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Back in April I happened to be in Las Vegas on the day the Hilton SuperBook released the lines for Week 1 of the NFL season. It was serendipity, really. No one else in Vegas had posted NFL spreads yet because, you know, the calendar said it was spring. And the Hilton guys didn't make a big deal of it. I don't even think they posted the news on Twitter. They just threw some betting sheets into a bin and waited for the crowds to arrive.

And they did.

Within an hour, every sheet -- about 500 of them -- had been swiped. But, lucky for me, no one had made a bet yet. Which is how I became the first bettor on the 2009 NFL season.

I took the Chicago Bears plus-3 against the Green Bay Packers. For $20. This was before "the trade that changed the Bears forever." So now that measly $20 ticket hangs on the wall facing my cubicle, mocking me, reminding me that I lack the liver of my current favorite gambler, Phil Ivey, who probably uses $20 bills to wipe down tables on his private jet. (Topps should put out a "great gamblers" trading card line. Collect Phil Ivey and Alan Boston and trade among your friends. Parents would love it!)

In the four months since the Hilton's bookmaker boss Jay Kornegay and his crew put out their lines, NFL players have been released, signed, drafted, traded, arrested, jailed and injured. They have retired, unretired, held out and been suspended. In other words, the Hilton gang was partially blind when they did their work. And now the wise guys can see.

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