What I learned in Vegas:

-Winning isn't the most important thing. Covering the spread is. A nine point game with a 7.5 line is just as exciting as a game with one point lead in the final minutes. I think it was Iowa St. that was trailing by eight in the final seconds and threw in a heave from beyond halfcourt that went in as time expired to cover the spread. Trailing by 28 points with less than a minute to go, 16th seeded Oakland missed both a layup and a putback attempt with about 20 seconds to go. The basket would have cut the defecit to 26 and made Oakland a winner in the eyes and hearts of many bettors. (Bracket update after Sunday's games)

-Sleep is overrated. The human body can survive just fine with a 90 minute nap every 12 hours. At least for a couple days. Probably up to 4.

-No matter how good a craps table is going, one bad shooter will kill all momentum. We were at the table and just hitting everything. Getting the hard tens for the point, doubling up field bets, and doing well for about 45 minutes. The table was having a great time. Then a new guy to the table takes the dice and starts off by throwing craps, craps and another craps. Within 5 minutes, we were broke.

-Taxi drivers love strip bars. We didn't have a car until Friday, so we took a couple of taxis to get around at night. The first thing 3 out of the 4 drivers said to us was along the lines of 'You guys looking for a nudie bar? I know the best one. It's safe and its clean.' Unfortunately, we threw most of our dollar bills away at the casinos so we had to pass on their offers. The 4th taxi driver was a wannabe comedian, but his jokes were worse than my cheese jokes.


I cut short the March Madness Vegas trip to return for Eva's wedding. A while ago, some friends and I decided that a good barometer of how good a friend you were was how far away you would be willing to go to attend their wedding. Think about it sometimes. It's really interesting. A 1 would be only if it were within 5 miles and there was nothing good on tv that day. A 4 would be a two hours drive each way. 7 would require air travel out of state and overnight accomodations. 10 would be flying to another country for your friend's wedding and you don't even know how to speak the native language. I left Vegas on the first weekend of March Madness. That's got to be about an 8. (I could have watched 48 NCAA games. 48! But I'll settle for 31.8 games because the wedding and banquet was cool. Getting back early probably saved me from hundred of dollars in gambling losses too.)
.