Advice on these poker goals?

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Sam Powers

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Hey guys, im fairly new to the poker world and recently decided to take the game more seriously. I'm posting in hopes to get some advice from players more experienced than myself, and not only for myself, but for similar new players like me. Thanks for taking the time to read, wish you all luck on the felt.

Below I’ve listed a few of my goals in poker, im curious what other people think of these, are they too lofty or not enough? Theyre also only a few, I hope to add more as I play more, so what are some suggested “goal categories” If you will?
Thanks for all the help and advice in advance.


1. Play 5000 hands a week
Like i said, I'm a college student and a part time employee. I'm in class 16.5 hours a week, work 20 hours a week, and train (gun and martial arts) 9 hours a week. I've been tracking my results and studying my hands since i started 2 months ago and i think 5000 is actually a lofty goal. Also, im on christmas break right now so i dont have to worry about those class hours, which frees up a lot of time for poker. i will continue to monitor how many hands i play and adjust this goal accordingly. I'm interested in how many hands you guys play per hour per table. if you would you can leave a comment with this, id appreciate it, or if you have any similar goals, id love to know.

this is also a good spot to bring this up. When i play four tables, i can usually keep up with the action pretty easily, but my problem sometimes becomes making reads. i know this is a common topic with multi-tabling, and i also know that people respond by saying the money you loose by not being able to make reads is made up with the volume of tables. However my personal solution to this is to go over every hand in my history (at the very least the ones that went to showdown, most times more than that, almost every hand). I will use this time not only to review my own hands, but to also make reads on my opponent. While i still have the disadvantage of not being able to make reads while im playing, ill have those notes for the next time i see them. What do you guys think about this?

2. Only move up limits when i have at least 40BI for the next limit
I have done limited research on this topic, but when i played on ignition casino, not really knowing what i was doing, i learned the importance of bankroll management. ever since i started taking it more seriously i havent done the fish things like taking shots at bigger limits when i loose money in the lower ones. I desperately want to move up from $2 limits but i wont until i have enough BI's. im interested in what you guys think is enough to move up to $5 limit? by my goals, i would need at least $200 in my BR before moving up, is this too much, or is this too little? thanks for any replies.

3. Win rate of 8bb/100hands
i know youre not supposed to be results oriented. it about how you play, making good decisions and not about how much money you make. and i do love the game for the game. however i think im one of the strongest players on BetOnline for the $2 limit. so im going to break this rule and set a win rate goal of 8bb/100hands through 10k hands. i was curious what you guys think is a good win rate for a serious player at the $2 limit? whats a good sample size to determine your skill? what are yalls win rates?

4. continue to study the game
another less quantified goal is to continue to study the game while i play. I studied the game for a while before i even made my ignition account, and continue to study, watch videos, read forums, watch live poker, and hand review throughout my short time playing poker, and i want to make sure to continue to do so. If i were to quantify this goal, what would you say to about 20 minutes of study per hour played? this is just off the top of my head, as ive never really done research on how much you should study. ive just studied when i felt like it, which was actually a lot. but what are yalls "play/study ratio" if you will?

5. continually play cash games and MTTs
i want to keep a variety of games played. starting out i played a little bit of everything, cash, MTTs, and SNGs. so far ive done a little pattern of cash games through the week and tournaments on the weekends. its just kind of what i fell into, so why change it? plus theres more tourneys on the weekends, and more time to play! and throughout the week theres a bigger chance ill have to unexpectedly leave the game, so cash games are my go to. im curious how many of yall play a variety of game formats and if you do, how do you decide which you want to play at any given time? also, if you play both cash and tournaments, do you mentally divide your bankroll into a "cash BR" and a "tourney BR" or do you not bother with it? ive just been playing with one bankroll, not mentally dividing it into separate cash and tourney bankrolls. if i continue to play both formats, should i have "two" bankrolls?

in case this is unclear, ill give an example:
i have a $300 BR. i play .05/.10 cash games, and buy into tourneys at $3 or less. this gives me 30 buy ins at cash tables, and 100 tourney buy ins, pulling from the same money.
or
i have a $300 BR. i play .02/.05 cash games, and buy into tourneys at $1.5 or less. this gives me 30 buy ins at cash tables ($150), and 100 tourney buy ins ($150) pulling from "separate" bankrolls.


there are a few more goals that i can think of, but not much to elaborate on. like i want to eventually win the $50K GT on betonline, or turn poker into at least a side income, or venture into the live setting.

Thanks for reading and replying!
 
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JKKeys45

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So 5,000 hands online? Conceivably that's not absurd, when you're on break.
 
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STLPokerBum

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Love this Sam. Remember that anything is achievable when you put your mind to it. Just make sure the other aspects of your life aren't compromised during this process. Good Luck!
 
John A

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I wouldn't focus on #3... just continue to improve your decisions and move up when you reach your buy-in limits. The results will come.

GL!
 
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braveslice

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Sounds great, you plan sounds surely good for you. Nothing really to add, but a bit:

1. if you do post session every time there should be in no troubles, you are flying in no time. Just to add to this: “the money you loose by not being able to make reads is made up with the volume of tables” Winning money is never your goal, winning money comes automatically when you play good poker. To play good poker is a skill. To gain a skill you need to practice and study (as you do). There is no excuse of upping volume if it hinders the speed of learning. Thus making money by upping volume only applies to the levels where you actually use poker to make money so much that it has meaning in your daily life. Anything under that and you should optimize the volume to match optimal skill growth.

2. There is no correct answer. If you are clear headed (and clearly winning the level you play) you can go up and down with much less, but keeping clear head is very very difficult. It’s easier to pick absurdly high number like 40 and stick on it. In my current run I almost burnet everything in NL10 and then kept going down in NL5 (long term tilt) and did not back up, used bonus in edge of losing my whole roll to stack myself to NL2, recovered and then jumped back to 5NL with 10BI without problems. I had 2 times one buy in shot and second worked. And I though I’m clear headed. Have to say it was so shocking for me that I would lose my analytical skill that I doubt I have problems with it ever anymore, but after what the experience was it might happen again, who knows, I don’t.

3. Is good goal, I think reasonable player can do 8bb/100 fairly easily, but just remember that this is just a trophy number. Not something you should put effort directly, like staying 2NL to get it (what John A said).

4. continue to study the game. It sounds you are much better person than I am =) When you study don’t do it randomly and wide. Focus in one topic only, study and practice it until you can call it a skill, would be good idea to write it down too, and review it sometimes (like in optimal study in school). The topic you pick should be so specific you learn basics for it during one day, don’t forget you need to practice it on the tables too, and only when you don’t need notes you can call it skill (reading notes does not count as poker skill)

Good luck in the tables...
 
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Sam Powers

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So 5,000 hands online? Conceivably that's not absurd, when you're on break.


Thanks for the reply. I decided to do 5000 because ive been playing for about 2 months and can get done about 3-4000 a week, and since ive only been playing for 2 months i have only ever played while i had school going on. So i expect this number to go up over break. How much do you play in a week?
 
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Sam Powers

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Love this Sam. Remember that anything is achievable when you put your mind to it. Just make sure the other aspects of your life aren't compromised during this process. Good Luck!



Thanks! And absolutely! I have some other goals in martial arts that i plan to achieve as well. Especially after very many reputable poker sources suggested having those goals in other aspects.
 
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Sam Powers

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Sounds great, you plan sounds surely good for you. Nothing really to add, but a bit:

1. if you do post session every time there should be in no troubles, you are flying in no time. Just to add to this: “the money you loose by not being able to make reads is made up with the volume of tables” Winning money is never your goal, winning money comes automatically when you play good poker. To play good poker is a skill. To gain a skill you need to practice and study (as you do). There is no excuse of upping volume if it hinders the speed of learning. Thus making money by upping volume only applies to the levels where you actually use poker to make money so much that it has meaning in your daily life. Anything under that and you should optimize the volume to match optimal skill growth.

2. There is no correct answer. If you are clear headed (and clearly winning the level you play) you can go up and down with much less, but keeping clear head is very very difficult. It’s easier to pick absurdly high number like 40 and stick on it. In my current run I almost burnet everything in NL10 and then kept going down in NL5 (long term tilt) and did not back up, used bonus in edge of losing my whole roll to stack myself to NL2, recovered and then jumped back to 5NL with 10BI without problems. I had 2 times one buy in shot and second worked. And I though I’m clear headed. Have to say it was so shocking for me that I would lose my analytical skill that I doubt I have problems with it ever anymore, but after what the experience was it might happen again, who knows, I don’t.

3. Is good goal, I think reasonable player can do 8bb/100 fairly easily, but just remember that this is just a trophy number. Not something you should put effort directly, like staying 2NL to get it (what John A said).

4. continue to study the game. It sounds you are much better person than I am =) When you study don’t do it randomly and wide. Focus in one topic only, study and practice it until you can call it a skill, would be good idea to write it down too, and review it sometimes (like in optimal study in school). The topic you pick should be so specific you learn basics for it during one day, don’t forget you need to practice it on the tables too, and only when you don’t need notes you can call it skill (reading notes does not count as poker skill)

Good luck in the tables...



Thanks for the insight. And taking the time to read!
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

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I wouldn't focus on #3... just continue to improve your decisions and move up when you reach your buy-in limits. The results will come.

GL!

^ agree with this 100% - you don't want to get fixated on achieving a specific win rate number, and in the short term it could even be misleading. You could achieve your number with substandard play, or you could be playing excellently but go through a downswing.

Instead just focus on playing the best you can and making the best decisions you can and, as John says, the results will take care of themselves.
 
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