Motivation
 

In the poll we had of posters' ages, there were a lot of people under 25. I'm running really well at 5/10, and I'm making way too much money for a 20-year old kid. The problem I have is playing enough. The avatar open challenge on the general board does nothing to me; I don't care in the slightest. I offered to buy about a dozen friends dinner for every month I miss 40k hands; I made it in May and failed in June and July, and am way behind pace in August.

How do other young guns motivate themselves? I have tuition and living expenses for the rest of undergrad safely stored away, so I don't have an immediate need for money. It seems poker is a lot like studying for me, but I don't have an exam tomorrow, so I procrastinate instead.

I realize that online poker won't be around in its current form forever, so it would be a good idea to make as much as possible this summer while I have nothing else to do, but I find it really hard to put in the hours. Anyone else in a similar situation?

Re: Motivation
 

My motivation used to be growing my bankroll to play high stakes. I'm not really going to have the time this year to put in the work to doing that, so I'm starting to take sizeable chunks of bankroll and invest/buy toys. I've found that after I take a sizeable amount away, I get this feeling that I need to play to rebuild my roll. Also I've started playing less in exchange for juicier games. Poker is boring when you just open party and load 4 tables, but if you only play when specific fish play, it's much more enjoyable/ start making more money and feel good about playing. Make any sense?

Re: Motivation
 

Just try to always get your bankroll to play the next limits and then try to beat that game. I'm a pretty competive person by nature so a new challenge usually does it for me.

Re: Motivation
 

I have the same problem sometimes too. At first I worked really hard and wanted to get better because I thought I could make a career out of poker. Then I realized that the reason why it's so easy to make money now is because it's just a fad and won't last until I have a family I need to support. Plus, I have to focus on school and obtaining a business degree.

All in all, I don't think it's such a bad thing to take some time off poker if you're a teenager or in your early twenties, because the money's gonna run out eventually and when you get older you're gonna wish you had focused more on school. Or, you could always ride the poker boom now and plan on going to school later...but due to parental constraints, that's not an option for me :<

Re: Motivation
 

hey man, I'm having your same problem. It's even worse for me cause I dropped out of school to play for a living. My "goal" is to make $2K a week, but that's so easy, that I play 3 times a week for 4 hours and hit. But when I raise my goal to say 6K a week, I have a hard week, make 2-3K and then I just get unmotivated and drop my goal again. I don't know man, if you find a good answer hit me up. On a side note, how long do you think internet poker is goign to continue to be "easy" I'm not sure, hopefully we have a good 5 years left.

Re: Motivation
 

If online poker stays around like this for 5 years, I may be playing something absurd like 500/1000 NL and I can play one hour a week, so that would be pretty cool.

Edit: But then I'll feel dumb for only making 10k a week when I could be making 100 and the problem will still be there, except I'll have skin made out of platinum.

Re: Motivation
 

[ QUOTE ]
hey man, I'm having your same problem. It's even worse for me cause I dropped out of school to play for a living. My "goal" is to make $2K a week, but that's so easy, that I play 3 times a week for 4 hours and hit. But when I raise my goal to say 6K a week, I have a hard week, make 2-3K and then I just get unmotivated and drop my goal again. I don't know man, if you find a good answer hit me up. On a side note, how long do you think internet poker is goign to continue to be "easy" I'm not sure, hopefully we have a good 5 years left.

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Personally I go through periods of time when I hate poker and would rather do something else. Oftentimes I'll make enough money for a week in a few hours and then just sort of find other things to do the rest of the week, even though I know this is wrong. After the initial poker obsession phase (which for me was like 6 years ago) it's hard to play for 12 hours straight on the internet. In live games I can get in a lot more hours, but those are less profitable.

I have an addition to the family coming and that seems to have helped motivate me, so you might want to try having some kids. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

As for poker, I don't think it's going anywhere for a while. It's possible that online poker will fizzle someday, but just look at the prize pools for the online tournaments-they keep getting bigger and bigger.

Re: Motivation
 

i know exactly what you are talking about. the last 2 hours i've just been sitting here on my laptop chatting with people and surfing the web not making money that i could be making every minute that goes by. at the beginning of the summer i could easily put in 6-10 hours/day. the last 6 weeks or so i haven't been motivated at all to play near as much.

i also got so bored with cash games that i played in multi tables tournaments for a month, but i didn't enjoy breaking even for a month straight.

once i go back to school and actually have a life outside of poker i'll probably be much more motivated to play.

Re: Motivation
 

i have trouble putting in 1k hands a day, its really ridiculous. the weird part is that 6 months ago when i was a much worse player with a much lower winrate and less suitable mindset i could play much more, and now that i can consistently win what is a lot of money to me i have trouble playing as much. youd think that now id have less trouble playing more since now im making more money and poker is easier for me. that said i do have a lot of non poker stuff going on in life so its not like im sitting around jerking off all day.

what do people aim for? 10k hands a week? more?

Re: Motivation
 

If you are living comfortably, then the only reason to keep playing more is personal enjoyment, or obviously to plan for your future retirement/investments so you can come back here and post about ducks.

Re: Motivation
 

I only play like 10K a month on average. I could be making way more, but why play in the morning when no fish are on? Also, when you have a lot of money from playing, there is no real desire to play more when you have all the money you need and could be spending it on fun things to do instead of sitting in front of a computer.

Re: Motivation
 

The worst part is that whenever I have something unpleasant to do (playing poker, studying), I seize up and procrastinate hardcore. Then I manage to get nothing done at all and I have this bad feeling (regret or shame maybe) and I feel awful. I totally need Dr. Phil.

Re: Motivation
 

i think many also struggle with having the motivation to get in a certain amount of hands or hours but you seem to not enjoy poker at all other than as a way to make money and i think thats your major problem.

Re: Motivation
 

The fundamental problem I have (and I've made a lot of money too) is that losing hurts far more than winning feels good.

Re: Motivation
 

[ QUOTE ]
Poker is boring when you just open party and load 4 tables, but if you only play when specific fish play, it's much more enjoyable

[/ QUOTE ]

you're one mean dude

fim

Re: Motivation
 

do you own a house outright? do you want to?

there's my motivation.

fim

Re: Motivation
 

[ QUOTE ]
If online poker stays around like this for 5 years, I may be playing something absurd like 500/1000 NL


[/ QUOTE ]

no, no you won't.

fim

Re: Motivation
 

[ QUOTE ]
In the poll we had of posters' ages, there were a lot of people under 25. I'm running really well at 5/10, and I'm making way too much money for a 20-year old kid. The problem I have is playing enough. The avatar open challenge on the general board does nothing to me; I don't care in the slightest. I offered to buy about a dozen friends dinner for every month I miss 40k hands; I made it in May and failed in June and July, and am way behind pace in August.

How do other young guns motivate themselves? I have tuition and living expenses for the rest of undergrad safely stored away, so I don't have an immediate need for money. It seems poker is a lot like studying for me, but I don't have an exam tomorrow, so I procrastinate instead.

I realize that online poker won't be around in its current form forever, so it would be a good idea to make as much as possible this summer while I have nothing else to do, but I find it really hard to put in the hours. Anyone else in a similar situation?

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I'm in such situation as you- I dont have motivation.Study, study, study and not a lot playing. I dont know how can I change it. Now I'm at level, when I wanna to start playing some live tourneys.May be my motivation will be higher there.Who knows?But I'm now 23 years old, not 20, but it's almost the same...

Re: Motivation
 

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Just try to always get your bankroll to play the next limits and then try to beat that game. I'm a pretty competive person by nature so a new challenge usually does it for me.

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Now I'm playing at highest availaible level nl2k at party.And dont have much motivation now.I understand that there are something like nl5k or 10k at another sites, but games there are not always availaible. As I wrote at previous post, may be live tourneys like EPT will up my motivation. I hope so [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Motivation
 

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If you are living comfortably, then the only reason to keep playing more is personal enjoyment, or obviously to plan for your future retirement/investments so you can come back here and post about ducks.

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Really nice post. I agree with you totally [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Motivation
 

i find getting broke is a great motivation to put in more hours. everyone who chimed in seems to never run bad but i think that trying to get yourself in a position where a prolonged losing streak will not break me is a good motivation(although i struggle with it too).
matty

Re: Motivation
 

My motivation is retiring at 28 and playing golf, whilst in the meantime treating myself to some nice city breaks.

Re: Motivation
 

I know what you're saying edge.

And just making money for the sake of making money is very unfulfilling. I mean, what difference does a bigger number in your bankroll account actually mean? Does edge feel any happier that today the sum in his party account is 2k more than yesterday? Basically, no, unless the money is used for something more tangible.

Its all an illusion of the mind until unless you actually spend it. I never want to fall into the trap of making money for the sake of money itself, stockpiling it up until the day I die, what the hell is point in that? If you do that, your only fear is being poor, and the more you make, the more you're afraid of losing it, so you have to make even more to buffer yourself, and its a perpetual cycle...

And yeti, have you EVER seen a happy golfer? Most golfers are never ever happy because, rather like poker, its a game of mistakes, and everyone always makes them, and in golf then records them on a piece of paper! I agree big time with you on the travelling side though.

I'd rather be a character like in the series Lost, life these days is too artificial and fake.

Re: Motivation
 

Heh, most likely I would get bored and follow another pursuit. But the thought is appealing.

Re: Motivation
 

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I offered to buy about a dozen friends dinner for every month I miss 40k hands

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You're slapping yourself by treating your friends? Something seems wrong with this arrangement...

Re: Motivation
 

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The fundamental problem I have (and I've made a lot of money too) is that losing hurts far more than winning feels good.

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My problem exactly. I'm supposed to win, so when I do.. well, of course I did. When I lose my happiness is -100, when I win it's +10, when I win a TON it's +20. So, sometimes I just don't want to play because I don't want to risk losing. It's part of why I try and keep it as a hobby.

Re: Motivation
 

Hmmm... my personal opinion is that if people are too
fixated on the results then they're not playing for the
right reasons. Yes winning is important, no question
about it. But I think people have to step back and
think about why they are playing in the first place.

Are they playing because of the lure of money? Or
are they in it because they enjoy the playing, the
decision making, the reads, and so forth?

I know that there are people who can play four or
five ring games simultaneously, and that might be a
very profitable way to play, but for me I can't do it
long term.

Multitabling involves a mechanical element that takes
elements out of the game that you would see if you
played at only one table. I can see how multitabling
can get old after a while. Maybe a lot of the people
here are multitablers.

Re: Motivation
 

A couple of things come to mind...

Motivation is a double edge sword. One side is a positive, that pushes you to do something, in this case play poker. The other side is a negative, that prevents you from doing something. Generally the negative side tends to stem from some fear or dissatisfaction with the task or something closing linked to the task. At the end of the day, the moment, you have to have more weight on the positive side than the negative. Time for some self inspection...

It is normal for a person to start a new skill go thru a boon and then a fall, then slowly climb back to a level of success. When you first started playing poker, you likely did not think too much about what was happening, made more correct plays than incorrect or you wouldn't be here now. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] But the level that you were thinking at back then was no where near the level/depth that you think at now. So now, even though you are having an "easy" time of it, you are still having to work harder. This can be a negative motivating factor.

Lastly, I think personal competition for excellence is far more of a motivator than that of competing against someone else or someone else's definition of excellence. Being able to look back a session and honestly say "I made no mistakes, I played every hand exactly right", is a goal that even if rarely reached, is very satisfying and will help motivate you to play more.