Who were the Ship It Holla Ballas? Arguably the most successful poker crew of all time, they took advantage of the online poker boom to win tens of millions of dollars before most of them were old enough to set foot inside a casino. Then they did what any red-blooded teenagers with mountains of cash and no responsibilities would do: They partied like rock stars, transforming themselves from Internet nerds with zero life skills into legends, at least in their own minds. In this excerpt from Ship It Holla Ballas!, this group of teenage college dropouts, united by social media, head to Bahamas for a caper.

PARADISE ISLAND, BAHAMAS (May 2006)

It's been three years since Chris Moneymaker's victory at the World Series of Poker, but the poker economy, powered by recreational players with dreams of winning millions on TV, shows no signs of slowing down. Online poker rooms host around-the-clock satellites and super-satellites -- inexpensive tournaments whose winners gain admission into tournaments with much bigger entry fees. The swell of new entrants inflates the prize pool, which in turn attracts even more attention from amateurs hoping to become the next Moneymaker. They are participating in what economists call a "virtuous circle," a feedback loop that builds its own positive momentum. By 2006, the circle has become so culturally entrenched as to have earned a nickname from the mainstream media: the "poker boom."

The World Series of Poker still rules in terms of prestige, but it only happens once a year. Upstarts such as the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour fill the void with a new business model: Smaller, lesser-known tournaments get aggregated and packaged into television-friendly "seasons" culminating in championships. The virtuous circle spins a few more times. Where the WSOP Main Event used to be the only tournament with a $10,000 buy-in and a seven-figure prize for the winner, now there are dozens.

When the online cardrooms aren't feeding players into live tournaments, they're creating tournaments of their own. In 2002, Party Poker hosted the inaugural Party Poker Million aboard a cruise ship on the Mexican Riviera. The event was a hit—one year later, the World Poker Tour added the Party Poker Million II to its first season's schedule. In its second season, the WPT added a tournament in Aruba sponsored by Ultimate Bet and a tournament aboard a Caribbean-bound cruise ship hosted by PokerStars.

The Caribbean theme isn't coincidental -- by hosting their events on tropical islands or cruise ships, the online cardrooms can skirt U.S. law and allow players as young as 18, their bread-and butter-clientele, to play in the kind of tournaments they grew up watching on TV. It's why Paradise Poker chooses the Atlantis, an enormous resort and water park on the Bahamas' Paradise Island, to host its first ever brick-and-mortar tournament: "The Conquest of Paradise Island."

The Conquest fails to secure any TV coverage or commitments from well-known pros -- in the months leading up to the event, there's some speculation whether it will even take place. But the allure of lax gambling and drinking laws in a tropical setting is enough for the tournament to attract over 300 players, a large percentage of whom are under 21.

Good2cu, Apathy, and DonButtons fly there from Miami. Raptor, durrrr, Deuce2High, Bonafone, TheUsher, and FieryJustice meet them at the resort. They're buzzed before the first round of boat drinks even hits their lips -- for most of them, this is the biggest tournament they've ever entered.

Only durrrr can laugh off the $5,000 entry fee. While the rest of them are still devoting most of their attention to Sit N Gos, durrrr is regularly playing in the biggest cash games on the Internet. He probably shouldn't be – any old-school player would scoff at his horrendous bankroll management, which sees him routinely flirt with going broke – but what does he have to lose? He's 19 years old, has no wife or kids to support, is blessed with an active intelligence, and is fully capable of returning to college if the whole poker thing doesn't work out.

Why wouldn't he take shots at the biggest games? When he loses – an inevitability for even the best poker players – he simply drops down to a game with smaller stakes, rebuilds his bankroll, and waits for the chance to take another shot. But when he wins…. No one's sure exactly how much money durrrr has, as it's an ever-changing number, but for several brief stretches lately he's been, at least according to the pixels on the screen, a millionaire.

The Green Bay Packers weren't the only losers after that unforgettable Monday Night Football game in September.

Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, a noted gambler, admitted to Jim Rome this week that he was set back $900,000 after the replacement referees ruled the final play of the Packers-Seahawks game a touchdown rather than an interception.

As you may remember, Seattle wide receiver Golden Tate looked to come down with the ball on the game's wild final play. But on review it appears the throw should have been ruled an interception. The blown call resulted in a $300 million swing in Las Vegas.

When asked how upset he was with the call made by the replacement referees, Mayweather shrugged it off.

"It comes with a territory," he said..

Mayweather, no stranger to the sports book, said that was the biggest loss of his life. He also told Rome that his largest winning ticket was around $1.1 million or $1.2 million.

If it seems like gamblers have been taking home especially large winnings this year, or nearly taking home especially large winnings, that's because this has been one of the worst NFL seasons for Las Vegas bookies in recent memory.

As Lance Pugmire writes in the Los Angeles Times, popular NFL teams like the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos and the Green Bay Packers routinely beat the point spread during the regular season. The large and loyal fanbases who bet routinely on those teams raked in money this fall at the expense of sports books in Las Vegas.

And to make matters worse, more fans are multiplying their winnings by entering parlays.

Some of the explanation for these increased earnings is that fans are privy to more information than they were 10 or 20 years ago. But Jay Kornegay, who is in charge of the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino's Race and Sports book, says that doesn't account for all of Las Vegas' losses.

"We know the general public now has tremendous sources of information, that the regular player is sharper than the guy 10 years ago," Kornegay told the Los Angeles Times. "But we've never seen a streak like this before."

Perhaps the worst week of the year was Week 9, when Vegas-backed underdogs finished 2-10 against the point spread and seven games went over the projected points-scored line. Losses were so large on that day that MGM Resorts, the largest sports bookmaker in Las Vegas, had to retrieve emergency cash to pay off losses.

And things might get much worse in the playoffs. Teams like the Seattle Seahawks and Indianapolis Colts proved bookies wrong, overcoming long odds to make the playoffs. And if either the Seahawks (75-1 odds) or the Colts (200-1 odds) was to win the Super Bowl, Las Vegas would be in trouble.

In the grand scheme of things, Damaris Johnson's 98-yard punt return against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday didn't mean much. True, it made the final score closer with about 30 seconds to play, but it didn't ultimately affect the game's outcome. The Cowboys pulled out the win, 38-33.

But Johnson's touchdown did make an enormous difference for gamblers everywhere. Because the spread on the game was 9.5 points, Johnson's score provided a dramatic swing in Las Vegas.

Business Insider has the story of one extremely unlucky person who dropped $50 on an eight-team NFL parlay. This gambler nailed the first seven games, and just needed the Cowboys to hold onto their 11-point lead in order to cash in on a roughly $18,500 prize.

Maybe it's for the best that the Eagles pulled within 10 points. After all, this person had gotten extremely lucky with some earlier results. He or she correctly picked two overtime games and another contest that came down to a last-second touchdown.

Here's the entire parlay:

Seattle +4 (beat Chicago in overtime, 23-17)
Green Bay - 6.5 (beat Minnesota, 23-14)
St. Louis straight up on money line (beat San Francisco in overtime, 16-13)
Arizona +7 (lost to the New York Jets, 7-6)
Indianapolis straight up on money line (beat Detroit, 35-33)
New England -6.5 (beat Miami, 23-16)
Denver -6.5 (beat Tampa Bay, 31-23)
Dallas -9.5 (beat Philadelphia, 38-33)