Motivation

[shadow29]

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Yes. When I moved to my current level, poker was exciting again. But the problem right now is that I'm not good enough to move up yet. So I'm stuck in the middle between learning a new limit and learning a new limit. Make sense? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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it makes sense, but i don't believe it. i'd believe you wouldn't be winning at the same rate and that your comfort level would be much lower.

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I need to stay at my current level for a few more months. When I move up I need to know that I have the skills required to beat the game. I have sweated a friend playing the 5/10 sh game. I cannot beat that game right now.

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I know. I expected this and I don't take it the wrong way. Unless it's not funny. Then it's just dumb. Funny jokes are fine.

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So seriously, why is Mel Gibson on your avatar?

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Ask the farmer.

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in a deviation from your normally displayed maturity, your post basically nails you spot on as a youngster.

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Ya! No matter how smart I am or how mature I am or how much I rock at poker, the fact remains that I am immature in many ways. I accept this fact. But in this post I am trying to find a way to become more mature.

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You can lead a horse to water.....

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Yes. And this fact directly relates to my immaturity. Moving beyond just buying whatever I want and whenever is a step that I'm going to have to take. And truth be told, the fact that I don't have to pay any (significant) bills probably exacerbates the situation.


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I think the horse got to water.



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I don't understand. Your old people adagiums (or is it adages) don't make any sense.

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Ya. I think I'm going to do this. Except not really. There's an ATL 2+2 tourney on Saturday and it's my last weekend in town. I think I'll play 10+1 limit SNGs. They're pretty fun. And I want to dominate the tourney. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]


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NL sngs is funner.

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Ya. But the 2+2 tourney is limit.

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damn i'm old.

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I'm pretty sure that this is the only given in this thread.

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that avatar better be smoking...

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Uh, we need to talk about that...

Anyway, I'm still on this thread instead of shooting 85 because it's raining. How [censored] dumb is that.

[detruncate]

Hi shadow. I think that everyone that plays seriously and for money goes through your situation. I know I have. Am? Let's say am.

I think the key is "challenge". You bite and scratch to get to where you need to be, then find yourself a little unmotivated when you don't actually have to keep running at full speed to meet your goals/requirements. Also, a lot of people who gravitate toward poker are not particularly interested in conventional jobs that don't fully engage their interest, so it can be difficult to just "put in the time" -- we're playing poker so we don't have to just put in the damn time.

Playing for money involves learning a few extra skill sets -- playing the required number of hands and managing to maintain a reasonable degree of focus is difficult when it's not a "play when you feel like it" sort of deal. The closer you have to go to your comfortable full time monthly max to meet your needs, the harder it is. Tis why I always recommend that people find a combination of limits and necessary monthly hand totals that allow them to achieve their goals even when they play far fewer than their max number of hands/mo. at less than their expected winrate.

David Ross sometimes gets criticized for not working harder to improve, but his head would explode if he had to put in a huge amount of effort at the table over all those hours. His compromise is giving up some raw maximization of BB/100 in favour of predictable income + moderated effect of swings due to the sheer number of hours he puts in -- which is why his monumental downswing hurt so much. Other prefer to go down the road of maximizing skill and playing a game that allows them to be more flexible with their hours or earn a hell of a lot of money if they care to put in the time.

Raw talent obviously comes into the equation at some point, but the friction between the desire to maximize your winrate via intense focus + aggressive exploitation of edges and wanting to achieve a stable, fairly predictable montly earn through playing a huge number of hands is something we all have to deal with.

I think the major problems for you likely include:

a) No significant constant financial pressure to exert yourself, but still enough pressure to play that it's never very far from your thoughts. You're stuck between being able to play recreationally and needing to play for money.

b) Getting to where you're starting to feel comfortable with your skill level. A lot of the challenge wears off once you reach that first big plateau in anything you really throw yourself into.

c) The difference between making "enough" and "more than enough" doesn't seem sufficiently large that it's motivation in itself. If you're fairly comfortable with what you're pulling in, making somewhat more (but not buckets full of cash) doesn't seem like it would improve your life all that much. The alternative seems to be resuming your efforts to significantly improve the potential upside... something that's often daunting when you can't even manage to put in the number of hands you'd like now.

d) Sustaining long, required hours of concentration adds up, and you often don't even realize that you're overextending yourself. Sufficient external motivation combined with personal drive to succeed can push you a long way. But sooner or later it catches up to you and you start to think about the reason you wanted to make money in the first place -- namely, the living of life. You need to find a new balance, as the old compromises don't seem justified any more.

Once again I spew forth at great length. Let me just finish by saying that I've found playing a set, manageable number of hours/week is the easiest way to get me to the table and keep me both relatively motivated and focused. I also find the learning bits more fun than the playing bits, which seems to be a common step -- I remember most of the old SS crew going through this sort of thing at one time or another, so it can't be that uncommon. The "manageable" bit is important. The last thing you want to do when you finish a long stretch at the table on a day you didn't even want to be playing is tuck into some more poker. Unfortunately, that includes 2+2. It all becomes work.

Moderating effort + finding a relatively comfortable way to sustain it seems to be key for me. I find myself much more interested in poker than I was a few months ago, and I'm slowly ramping up my hands/month again.

Best of luck, sir.