Goal Setting

robbie1992

I want to set a goal for myself so i have motivation to achieve somthing different in poker.  Last week, after working alot of my game, i returned to sky poker after playing on various different sites.  I usually play cash with abit of MTT added in, my first week went good making a good profit at 20nl and added a table to my multitbling.  Seeing as i had a good week, i thought id go in £5.50 ukops to qualify for the semi on sunday, i qualified for semi and then qualified for the ukops main event.  I went on to come 11th which for me was a good achievment and won £400.  After i was really happy with how i played and it felt such an achievement, somthing i dont feel when i do well at cash.

Today i played and lost and played awful, i at the end i wasnt even bothered i felt like i didnt care, so i want a goa to set so when i play i always care because everyday would be a set towards that goal.

Should i do it monthly or abit longer?, im struggling for ideas for what my goal could be, i dont want money based targets because that can give a wrong impression on how you have played, i thought maybe to qualify for 'priority' in the c4p but i dont have a clue what sort of time im looking at putting in to achieve that.

Does anyone have any ideas of what goal i could have? what are your goals?

waller02

If you mainly play cash then why not just focus on trying to move up the levels? A bit like lambert is.....I dunno, summat like aiming to move from 20nl up to 50nl in X amount of time.

Aiming for priority could lead to playing when you really don't want to......and where is the fun in that.

Your mtt game must be reasonable too (wd in UKOPS).....why not say you're gonna win a main before the end of the year??

Have fun, whatever you do.....I recently had a major burnout, was playing far too much and stopped enjoying it. I'm playing a lot less now and enjoying it more. Fair play to those who grind 6+ tables for hours on end!!

liamboi11

if you set a goal make something you can achieve and don`t put too much pressure on yourself or it won`t be fun.

for example say your roll is £500 and you want to get to £1k by end of april thats only 25bi`s at 20nl and can be easily achieved.

or yeah like lamberts challenge 20nl to 50nl within a certain time.

it is totally up to you and it`s what you think personally you can achieve in a certain time.

gl in whatever you choose to do m8.

Sky_Dave

Setting goals works for some folks better than others. I find that putting artificial targets in terms of how much you want to win/play before you quit a session can be bad for your poker. Flipping it around, putting a stop-loss (so saying you want to log off as soon as you're down £x or more) is not a bad idea for most people though.

One thing I think everyone could do more of (and I honestly think this could be done by every single player on Sky and it benefit their game to some extent) is to analyse your session after. Pick out five key hands from the session (win, lose or draw doesn't matter) and try and think back through the hand. Would you play the hand any differently? Did your bet sizes make sense? Did you learn something about your opponent's perception of you? 

All sorts of questions can be asked and the answers you come up with can often give you a lot of good insight into your game. One of the most enjoyable poker books I have ever read was based on that premise. Check out Phil Gordon's 'Little Green Book' if you have time.

Whatever you do, keep the goals realistic. Don't go dedicating a billion hours a week to playing online if your lifestyle comfortably permits 10-15. Don't go playing crazy high stakes relative to your normal stakes and you'll be fine in the end I'm sure

Good luck!

robbie1992

I find those players incredible that can play hours after hours at a good standard, but yeah waller burnout does ruin poker u get that same feeling I had today where it's just boring and u start to stop Caring lol oh is lambert doing a challenge like that ill have to check out what he has to say,

Thanks liamboi the ukops I was delighted about, but I like the ideas of a main win in 2013, maybe even just a final table place even. 

Yeah true I used to play at 50nl and set such high targets that it put so much pressure on me and I ended up playing and worse and not enjoying it, since I played on sky I play at 20nl feel comfortable in my br and enjoy it, then I play like that today and it was just a waste of a good last week.

Thanks for all the suggestions tho gl in all yours games. 

Lambert180

Yeah I'm doing something similar in my diary. It was to get from 4NL (with £150) up to having 50 BIs for 20NL (£1000) which I did in 6 months with a lot of luck. I've now updated it to 20NL to 50BIs @ 50NL (£2500) by the end of 2013 and I'm currently just shy of £1300.

But yeah, firstly find a game you enjoy, and then pick something around it to aim for, ideally not just £££ targets. Like some people love HU SnGs, so make it their aim to get onto the Sharkscope Top 20 for Sky HU SnG players and get a nice shiny star. I know some people who play MTTs and it was their aim to get a shark symbol on SS too.