This was last week. Do you wonder how carpeted floors could be considered cleaner than uncarpeted?

"The World Series of Beer Pong started Thursday at the Flamingo. It's too late to register to compete, but you can pay $20 a day, or $50 for three days, to see tonight's and Saturday's prelims, and Sunday's finals.

If you don't know beer pong: Dudes toss pingpong balls across an 8-foot table to try to get them into cups. If a ball goes in a guy's cup, he drinks Pabst Blue Ribbon. Players can opt to drink water, which dilutes the purpose, if you ask me.

"You don't have to drink any beer at all if you don't want to," says last year's co-winner, Jeremy Hughes. "You might catch some criticism. But you might also win $50,000."

Yep, the winning team, among 400 or so, pockets $50,000 for tossing a pingpong ball into a cup.

Balls are rinsed in water to keep clean, says Billy Gaines, co-founder of the Series and BPONG.com.

"Some people are concerned about germs. I've never really thought about it or cared about it too much," he says but adds, "The casino is extremely clean. It's not a dirty bar floor. There are carpeted floors this year."

My question: Why hasn't the series branched into Wine Pong or Jäger Pong? Gaines says the series focuses not on booze but on the competition of "the sport." The "sport" of beer pong? Well, ESPN did cover it last year.

Hughes and co-winner Michael Orr (their team site is ChauffeuringTheFatKid.com) say Jäger Pong would destroy them.

"You'd probably throw up after a game or two," Orr says.

You're correct if you think this is a guy's contest.

"Surprisingly around the pong scene," Hughes snarks, "there's not too many women."

- From the Las Vegas Review-Journal.