All of these things ran through my head as my red-eye flight landed at the Dulles Airport at 7am on Saturday morning. I just spent the college tuition of my first born son on a 32 hour balls-to-the-wall trip to Las Vegas. I am sure most of you have experienced the madness before, but for me, it was my first go with Sin City. 32 hours, and every minute was a "carpe diem" moment. I had to get my money's worth. Sweet Sixteen basketball. Sportsbook. Craps. Blackjack. Slots. All of it, so much to take in.

So I sat there, in seat 11D, waiting to stumble off the plane, thumbing through the remains of my wallet, trying to figure out where it all went. I hit rewind and found myself just a day and half earlier in a line for a taxi cab on my cell phone with Plunk, just minutes from the first tip of Thursday games:

"Give me Xavier plus 1 vs. West Virginia for $50."

The cab arrived, and I began my ride to the Venetian, I was already hooked. I called Plunk right back, "Give me the over in each game for $25 each, too."

As I settled into the hotel and made my way down to the sportsbook to assess the damage, I found Xavier and WVU in a close game, but WVU staying way too close for my comfort level. As the game went down to the wire, I found myself inching closer to the over/under at 136 points. Next thing I know, overtime. Overtime?! What does that do to my bets? The entire book asked the same question. Ends up, all bets stay alive until the final whistle. Great news for me. Xavier pulls out the win, and my cover gets hit. Plus $75. UNC wins big, but a slow start kills my over bet, down to plus $50.

Quick run at the craps table, big wins. Plunk rolls for 10 minutes solid and wins the table about $300/person, while somehow losing himself $50....hilarious difference in moods when we all walked away. Plus $350. Feel bad that Plunk just lost $50, and don't want to hear him complain about how he won me the money, throw him a two $25 chips. Plus $300.

Second round of games are up, I want a more action and bet smaller amounts: $20 on Louisville -1 in the first half (plus $20), $10 Tennesee +3 (lose, plus $10), $20 parlay under for Louis/Tenn and UCLA/WKU (lose, down $10), $10 WKU +8 in the first half (lose, down $20). Plus $280 to date, not a bad start.

Next craps table, a real grinder as I stand for close to an hour and find a way to win another $100. Plus $380. There is always that moment in retrospect you wished that you had just walked away. This was my moment. I never see plus numbers again.

From here on out, I am not going to disclose my losses. But lets just say the craps tables went cold, or my betting did, or both. What started as a nice hot streak, became a very painful first trip to Vegas. I knew I needed to step away when in the middle of the downfall, my phone beeped to remind me that it was payday. Too much temptation, luckily I walked away without dipping into any savings accounts, and $300 in my pocket.

Plunk and I bet enough to have fun, but not enough where we could lose anything of value to us. The rest of our crew? Not the same mindset. There were those that maxed out withdrawal limits. Those that had to visit actual Wells Fargo branches. Those that even dipped into 401K savings. When I feel bad about my losses, I just think about those guys, and I feel a little bit better.
What about Plunk? Well, his luck was a little hotter than mine, and he found some serious wealth in the Sportsbook:

took WV-1 and lost ...$30

took UNC -8.5 and won ...$25

took WKU +12.5 and covered ...$50

took Tenn +3. and lost ..$25

took Wis +4.5 and lost ...$25

took Texas -2 and covered ...$100

took Kansas -12.5 and cov......$50

took memphis -4.5 and covered ...$100

Plus $245 from Sweet Sixteen

took UNC -6.5 vs Louis and won...$100

took UNC/Louis under 154 and lost...$50

took UCLA -6 vs. Xavier and won...$100

took UCLA/X over 131 and won...$25

Plus $175 on Elite Eight

Plunk = Plus $420 total at the Sportsbook.

Plunk still hasn't disclosed his overall winnings/losses from the entire trip, but I think he did okay for himself. He almost lost everone of his Elite Eight bets though. In a Vegas stupor, he made almost $300 in bets, sat the slips down on a table, dropped a $100 bill on the ground and walked away. Luckily he had some friends with him that covered his back, or it would have been a much different weekend for ole Bobble Head.

Not a good story? Probably not, but it gives you a view into the confusion that is the Plunk. If you are still thirsty for more (I doubt that you are), this one isn't may be a little better:

Late Friday night our entire crew found itself on Freemont Street at Mermaids participating in a little slot machine tournament. Plunk didn't have a slot machine, and a drunk homeless man was passed out on a machine. What did Plunk do? He called security and had the bum dragged out of the casino....literallly. Belly up, on his arse, dragged straight out of the casino, all so he could put a $20 bill in a slot machine and get free drinks. Well done, Plunk. Well done.