Setting Effective New Year’s Resolutions for Poker Success

Photo by Tim Caynes

Happy New Year!

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time  to re-evaluate your priorities, set new goals for yourself, and start planning for how you will achieve those goals. This is the first in a series of posts about using goal-setting to help you achieve poker success.

Dream Big– Start with some lofty aspirations that you may or may not be able to achieve this year: “Become a winning player”, “Learn Pot-Limit Omaha”, “Move up to 2/4”, etc.  These generally aren’t things that are entirely under your control, and you should be ambitious in setting them. Think of it like winning the pot in a poker game: it’s something you’d like to do, but you can’t just will it to happen, and sometimes it’s something you won’t achieve. Still, it is the aspiration that motivates the rest of what you do.

Plan Concretely– The resolutions that you make should be specific and concrete: “Play X hands”, “Spend X hours/week reviewing your play”, “Start using a HUD”, etc. Such resolutions are the ones most likely to influence your behavior, which is the ultimate goal. If you simply resolve to “Get better at poker”, that probably won’t motivate you to do anything in particular. Think about how you want to get better at poker and what steps you need to take to make that happen.

Aim Reasonably– Your resolutions should encourage you to stretch yourself, but they should not be unattainable. If you only played 100K hands last year, you probably shouldn’t resolve to make SuperNova Elite this year.

Keep It Under Control– Unlike your goals, your resolutions should be entirely within your control. Don’t resolve to earn a certain amount of money or maintain a certain win rate. That’s nearly as foolish as resolving to take fewer bad beats this year. You can’t guarantee those things, and building your resolutions around them is setting yourself up for failure. Recognize the things that are under your control and think about how you can use them to maximize your chances of seeing the results you want.

Keep a Timetable– If your resolutions are year-long, which I recommend, track your progress along the way and set benchmarks. Know how many hands you need to play each week, and be aware of whether you are still on track. If some of your resolutions depend on others (“Buy Hold ‘Em Manager” and “Learn to Use a HUD”, for instance), set a deadline for completing the first that allows you time to complete the second.

Have Consequences– Like a lab rat, you are motivated by punishments and rewards. If you are falling behind on one of your resolutions, you must have a course of action for correcting yourself. For instance, if you fall behind on your resolution to watch three training videos each week, perhaps you will stop watching television and use that time to get caught up. Conversely, when you reach key benchmarks, give yourself a reward. If you are on pace for all of your resolutions after three months, treat yourself to a new monitor, a buy-in to the Sunday Million, or a massage.

Be Creative– There is more to getting good results than improving your strategy. Perhaps you also need to improve your eating habits, exercise more regularly, clean up your workspace, or make your accounts more secure.

Don’t Neglect the Rest of Your Life– It takes more than a successful poker career to be a happy and complete person. So be sure that you are also setting goals and setting aside time for other things that are important in your life: friends, family, hobbies, volunteering, etc. You shouldn’t do these things just to improve your poker game, though you may well find that that’s a happy side effect!

Tomorrow, I’ll post my resolutions for the new year to provide some examples of the above concepts. I’ll be asking you about your resolutions, as well, so start thinking about it now!

5 thoughts on “Setting Effective New Year’s Resolutions for Poker Success”

  1. My chief poker resolution in 2011 is to be playing $109 MTTs unstaked on a regular basis by the end of the year. Other poker resolutions include winning a Sunday major/online event, and playing one bracelet event in the WSOP. I’d also like to learn more about cash, and get better at heads up.

    In order to accomplish this I’m setting a goal to study at least 4-5 hours a week. This includes reading material and reviewing hand histories. With an additional goal of reading at least two poker related books a month. It’s never been hard watching videos, but I’ve neglected reading when it comes to poker. I’m also setting the minimum amount of play at 4 full sessions a week.

    Unrelated to poker…I’ve been doing P90x on and off for the past month and am starting it hardcore today. Hopefully will lead to a better lifestyle. My goal is to complete the program. And to also have healthier and more frugal eating habits.

    In the acting world my resolution is to book a theatrical or commercial agent by the end of the year. In order to accomplish this I need to do at least one class or workshop every two months.

    Looking forward to reading your resolutions Andrew!

  2. Hi Andrew,
    Thank you on an excellent blog addressing something that has been my achilles’ heel for a while – playing poker without a structure or towards any goals.
    I play poker primarily because I enjoy it but also because I make a bit of money at it – ROI 15% (studlyspud on Ongame) but realise I could make a lot more if I was more disciplined and used sign-up bonuses/rakeback.
    I would be interested to hear, for example, if you think it is realistic to clear a $600 bonus on Stars or Tilt playing five hours a week, pretty much the most time I can commit outside my job, playing heads-up SNGs and 6-max?
    Also (please feel free to direct me if you have already written a previous blog on this) what would you recommend as the ideal balance of studying versus playing – using for examples the five hours I can commit to poker a week?

    • Glad you enjoyed it, Dan. I think that investigated rakeback and bonuses, and perhaps also the VIP program at Stars, would be good resolutions for you this year, with an eye towards increasing the overall profitability of your play. It’s certainly possible to clear bonuses in that time, but the rate at which you’ll clear them will depend on the stakes you play.

      I’m not an expert on this, though. If you look in the Internet Poker forum on 2+2, you’ll find lengthy discussions of rewards programs at various sites, how quickly you can clear them, where it’s best to play given various levels of play, etc.

      As for balancing study vs play, it depends on your long-term goals. If you will be playing poker for years to come, focus on study now, as an increase in your long-term hourly rate will pay off manyfold. If you plan to play mostly just in the next year, then you should mostly just play and not worry about getting better, because by the time you get better you’ll be done playing. Probably you’ll somewhere in between, but I think you should ask yourself what your long-term goals are and then work back from there.

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