SB Nation’s Andrew Sharp was in Vegas this weekend, and spent Super Bowl Sunday immersed in a casino sportsbook. He bet big on the Saints, riding a roller coaster of emotions that had him on cloud nine by night’s end. Not just because the Saints won, but because the Colts lost. More: Super Bowl 2012 coverage.
The Super Bowl At The Sportsbook, And Sweet Revenge In The City Of Sin
Las Vegas is a city where the rhythms of the place almost perfectly match the landscape. Deep, depressing valleys that seem to go on forever, and then out of nowhere, these majestic, skyscraping hotels that seem too good to be true. Emptiness and excess, side-by-side, a staging ground for dreams and desperation in equal measure.
We’re talking about gambling, of course. Ruminations of Nevada’s landscape aside, sit long enough at a blackjack table, and you’ll see the same neverending valleys and too-good-to-be-true, “I can’t believe my luck” peaks. Over and over again this happens. Every day, new tourists show up, and go through the same motions. Sweeping from high to low or, if they’re lucky, vice versa. Usually it’s amateurs like me that produce the most melodramatic swoons, but even from the grizzled Vegas veterans, you’ll see hiccups of giddiness or despair as they momentarily lose their poker face on a streak gone hot or cold. Peaks and valleys. It happens to everyone.
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