Smart Baccarat

Saturday May 5th
FIGHT NIGHT !!!
DE LA HOYA VS. MAYWEATHER
THE WORLD AWAITS MGM Grand Garden Arena

On Saturday morning, we woke a bit later than we usually do, and just relaxed for a while. We went to the Diamond lounge for our morning coffee and champagne. Also had a bit of fruit and shared a croissant for breakfast in the lounge. This was Kentucky Derby morning, so I had to spend a bit of time deciding on my bets for the derby. In addition, I had to decide on how much I was going to bet on De La Hoya. We caught a late lunch with Marcie and Nathan at Sao Paulo Café and then went to the sports book to watch the derby.

The vibe in the RIO sports book was great, and we really enjoyed watching surrounded by a bunch of screaming people. Took the shuttle over to Paris, since I needed to meet a messenger from the ticket agency to pick up my fight seats. This was a bit of a James Bond scenario, with my friend giving the number to her contact, and him calling me to arrange the meet with another contact to pick up the tickets. Anyway, I was so excited, and the meet went very smoothly. I debated the prospect of selling the seats (since we could have probably gotten around $2,000 each), but folks worked very hard for me to be at the fight. Though, I have to admit that $4,000 ++ in extra bankroll was very tempting. Ellen and Marcie went off to have dinner at Nobu at Hard Rock followed by the performance of Le Reve at Wynn Las Vegas.

I went back to the RIO to relax a bit and take a nice shower and prepare for the fight. I decided to wear my back velvet jacket, true religion jeans and a juicy t-shirt along with my black suede puma sneakers. I forgot my bling, though, I don’t really have any real flashy bling. Nathan was dressed a bit more conservative than me --- but, he had at least the watch bling going on. I just LOVE his Rolex, and the blue face is just so sharp. I really want that watch. He let me wear it one night on the Queen Mary 2, and it is just an awesome timepiece. Nothing like rolling the dice with a $10,000 watch on your wrist. I think if I am going to continue to attend major fights, I really need to get myself some substantial bling.

I got over to MGM around 6:30PM, and just wandered around a bit and waited for Nathan outside (and enjoyed the great people watching and ticket sales transactions going on). We walked over the the MGM Garden and had no problems getting in right away. Everything was very organized, and they had metal detectors set up for security, as well as a number of MGM security folks wanding folks to double check for metallic objects. The security presence was enhanced by the very visible anti-gang units of the Las Vegas police department. We had a bit of time, and purchased shirts and programs. We got to our seat around the 6th round of the final under card fight. The seats were centered perfectly, though a bit higher than I had been in last year for Judah vs Mayweather. The angle was perfect, and had nothing blocking our view. My joke, was that we were sitting in $1,000 nose-bleed seats (the face value of the ticks was $1,000 + $40 service charge). I had given up my much better single seat (provided by HBO) to get 2 seats. While it would have been nice to sit in the VIP section, I still prefer to share an event like this with a friend. IMHO, it just makes things that much more memorable.

It took forever to announce all the stars; and we got to get a peak at a few of them (Nicolson, De Caprio, Lopez, Tom Jones, Michael J Fox, 50 cent, Senator John McCain etc etc etc). They proceeded to do both the Mexican and American national anthems (sung by Mark Anthony). I don’t know how to truly express how awesome the fight was. By the 6th round, it was seriously looking like De La Hoya might just pull off a win by decision --- AMAZING. While I wanted (and bet on) De La Hoya to win, in my heart of hearts, I really thought that he was out classed by Floyd. Well, he absolutely wasn’t. I was so glad to see Mayweather put into his place after all of his trash talking over the past few weeks. Yeah, Floyd won the fight, but it was by no means a blow out; and considering everything, he was just not that impressive. The icing on the cake was the split decision, and we all know that is going to haunt Mayweather.

Now, after you have gone to probably one of the biggest fights, you really need a superb place to dine. I made a 10PM post-fight dinner reservation at SHIBUYA @ MGM grand. We got there just on time, and were seated very promptly. Our waiter Matt was awesome, and started off with his suggestion for a carafe of sake and some San Pellegrino sparkling water. We ordered a number of cold plates which included the incredible toro with beluga caviar and gold shavings on top (yes, it is real gold… I asked). The mushroom salad was orgasmic good, like I remembered from January. Incredible fresh yellowtail with an awesome marinade.

We finished off our selection of Sashimi with Uni (Sea Urchin) topped off with raw quail egg (one of my favorite yummy yummy wake up your senses foods). Skipped dessert, but had a lovely soothing tea. Ahhh…. What an awesome way to finish the evening.

We walked around MGM a bit, and got to see (only 2 feet away) Mayweather Senior (he was joking and taking pictures with folks off the casino floor). We walked over to Luxor and met up with the girls. We did our final goodbyes since Marcie and Nathan were leaving on an AM flight on Sunday morning. Got to bed on the early side (early side = before 3AM) again, and no late night gaming (once again).