Finally!

At long last, I get in a post for the year 2006! And the Seahawks finally make it to the 2nd round of the playoffs! Game tix went on sale today, and I tried to get a pair to make a quick turnaround on eBay but Ticketmaster wouldn't let me through. Ah well, guess I'll have to stick to making money the old fashioned way.

New Year's was great - a few months ago I just happened to run into an old friend who I hadn't seen in about 5 years. He was setting up a New Year's party, and told me that he had recently got a hold of some other people who had fallen off the radar over the years. It made for quite the get-together, the "old gang" all in one place! My cell phone contact list practically doubled overnight and an uber-email list was compiled for future party invitations.

I had to keep my alcohol consumption to a minimum and give myself enough time to sober up for the drive home. I was surprised my body lasted until 5am, considering how I had spent the anniversary with wife just two nights prior. We had been at it for a full 17 hours... and by 'it' I mean poker playing. I told her I was going to take her into town for a nice steak dinner, but having just recently returned from New York, she said she was tired of the fancy, stuffy restaurants as that's all she ate at while she was out there. How nice for her, while the kids and I enjoyed Mac n' Cheese or Jack in the Box on a regular basis during her absence. But I didn't put up much of an argument when she said she'd rather put that money towards a poker buy-in!

We mosied over to the Muckleshoot late Thursday night, got ourselves some discount casino food and were both seated at a 3/6 game just around midnight. We rode the wave as our chip stacks went up and down, and watched as a myriad of drunks and regulars came in and out of the game. Wifey finally hit the felt at around 5:30am and I was stuck about $20. I told her I wasn't leaving until I got one of the donuts that they bring out at 6:00am. I'd put my time in, and I wanted my free donut, dammit!

I scooped a pot as the donut tray came around - there were no chocolate creme filled so I settled for a good ol' maple bar. After scarfing that down, I saw I was back to even so racked up and cashed out. On the way to the door, the cash-out found itself cashed back in at a Craps table. :) The shooter was hot and I was up another $50 within a few rolls! Unfortunately myself and my wife were not so hot and we found ourselves back down with just $50 left. Since the pit boss couldn't cash our chips, and the cage was sooo far away, I split the chips with the wife and we took two seats at a Pai-gow table. A few hands in, she hit Quads, but with only a dollar on the bonus. Of course, the other old asian ladies at the table were shaking their heads in disbelief as their $50 bonus bets were swept away.

As it is with Pai-gow, we got to play for almost an hour, and amazingly found that there was now about $200 between us. Back to the Poker room? Sure, why not! I don't really remember what time it was at this point, and our only clue that it was around normal waking hours was when the Poker room was filled up and the waiting lists were getting longer. We had ourselves breakfast at the table, and made sure to get up and stretch the legs and get some fresh air every now and then. Despite being awake and at a casino for over 12 hours after a full day of work, I was really enjoying the cards and the company.

Before we knew it, 5:00pm rolled around and we were both feeling the gas tanks starting to empty. She was back to even and I found myself up $250. I told her once I broke $300, we'd leave... and wouldn't you know it, I went on a downswing and blew through $200. Most of it was in a huge kill pot that just completely deflated me, so we racked up and left shortly after. Made it home and got a good 12 hours of sleep before having to get up and get ready for the New Year's party that night. Not an impressive BB/hour rate, but a fun way to end the year!

As you can imagine, we got quite our fill of casino action and haven't been back to play yet this year. But when we do, I have to try harder to give up the fun and social aspect of it and remember to get out of there with as many chips as possible. I guess I could consider that a New Year's Resolution, but I'm pretty sure I said the same thing last year, so I think it's just me finally getting around to fulfilling an Old Year's Resolution. :)