Wednesday, 2 June 2010

Either Find a Way or Make a Way

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog. (Dwight D. Eisenhower)

Essentially all that matters now is ambition, dreams, realisation and determination. As Jesse Owens said "We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."

This really got me thinking about myself and my ambitions. I love playing poker with mates and really enjoy it online too, I'm out on my own backing myself in poker now, no support just me and my passion. The thing is the only way you can improve at something you love doing is if you still love doing it. When something becomes obligatory all of a sudden it becomes a chore, and when it is a chore it no longer becomes fun. Who in this world enjoyed those chores they had to do for pocket money... nobody, but you did it to reach the end reward and that was your motivation. The thing is money motivates us, but so does passion and enjoyment. Sure it would be immense to make a million off of poker in the next year, but at the moment that is not realistic at all.

Going back to Jesse Owens quote, I think I need to just type and asses where I stand on each of the points.
Determination - I am determined to become a great player, determined to show everyone that I have the skills, I know I do and really determination is not a problem here.
Dedication - Again I am dedicated to putting all my effort into anything I do. On my current job I'm giving a range of tasks and I am dedicated and determined to exceed expectations, sure I come up short on occasions but this just motivates me to do better and increases my determination to do so. Shooting back to poker I can no way dedicate my life to it, it's not an option, but I can dedicate some free time to improve my ability, learn, read articles watch videos assess hands and what not.
Effort - Poker takes a lot of effort, and has a lot of emotional strain. When you are losing it is crushing, it hurts so bad and can really change your mood chronically, and influence your attitude towards others, essentially bringing them down. When your winning, a lot of the time the feeling is more of relief, kind of a "thank you lord finally!" When you win big its incredible. If you put in the effort and dedication, and are determined you can succeed. These 3 points really work in conjunction with each other, without 1 you will fail.
Self Discipline - This is the problem area, I lack this majorly. When I get money I spend money like it is meaningless. When I play poker I get ahead of myself way to early, when I lose I occasionally chase by moving up levels, and naturally play worse. This has got me to realise that if I want to enjoy and succeed in poker I need to become self disciplined so time for drawing up a plan.

Deposit $25 into a poker site.
This is a miniscule amount but it is essential to my improvement of self discipline. Once this money goes in it is no longer money, it is points and I need to move up the point scale. I can't drop down at all initially.
2 options here, play 2c/5c 6 max cash - issue I will only have 5 buy ins which is never ideal as variance can royally destroy me.
Play 1c/2c with 12.5 buy ins, a much safer option, I think I will go with this.
Rules are simple, I cannot move up stakes until I have 20 buy ins.

So:
Start with $25
Play 1c/2c till I reach $70. Realistically this is not waiting untill I have 25 buy ins, but I feel comfortable at 2c/5c and can beat it so 14 buy ins is sufficient, this could happen in one day, it could happen in one month. I am aiming to reach this by 10.06.2010.
Play 2c/5c till I reach $200 This should not take too long, 26 buy ins at this level should take me like 3 weeks tops, so I will aim for 30.06.2010
Play 5c/10c till I reach $500. This is where it can get tricky but if I drop to 150$ I will step back down. This should take 6 weeks so lets say 14/08/2010/
Play 10c/20c Till I reach 1k. At this point I will have a lot of hand histories and will be confident in my game, I reckon a month is sufficient so 14.09.2010.
Play 25c/50c till I reach 2.5k. The reason for this is I want more security before I hit 50c/$1 as it can be tough. Main focus point is that this is no longer money!!! I think this will take until 30.10.2010
Play $1/$2 till I reacj 6k. This should take me til Feb 2011. At which point I will be playing ok I hope and ready to hit $2/$4($5) I will not go any higher then this until July 2011 regardless of my roll as I am not sure I will be ready for $3/$6 or $5/$10 until 2012. Once I am playing $5/$10 it could be plain sailing on my way to a mill, who knows but small steps. The minimum I will want in my roll before I play this level is $30k.

I will play occasional tournaments but for no more then 1.5% of my roll. I will be really strict with this. STTs can be played for 2% of my roll.

Who knows what will happen but I could well make 1m within 4 years. Here is hoping, once I have this self discipline there is no stopping me :p

x

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