I've truly enjoyed this forum being open and reading about all the goals and aspirations of online poker players, but I think I'll take this time to write a short discussion on my thoughts about realizing true potential and the importance of having a realistic view of what you can achieve.

Poker is a brutal game, except for those who run in god-mode at all times I think we can all agree upon this. Going into unrealistic goals is not only detrimental to your success in the near future as it is highly unlikely it will be achieved, but the sense of not being able to achieve a goal you made for yourself and quite possibly expected to happen will almost certainly have a negative effect on your overall game.

Threads like "freerolls to millions" or "50 to 10k" in a month are amazing goals, but should be considered more of a dream as to succeed in these goals you would need to try them hundreds of times before variance works out for you. Instead I suggest more realistic goals such as "play 100 freerolls in a month" or "see how far I can take 50 dollars using proper brm". This way even if you lose money or don't cash a single freeroll you will be able to succeed at a completely attainable goal, which in turn will work wonders for your games.

Sorry if this seems pointless, but I truly believe that profit goals are the quickest way to become discouraged.

Good post.

Immediately thought about Tommy Angelo discussing the differences between goals and targets. Good info for anyone wanting to learn more.

for sure, Tommy's work is amazing and worth so much more than he charges for

I think it's helpful to set a goal of x amount of hands at y limit per month while a target of (insert z amount of profit) should have a very lengthy timeline to it

I know that in the past I have many times set a "goal" to win x amount of buyins in a month and have felt very upset when my (in my mind, very attainable) goal was not met. On the other hand I have also set goals to win x amount of buyins and have succeeded but have felt little more than a feeling that it was standard and what I expected, although I ran well in all aspects of the game to arrive there.

It's important to understand that the negative feelings in poker and gambling in general outweigh the positive because we have an inherent sense of entitlement towards winning money when we believe we are winning players. To quickly understand this let's take a common example for a HU player who wins at 5bb/100 at his limit...

When we win 3bi from a fish we feel mildly content, we "deserved" it anyway right? he was a fish

When we lose 3bi to a fish we are furious, thoughts of how bad we ran and how the fish could make that bet at that time run through our heads. We rarely take time to think how well we ran when we beat the fish. We all (any player who thinks they are +ev in the games they play) have a pretty large sense of entitlement: we should win when we play, we should lose due to bad luck or an outside factor.

Many of the goals I see on these forums are great, realistic, and have solid plans to attain (x amount of hands, ect.). But many others assume wins that have not happened yet as well as making assumptions about how good we really play and I hope my few posts will help people to make more realistic goals that will help them to have a positive mindset when playing, whether or not the results we yearn for come.

Great posts - I, for the most part, agree.

I do think it is good to have some tangible goals, such as to grind a bankroll up to $X, but I also believe that putting a time constraint on that goal can at times be detrimental.

I think it is really difficult to set good poker goals. A good goal in general should be reasonable but a stretch, measurable, have a time limit, and be within your control.

A pretty common goal that comes up here a lot is "I want to earn $1000 in one month." Let's say you nail the sweet spot where $1000 is a reasonable stretch for your stakes and volume of play. You still have to deal with variance, you could play fantastic poker and still come up short if the cards are not in your favor. So is this a good goal?

I personally opted for a time goal (500 hours dedicated to poker/study/review in 6 months). But as many people have already pointed out, I run the risk of playing poor poker just to get hours in. Any volume goal runs this risk, especially if you are talking about number of hands. If you are short towards the end of the goal, it is too easy to justify playing too many tables for too long.

Unfortunately, I think it is impossible to set a good goal for strictly playing poker (I would love to see someone prove me wrong). However, you can set good goals around poker, for example posting a certain number of hands in a month for review. Or watching/reading poker lessons within a time period.

As for Tommy Angelo from what I have heard on the Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment, I like his idea of targets, however I really disagree with his dismissal of goals altogether. His reasoning being you either set unrealistic or super easy goals that don't matter, come up short and feel like a failure, or cause extra stress when you are trying to make up for lost ground. Given my examples above I can see how you can make an argument for this, but I think you are losing some huge value in setting goals.

Let's go back to the $1000 goal in one month. At the end of the month it is imperative that you evaluate why you either hit or missed this goal. If you miss you only fail if you don't figure out why and put yourself in a better position to earn $1000 next month. If you keep this in mind there should be no pressure to try to make up for lost ground. Even though variance makes this an iffy goal, there is still value in setting it if you are prepared to evaluate yourself at the end.

with the right work ethic it can be achieved though.. monetary goals for a session is bad but to say not to have monetary goals in a career path or a hobby which the prime reason for doing it is to generate money is bad thing then whats the point of playing poker in the first place...

Some excellent point being put across here. Many of the threads posted on this forum section become forgotten. Mainly through lack of posting due to a realisation by the OP of the thread that he cant obtain the goals set.

I a couple of weeks im probably gonna start a goal once Uni work is finished and will keep in mind some of these posts.

Yeah there is definately some merit to having long term monetary goals but you have to have a very good mindset and have a winrate that has enough merit behind it to be considered accurate.

My only points were that many threads are started as a pipe dream in some sorts. Posters have been doing it in bbv for years, making goals that are essentially not only unrealistic but without an incredible amount of luck unachievable. I hope that my posts are read by people with goals who decide to change their goal from "win 1k this month playing ss" to "play 20k hands of ss making the best decision I can in every hand this month" becuase goals that are substantial but completely realistic is the best way to boost a bankroll.