There is nothing more insane than the first weekend of March Madness.  Seemingly tens of thousands of people (almost exclusively men) descend upon Vegas for a smorgasbord of basketball, booze and b… umm fine dining?  Well that’s what we do anyways and this year was by far the best.

44, Hollywood and myself head off to Paris for what looks to be a great weekend of sports betting.  We had a few great meals, some crazy parlays, and no luck at the black jack tables.  This only tells half of the story.  So let’s get into it shall we?

The flight in was a good one.  44 was able to get on my flight out so we basically spent the time game planning.  Now every year 44 claims that he has done some “research” and has the answers to what ails us, namely poor betting.  Well this year we go in a total different direction, we want professional help.  Once airborne, 44 breaks out his trusty laptop and proceeds to search for a handicapper that we can believe in.  This may seem strange, but we were looking for a guy who had a good story, one that we could relate to, believe in, basically a smarter version of ourselves.  We found one in Keith Fredrick.

Keith seemed like a good guy who has been having tremendous success and we were hoping to jump on the train ourselves.  This was a critical addition to our normal pre tourney banter of, “who has seen X play”? and “where is school X even located?”  You can see that we needed the help.

44 and I get to Paris and look forward to setting up shop there.  A couple of years back they had turned their theater into a defacto MM put complete with huge big screen TV’s, food, and a mobile sportsbook.  This is critical since the first games are early and we will probably need to roll out of bed to place our first bets.  Standing in line to check in we over heard a couple of guys (not hard actually since they were screaming) lamenting the fact that Paris has sold out this year and has booked a conference this year so there will be no MM seating in the theater.  This poses a slight problem since we were looking to have our early action local, but you roll with the punches.

We get settled in and go grab a quick bite next door at the Mexican restaurant in front of Planet Hollywood.  There 44 spots a sign that says that Planet Hollywood has a huge viewing area for the tourney on the “Mezz”, so after lunch we bounce to check it out.

The “Mezz” is great.  There are 8 huge projection screens set up with a ton of betting stations.  This is mint since we are right next door and can make this happen with no problem.  Now we just wait for Hollywood’s arrival and we are set.

Day one ends with more anticipation than excitement as the only black jack session we have nets me a couple of hundred bucks and spanks 44 for six.  So we head back to home base and regroup for tomorrow will most certainly be epic.

So I have resisted posting about the upcoming NBA finals mainly because I have had no time to really sit down and do it justice.  But since Lori and I are going to Vegas tomorrow for the WSOP, it seems appropriate to talk about it mainly because I have the opportunity to wager on it for the first time.

Basically I have loved the Lakers since I was about 9 years old.  When you pick your favorite team as a child, that’s pretty much it.  I have known, followed, agonized, rejoiced, suffered, and just plain love the Lakers for over 20 years.  I can remember doing the “sky hook” with rolled up socks hitting my little brother in the head like about a million times as a kid.  Good Times.  It’s pretty insane considering I could have held on to my love of all things Ninja at around that same time; but once you discover girls in middle school, Ninjas no longer seem relevant.

But the Lakers have always been relevant, in some way shape or form, for most of my life so them being in the finals is always a good thing.  I really think that the Lakers have the deeper team and should win it in 6.  Which would be extra special seeing how they are the only team to have ever won a title on Boston’s home floor (85’ which was the first year for this 2-3-2 format; just dumb really).

The Forum Blue & Gold is my favorite place to go when I am looking for the down low on the Lake Show.  They have been doing it since 04’ and it’s hands down the best blog out there on the Lakers.  I highly recommend it if you can somehow pry yourself away from this blog, haha.

We are flying in to Vegas tomorrow late, so of course I am going to miss Game 1.  However I think that if I am going to put any money on the series it would be Game 2.  The Lakers should be underdogs and I can just bet them to win.  I can not even think about betting them as the favorites at home and then they somehow win but not cover.  I would rather them just win.

I have no clue what the point spreads are, but I will be in the Venetian for the first 4 days so I will check out what they got.  We will finish up at the Rio, but my mind won’t wonder far from the prospects of LA bringing home another title.  Especially at the expense of the Celtics! 

Vegas Here We Come!