A Tradition Unlike Any Other....

Hello friends, before we get to today's Vegas recap let me bring in my good friend and colleague Lanny Watkins.

Vegas 2007
All in all another successful trip. I think the mix of old cagey veterans (Derek, Eric, Don, Micah, Wiz) with a couple rookies (Mike, Kevin, Saran) made the weekend a great time for everyone. Leland was missed and everyone is looking for a triumphant return in 2008.

I will post my highlights by day trying to remember the highlights. Let me know if I missed anything. This is just my account so I'm sure I missed a ton of stuff.

Wednesday Night
Arrive at Mirage around 11pm thanks to Derek picking Eric, Micah, and myself up and avoiding the three hour cab line.
Throw bags in room, head straight to tables. Derek and Micah play pai gow and I watch hoping a position opens. However, after standing for 10 minutes and watching other people gamble, I can't take it anymore and need some action. I tell the guys I'm going to "tour" the casino but stumble across an open $50 BJ table. Bottom line, after 10 minutes, down $1K. I walk back to the pai gow table and tell the guys what happened then proceed to a $100 BJ table. Bottom line, after 15 minutes down another $1K. So after approximately 30 minutes in the Mirage I'm already out 40% of my stash for the weekend. Talk about an uphill climb, I felt like the mountain climber from the famous Price is Right game Cliffhanger about to go over the edge. Biggest kick in the nuts was when I played a $400 hand of BJ got dealt 10 to the dealer's six up card. I doubled down and got a face card for 20. Dealer turns over a 10 for 16 and I'm feeling pretty good until the dreaded five comes out. Ouch! Off to bed, Thursday has to be better.

Thursday
Maybe it was a dream? Could last night have been that bad? This is what I thought when I woke up on Thursday morning. After checking my bankroll and realizing it was not a dream, I'm excited about playing golf today and getting away from the casino for awhile. Micah and I head down to the world famous Mirage buffet where we stuff ourselves from anything to cottage cheese to sausage gravy to chocolate croissants. After breakfast we all put our bets in on Thursday's college games. I loved the Terps and so did everybody else in our group. Derek heads over to Caesars Palace to meet Dick (work friend) so all of us decide to join him to watch the Terps game. This was a great time since everybody had some sort of action on the Terps so we were in unison rooting for them. (Side note: CP sucks, long lines to bet on games + $7 Coronas) MD doesn't score for the first 4:30 of the second half and are down nine. Everybody is laying 7.5 so its not looking good. MD storms back and somehow covers, we were dancing around CP like little kids. (Another side note: Derek was playing video poker but Eric and myself somehow took over the machine from him, while playing with his money we decided to play the "double down" bet which means you have a chance to double your winnings if you pick a card higher than the dealers. We hit a straight and decide to go for the "double down" bet. Dealer's card is a King, we are dejected. Somehow Eric picks the Ace and again we celebrate like we won a million dollars when in reality it was $2.25)

Leave CP and head out to play golf with Don, Eric, Mike (great addition to the weekend) and myself. Play Bear's Best a new course which was very average. Don and I take on Eric and Mike. Don and I destroy these clowns on the front and are laughing about how easy this is going to be when all of a sudden these guys (Mike played great, Eric drove the cart great) turn their games on and killed us on the back. We lose $5 a piece.

After golf, we head back to the Mirage to get cleaned up and watch the remainder of the games. Overall a great day of sports betting for me since MD won and Vandy won. My only two bets of the day. (Side note: Gus Johnson should call every game in the tournament, his call in the OSU game was legendary) Dinner is at Meas Grill in CP. We have eaten there many times and I'm excited since I know Don is paying for dinner since he will lose credit card roulette. Dinner is fantastic and the conversation revolves around tomorrow's games and the pending ladies games to start on Saturday. I tell the table that my lock of the weekend is the Lady Huskies laying 48 to the Lady Retrievers of UMBC. UMBC went 16-16 overall and only 6-10 in their conference. Could be a bloodbath. I also overheard this conversation take place at the table as well.

Eric: "Derek, what do you know about the UC Riverside ladies team?"
Derek (without hesitation): "Great rebounding team"
Gotta love this trip.

After dinner (oh yeah, one sour note, is that we didn't play CC roulette after dinner, Derek seemed the most upset as he stormed off) we head back to the Mirage for some late night pai gow with John. John asks me where my buddy is (referring to Leland). I tell him he couldn't make it this year and John is actually upset/concerned almost like a father. Very heartwarming!
Make some cash playing pai gow and called it a night since we have a 7:40 tee time tomorrow.

Friday
Alarm goes off at 6:30, ouch! Stumble over to Royal Links with Eric driving directly looking into the sun the whole way. It was like entering the abyss. Royal Links, wasn't expecting much but was completely wrong. Great course, great service, would absolutely play it again. Same teams as Thursday and today Don brought his "A" game. Four or five birdies later and those chumps were paying up. Thank god for pagers/Blackberry's. We could keep track of every game and every play actually throughout the day.

Head back to the Mirage. Derek decides to go over to Red Rock with Eric and Mike. I decide I need to relax so I go to the pool and schedule a massage for 5pm. Pool scene: A+ I've never seen such a show. Thongs, 20 year old's, you name it, it was there. I tried to get into Bare, the Mirage's new topless, excuse me, "European Bathing" pool and bar. I tried to walk right through but the bouncer stopped me and we had this conversation.

Bouncer: "Excuse me sir, are you on the list?"
Me: "Um yeah"
Bouncer: "Under what name sir?"
Me: "I'm with the Leland Owens party."
Bouncer: "I don't see him on the list."
Me: "Oh I'm sure he is there, big time here."
Bouncer: "Sir, I don't see him"
Me: "Oh maybe he decided not to come"

After the pool went to the spa about an hour before my massage. Great place to hangout. They have a great set up with a huge TV with all the games, beverage service and snacks. Massage was ok, my masseuse was not attractive and my massage did not have a happy ending, except that when I was done I found out Texas covered.

Friday night everybody did their own thing. Micah and I went over to Chipolte for dinner then ended up playing poker. I played for about three hours, losing six dollars, then decided to go see John. Eric met up with me and we played pai gow for another three hours. Great time, Eric and I were playing with this asshole who we dubbed Morty/Shlomo/Irving, just a real ass that every time he opened his mouth we hated him more. John and I relived some good Vegas stories such as when this chick playing pai gow told us her profession was to jerk horses off. Only in Vegas. I did get Eric to play a $100 hand of pai gow which he was promptly dealt pai gow and mumbled something along the lines of, "Wiz, now I know why you are Derek can't be alone together!" Eric decided to go to bed and I was going to as well but on my way upstairs I heard a hot craps table with a semi-hot chick rolling. The problem was that it was a $25 craps table. Oh well, I put $50 on the pass and backed it with max odds, $250. Didn't play anything else. Point is eight, first roll......SEVEN. OK bad luck, same thing, different roller, point is nine. First roll, eight, second roll....SEVEN. After blowing $1K, I wish I would have gone up with Eric.

Saturday
Best day of the trip. We all decided to take a trip downtown for the games. Derek was doing his roto baseball draft so he would join us later. Jump in a cab around 10ish and head to the Golden Nugget. I was very surprised! They took two conference rooms and turned them into mini-sports books for the tournament. Great idea. They had bars and food and even a teller to take bets. Mirage should do something like this. After watching MD lose (which I had $1,500 on them with the money line) and Micah break his toe after he kicked a chair, we headed downstairs to play some $5 craps. What can happen at a $5 craps table? Well we all got smoked. Somehow I blew through three or four hundred playing five dollar craps. Watched the end of the OSU/Xavier game with an incredible Gus Johnson call that Derek said the roars could be heard all the way up in our room from the sports book.

Then we decided to play some poolside pai gow, yes poolside. Great idea by the Nugget. $5 pai gow at the pool! We took over the whole table and played for approximately 6 hours. It got hot as shit at one point when the sun was on us and Derek was playing in a wife beater. One of the dealers, from Poland, was smokin hot! We each drank about 10-15 strawberry daiquiris (w/vodka, not rum) and either were somewhat drunk or all had sugar highs. Great scene, with some hot chicks, great music and pai gow what more do you want in life? We actually got reprimanded a couple of times for yelling too loud. How is this possible at a pool? Oh yeah, the best part about the pai gow was the community dragon where everybody can play the dragon hand. Great idea! Another twist the Mirage should use. Around 8ish we decide to grab some dinner at the Noodle House. Great meal. Over dinner we discuss our pending bet with the Lady Boilermakers that is about to tip off. We have $275 between the five of us on the Lady Boilermakers -28.5 due to a tip that Don had. Well they didn't cover. Fuck Don! Fuck his Purdue teams! We wander over to Binon's and again play some $5 craps. What a scene. One dealer looks like he is homeless, the other dealer weights 500lbs. I almost threw up. Again we all got smoked. The only time we made any money was when Derek and I played the don't pass whenever I rolled. Derek started celebrating when I rolled a seven and I thought we might get shot. Good times. Bottom line: downtown trip cost us all over $1K.

Head back to the Mirage around 10ish. I want to go to bed since I have an early flight but Derek convinces (wasn't hard) me to go play some $50 BJ. Roy, a lanky man, was our dealer. He made fun of Derek and I as we continuously yelled we want back door action. Fuck him! Well finally the trip turned positive as I got on a ridiculous run and won 14 hands in a row. Derek, well he struggled at first, but came on strong at the end. I could see the wheels turning in his head as my chip count grew and he was grinding it out. Mentally he was thinking what the fuck is going on here. I walked away turning $350 into $2,100. Not bad, but after the hole I dug it only made a dent. After I cashed out Derek then got on a ridiculous run and destroyed Roy. Good times, great dealer. He mentioned that I should have been pressing my bets more and that by the end of that run I should have been playing $10K hands. I would have been throwing up. Derek said he would have to leave the table if I played $10K hands.

The good thing about the Mirage is this new Revolutions nightclub which is themed after the Beatles. Well they have these hot chicks that dance outside the club trying to get people to come in. As Derek and I played BJ with Eric watching we wondered how much money it would take for Eric to go dance with these chicks. Bottom line, he wouldn't do it but that thought sticks with me and a laugh every time I think about that. After we get done playing BJ, we head up to the room. Derek is halfway in bed and all of a sudden gets up and just blurts out, "I have to go back downstairs and play more BJ!" and rolls out.

Sunday
Early flight but the lines at McCarran weren't bad at all. My flight is delayed about 30 minutes so I drop $150 on the Wheel with only getting one fucking spin! That summed up my trip right there.

Conclusion
Unbelievable time. Can't wait till next year and the return of Mr. Owens. Just hope he keeps his reservation at Bare this time! March 19-23, 2008!!!!!!!!!!!