Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I spent my New Years in Charleston at the Dog Track/Casino trying to make sure our state has no financial troubles this 2008. The Dog Track is a mini casino we have that has a ton of slot machines and you can gamble on the dog races. They have passed a table games bill in WV and they are coming to the track, but aren't ready yet. I saw where they were remodeling for the poker room though. I'm excited about that.

I caught up with my buddy Roger and some of his ex-coworkers after I got off work yesterday. They left earlier in the day to go do some shopping and fiddle fart around until time to go eat. We had reservations at the 1st Turn Restaraunt inside the dog track. By the time I got there, the line for the restaurant was out the door, but I was able to slide through thanks to my party being at the front of the line. The food was basically a buffet with various veggies, potatoes, some chicken, lasagna, and prime rib. I wasn't impressed. I went for the prime rib. It was decent, but everything else sucked. The restaurant is pretty awesome as far as atmosphere goes though. Our table is basically a box seat directly on the dog track. So we got to gamble on the dogs while we ate. They ran 15 races throughout the night. I bet on 12 of them playing $6 3-dog quniella's. I just learned what that meant 2 minutes before placing my first wager. I ended up losing on all 12 wagers. Rog won a couple and was up for the night. One other couple in our party was up for the night. The rest of us lost.

After eating my sub-par dinner, I decided it was time to go broke. I wandered around the slots area looking for a machine decent enough to take all my money. This was easier said than done. The place was packed. There were plenty of $1 and $5 slots to be had, but I had my sights on penny and nickel slots. I did find a few and ended up losing a little bit on them though.

They had various activities throughout the night. We had an Elvis impersonator who was actually shitty at the impersonation part, but could sing the songs very well. There was also another band called The Soul Doctors. I was really impressed with them. They played songs from just about every genre. There was a bead toss at the Burboun Street Lounge which I was pumped up to see (boobie sightings?). It sucked. They really didn't make the people work hard enough for the beads if you know what I mean.

I spent some portion of the night doing a little bit of everything. We all got together at midnight and celebrated the ball dropping and the new year with some champagne. I passed cause that shit is horrible. We didn't stay too long after midnight. In fact, it was before 2:00 a.m. when I checked into the motel. Upon entering the motel, I found an Entourage marathon to keep me up the rest of the night.

THis morning me and Rog checked out and hit Hooters before we came home. This was my first time eating at Hooters and I wasn't impressed. I got a buffalo chicken sandwich, fries, and a drink and it was $15. The waitresses weren't all that great either. I joked with Rog that this was the titty bar training camp. They all had that "I'm going to be a stripper when I grow up" look about them.

After we left Charleston, we took the short trip home and I dropped Roger off at his house. I then stopped at my parents to visit with them for a couple hours and came home. It was time to focus on poker for 2008!

I only played about 2 hours (800 hands) and ended up having a small losing session. I can't fault my play. I only really lost 2 big pots. One was me losing with QQ against JJ on a rag board flop. Jack on the turn. The other was me losing with AA against QQ all in pre-flop. The rest was just never being able to catch a hand. I did manage to get out of the red temporarily, but the cards weren't coming today. I will probably play some more tonight depending on how good the Hawaii/Georgia game is.

So cheers to everyone in 2008! I hope you have a safe and happy new year.