O-Poker

I have had many goals over my short poker career. Most players start with similar goals in the early stages. The early goals are usually things like make some extra spending money, win an online mtt, win a seat to the World Series of Poker Main Event/WPT event/any live event, and cash/win a live event. Once they start to find their game, the goals evolve and take different directions ranging from just playing occasionally for fun to hopes of going pro/winning a major live event and anywhere in between.

I'm not going to run through my ever changing online poker goals over the last few years - ever changing might be an understatement. I have achieved some of the goals, while others have come and gone. There have been times where I thought I was an unstoppable tourney player that could do no wrong and other moments where I felt like I could be the next cash game phenom.

It can be very tough to set a goal (in poker or in life) and stick to it. There are so many distractions that seem to get in the way. There has to be something tangible, a light at the end of the tunnel, to motivate you to reach your goals.

I think one of my college professors summed it up best on the first day of some random class my Junior year. We all thought he was a little crazy back then, but he now seems like a genius to me.

His goal setting was in reference to a car, which is why it seemed a little over the top to my 20 year old mindset. His words:

You have to figure out what you want in life. If you want the top of the line Mercedes, you need to go to the dealership. Test drive the car. Sit in it, really sit in it and take a deep whiff of that leather smell. Breathe it in. Let that smell imprint itself in your brain. When you leave the dealership, it will help you focus all your efforts on earning enough money for that car.

As I get older, his words ring truer than ever.

I have a lot of goals in my life - some bigger than others. For me right now poker is simply a means to achieving larger goals.

We are planning on tearing down our current house and rebuilding a larger, newer house on our lot in the neighborhood that our family loves.

Since this is a poker blog, I'll focus on what I need to do with my poker game to aid in reaching the house building goal. Basically, every poker dollar that I make between now and when we break ground on our new home equals more upgrades, larger house, etc, etc.

I am going to set some strict poker guidelines for myself, so that I focus my poker playing efforts in the right direction. The hand challenge is a good start, but I think that setting a specific time frame has been a bad thing. I have played just to get hands in when I know that I shouldn't be playing - tired, bored, frustrated, while watching TV, after having a few beers, etc. I need to change a few things. I'm going to put some thought into it over the next few days. For now, I am not going to worry about squeezing in as many hands as possible between now and the end of September. I'll continue the 50k hands, but finish when I finish.

Craig said in the comments of one of the 50k hands updates, "I'd be interested in your exploring the 'getting bored' part, as I think this is more common than most players would like to think. I've been actually bouncing around at different stakes fairly regularly to combat that, but it would be great to hear you dive into that more."

I will try to expand more on the "getting bored" part later in the week/early next week because I, also, think it is a major hurdle for a lot of players, myself included.

Good luck at the tables and in achieving your own goals.