A funny thing happened on the way to $1000...

First things first, the $1000 barrier has been broken with $7.27 to spare. That's $618.55 more than the starting amount on July 14th, one month and one day ago.

A brief timeline:
* July 1st - Adam wins the Cake II Challenge concluding at the end of June and immediately sets his sights on the $1000 mark. Having futzed around with my bankroll since the April 1 cutoff point, I am inspired by Adam's thoughts of a Cake III challenge.
* July 11th ($205.23) - I blog that I have adopted the goal of $1000 as well. Set mid-February as my deadline.
* July 14th ($388.72) - Reset deadline to Labor Day and begin charting the progress.
* July 22nd ($568.88) - Completely clear my $250 mid year bonus.
* July 29th ($558.52) - Start playing Super Turbo SnGs exclusively. Begin unworldly heater in those tourneys.
* August 2nd ($837.77) - Start to level off and being two week period of fluctuating up and down.
* August 14th ($988.35) - $146 day. Cashed for $5 and $75 in freerolls, got the rest in ST SnGs. I realize that I am within one 1st place ST SnG finish of the goal but decide that it'd be best to just leave the tables for the day and come back the next day instead.

Which brings us to today. Basically all I have to do is net out one 1st place finish but the tables were not going to make it easy. AA vs 33 all in pre and he spikes a trey.  KK vs QT and he flops trip tens. The usual and not tilting in the least but very untimely and I am more acutely aware of every result of every hand I'm involved in since I'm so close. I am down a few buy ins and leave the tables for a while to take a break. After a  while I jump in again later and like a scene from a movie, I get my cashier window up to $980.29 so a win puts me over, second place doesn't. I am triple tabling and in the last window I get it down to heads up. I am laser focused to get this thing done. I have a lead but am picking my spots carefully. I eventually get villain all in in terrible shape with his eights up against my jacks. I fade his two outer and do a virtual fist pump then immediately pull up the cashier window to see that glorious four digit figure but to my utter dismay I instead see $999.79 instead! It takes me half a second to remember that a win is only $19.50, not $20.00 so I end up tantalizingly close but still a paltry 21 cents short. Unbelievable.

So I mentally scramble to figure out how best to scare up two dimes and a penny. I decide against another $5 SnG and instead opt for nickel Rush to keep the variance down. I buy in for $2 at each of two different tables. I'm in lockdown mode and just looking for that one hand. All I need to do is take down a pot to put me over. I'm folding everything and blinding off nickels and pennies but I'm not concerned since any pot I get involved in will easily cover the blinds I'm paying. Then it comes, MP pots it to .17, button calls, and I'm in the BB with 99. I decide to flat call and see what the flop brings. Flop comes 356 rainbow. I am OOP and pot it to .53 knowing that an opening pot sized bet in Rush is usually a big pair or two big cards but when villain shoves my read jumps to two big cards since premium pairs would normally flat call there. Button folds and I go with my read and commit the rest of my stack. Villain, unsurprisingly shows AK. I fade his six outs on the next two streets and I instantly cash out of both windows up $1.30 which brings my cashier window to $1001.09 using up an extra few pixels of screen real estate to display that extra digit.

Pop the cork on the champagne! I'm getting Twitter warmed up and ready to crank out a blog post. Last step is to update the spreadsheet and see my progress line pop above the $1000 mark. I plug in the number and realize that I haven't gotten my rakeback number for the day which is, to my horror, -12.18 due to the overlay from the freerolls yesterday so instead of being over $1000, I'm still short by a few bucks!

I'm a little deflated after having two close calls with hitting the mark. I take another break before heading back to the felt then dive into the SnGs again. Unfortunately, I start off by going through two sets of three tables without cashing digging myself a $30 hole but come back with two wins and two seconds over the next six tourneys which puts me on the edge of $1000...again...but for real this time. Then for the truly final time today I am in a make or break situation. Heads up for the thousand dollar mark. Again, I have the lead and just need to pick my spot. Villain is very aggressive and shoving every hand. I decide to call off with KTos. He shows 78os and I have his suits covered. He spikes a seven on the flop but I river a ten spot to put me over. I recheck my math and verify that the numbers. Once I've dotted i's and crossed t's, I send out the tweet to announce that the goal has been reached.

The homestretch was a little more convoluted than I wanted but I can't complain. From an original target of a mid-February finish down to Labor Day and now ending up three weeks early, overall it's been a pretty good ride even with some bobbles at the finish line.