nintendo DS in its stead. That brought me up to two systems. Next, I purchased an XBox 360. I think it was on sale, but the bigger motivation was for Rock Band and Guitar Hero. And around 8 months ago, I bought a Nintendo DS. Charles was nice enough to give me a coupon that took $75 off the price of the DS, which meant it was basically stupid for me NOT to buy it. That brought me up to four systems. I have since given the PSP back to Kim's nephew (so he can play Patapon), making me not the worst step-uncle in the world.

However... God of War III has recently been released to rave reviews, and it is a Playstation 3 exclusive. As you may have noticed, I do not own a PS3. This leads to quite the dilemma. Do I buy a PS3 simply to be able to play God of War III? There certainly are a lot of other great PS3 exclusive games - Uncharted, Heavy Rain, etc. And the PS3 can of course play BluRays. But the PS3 costs $299. Is it worth it?

I am somewhat torn by this decision, and I think I may let the upcoming Vegas trip decide. Well, that and how much Kim will yell at me for having yet another video game system sitting next to the TV. I don't even think there is room for it. We do have a new TV in the bedroom though, and it does look a little lonely...

Vegas is approaching, which means the Steakhouse Bet is approaching as well. This year we have ten potential rollers. Fishman and I had our now annual draft. If your guy wins the bet, you win X dollars. If your guy loses the bet, you lose .5(X) dollars. Simple enough.

The draft would be four person teams, with both me and Fishman having ourselves as team captains. I surveyed the options and asked if Fishman wanted the 1/4 picks or the 2/3. I indicated that I would prefer the 2/3 picks, and Fishman acquiesced.

Then he thought about it. Why would I not want the first pick?

Or more importantly, why would I not want the last pick?

The wheels turned in Fishman's head.

The last pick would be... GIBBS!!!!

Now, we all understand that craps rolling is random. But regardless, there are certain people you do not want rolling for you. And there are certain people who, under no circumstances whatsover, do you not want anywhere near the table when your hopes and dreams are on the line. Gibbs, with his long history of causing seven outs and mushes, is at the top of the list. He has yet to roll. Anyway, after a beatdown RPS, Fishman had to pick first (and last, meaning he has the Gibbs pick).

First Fishman pick: Laird

Laird is a newcomer, although he does not appear to be a big gambler / craps roller. Craps virgins are somewhat valued, although less so in men. This was a mistake pick given the obvious first pick (see below), which is attributable to Fishman being rattled by the RPS loss.

First Evan pick: Wes

Wes was the clear number one pick. He has everything going for him - everyone seems to like him even though contact has been minimal, Vegas first time, already joined fantasy league, etc. New guys have a good track record as well. I calculate Wes having like a 90 percent chance of hitting the steak bet for everyone. I don't even know the guy and I already like the cut of his gib.

Second Evan pick: Miller

A controversial pick, because Miller already rolled the last seven out that forced us to eat at Wendy's. I was rooting for Miller last year, but Fishman beat him in the RPS tournament finals. Never in the history of the steakhouse bet has someone had to roll twice, although it will happen at some point. I see redemption in Miller's future, just like I did last year.

Second Fishman pick: Ben

This one is a mystery. Ben plays craps regularly and is a Vegas mainstay, having missed only one trip due to some poor honeymoon planning. However, he is easily rattled and usually a follower, not a craps leader. This was a defensible pick.

Third Fishman pick: Cracky

James shows up to Vegas at seemingly random times. He is the ultimate variable. Again, a defensible pick.

Third Evan pick: Goozh

I like this pick too. Goozh is a solid bowler and seems like he has a front line seven in him.

Fourth Evan pick: Swann

Aside from Gibbs, Swann was someone who I wished not to be on my team. After his 6/1 mistake last year, I can't condone this at all. Also, he has somehow deflected blame from his wife for him coming to Vegas onto me. This may be somewhat related to me spilling a lot of whiskey all over his dining room table last year.

Fourth Fishman pick: Gibbs

Nothing really necessary to say. Just ctrl-f Gibbs.

VEGAS!!!!

I'm trying, I'm really trying to watch Pardon the Interruption. I like it, or at least, I used to. But Kornheiser has been suspended for the last week or two, so it has been LeBatard and Wilbon. And I think the reason that the show is SO much worse when Kornheiser is not on is because he actually keeps Wilbon's irrationality in check. This exchange just now between LeBatard and Wilbon coerced me to change the channel. Maybe permanently.

They were arguing about the US v. Canada gold medal hockey team. LeBatard was arguing how big of an upset it would have been for the US to win. Wilbon claimed that it would not have been much of an upset, Canada was merely favored.

LeBatard: Canada is a much, MUCH better team!
Wilbon: Then why were the results so close?
LeBatard: You're talking about a sample size of TWO!
Wilbon: That's all you need! The Olympics is only two weeks long!

Good point Wilbon.