We watched the first day of the NCAA tournament at the Hilton in a 1500 person theater with five giant projection TVs, one of which in HD. Sixteen basketball games (most notably a WVU win), six beers, and four hot dogs all add up to a good time. We even made a buddy: Gene.

Gene was probably in his 40’s, had a pretty solid gut, and an all-around dopey look, nicely accented by the gap in his teeth. After Gene lumbered into his seat and talked to Anand for a couple minutes, I was convinced (wrongly) that he was hammered. He talked loudly, overly enthusiastically, in a very drunken, not-quite-there manner, and repeated himself. He told Anand all about his two bets, in detail, twice. The first was a 121$ straight bet on Kansas, to win by 23, which is normal enough. The second was a bet for all of his money, over 5000$, on the Kansas money line, where the sports book balances the odds with varying payouts instead of the point spreads. Since Kansas was so heavily favored, for every 80$ of Gene’s bet, he would win 1$. Seems like a lot of money to risk to win 60$, but no #16 seed seed has ever beaten a #1 seed and Kansas won easily.

Gene got his payout for the big bet, and when he came back to his seat he told us that he immediately put every cent of it on the Duke money line against Belmont. This was a game that Anand, who picked Belmont in his bracket, had been calling a potential upset all week. #15 seeds have beaten #2’s before, and Duke was considered a weak #2. Gene has $5,409, every bit of his money, on a bet that could very possibly lose and will only pay out 1.6 cents to the dollar. Oh well, it would only be money…

Then Anand asked Gene what he did:

“I was in construction, but now I’m on mental disability.”

Makes sense.

“I have bipolar disorder, manic depression, and problems with suicide.”

Uh oh.

“I’m not able to find anything that makes me happy anymore. The only thing is winning sports bets, and you cant do that every time”

Oh god.

If you can ever watch a basketball game while sitting beside a bipolar, suicidal man who has his life savings wagered on it, I highly recommend it. Adds quite the dynamic. Despite spending two years at Duke and usually pulling for them, I had wanted a Belmont win to clear the path for WVU’s Sweet 16 run. Not anymore! Not with a man’s life at stake! Our dopey, talkative friend got really quiet as Belmont came back and took the lead. He could only have felt worse when the radio station host of the event got on the loudspeaker and led all the Duke-Haters (there were many) in a Belmont chant. There were a mere 20 seconds left until disaster, but Duke had the ball and Gerald Henderson’s shot pulled his school and our buddy Gene out of the fire. Gene won 90$. Congrats.

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