Planning Your Personal Development Part II

If you don't know where you want to go, you probably won't like wherever you end up. That point is obvious, yet many players either don't set goals or set ones that have little planning value. Good goals provide both a sense of direction and the motivation to move toward them.



Your goals should fit your situation, strengths, and weaknesses. In fact, there is a circular relationship between setting goals and evaluating assets and liabilities. As you work on one, you may find that you need to revise the other. For example, if you realize that your goals are too ambitious for your abilities and situation, you should probably set more modest goals, work on your abilities, and/or change your situation.



Your Ultimate Objective

Your goals and plans should lead toward an ultimate objective: Where do you want to go in poker? There are at least four possible objectives:



1. To enjoy playing without caring much about improving your results



2. To continue as a recreational player, but improve your results



3. To become or continue as a grind-it-out pro or semipro, but with better results



4. To become a top player



The first objective is reasonable for purely recreational players. Since they have little reason to plan, I won't discuss them. Reaching the next three objectives requires steadily increasing amounts of planning. You need more planning to move toward objective No. 3 than toward No. 2, and you probably need lots of it to become a top player.



Everything you do should contribute to reaching your ultimate objective. If an action will help you move toward that objective, do it. If it will hinder your progress, avoid it. That obvious point is often ignored. People take all sorts of actions that directly conflict with attaining their objectives. For example, some people claim they want to become top players, but don't work on their game, or they deplete their bankroll by buying expensive toys.



Your Annual Goals

After deciding upon an ultimate objective, set goals each year for your results, and the characteristics that will help you to get them. Your results goals are, of course, the most important, but you probably won't get the desired results without improving your:



• Knowledge of poker theory, strategy, and other subjects



• Skills, such as card reading, bluffing, hand selection, and value betting



• Traits, such as patience, attention to detail, and emotional control



• Situational factors, such as the demands upon your time and income



Whenever possible, all of your goals should use the SMART structure: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.



Specific

"To become a better player" and "to win more money" are too vague and general. Instead, set specific goals for your results, and a few of the factors that will help you achieve them. For example, you may set one or more of these results goals:



• Increase my win rate by 20 percent in my current game



• Beat a larger game for a certain win rate



• Make the money three times and win one of my casino's next 12 monthly tournaments



Your results are affected by too many factors to list here. If you set improvement goals for all of them, you may make so little progress toward any goal that you become disheartened. So, concentrate on the ones that will contribute the most to improving your results.



Measurable
If a goal is not measurable, you probably can't tell whether you have achieved it, and that sense of achievement is essential. Let's say you are now beating a $4-$8 game for one big bet per hour. A measurable goal would be to win that one big bet in a $6-$12 game. If you keep good records, you can tell when you reach that goal or how much further you have to go.



Unfortunately, because luck has such huge effects, results goals are not as measurable as they may appear. You could play very well but be unlucky, or vice versa. You therefore can't state win rates confidently without hundreds of hours of play. Despite that problem, these goals are the easiest ones to make measurable.



In school, you took exams and got grades. At many jobs, you get performance evaluations, which may include ratings on knowledge, skills, and personal qualities. Many professions require that you prove your qualifications by getting a license.



Because we don't have objective standards or credentials, many players greatly overestimate their assets and underestimate their liabilities. You should constantly resist that tendency. Seek information that will help you to compare yourself honestly to the competition in any game you play or intend to play.



Achievable
Goals should be challenging enough to bring out your best efforts, but not so ambitious that you can't realistically hope to attain them. When you achieve a challenging goal, you gain the confidence and motivation to continue your progress. If your goals are too modest, they will not motivate you. If they are too ambitious, you may get discouraged and give up.



Alas, many players act out their fantasies, and this tendency has been greatly reinforced by the astonishing success of Chris Moneymaker and a few other sudden celebrities. Winning next year's World Series of Poker is theoretically possible, but your chances are so slim that it is not a reasonable goal.



Even if your results goals are more modest, they still may conflict with your other qualities. Unless you are very talented and committed, and have a very favorable personal situation, you probably should set relatively modest goals.



Let's take two very talented, equally committed players. Both have played poker for three years, have worked hard on their games, and have had similar, excellent results in cash games and small tournaments. Both would like to become top tournament pros.



• The first is 24 years old and lives at home, and his wealthy parents love poker and want to support him while he plays the tournament circuit.



• The second is 65, ready to retire, married to someone who barely tolerates his "gambling," and will need every penny of his pension and poker winnings to sup- port his family and lifestyle.



Moving rapidly toward becoming a top tournament pro may be achievable for the young man, but for the older one, it is just a wish.



Relevant

Your goals should fit together so that they pull in the same direction. They must also match your ultimate objective and current situation.



Let's say that you're a recreational player and intend to remain one, but would like to increase your win rate. If you play mostly no-fold'em hold'em, don't plan to become more deceptive. Against oblivious players, deceptiveness is almost useless. Instead, work on value-betting, because a few good value bets each night can greatly improve your bottom line.



If you want to improve your results as a grind-it-out semipro, you should learn how to select soft games and then spend most of your time in them to increase your win rate.



If you want to become a top player, you should sometimes go in the opposite direction; occasionally pick tough games, even if you lose money in them. If you play in just the softest games, you can't develop the skills you need to become a top player.



Time-based

Target dates are essential. Without them, you can't measure your progress. A good goal would be: "To beat the $6-$12 game for one big bet per hour by December 31, 2006." Subgoals will help you to measure your progress and give you extra motivation, for example: "To beat that game for one small bet per hour by June 30, 2006."



The Next Step

My next column will provide a questionnaire and procedure to apply these principles to yourself. After completing it, you should have a preliminary idea of where you are going and how you will get there.

Dr. Schoonmaker ([email protected]) coaches only on psychology issues, such as controlling impulses, coping with losing streaks, going on tilt, and planning your poker career.