SMART

Okay, now it is time to talk about goals. The problem with goals is that they are frequently too vague to be useful. For example "I want to be a professional poker player." How much do you want to make? Playing what games? Do you want to be famous? By when do you want to achieve "professional" status? You get the idea.

I don't think I will have a complete set of goals by the end of this post, but I will put some out there. The goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. I think you will get the idea of what I am trying to achieve, and may be able to either suggest additional goals, or at least give me the feedback I need to write the goals in a SMARTer fashion.

You may think this all sounds silly, or perhaps that I am being too anal. Maybe you think that I just won't stick with it. I certainly have thoughts like that. I will just take a shot at it and see how it works out. In advance, thanks for your feedback.

I would like to exercise more discipline in my playing.

• I will always act with class and courtesy. Except with people I know well, who deserve less (you know who you are.)
• Log positively every single session I play (even if PokerTracker is already doing it for me.)
• Import every tournament summary into PT
• Perform post-analysis on every big hand I am involved in (hmmmm, lots of blog material here.)
• Carefully review PT data once a week.
• No web surfing or watching TV while I am playing. Ever.
• No booze or drugs while I am playing. At least not when playing with any large sums of money. Let's say no more than $20 at risk. Not that I would ever take drugs. That would be wrong.
• I will begin doing all of the above starting 12/1/05.
• I will post an entry on my bankroll managment plans no later than 12/8/5. The final product will become encorporated into this list.
• I will evaluate my progress on this goal every two weeks.
• I will publish new blog entries every day. I will use this my blog, in part, as a tool for tracking my progress against these other goals.

I would like to focus on specific games, and not play other games, at least for now.

• NLHE ring games will be my primary focus. I will spend at least 45% of my playing time playing these games.
• I will also play NLHE tournaments and SNGs quit a bit. I will spend at least 35% of my playing time on these games.
• I will play 7-stud high occasionally. I will spend no more than 25% of my playing time playing these games.
• When I multi-table, I will not mix formats.
• I will evaluate my progress on this goal twice a week.

I would like to study the game as well as play it.

• I will read poker books and magazines.
• I will maintain a reading list (to be published here as a blog entry.)
• I will read at least one poker book a month.
• I will read other bloggers every day.
• I will spend at least four hours a month reading 2+2 and/or card player forums.

I would like to make friends and have fun

• (crap, I don't know how to make this one specific.)
  
  

Let me know what you think.

Cheers.