why short term goals are bad

[pfkaok]

this was also probably lost in the length of my other post.

when you look at the most viewed posts, most of the highest up ones contain very little content. and i know i participated in the contest last week, but i think that was my final step in realizing how dumb and actually harmful a lot of these contests/challenges can be. one post that jumps out to have a large number of replies, and was horrible is the *november goals thread*. i was going to make this point in that, but it was already so huge that it would get ignored, as it probably will anyways in this long post of mine. but that whole thread was moronic. if only fossilma could still post here i guarantee he would agree with me 100%. i've never met the guy, but i read almost all his posts, and from that, and his interview, i'm certain that he would say you're all dumb for making up "goals" like that. the fact that it wasn't mentioned in the thread how bad of an idea it was shows the level of understanding of the game by most people here. fossilman, as well as any other top player will tell you... the only goal that you should ever have is to make good decisions. putting in a lot of hours, or hard studying also of course makes sense, but almost everyone in there had some sort of monetary goals. or winning goals. that is an increadibly bad thing to do. as much as everyone on here swears they're not results oriented(b/c they know thats bad), this thread shows that most still are to some degree. setting goals like that in something as highly variant as MTT play is awful. it will usually hurt you. if you start off well you might lose some edge and not feel like you need to play quite as much. if you start off bad you could start having bits of selfdoubt creep in, which could lead to subtle tilt, and lack of confidence. i don't see how anything positive could come of it, except for maybe after you see how it hurt you it could be a learning experience. this is also the case in LHE, as has been seen here several times. i myself did a monthlong challenge, and it did help me quite a bit to see how futile and bad of an idea it was. it was good though, since i did put in tons of hands, and learned from it. but at the same time, if i had put in all those hands without the stupid goal i almost cerainly would have done better. see also shneids and gonores. both increadibly good players who had similar problems with monetary goal challenges. and alobar couldn't even make it though his b/c he knew it was hurting his game too much.

poker is a game. its a very fun game, but its a game of chance, and its unique in the amount of luck in contains. re-reading the gigabet success/failure thread earlier this week made this even more clear to me. you can't worry about winning and losing. if you do then you'll never be able to fully enjoy the game. and enjoy the randomness. let me tell you, its fun. once i finally grasped this i've been able to put in way more hours, and often have to stop myself when i realize how long i've been at it. and everyday i'm excited to "go to work". not many people can say that. even a lot of poker pros are horribly depressed people when they're "running bad". but the truly world class, great players, like chip reese(probably all the biggame longterm winners) actually understand what it means to be a game of chance. and they can put in tons of hours b/c they truly love the game, and the randomness is fun for them. i'm nowhere near their level, and probably never will be, but i feel like i'm finally starting to have a similar love for the game. the fact is, that most people who are pro's, or very good poker players, are usually just good at games in general. and most people never can fully grasp just how much chance there is at poker. for me, i've always been into video games, and have always been pretty good. but if i'm better than my friend in a video game, i probably win 90% of the time or so, unless its hadicapped in some fashion. with poker its so close to 50% sometimes, that it'd be really hard to tell if you are in fact winning if you didn't keep records. it took me a very long time, combined with hundreds of thousands of hands, probably 50+ books, and tons of lurking/posting. but now i finally appreciate it a lot. it is what ensures that games will always be good. no way that even most good players will ever fully understand that.

[mts]

Post deleted by Chief911

[TomHimself]

i doubt anyone is gonna read these posts you make

Well to a certain extent the nature of a Goals Thread is tough because the only true goal you should have is to play good poker. I've been struggling for a cash lately but I feel like I'm making smarter decisions. Instead of laying down TPTK near the bubble so I can cash I get aggressive with it and may lose chips gambling versus a flush draw. I also am getting more aggressive in general on the bubble putting myself into position to make a run at the final table. Before I would play for the cash and barely make it into the Top 50.

[Exitonly]

[ QUOTE ]
i doubt anyone is gonna read these posts you make

[/ QUOTE ]


pfkaok, ignore these two guys, they're dickheads.

I'm writing up a real response to your post, and i think it's a good point (though i don't agree)

[pfkaok]

i was told by the mod to post most of what i said before b/c he thought there was a lot of useful info in there. that is the only reason i did. i wanted to help people b/c i've been helped so much by this site. unfortunately, there's too many people like you on here, so i'm no longer going to participate. i know i'm losing alot from it, but putting up with the crap really isn't worth it. and also i feel that i have learned enough that i could be helping a lot of peole, and try to teach them what i've leanred.

but this is rather ironic that you had to tell me to go away once i already had made the decision. its funny b/c it just gives me more assurance that leaving is the correect decision.

pfk,

It is very hard to read your post in the form it is in now, its basically two big blobs.

Maybe if you edited it to make paragraphs it would show up better.

[Jurollo]

[ QUOTE ]
i doubt anyone is gonna read these posts you make

[/ QUOTE ]
Stop being childish.
~Justin

[TomHimself]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i doubt anyone is gonna read these posts you make

[/ QUOTE ]
Stop being childish.
~Justin

[/ QUOTE ]lol, i thought its hard to read his posts, like someone said just 2 blobs

[mts]

since you already wrote all that i'm sure you wont mind typing up a list that sums your post up into main points.

1. the only goal that you should ever have is to make good decisions

2. ...

please finish the list