BLOG – Poker Resolutions

BLOG – Poker Resolutions

Friday, 10 December 2010

When people set themselves goals as New Year’s Resolutions, they typically follow the same kind of pattern: lose X amount of weight, save up X amount of money for that car/holiday/Boba Fett with trapping net rare collectable figurine, cut back on drinking... oddly enough that last one is often groaned out nationwide in the early hours of January 1st. Can’t think why that is.

As poker players, we too can use the start of a new year to re-think our aims at the tables and set ourselves goals or resolutions to achieve in the next twelve months. Whereas people want to lose ten pounds or save a thousand pounds (weight then currency, try to keep up) in the course of the New Year, poker players want to make money and they want to make it fast. Preferably with a World Series of Poker bracelet or a big run in the cash games that gets you on the front cover of Bluff Europe magazine – or the back cover; that would mean you had landed a sponsorship deal with an online poker site.


Admit it – how many times have you read on our website or in these very pages about the $600,000 pot that Ziigmund won or the amazing tournament run by the likes of John Juanda in the 2010 World Series of Poker and allow yourself a faint and whimsical pipe dream that you will one day hit upon poker’s magic solution and suddenly become a millionaire within the span of two weeks? After all, you’ve played poker loads – this hard work has to pay off someday.


Personally, if I’d spent as much time working on my game as I’d spent wishing I would just get lucky in the Sunday Million or a GUKPT tournament to kick-start my truly professional poker career then... I can’t honestly say I’d be at nosebleeds but I would have spent my time more constructively, at least. At the end of the day it’s just not likely that you’ll suddenly become great at poker without putting in approximately six metric fucktons of mental exertion.


I know that it is somewhat hard to take in but the amount of effort and hard toil you are prepared to put in to make things happen has been severely decimated. I blame the Karate Kid. Also, Rocky. These guys just put in a five-minute montage with some cheesy eighties metal and inspiring lyrics behind it and boom! They’re the best. All I need is some shots of me 12-tabling, doing equity calculations and analysing hands interspersed with shots of hero calls and big bluffs as my cashier page fades in and out scrolling rapidly into six figures and I’ll be the new Tom Dwan! Life doesn’t really work that way. That’d be awesome in Rounders 2, though.


So, you’re thinking. Work hard and you will improve. Duh! Well, yeah, it pretty much is that easy but have you considered what it takes to improve, especially in today’s tougher games? An online player needs to treat this as seriously as a Korean treats Starcraft in order to succeed in the rapidly-growing online poker world. In next month’s issue of Bluff Europe, you’ll see some common New Year’s Resolutions that you might find yourself making and what you should be resolving to do instead.



Tags: Poker News, BLOG, –, Poker, Resolutions