Poker Planning for 2009

Have you made a poker plan for 2009? Probably not! If your results haven't been good, you should be thinking of making some major changes in the way you play. If they have been fair, you should think in terms of subtracting some negatives and adding some positives. If you have had good or even great results, don't become complacent. You must keep improving, learning games, and fine-tuning skills in the games you know. You should also set some goals for the year. Let's look at the kind of goals you should be setting.

Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. So, begin examining your life, especially as it relates to poker. There is a spectrum of players, ranging from extremely successful high-stakes professionals, through middle-level pros, on to low-stakes grinders, and then crossing to the negative side of the ledger to small losers and big losers. A talented, winning amateur can be considered a pro when he's playing. There is nothing wrong with being a loser if you are playing for entertainment and choose games that you can comfortably afford. In fact, nothing is more fun than a social group that meets at someone's house once a week to drink beer, tell stories, and play a little poker. Just make sure that you are realistic in determining what type of player you are. Once you have a clear idea of where you are, you can consider where you would like to be and how to get there.

Set some poker goals for 2009. Here are a few tips on goal-setting in general. State goals positively. For example, "I won't go on tilt" is stated in the negative. Instead, use a statement like, "I will be disciplined in 2009." Second, goals should be specific and measurable; otherwise, you won't know if you've accomplished them. If your goal is, "I want to win money in 2009," and then you win the blinds on the first hand you play on New Year's Day, you could quit and say, "I've achieved my goal for 2009, I won money." A better goal might be, "I will average winning $1,000 a month for 2009." I think it is also good to choose realistic goals. Unless you are Phil Ivey or Gus Hansen, don't choose a goal of winning $5 million in 2009. To keep things simple, I recommend setting three types of poker goals:

1. A purely financial or monetary goal
2. A psychological goal
3. An improvement goal

Here are specific examples of each one of them:

1. I will win more than $12,000 in 2009.
2. I will be more disciplined in 2009.
3. I will improve my no-limit hold'em tournament skills in 2009.

Once you have set your goals, you must come up with a plan to achieve them. All of these are one-year goals. You must break each of them down into small steps or actions.

To win $12,000, you make a subgoal of winning $1,000 each month. Next, specify the actions needed to accomplish that subgoal. I will do this by playing at least 50 hours each month and by winning an average of $20 per hour. I can do this playing $1-$2 no-limit hold'em.

In order to be more disciplined, you might come up with these subgoals or actions. I will play longer than five hours in a session only when I am winning and the game is good. I will limit my daily exposure to 5 percent of my bankroll. I will keep accurate records of my results, and any other important information that will help me in the future.

Here are a few actions that are designed to improve your skills. I will study a different poker book each month and read every issue of Card Player. I will use the information that's available on the Internet to improve. Jim and Janet are the two biggest winners in the games that I regularly play. I will invite them out for a dinner and poker discussion.

Write down your list of goals and subgoals. Write down the actions needed to achieve each one. Some people find it useful to rewrite the list every day. At the very least, review it every day. Be aware of your progress. If you have chosen goals that are measurable, you will know where you are on the road to fulfilling them. If a goal seems to be impossible, and you are convinced that you can't reach it within the year, scale it down to a more manageable goal. If a goal seems too easy, and you realize that you have accomplished it before the end of the summer, give yourself a mental pat on the back or a reward of some kind, such as ordering an expensive wine with dinner. After you celebrate your achievement, set a new goal.

This column has been devoted to setting poker goals. I hope that poker is only one part of your life. Therefore, setting poker goals should be only one part of an overall goal-setting exercise. Choose the most important areas of your life and set goals for them. Typical categories include business and career, fitness and appearance, family and relationships, spiritual and philosophical, and materialistic (get a new TV/ stereo system or buy a Ferrari). Someone once did a study of the most financially successful graduates of Harvard Business School and found that nearly everyone in the top 10 percent followed some sort of planning, goal-setting, and daily action regimen, while almost no one in the bottom 10 percent did. My guess is that poker players, especially professional poker players, are a lot less organized than businessmen. If you manage to achieve a moderately successful routine of goal-setting, planning, and taking action, you will have an excellent chance of doing more, and doing it better than they do.

Steve "Zee" Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at many major tournaments and playing on Full Tilt, as one of its pros. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A - Nice Guy Eddie's on Houston and Doc Holliday's on 9th Street - in New York City.