UMBC Alum Sprinkles Some Dough On His Alma Mater, Cashes In On Virginia’s Pain

Dent8 years ago

Have you ever had a string of events happen in your life that can only be explained by the presence of pure unadulterated luck? Me neither. But Eric Barger, an airline employee from Washington, D.C., is someone we all can live vicariously through after he somehow convinced his buddies to throw away money at the impossible.

From ESPN:

Eric Barger bet $800 at The Venetian in Las Vegas that the Retrievers would beat the Cavaliers, even though No. 16 seeds had gone 0-for-135 against No. 1 seeds in the men’s tournament.

“I go with my boys to Vegas every tournament, and we did pretty well on Thursday,” Barger said. “Me and my buddy Dan went to UMBC, so we spent all day talking up how much we were going to bet.”

The $800 was arrived at after the traveling group of eight men put in $100 each.

This is just the perfect storm. First, Eric makes plans for a boys trip to Vegas for March Madness. Plans that we can only assume were made before he knew his school was going to be in the damn thing. They do, for only the second time in school history. He then comes up with the genius idea to coerce his friends into making a very ill-advised wager. They then go into some other dimension and that awful idea somehow pans out perfectly when a 16 seed destroys the best team in the country. An unfathomable slip cashed in at the ticket window. Almost 17 large.

But Eric and his squad didn’t just pack it in and call it quits while they were ahead. Not with Lady Luck draped over their arm. They escorted that broad on out of the sportsbook and over to the other side of the casino to hit the tables.

In typical Vegas style, Barger said each of the eight men took $200 and put that down on a single game of roulette. Their number hit for another $1,900, which was split again.

Throwing their winnings back in on a singular number in roulette? I’ve only seen that maneuver work one time before, and it was on a freaking TV show. Shouts to the weirdest episode of The Sopranos. You know when Tony heads to Vegas after [spoiler]’s death and meets that stripper who gives him peyote? Real fans know about it.

Their weekend only got better from there.

On Saturday, Barger said he went to play golf at Spanish Trail Country Club in Vegas.

“I shot a 37 on the back nine, and I’m not even that good,” he said.

That might be the most impressive part of the whole trip. Money comes and goes, but being able to rub in that one unbelievable golf round to your buddies is something that will live on forever. Love the subtlety of the humblebrag, too.

A streak like this was bound to require a heat check at some point, and unfortunately for Eric his beloved Retrievers couldn’t pull out the dub over Kansas State on Sunday Night. But still, what a few days. I mean how many people do you know that go to Vegas and come out the other side as happy as this guy?

Witnessing luck to this degree is the reason people like me gamble. We continue to parlay and pray just hoping that major upset finally hits. So while I can admire this story, I guess what I’d really like to say is thanks a lot, jackass. I was just starting to get sick of chasing that dragon. Now excuse me while I go put $1000 on FAU and the Lane Train to win it all next fall..

[via ESPN]

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