Super Bowl Antics

Recently, I've taken to spending Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas ... for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's fun watching the game in a huge banquet hall with hundreds of fans. Second, it's a way to place a legal wager on the game, which makes it all the more interesting to watch and cheer.

Finally, well, heck, it's fun!

I've been to Las Vegas "Big Game" (Super Bowl) parties where you pay your money (about a hunnert bucks or so) and sit in a smaller lounge with a large flat screen, and an all-you-can-eat buffet. Those are nice, they toss t-shirts into the audience and you usually leave with a bunch of goodies afterwards.

I've also been to several free ones, especially at The Tuscany (off strip on Flamingo Boulevard, across from Lawry's The Prime Rib). But I've never been to the one at the South Point Casino 'way out there, about five miles south of The Mandalay on the Las Vegas Strip.

So I decided to try that one this year. I got there at about five minutes to 2 p.m. on Super Sunday, just before the doors were supposed to open. It took me a few minutes to walk to the venue, and when I got there, lo-and-behold, they had five ballrooms open.

Game watchers at the South Point Resort & Casino

I checked the first ... full to the gills. I checked the second ... jam-packed. I checked the third ... same thing. Finally I checked the double-sized one ... incredibly packed, with people standing, people sitting on tables, and people sitting against the walls. Same with the last one.

And the TV monitors looked so small. Not a good sign. I asked around, but all the empty seats were saved for guests who had gone to the casino to gamble until the game started. Nary a seat to be had.

When I first got there, I almost bought my snacks and drinks before finding a seat. Good thing I didn't, or I'd be standing there holding my grub with no place to eat it. If I had three hands, I'd have a beer in one, a plate of hotdogs in the second, and would be sucking the thumb on my third hand.

Well hell. I gave up, jumped back in the car and drove back toward the Strip to the one place I'd been to before – The Tuscany.

Super Bowl at The Tuscany

Ah, it was like being home again. Plenty of seating, room divided into the Giants side and the Patriots side, food stations with $2 hotdogs, $3 hamburgers, $3 chili nachos, and all the $2 beer you can drink.

What I like about The Tuscany is that they have two large screens on each side, one helluva sound system, tables and rows of seats. During time-outs, they have drawings and give away cases of beer, beer coolers, and beer-related clothes (all donated by their beer sponsor of the year). No goodie bag this year, though, so no keychains, bottle openers, magnets, tee shirts and baseball caps. Shucks.

But that’s okay. I got to act like a fool in the midst of hundreds of strangers who were acting just as foolish as I was. I had a ball … and I won too!

Guess where I’m going next Super Bowl Sunday.