When I posted my initial goal-setting post I mentioned that the goals should be regularly adjusted as circumstances change. I had no illusions about my own progress or that the change of goals would come about because I had far exceeded my own expectations. After all, I had just exhausted my first bankroll, the standard of my own play was awful and there was no real sign that I was going to turn it around.
Some major cramming of noted poker books by Sklansky, Brunson and Harrington as well as diligently putting their theory into practice and some typically shoddy play by my fellow micro-table guppies has kicked me forward at a great rate.
New Short Term Goals
- Complete 10,000 hands at the $5 NLHE tables. (I’ve currently played 3,000 hands).
- Reach a bankroll of $140. To do this I calculate I must average around $1.13 / day which I figure is a challenge on the unpredictable .02/.04 tables.
- Readjust milestone targets to (i) $80 by 24 November (ii) $100 by 10 December (iii) $120 by 26 December
- I’ve bought myself Poker Tracker and plan to use it to identify weaker players to help me choose which tables I play at. Interestingly, when I loaded in my old hand histories the players who came at or near the bottom of the statistics were those players I had identified myself. I was fairly pleased that my own analysis was backed up by the numbers.
Long Term Goal Reaffirmed
- Play at the $5,000 NLHE ($25/$50) tables by July 2010.
Medium Term Goal Reaffirmed
- To play profitably at the $100 ($0.50/$1) tables by October 2008.
I’m happy with the knowledge that I have picked up so far by reading the various recommended poker books, but I still have quite a lot of work to do in calculating pot odds. I find it particularly difficult to do given the speed at which on-line poker is played, so this is an aspect that I will have to work on. I figure that when I fold a hand I should sit there and try to calculate what my pot odds would have been had I stayed with the hand.
So much of the success I'm trying to attain has more to do with effective goal setting rather than effective poker.
1 comment:
For pot odds calculations, many people use one of the odds calculators to perform the calculations instantly while you play. My favoriate for cash games is Hold'em Indicator. An added bonus of this tool is that it also tracks some of the important stats about your opponents (like VP$IP, PFR, AF). Very useful when making decisions at the table.
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