A Couple Quick Thoughts on Progress

I took a look back today at some of my posts from when I first started this blog, and first let me say that I've come a long way as a player and in how I think about poker. But, the important thing to this post is some of the goals I'd set for myself back then. At first glance it would seem that I haven't progressed as far as I had hoped to and in some ways that is the case. It's just about summer and if I were still in school I wouldn't be ready to support myself with poker over the summer as was one of my original goals. In the 10 months or so since I started the blog I've only made it to 3/6 six-max, which doesn't seem like that far, however I do think that I've grown a ton in those 10 months and a couple of major things have kept me from progressing farther in limits.

First is the fact that I've had to cashout quite a bit more than I would have liked to over the past 10 months. If I hadn't had to make all those cashouts I would definitely have the bankroll for 5/10 six-max at this point. Second, I've had a few minor setbacks in playing as much as I should to reach my goals. When I dropped out of law school I had to get a job and working 40 hours a week definitely can cut into your poker time. Then, I realized that Party full-ring was drying up and I really needed to get to where I could beat six-max if I was going to a) make and money and b) be able to move up at some point to higher and higher levels. So, two months ago I bascially started completely over at 2/4 6-max. In that time I've logged 11k hands. In May alone I've logged 5.5k hands, though that number is a bit deceptive since I was 3-tabling and maybe wasn't quite ready for it. But, the bottom line is that I've played a decent number of hands already and I basically started over a couple months ago. If I can keep winning I believe I can log 50k hands in the next 6-8 months and get to a level where I'm beating 5/10 6-max consistently. That has the potential to be fairly lucrative and I believe that 10/20 within 1 full year of playing 6-max is definitely attainable.

In short, I think that progress goals have to be dynamic and almost constantly changing. My goals from last July are no longer really relevant, but my goals from today are. I CAN reach a point within the NEXT 10 months where it makes sense for me to consider going pro. I'm capable of doing that; IF that is I continue to play SH Limit Hold'em. If decide instead to take up a new game like O8 in a few months (once I'm beating 5/10 SH) then my progress goals will have to change again. That is the true nature of poker.