Below is what I posted on my PG&C thread, and I thought I'd cross-post it here as well. Couldn't come up with a good title, but hope this will be helpful to some of you.

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So today it just occurred to me that there's still a ton in this game that I can learn and improve on. Then it also came to my mind that I haven't really worked much on trying out new stuff or developing a theory. All I have been doing so far was trying to figure out the existing theory and understand the reasoning behind so that I can apply it to many other spots.

And whilst that has helped me reach where I am now, I realised it probably won't get me anywhere further. It's just like musicians. You can do lots of cover and become famous, but in the end you really have to write your own music and keep improving. You can't have a recital at Carnegie Hall if you just copy other's stuff, no matter how well you do.

At the same time, it makes me laugh to think that most regs are pretty much in the same boat in this sense. Most mediocre regs like me, I should say. I just can't help laughing for some reason. We are a spoonfed generation. There were always tons of poker material out there, and all we had to do was watch those vids, read articles and incorporate them into our game. Maybe bug the vid makers or posters by asking some questions, or talk about them with other poker friends sometimes. And yeah, that allowed us to make more money. But once again, was that our best bet? Is this what the top notch players do too, or do they try out something different? If so, aren't we missing something out? I'm not gonna spoon feed you with the answer here, so feel free to come up with your own conclusion.

That said, from now on I'll try to try new things out in my game (out in? weird image). More exactly, I'll try to be willing to try new things out, because I think it's more about attitude (confidence, for example) and mannerism in the end, and less about skills. I remember trying a couple of new lines in NL, although those weren't really brand new. And considering my PLO game is lot weaker than NL, it probably won't make much sense for me to try out new things. However, I still will, because I firmly believe that it can considerably expedite my learning procedure and keep it fun.

Also, whilst this really is a long shot, I want to be one of the best PLO players in the world, which was not something I even dreamt of during my NL days. I was content with making enough $$ and playing decent poker. Nothing was more exciting when things started to make sense and I could clearly see myself improving. But in retrospect, I gotta admit that I never thought of becoming the best player or anything remotely close to it. I just didn't have that kind of aspiration or aim. And this lack of ambition, or whatever you call it, seems to be one of the reasons I sort of "hit the ceiling" and got bored of the game, if not the biggest reason.

It's simple. Just because you want to be the best player doesn't necessarily mean you will get there. If you don't even have that aim, however, you are guaranteed not to make it altogether, and won't get too far. And this seems to be the situation for most of us. Well, if that sounded too condescending, let me rephrase it, it clearly was the situation for me at least. And I guess that's the reason why I never bothered trying out new stuff or thinking about poker in great depth. I mean, if I did want to become the best, how could I possibly have been content with being spoonfed all the time? Wouldn't I have been doing something that most others are not doing, in order to stay ahead of the curve?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should all dream of becoming the next Tom Dwan (or Phil Ivey, just pick your poker hero). As a poker player, it's very important to do the reality check routinely and make plans accordingly. And if you're a pro, you might not be too keen on becoming the best in the world, when making $$ is your first priority (and quite rightfully so). Joey Knish put this very well in Rounders:

Although I always had an impression that he's passing up on some +EV spots due to BRM issues, I think he makes a good point here. Look, I'm 27 y/o now, and won't be able to fully concentrate on poker until I get a PhD degree in the next year. Turning into a full-time poker player at 28 might not be the smartest choice in the world, nor will I be on the younger side among pros. And yeah, I might not get anywhere close to the top PLO players despite my high aspiration and aloft goals.

But hey, come to think of it, having an aspiration is basically a freeroll, it doesn't need to conflict with making money in poker. I mean, it can hurt your volume or hourly in short term, but it shouldn't really do any harm in long term. If "becoming the top PLO player" sounds too cheesy or "stony" to you, "becoming the top reg at my stakes" will do the trick as well. Or "beating this reg who's owning me" too. They say aim high, but those are details anyway. Point is, having an aspiration or goal is vitally important. It presents us the overall scheme and allows us to see the forest for the trees, thereby motivating us to improve as poker players. And we all know we have to keep improving in order to make $$ in this game, right?

For example, "I wanna be the best at $100 hypers" almost certainly seems a better goal to me than "I'm gonna check raise bluff more often." If you shoot for the former, you will see what needs to be done to achieve that (assuming you actually go for it, not just blindly make goals), and check raise bluffing more often can be just one of them. If you just shoot for the latter though, you can easily get bored or worn out of poker, as you might have to set new goals too often, or something not know what to shoot for. It is possible that we subconsciously have the former in mind when shooting for the latter; but we have to take it to the conscious level imo.

In poker, both generality and specificity are important; when we acquire poker skills, we usually learn the general principles from specific examples, and that's pretty much the way it should be. Like, Q8s looked like a monster hand to me when I first started playing poker. I overplayed hands like that so much, lost bunch of money, and only then could I learn the importance of hand selection and position. When it comes to aspirations or mindset though, I think it's the other way around. You establish a broad/general goal first, and break it down to aim for specific things. That way you can make sure you are moving forward and not getting caught up in details.

So yeah, think about what you really want to be in poker, and set a goal accordingly today. For me, like I said above, I want to make it to the best PLO players, and that's my eventual goal. And since this won't happen overnight, I'll have to take many steps towards it. I have two steps in mind now: a) make it to 1/2 and crush there, and b) always be eager to try out new things and learn the game; be an active learner. It might sound pretty much the same as before, but I know they aren't - I am much, much more motivated now and can't wait for grinding when I wake up in the morning

Thanks for reading this, and I wish you the best at the tables.

- mela

Made my morning.

I'm gonna shoot for: drastically improving my learning process

The title is spot on. I highly suggest your read Seth Godin's book, Icarus Deception.

Don't get too caught up with being the best in the world, but definitively try to ship your best work. One is a result and you have limited control over it; the other is a ways and you're in full control.

GLGL

Very good post

Good post, and i agree with the majority of what was written. For me, complacency is the root of all evil in poker. You get comfortable with a win rate, a game type, a level of success; and something quite destructive starts to formulate in the psyche. It can happen in multiple forms. The ego grows, and the will to become better shrinks. The money your making becomes "good" enough, and your goal starts to become sustaining instead of maximizing.

Complacency is just pure laziness in one of its finest forms. It also appeals to one of our most unlikely fears, the fears of truly succeeding. Being the best self we can be, in w/e aspect that may relate to. Being the best you can be means effort, sacrifice, and above all else; risk. Risk of failure, the deepest fear for many.

Not to be corny, but there is an amazing quote from the movie Coach Carter (great movie btw), and it encapsulates this idea fairly well:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Pretty sick.



But to be fair, it's in our evolution. For thousands of years ppl learned to be "safe", to survive. Risk meant starvation or death. But the truly great risk takers (insert any great historical figure), are the ones who ignored their biological sense and went for it. They worked hard, and above all, they risked. The same holds true in poker.

There are many pitfalls in poker. Pit games/sports betting. Ego. Bad BR management, etc etc. But take it from me, one of the sneakiest, and perhaps most damaging of all; Complacency.

Sounds good!

Thanks for your suggestion, I'll check it out.

As for being the best in the world, that's a good point. I have never been a fan of comparing myself to others; in the end it was always me and myself competing with each other. But I decided to shoot for "the best in the world" this time, because I thought it would really, really push me. Especially in the aspects like trying out new things or developing new lines, etc., because I know I won't really go after them if I am just competing with myself.

That said, I can't envision myself comparing my results or stuff with those of others all the time. However, I think I can do the following:

- Study my game all the time and come up with a counter strat, as well as counter-counter strat (duh)
- Study the games of who I think is the best at my stakes, and try to build a good strat vs them, including trying out things that will take them out of the comfort zone
- Play around with PPT and answer the questions I come up with
- Study the games of the top notch players, learn from what they're doing well, and examine if they're making a mistake

These are just off the top of my head, but seem like a good starting point. Point is, I won't be looking at their profit and pushing myself or anything like that. I will just try my bestest to be a better poker player than them and myself now.

Thanks a lot!

Haha yeah, I remember those quotes from that movie too. And I can't agree more with your comments on complacency. I've always been eager to improve my game and become a better poker player, but sadly, when I'm just trying to compete with myself and beat him, I quickly get "comfortable" with myself and the competitive drive just plateaus at some point. Hence the reason why I pulled off a bit corny "I'm gonna be the best player in the world", which might not best explain my thoughts, but hope it made sense. In the end my primary goal is to keep improving, and I realised it can be helped by trying to be better than others, not just myself.

It still kinda feels like I haven't made myself very clear, but that's probably because I'm a bad writer Anyway, thanks a lot for your insightful comment, they really made me think about certain things in poker!

.

how can you sleep after making this post? i'd be so amped i'd play/study the game for two days straight

very nice post mela,gl.

Good post. Pat your Muse, so your posts keep comming.
Related to yours;

Try to improve yourself every single day.
Try to beat yourself every single day.

Soon you need the fix of having improved yourself, having beat yourself each day. This fix is a never ending/never finished goal. Once in a while you look to the field or to EV adjusted results but that no longer gives you the fix of the previous 2.

While using the words "most efficient way" when selecting what to improve, you stay attuned with reality and things that matter to an extent.

Do not go for perfection as perfection is a dirty trap. Perfection has indeed the upside of being capable to destroy the complete field in it but also the downside of being expert in one thread but being fish in all others IF you succeeded to achieve perfection. Also, that last inch improvement before perfection likely costed you more then everything else combined that got you right before that last inch. I made too often the mistake of tricking myself into perfection while in hindsight it was better to improve other aspects instead when looking at it through a cost/gain perspective.

Reread the post now. It's really good. Thanks for inspiration.

Good post, excellent read, ty.

I think each one of us has to find what is it that we want and what drives us.
Its gonna be different for every person.
When I start anything new, I immediatly start daydreaming on being the best and crushing the top opposition.

As it was with poker when I started, but even with every single hobbie, I start jiu jitsu a couple weeks later I'm already daydreaming about being the BJJ world champ on my belts, I start mma and not long after I start daydreaming about beating everyone in the UFC. And the weird thing is that I 100% believe it, not only I daydream on the ultimate goal, but I seem to naturally daydream every single step to get there, and then since its little steps of achievents everything seems very achievable, and I get full confidence I can do it.

Unfortunatly, since I have adhd, always comes to a point where I get a reality check because with adhd I cant perform at a decent level (of focus) most of the time, I then move up to some different where the whole proccess starts again.

Working with an adhd coach the past few months, I've found that much more then the felling of wanting to be the best, what I want is to test my skills. Because I see so many people who are as smart or smarter then me, I get my blood flowing when I think on testing my skills against them. Because ultimatly, the case was always me not winning because I was very far from performing at my best, so like I said, to think about the possibility of me not being able to beat someone even if I was at my best, just gets me so excited to try.

great post! thx

great post, in a year im gonna be one of the most feared 200-500 reg and super solid tourney player. im posting this so i can qoute this later and pick this thread back up.

Yeah I kinda felt like doing that but was too tired. Maybe I'm getting too old, haha.

Thanks man, gl to you as well.

Good point, Emus.

As weird as this might sound, I'm not really looking into reaching perfection anymore. In fact, that's what I was shooting for when I was just competing with myself. But right now I'm just content with constantly improving, beating regs at my stakes and moving up. Maybe they are two different routes that lead to the same destination, but I realised the latter gives me more motivation, as it is a more "humble" goal.

Thanks man, glad to hear!

Yeah, good point man. Like I said, being the best is just one example of aspirations, and my point was we just need one that works best for us, as long as it's not a too short-sighted one. Testing one's skill sounds like a solid goal too, and I wish you the very best in achieving that goal!

Thanks man =)

Thanks a lot!

Thanks, good luck and have fun!