I Want to Play Blackjack With Anthony Kim

Anthony Kim is a 25-year-old three-time PGA Tour winner with a reputation as a partier. Remember him staying out til 3:30am at the Presidents Cup in San Francisco? And then administering a beating to Robert Allenby that got him in a fuss until the PGA Tour made him apologize publicly? He's such a rebel, that Anthony Kim - James Dean wishes he could be AK.

Really, he's not, though. He's a 25-year-old guy who does what a lot of them do: party, drink, and gamble. Example A? Me. Yeah, I'm 27, but I have been to Vegas almost a handful of times since I turned 21 for that very reason. My bachelor party was there. I had a blast. I have friends there. I also played quite a bit of blackjack.

Blackjack, for the unaware, is a game of chance in which players try to beat the dealer - "the house" - in a race to 21 by adding up the values of cards. Players wager on their ability to do so in each hand. It's quite exhilerating, really. Usually, it draws a lot of hooting and hollaring. Then add in that some casinos have "party pits" in which scantily clad women throw beads off of a stage and, well, you can see how this much become a rambunctious activity.

Re-enter Anthony Kim. He's in Vegas for the Timberlake and on Monday, a pro golfer's off day, went out with Phil Ivey to gamble. It got a little rowdy - so rowdy that Norm Clarke of the Vegas paper (a) recognized the guy and (b) wrote six paragraphs about AK drinking and cussing up a storm.

Let's sum it up: "His salty language and screaming was so bad that Kim, 25, was asked to tone it down Monday by Bellagio management."

Now, I want to play blackjack with Anthony Kim. He would make a great anti-MIT blackjack team member. There is nothing more boring than a quiet blackjack table. There's nothing more depressing than walking into a Native American casino just miles from Lambeau Field and play 21 with five other guys who look like they just went on a Neil Young bender. Booze, chatter, and fun - that's what makes blackjack great. (The losing makes it painful.)

When I go on heaters or coolers at the table - runs in either direction - I can get a little chatty. I've seen guys have outbursts probably 100 times worse than whatever Anthony Kim said or did, and the dealer and pit boss took it with a grain of salt. Booze plus gambling means strange things are done and said.

Just ask the lady at the table I played at the Borgata once. You know, the one with the voodoo doll for the dealer, who screamed "monkey!" after every card.

Bottom line, AK has had a roller coaster year - a big win after a tough '09, a bigger letdown to have to undergo thumb surgery, and the biggest letdown in not making the Ryder Cup team. Seems like the blackjack table is very fitting for him. Keep a seat warm for me, AK.