17 Dec 11

Achieve Your Poker Goals In 2012 with Jared Tendler

Mental game coach Jared Tendler explains how to stick to the poker goals you set in 2012. Plus, tell us your own poker goals for a chance to win one of three iPad 2s.

JaredTendler

Whether it is in the form of a New Year’s resolution, or simply looking ahead to 2012, now is the time to begin setting goals for the next 12 months.

The best way to do that is to think back to where your game was a year ago, and compare it to where it is now. What’s improved? What hasn’t? What goals did you achieve in 2011? Which ones did you not achieve?

Properly set goals for 2012 starts by understanding what you achieved and did not achieve in 2011. When evaluating your goals from 2011, be sure to adjust them for the impact of Black Friday.

The poker landscape changed dramatically this year, and your evaluation must take that into account. You also need to be realistic about the current realities of the poker economy.

It’s impossible to know what will happen in poker in 2012, but being prepared for a range of possibilities, such as regulated online poker, will make you better able to capitalise on those opportunities if they happen.

In order to get you best prepared for a successful 2012, here are some solutions to a few common mistakes when setting goals:

Money Goals

It is natural to set monetary goals in poker, after all money is the fundamental way of keeping score in the game. However, financial goals in poker can narrow your focus too much, and they are often set without taking variance in poker or variance in the poker economy into account.

If you focus too much on the dollar figures, then you can become easily demotivated if you are behind on your target, or ahead of it. No matter how much you want to win X amount of money, variance is not going to respect your goals.

It is much more sustainable to pick out goals you have more control over, such as goals relating to skill. Instead of setting targets that relate to money, set targets that relate to the means by which you accumulate money, your skill in the game.

Since money matters a lot, I suggest setting goals that incorporate both money and skill. For example, if your aiming is to on average make $6,000 a month playing poker, also set skill goals that will help you to achieve that monetary goal, such as to reduce tilt during downswings, improve your value betting, or studying 10 hours per week.

You have no control over what variance can do to your bankroll, but you can measure how much your skill improves each time you play. If you improve each time you play, even by just a small margin, by the end of 2012 you will almost certainly be in a much stronger position financially too.  

Too Many Goals

When you’re aware of all the areas you have the potential to improve, it’s easy to get carried away and set far too many goals than you reasonably can accomplish. Setting too many goals is as big of a problem as not having any because there is only so much you can work on at one time.

Humans have a limited mental capacity that allows them to only work on a small handful of things at one time. Rather than making a huge list of goals, select the 2 or 3 really big hitters that will improve your game by the biggest margin.

For example, if tilt is your biggest problem, concentrate on that more than anything. If bubble play is where you could stand to improve the most, make that your number 1 priority.

Of course you can focus on smaller things, which requires far less mental energy to improve. But, don’t allow it to take more than a back seat role to the greatest priorities in your game.

You might find that a few months into the year you feel you have got a particular issue mastered, which is great. At that point, focus on it just enough so you can maintain the gains you’ve made so far, and ensure you don’t take steps backward.   

Failing To Prepare For Adversity

Most of us don't prepare for downswings

A new year offers a fresh start; a chance to press the reset button. As you think about what you want to accomplish in 2012, it’s natural to be optimistic.

Unfortunately, blind optimism fails to prepare you for the likely bumps in the road.

A common flaw in setting goals is viewing progress towards those goals as if it is a straight line, from point A to point B. Your end goal of making SuperNova Elite, moving up to $2/$4, or eliminating tilt, seems so real in your mind that it seems easy to accomplish.

Rarely is that the case, especially with goals set for the entire year.

Without being prepared for the struggles that are likely going to stand between you and your goal, you’re in a terrible position to be resilient.

When you’re not prepared for adversity, your response can be so poor that it alone is the reason you don’t succeed. The mountain will feel too big to climb and you’ll quit trying.

When setting goals, also list the things that could stand in the way of your success and what you’ll do when it happens. For example, what are you going to do if you have a big downswing, or personal matters take your focus away.

Setting goals successfully means being prepared for the things that are going to get in your way.

Dreaming Too Much

We all dream about winning the main event

It’s great to have dreams. But, another major problem with goals occurs when players get too caught up in their far off dreams.

Dreaming about amazing things that could happen in the future can be a source of motivation. However, if you do it too much, you’ll take away the confidence and motivation you need to actually be able to realize your dream.

One reason for this is that dreaming too much can actually make you prematurely believe you have the skill to achieve these goals, right now.

The dream feels so real that it makes you believe you already have the skill to be playing Tom Dwan heads-up.

You don’t right now, but dreams create emotions that make it feel as though you do. So, in the middle of the year while going through a downswing at $100NL, you’ll become discouraged feeling as though your dream is so far away even though you’re actually improving and making progress.

Dreaming too much will derail your efforts to put in the necessary work to achieve your dreams in reality. If you are going to start daydreaming, try and make it more relevant to your skill level.

If you play $100NL, try and think more about what it would be like to beat $200NL before you start thinking about taking durrrr on High Stakes Poker.

More importantly, instead of thinking about what it would be like to achieve your goal, try and change the focus of your dream to include the steps needed to get there. Stopping your dreams from getting out of control is hard, but essential for you to really achieve them.


Now is the time to begin thinking about what you achieved this year, and what you want to achieve next year. Avoid these common mistakes, and make 2012 a great year.

JaredTendler is a coach at PokerStrategy.com and the author of The Mental Game of Poker.

Tell Us Your 2012 Poker Goals & You Could Win An iPad 2

As a special treat for the members of our community forum, we are running a special contest for you to tell us what your poker ambitions are for 2012.

Three lucky winners will have their goals selected and wn a brand new iPad 2.

All you need to do is tell us your 2012 poker goal in our community forum thread.