August Thread: Goals, Winrates, Updates.

[melioris]

I only have a few things to add to what Johnp wrote. And I offer this only as my 2 cents and not to condescend or lecture the youth or anything like that. In fact, John wrote it all so well that his qualifications count for me too.

You need to be exceptionally disciplined about how you manage poker. Right now it isn’t a big deal because you don’t have a lot of responsibility and it is fine with you to fuck around, but poker can be a terribly destructive force and the way to mange that is to stay completely in control of it. That means when you state some goals to yourself (like not giving the 10/20 a crack for a month) then you need to stick to those goals to ensure that you are controlling poker and poker is not controlling you. Because the deal is when you allow yourself to break these promises with yourself (that is all a goal like this is, really) then you allow how you manage your poker playing to become more emotional, and that is how your kick ass poker skills slide into gambling and then you are doomed. Don’t get in the habit of breaking your promises to yourself and then you don’t have to worry. Your other goals (like 4ppBB/100) are not completely in your control and are more traditional goals, but not taking a crack at 10/20 is a poker management issue and there is no room to fuck around with those goals at all. I agree with John that it is probably ok to play at those levels even if it is a little beyond your bankroll, just know why you are doing it when you give it a try. “fuck it, I’m bored” is not good enough when you have promised yourself you won’t try for a month. Furthermore, you are starting college in a few week, which promises to be a mind-blowing time consuming experience, so maybe instead of moving up in levels right now the best thing is to stay at 5/10 NL and if it is getting boring, don't play as much? But really, WTF do I know from down here an order of magnitude or more below your levels?

Your drinking analogy is apt except I think gambling can be more destructive than booze, just because I think it is easier to become addicted to gambling and have that ruin your life than it is to become a full blown alcoholic and have that ruin your life. But this might a debate for another time.