$60k in 60 days -- Days 53 & 54

[Schneids]

Day Fifty Three (July 5) and Day Fifty Four (July 6) -- 07.09.04, 14:40

After such extensive playing for nearly two months straight it's felt awesome officially taking a couple "days off" from the games. With that said, the poker that I did play on July 5th and 6th feels like it was so far ago in the past. My fourth of July was spent relaxing and then partying with friends, before returning early in the morning and playing 10/20 6-max for 20 minutes, and deciding 20 minutes was as much as I could and should play. I won $350 in those 20 minutes! Later on the fifth I logged another hour of 10/20 6-max and won $970, and on July 6th I played for an hour and won $135. I've decided for the moment to put off working on 15/30 full and continue to play 4-tables of 10/20 6-max – at least until I get another winning streak going.

Fishing has been just about the only thing on my mind the past two days. I got up at 5:30am Wednesday (July 7) morning after going to bed at 1:30am (talk about difficult to do after being used to 6am bedtimes) and accompanied my dad up to north-central Minnesota. We stayed in Cross Lake, Minnesota (about 30 minutes north of Brainerd), and did our fishing in Cross Lake and Dagget Lake. Both of these lakes are part of the Whitefish Chain of Lakes, which is a chain that is more than 13 miles long and contains 14 lakes. If you were to sketch around the entire chain with a vehicle, I'm certain it would take you 4-6 hours to do so. It's a pretty large set of lakes.

Cross Lake is just like I remember it from my childhood years -– when I was younger my Dad and I made about 5 camping trips to the area for some fishing. In the campsite next to us there was an elderly couple who would bike around town and do some early morning fishing in a 14-foot fishing boat. A couple sites down there was an obese, jolly family of about 10 occupying two sites. They lollygagged about the beach and a couple of the older boys threw a few of the girls into the lake from a dock. Most of the campground was filled and consisted primarily of families with a couple of young children. It's just how I remember it from many years ago.

Within two minutes of casting my line into the water, I had already hauled a northern-pike into our boat. Quickly after my dad caught one as well. Within 30 minutes we had caught half a dozen of them. None of them were anywhere close to lunkers. In fact, most of them looked more like snakes than fish. For any parent wishing to get their child into fishing from a boat without bobbers and the likes, this lake is an excellent place to bring a young kid since northerns of all sizes bite constantly. Over the duration of the trip I'd estimate we caught over 30 northerns, and also a few rock bass, crappie, and one bass. We left keeping four northerns, and I left the lake down two jigs and a rapala thanks to a large fish snapping my line and two weed-snags. One of these days I'll remember to wear sunscreen on my face, and I'll also remember to not wear sunglasses a majority of the time I'm in the boat, since even though it was cloudy more than half the time I now have a burned face and bug-eyes thanks to the sunglasses.

On the way up to Cross Lake, we made a stop in Brainerd at Mills GM, where I finally made my big car purchase! I'm now the proud owner of a 2002 Pontiac Firebird convertible, bought at a price well below what Kelley's Blue Book suggests it is valued. The way I look at it, I'm young once and even if this isn't the most practical car I could have purchased, I have the rest of my life for making more practical decisions. Minnesota winters do suck and driving this in the winter will not be pleasant, but being that I'll be living downtown and attending classes downtown the next couple of years I don't think winter driving will be much of an issue. Whenever the time comes that I am looking for a new vehicle, I could honestly see myself holding onto this one anyway and storing it as a memento of sorts while also keeping the possibility of giving this car to my first child as a 16th birthday gift (assuming that day ever comes!)

Ok. I know this is a poker forum, and I haven't spoken much of poker in this and the past journal. I have six days to go now, and my goal is to play at least 20 hours in those six days. Hopefully a strong finish can bring me back up over $40,000; thought he way I've been running lately maybe a better goal is $33,000.

The only hand I even remember from the past two playing days was when NateThaGreat (of all people) called me a LAG after I won a hand against an opponent. The reason: for capping with KQs when out of position heads up against a CO 3-bet of my UTG raise. Ah, it's good to be back short-handed! Before anyone asks, yes doing such a cap is –EV about 95% of the time. My only response is that I believe in the importance of establishing control of a hand as early as possible when out of position against opponents that are either overly weak or overly aggressive. This particular opponent, now that I've played more hands against him, probably doesn't meet my requirements for a PF cap. But hey, if you got bailed out with a KQJ flop against AA you'd find reasons to support your play too (results-oriented sarcasm).

Time for an hour of cards before dinner.

Total for Day 53: $1320
Total for Day 54: $135
Goal to date after 54 days: $30,394.08/$60,000