Reader Ward writes:

"I was in Vegas with some buddies last weekend [Halloween Weekend] and we saw this guy and his buddy playing craps at Caesars. This guys was pretty strong with the dice and we all won a bunch of $ off his throws. Later I saw him at the sports book placing a World Series bet. I thought the image was a classic."

Makes sense. I mean, you wouldn't go to the stadium without wearing the jersey of your favorite player, right? So why would you to Vegas without honoring and drawing inspiration from the legendary gamblers of our time? Unless this is actually Pete Rose Jr., in which case it's just sad.

I wonder if he apologized in advance for betting on baseball.

* * * * *

Has anything good ever happened on a Tuesday? Let's try to change that.

Sheldon Souray and Angelica Bridges divorced two years ago, and she received full custody of their two children. But the Edmonton defenseman has gone to court to argue that her showing her ta-tas in Vegas isn't the most stable single-parent situation for them.

Bridges debuted in "Fantasy: the Hottest Adult Revue for Couples" at the Luxor hotel this week. Souray went to a family court judge in Los Angeles to say their kids would be kept away from here as long as she continued to perform.

I've lived in New York with the children. I've visited Las Vegas two dozen times, and he never made a move like this. It's only because I landed a great show on the Strip, and he didn't want me to have any success or recognition. He's only using the kids to break me."

Bridges, who the kids have already seen nude if they've learned how to Google mommy, has temporarily quit the production until the legal situation is settled.

Exclusive: Fantasy Star Fights To Keep Kids And Return To Luxor Show [Vegas Deluxe]
[Pic courtesy of 25stanley.com]

We've pulled just a small teaser sample, but you should really go their website and see the whole thing. (Multimedia people!) It's rated NSFW for language and very brief partial nudity. If you need something more censored, there's some footage at ESPN.

The video shot by an unknown "guest" on February 19, 2007, shows Jones with his magical money backpack and GIANT stacks of one dollar bills. He makes it rain all right. About 50 strippers completely cover the dance floor, filling a bucket with the discarded singles. At one point, the music stops and producer Jermaine Dupri gets on the DJ mic to scold the dancers because they've stopped dancing in order to collect the loot. Then at the very end, the rapper Nelly appears, also playing rainmaker, realizes that he would prefer not be filmed and the cameraman stops rolling. It was shortly after this that the infamous brawl started.

So there you go. Real actual of footage of strip club rain. It does exist in nature.

Adam 'Pacman' Jones and the Minxx [Las Vegas Review Journal]
New video surfaces in Pacman case [ESPN]
Earlier: The "Pacman" Jones Strip Club Shooting Gets Its Warren Report [Deadspin]

It's been more than two years since the brawl and later shooting at the Minxx Strip Club during the NBA All-Star Weekend 2007. How time flies, right? The Review-Journal has done a through re-investigation (the Sun has a nice package on it too) of the whole matter and while parts two and three are not yet online, it's a fun trip down memory lane. While mostly a recap and clarification of all the conflicting reports, the story does have "interactive multimedia timelines" and they did add this charming picture of the famous "making it rain" incident that started the whole thing. (Was it really Pacman who popularized that lovely phrase or do I just wish it was?)

Some other highlights from the Iliad-like retelling:

Jones, dressed in a white jersey-style shirt and wearing a large gold chain supporting a medallion depicting the "Pacman" video game character, had walked into the club with about $100,000 in cash inside a Louis Vuitton backpack. He exchanged $40,000 of that with a club manager for singles. This was in preparation for the celebrities gathering on stage to toss money into the air and in the general direction of dancers — a practice in the nightclub world known as "making it rain."

OK, I'm going to stop you right there. $40,000 in singles? Try to imagine that for a second. Then remember that after throwing the money at strippers, Jones and Jermaine Dupri were annoyed that women actually tried to pick the cash up off the dance floor. So classless! That led to the brawl (Jones allegedly punched a dancer) and we move on....

[Aaron] Cudworth, a 265-pound bouncer, muscled his way through the crowd toward Jones, only to find himself face to face with Jones' bodyguard, Reid, who weighed 400 pounds.

Club manager George Petraski later told police: "The bodyguard, I don't know what the hell he was doing. He was holding Pacman like somebody was trying to assassinate him."

As Cudworth wrestled with Reid, Jones bit him in the ankle. A woman in Zab Judah's group then smashed a glass bottle over Cudworth's head.

In his fury, Cudworth started calling Jones a racial epithet, according to Jones and others who were with him.

"Once we got outside, he started running his mouth and saying, 'I'm going to shoot you. I'm going to shoot you,'" Cudworth told police. "He kept putting his hands in his pants pocket or up front down by his pants. ... I could distinctly say Pacman was the one who threatened to kill me."

So you're saying things got out of hand after the racial slurs? Odd. However, the trial of the alleged shooter, Arvin Kenti Edwards, was set to begin this week—hence the refresher course; I'm sure there will be more about him in parts two and three—but has been delayed until next year. In addition to three counts of attempted murder, Edwards is accused of trying to extort Jones to keep quiet about the shooting after the fact. Of course, that does not explain what allegedly transpired between the two men just before the shooting or why Jones just can't break his addiction to strip club violence. Or how this doesn't involve Vegas' notoriously corrupt strip club-based government.

"I think he doesn't make the best decisions at times," Horvath said. "I can tell the difference between somebody who's had a father figure in their life all the time and somebody who hasn't. And I don't know, man. I wish he would have had one."

A bad night at the Minxx during NBA weekends [Las Vegas Review Journal; parts II and III later this week]
Trial delayed for alleged gunman in 'Pacman' case - Las Vegas Sun [Las Vegas Sun]
NEWSPAPER UNCOVERS PICTURES OF PACMAN MAKING IT RAIN IN VEGAS STRIP CLUB THE NIGHT OF SHOOTING [The Sports Pig's Blog]
Also Helpful: Pacman Jones History [Esquire]

Jonathan Weaver of Las Vegas chose ... poorly. His girlfriend, Amy, had something stupid to do, like "school", but he wanted to watch Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday. (Actually, his original plan was a minor league baseball game, but the ball and chain vetoed that.) Left with two kids (ages 1 and 2) and desperate for sports action, Weaver tied the kids up in their car seats, bound their hands—so they would touch his tools; safety first!—tied rope around their necks, stuffed cloth in their mouth, and left the young boys in the garage. Then he went down to PT's Pub to watch the game—even though he's under 21 and shouldn't have been allowed in.

Police said Weaver didn't think leaving the children was a big deal "because they have had campouts inside" the garage.

Sure. That makes sense. Did I forget to mention that mom—who was not charged with attempted murder like SuperNanny was—is pregnant with Weaver's kid? Happy Father's Day!

Police: Child Abuse Suspect Didn't Want To Miss Game - Las Vegas News Story [KVVU]
Via: Bad Boyfriend Ties up Kids to Watch Game 3 of Finals [You Been Blinded]

Yes, the Las Vegas Pants Party is scheduled for October 18-22, and if people are able to avoid being mugged by O.J., it should be a grand time. We're not going to be able to make it — we will be here — but if the official blog for the event is to be trusted, we're gonna miss one heckuva time. If you're interested in attending, that's the place to go. A bunch of Deadspin readers in Vegas; what could possibly go wrong?

2007 West Coast Pants Party [WordPress]

Our favorite notion is that this weekend is somehow an "audition" for the city, that if nothing out of control happens over the weekend, Las Vegas could prove it could have a team. This seems particularly specious; All-Star Weekend is hardly the ideal control group. We think we speak for everyone when we say we'll be actively disappointed if some lunacy doesn't happen this weekend, and if it does, that shouldn't stop anybody from kicking the sleeping dog and putting a team in Vegas. We still think Jordan should move the Bobcats there.

Las Vegas Readies Its Audition [True Hoop]
NBA All-Stars Receive Top Billing And Building In Las Vegas [SportsByBrooks]
David Stern Is Full Of Shit [The Feed]

So, Saturday morning, we woke up, full of enthusiasm for a beautiful New York City afternoon, and we checked our email. There were, strangely, 211 new email messages; that's a lot for a weekend. We weren't sure what we'd missed; did Carl Monday do a story on Fred Smoot or something?

Nope: Instead, we had the most insane, bizarre and hysterical "You're With Me, Leather" mention yet. On the NBC show "Las Vegas," a show we have never seen but feel a sudden urge to start watching now, the characters not only referenced "You're With Me, Leather," they actually recreated the circumstances behind the apocryphal tale. It's amazing in every conceivable way.

You really have to see it to believe it. It's not on YouTube, but, frankly, we think the show has earned the right to make us go to the NBC site and watch the full episode. If you're not up for watching the whole show, you can skip to "The Story of Owe - Part Three" and fast forward to the 1:30 left mark. We guarantee you will not be disappointed.

"Las Vegas" [NBC.com]
"He Could ... Go ... All .. The ... Way [Deadspin]
You're With Me, Leather T-Shirt [Gawker Shop]

Spotted: The NBA's Kenyon Martin, Gary Payton and Marcus Banks, surrounded by ice buckets of Cristal champagne at OPM (Forum Shops at Caesars) on Friday, while putting in early reservations to hold their 2007 NBA All-Star Game after-party at the club.

Sightings [Las Vegas Review Journal]