Back to the basics

I've been doing some thinking about my game (yeah, I finally lost all my money at Piggs Peak) and have decided that my approach of late has been all wrong. The past couple of months of being a losing player have caused me some soul-searching and have taken me down some pretty ugly depths. There have been times I have considered hanging up the whole poker thing. But that is not a realistic option. I only have to look at the tax forms I filed this week to realize I am a winning player, but that I have just lost my way of late.

So, all of this thinking has taken me back to my goal, which is the tagline of my blog. While thinking about it, I've realized that the goal of "becoming a professional poker player in five years" is somewhat nebulous. It doesn't take into account all the many steps it would take to actually get to that goal. And since it only gives me a lofty goal to shoot for, it is hard to see how I am making progress when I am in the pit of an extended losing streak, and that only sets me up for an expectation of additional losing.

Okay, with all that being said, I am in the midst of revising my goal. It will remain the same, but I'm in the process of defining the steps I need to take along the way in order to get to that point. So far, I've only barely begun, but I have set some concrete targets I want to hit in 2005. These will be further refined later, so that I can have a step-by-step guide to how I wish to accomplish my dream of making my living from cards. Here is what I've come up with so far:

HAVE FUN! This is number one for each year, for obvious reasons. After all, who wants a job or hobby that they don't enjoy?

Show a profit of at least $5,000. This isn't much, but it would be an improvement over the past year. My thinking is that this goal will probably double each year.

Build a permanent bankroll of $2,000. Again, not much, but better than where I am now.

Manage finances better. This one includes separating my poker finances from my personal finances.

Win at least one tournment with a field of over 150 players. I actually did this twice the past year, but it happens so rarely that I don't want to set the bar too high ... yet.

Finish in the money of at least one live tournament. This is one achievement that has eluded me so far. That being said, I only played in three last year, and I didn't really play too poorly. The last one I played, my demise was pretty much dictated by running up against AA when I was holding KK. That didn't kill me, but it put me on such a short stack that I was in desperation, all-or-nothing mode from that point on, and I didn't get lucky enough to pull back out of it.

Commit to studying the game. I've been really bad about this one. Oh, I bought a lot of poker books over the past year. I even started reading most of them. But there were only a couple that I actually finished, and none of those were strategy guides. This year, however, I am going to develop a syllabus of sorts and do my best to stick to it. For February, the goal is to simply finish The Psychology of Poker.

Well, that's it for now. Like I said, though, this list is in the process of being developed. Hopefully I will be able to finish it in the next couple of days, and then I will post what I've come up with.