Finding an appropriate mindset

Hello,
I'm currently entering my second run at online poker. A while back I started playing and quickly started building a bankroll. I then thought to myself "Wow, i can make money doing this." and proceeded to do all the wrong things. Played when I was tired, didn't concentrate, played limits I still didn't have a bankroll for, tilted, started playing bad and lost everything I gained.

This time, I've seen the same start as last time. Jumped in, am concentrating well, playing at limits I can afford and have again multiplied my initial investment 5 fold. I don't want to make the same mistakes!

What is the appropriate mindset though? I am a firm believer that one should set goals. I'd like to set a small goal, say "Make enough to pay my utilities". I do, however, especially understand the importance of building a bankroll. Is it better to set a goal and make the withdraw's, or just (hopefully) let my bankroll grow.

I make no misconceptions about 'going pro' or having a sizable second income at this point. I'd have to get ALOT better before that's a consideration. I just don't want to make the mistakes of not taking my bankroll seriously or not keeping a pulse on my progress.

[Sciolist]

Set goals related to your bankroll - there's no need to cashout. "I will increase my bankroll sufficiently that I can play safely at the next level"

[PJS]

Hi Leadingman. To be honest, you seem to have a fair understanding of this yourself. You learnt from your previous mistakes, have a good understanding not to play above your bankroll limits, and understand the importance of not going on tilt. My advice would be to only withdraw money from your bankroll that isn't going to restrict what games you can play in i.e. keep 300-400 BB's. Also, with regard to setting goals, this is a personal thing. Work out how much you would like/need to make, and progress to this as best you can without putting your roll at risk.

Good luck,
PJS

[rwanger]

At the end of July, I had been reading about people saying 10BB/100 hands was possible in no-limit. So I set a challenge for myself to average 10BB/100 hands over the course of a month, getting in at least 40 hours.

So the entire month of August I played my very best game, with a clear goal in mind, importing everything into pokertracker and monitoring my progress. I also created a blog, and spent 30 min or so at the end of most sessions writing about some of the key hands that came up, and analyzing my play.

It was by far the most successful month I've ever had. I HIGHLY reccomend doing this. The trick is to keep it going after the month is up.

[raze]

These are what I consider the keys to my mindset - I know they are widely publicized but they are absolutely the core of my BB/100
1. No emotion - in order to win you just can't get emotional about any particular play you see online. Instead of fuming, think about WHY your opponent raised that bottom pair (and bluffed you out), and how you can exploit that in the future. ***Also if you can strictly keep emotion out of your game, you will never tilt.

2. Do not think of chips as spendable cash. This is absolutely essential especially when moving up limits. When I went from 1/2SH to 3/6SH I told myself, don't play scared, these guys don't KNOW that I'm fearful of losing $50 in a pot & eventually, as I knew, I got used to it. When dealing with pot odds I always try to consider it as 8-1 as opposed to $6 to win $48 or whatever. It just takes fear of losing completely out of my game.

Hope this helps

[rwanger]

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2. Do not think of chips as spendable cash.

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I do like this line of thinking. Imagine it like investing. You started out with a small amount of money, and invested in something that brings you a steady rate of return. Now, the principal has increased, so you have more money to invest.

If you don't move up, you are only investing a small subset of the total money available. Moving up in limits, is like choosing to put some of your profits back into the investment, rather than just having it sit in the bank. By moving up, you aren't increasing your RISK because you will be getting the same return %-wise on your money...all you are doing is placing MORE money into the investment.

[raze]

Hm I better write this stuff down somewhere for the next time I plunge