Following my recent articles about Game Management & Game Improvement, I bring you the next part of my theory/strategy that I believe every poker player should consider, Goal Setting. I believe setting yourself a target is a big part of playing poker and I am currently working towards my own goals in my bankroll challenge. Every poker player should have at least one goal to work towards, no matter how small it is, to help them better themselves in their poker career. The S M A R T E R goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely, Enthusiastically, Reward) is used by many athletes to help them achieve their maximum potential. This can be adapted to help you with your poker game, which I will explain more in depth below.

Specific

A specific goal has a greater chance of being accomplished than general goals. The goal should also be broken down into smaller phases. Set yourself a target and then break the target down into smaller goals. For example, for my bankroll challenge I want to reach $5k by the 31^st Dec 2016. Then within that time frame I’ve broken it down into 4 quarterly goals of $1,250. Another way to look at this is say you wanted to run a marathon for charity, you wouldn’t just turn up on the day and take part you have to train and work towards that goal. So you start running 5Km and then work your way up to 42Km.

Measurable

There are plenty of ways to measure your goals within poker; you could reset your Sharkscope if your opted in, use your HUD to track your results, if it’s a BR challenge your BR is going to be displayed within the lobby or you could set up an excel spreadsheet to help you measure your progress. I personally feel tracking your progress is the biggest part to goal setting, as you can easily find out how far off your achievement you are.

Achievable

Make the goal achievable. There’s no point being unrealistic and ‘I want to make $100 into $100k in one year’ and then not put any planning/thought into how you will achieve that. Have this as your long term goal, then break down your goal into mid-term and short-term goals that you honestly believe you can achieve. You also need to keep the right attitude towards the goal, if you are not hitting the ‘achievable’ targets you set don’t let it get you down re-evaluate the goal and keep working towards it.

Realistic

You have to ask yourself ‘Is this worthwhile?’ ‘Am I really going to hit this goal?’ Don’t set yourself unrealistic goals because if you don’t hit them you will bad about it and the negativity will eventually affect your game play. You also have to ask if this goal is relevant to me and if this goal is feasible.

Timely

All goals should be grounded within a time frame… When? What can I do this week? What can I have done by the end of the month? Once you have your target in mind, these are all questions you as the goal setter should be able to answer.

Enthusiastically

Approach your goals and the results with as much positive energy as possible. It is important to evaluate and re-evaluate your goals regularly, with an energetic attitude. Don’t let not achieving your short-term goals stray you away from the bigger picture. For example; an athlete training for the Olympics picks up an injury, which doesn’t rule them out of the Olympics, it just sets them back a few weeks to get back to maximum fitness. They shouldn’t get down about it, just re-evaluate and work towards being the fittest they can be in the time frame they have.

Reward

Reward yourself at every major milestone. Let other people also reward you for your hard work. Write a blog about the goal, see the comments when you update it. They are rewarding within themselves.

To summarize I believe every poker player should have a goal. Most do, whether it be turn pro, win a tournament or make ‘x’ amount this month. But a lot of people don’t track this. They have the goal in the back of their mind, bring them to the front and be more focused on them. Here’s a quick and easy example to finish off how easy it is to set a goal; The main goal: I want to win the Big $5.50 on stars. I personally would then break it down into achievable chunks like this: I want to get past late reg, I need to make it in the money, I need to make it to the last 100, I want to get to the final 2 tables, now FT, now HU, now win. All these are goals the long term goal being win the tournament then shorter goals within this that I need to hit. These can be tracked in the lobby. I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you are planning to set goals I hope to read about them in the near future.