Life and poker goals

First of all, congrats to Hoy for taking down the FT 50/50 tourney. I've only played a few blogger tournies, but he has been, BY FAR, the toughest opponent at my tables. He also seems to be on a MTT tear lately.

TGIT. I'm starting to love Tuesdays. With the exception of American Idol doucheing up the cable TVs across America, I have time to play a good deal of poker. Tonight should be no exception. I've already got a token for the $13.5K guarantee and I also plan on grinding out a ton of cash game hands.

I've pretty much given up on February being a great month. I had such high hopes for the month early. I was starting the $50NL level and ready to have big things happen. A couple downswings and a rusted out water heater later and I'm just now inching towards that level where I can try $50NL again.

I was able to recoup my losings and water heater cash out just recently at the cash tables. I think I'm up maybe $200-300 on the MTTs thanks to the some frequent small cashes and a couple final table appearances.

I didn't set any goals for February that I could find in my blog posts (shows you how much I devote to meeting my goals huh?). So, I'm going to take this opportunity to set goals for March (and stick to them).

• 20,000 hands. This is a big number for me, but now that I'm back on the short handed kick, I don't think it will be too difficult to obtain. Especially since I'm scheduled to be out of town a few days with nothing to do but lay around in a motel room and play poker.
  
• Move up to $50NL and not look back. This time, I've got my wits about me. I feel comfortable with the $50NL limit now. I'm not going to turn tail and run so easily this time. If I take some hits early, then I'll grin and bear it. I might wait until I get the bankroll up over $1200 before moving up though.
  
• Set myself up for a new lawn mower in May. Spring is just around the corner and I still have this huge yard and only a push mower. I want to grind out enough money in the Months of March and April to buy a new mower with cash. I got my eyes set on a John Deere zero turn radius, so some grinding will need to be done!
  
• Focus on MTTs and work on my game in that department. I have much work to do in my MTT game. Up until a couple weeks ago, I never played them. I really like the MTTs and I want I'd like to hit some nice scores over the next couple months.
  
• Have fun with the game. I've never made this goal before. However, despite my shortcomings in February, I had more fun with the game than ever before. I think the variety kept it from getting old. I donked off some money playing PL Omaha, Sit N Goes, MTTs, MTTs, and even threw in some mixed games. This helped keep poker fresh and not so much of a grind. I'll probably continue this throughout my poker "career".
  

I have done a lot of soul searching the past few nights. I have just been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I know it's not what I'm doing now. I have decided that I need to take that next step to allow poker to get me out of the rat race. Right now, I'm sticking to it being a hobby instead of a job like I had intended at the beginning of the year. I'm not devoting enough time to the game as far as studying and grinding out the cash games. I feel my game is fairly decent for a small stakes donk at this point and I feel like I have room for much improvement.

So here's my game plan. First things first... I need to get to the $1/2 level. So that means grinding out and building the bankroll as best as possible. I wouldn't feel comfortable playing $1/2 without at least a $5000 bankroll if not more. However, at that level, I feel a decent earn can be made with some decent play.

Step 1: Take my $1000 bankroll and turn it into $5000 as I grind my way up the $50NL, and $100NL levels.

Step 2: Find a coach to help me take my game to the "next level".

Step 3: Continue to grind out $1/2 to pay off my credit card and any other "bad" loans I have.

Step 4: Continue to work on my game and grind $1/2 until I can reach about $12000 bankroll. Then I can work on playing $2/4 and beyond.

Step 5: Horde poker winnings and invest said winnings to establish some flows of passive income.

Beyond Step 5: This would include continuing to learn the game (with the help of a coach) and just move up. I'd be happy being a successful mid-stakes grinder. There's good loot in those games if you can beat them.

I want to note that this is not a path to making poker my sole source of income. That's the last thing I want to do. Poker and I have a love/hate relationship and I don't want to rely on it as my only source of income (although it would be nice to tell my boss to shove it). Poker is more like a part time job that can lead to an early retirement. That's my ultimate goal... early retirement. Between my salary, poker revenue, and some good investments, I feel I could be in good financial shape.

The problem is that I make these goals and they sound great, yet I don't follow through. Why? Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I kind of puss out. I'm what if I actually did all this and could quit my job at an early age? Gasp! What would I do? I don't know...maybe I'm just fucked in the head. All I know is if I want it to work, I'm standing at the bottom of a very tall mountain that needs to be climbed. This mountain doesn't have an escalator either. It's going to be hard work climbing that bitch.