Day 128

This town is nuts. Las Vegas. First off, every Nascar loving hillbilly was in town for the big race Sunday. My flight was packed with them, all in their Nascar gear and being extra-loud. Real annoying. I arrived here Saturday morning (9 am) and got in a cab for the Bellagio where I was staying for Saturday night only. I will say this - that is one nice place to stay. You can see why it is so expensive to stay there. The rooms are so nice, every amenity you can imagine is at your disposal, great restaurants, and centrally located. Those who know me know why I flew out so early in the morning Saturday - had to make sure I was in the sports book before the college hoops games started at 10 am local time. I checked in - they had my room ready for me that early which was nice - and headed straight down to the sports book. Some may not understand how someone can watch that much basketball in one place for a long period of time, but you know I can. Is it bad that I sat in a booth from 10 am to 5pm betting on and watching college hoops? Everything I needed was there - a waitress for drinks and food, six gigantic screens with different games going on simultaneously. You can't beat it. Fritzer and Rafal were both delayed and ended up getting there around 1 pm, right before tip off of the KU/Nebraska game. I got Fritzer in with me on KU -11.5 solely for interest purposes only. As we had a few drinks (I know, me afternoon drinking) and watched the game, a classic hoops gambling staple was happening to us. KU was comfortably ahead by 20 when they brought in the scrubs. The scrubs began to throw the ball away and Nebraska was hitting threes. Next thing you know, KU is only up 14 and I need them to win by 12. With 10 seconds left, instead of holding the ball, one of our guys blew a layup and Nebraska came down and shot a three - the crowd at the sports book (particularity me) screamed "nooooooo" as the shot went up, luckily, it missed and we covered. But that is what makes watching games at the sports book so much fun.

Fritzer and I went up to the room take take a nap while Rafal hit the tables before we went to dinner. We weren't all that hungry when we went and I didn't want to do such a big dinner before we were going out drinking, so we just grabbed a quick bite. I true degenerate style though, we had to make sure that we got in our last bet on the last college hoops game of the night - the Pacific/Long Beach State game. Around 10:45 we had to meet in front of Light, the club at the Bellagio, to get hooked up for our VIP technique. Nothing better than when there are like 50 some people waiting behind a velvet rope hoping to get in and we walk right up and get right in. When we got in at 11, it wasn;t all that crowded. By 12:30, the place was a zoo, and that is why you have to go VIP. They put us in a booth overlooking the dance floor, brought us two large magnums of Grey Goose and mixers, limes, lemons, and ice. It was total big dog style. To me, that is the only way to do it when you are there and completely worth the money. It was a great, great night. All I know is three guys polished off those two bottles, no wonder all three of us were zombies yesterday. Also, around 1 my boy Adam from KU met us out. I hadn't seen him in a while since he moved back to Columbus. When he showed I was in pretty bad shape, but it was good to spend a little little time with him.

I had another hotel sleeping incident. Fritzer was snoring so unbelievably loud. As hard as I tried to ignore it and pass out, I couldn't. As I did last year when I was out here with Kaitz and like I did with my dad on our NCAA Regional trip to Anaheim, I slept on the floor of the bathroom. So needless to say it wasn't a long or a good nights sleep. Both Fritzer and Rafal left yesterday morning and I had to switch over to the Excalibur for work. Luckily, I could get into my room by 11:15, so I literally spent the day yesterday in bed watching hoops. Yes, I did get lunch and dinner, but I was so tired that I fell asleep at halftime of the KU/Texas game and woke up and realized I had missed 8 minutes of the second half. The good news was that KU won and are Big 12 Champions. We are going into the NCAA tournament with great momentum, winning 15 of 16 games. We got a pretty decent draw as well. The best part is that I am going to the Final Four with clients this year, so if we can somehow get in, I will be there all expenses paid.

I am here working over the next two days, seeing the large Casino's and meeting with their buyers. There is so much solid business potential out here, so I am hoping to help rope in another big fish like we did with Caesars Palace.

Before I put this up, I have to give thanks to Fritzer and Rafal for a great time this weekend. One of the best nights I've ever had in Vegas and it was much needed for all of us, especially Rafal, who's wife Jules is pregnant and has hyperemisis, which is a sickness that during pregnancy cannot be controlled. Poor Jules cannot keep any food down and throws up every day. She needs iv's weekly and doctors can only do so much to limit it, but can't stop it. Many times with this illness, it lasts throughout the entire pregnancy. That is why I know Rafal needed a night in Vegas like this. He works 6 days a week and then comes home and takes care of Jules. He was overdue. The good news is that their baby is doing well and she is due in July.

Song of the Day: "Naughty Girl" by Beyonce - heard it at Light on Saturday night and it is a jam.