What motivates me to play poker?
I have been thinking about this lately because my desire to play seems to be lower than normal.
Prior to determining my type of motivation, I think the first question I should ask myself is, “what are my goals?”
I have talked to other players and there seem to be a few “general” goals.
1. Some people are motivated by the money. They play to win more money each time they play. Sometimes, they will even adjust their play based on the potential for winning money in a tourny. Being close to the bubble, they may slow play or not call hands until they reach the money. If your goal in poker is to, for example, double your bankroll in 3 months, I would say you are money motivated.
2. Some players don’t worry so much about the money, They are more interested in beating everyone. Whether this is in a freeroll, homegame, or buy-in, they just want to win. I think the motivation factor here would be the competition.
3. If your goal is to be the best player in the League, I would say your motivator would be more along the lines of a social/competitive player. You are in the League because of its social aspect as much as you are in it to win.
4. My goal is to, someday, be in a “major” tournament and win or place high. My other goal is to learn about the game, apply it, and earn the respect of my friends and fellow players. To me, having people think “Be careful, Dave’s playing, he’s pretty good!”, is something that motivates me.
Of course, on any given day, your goals can switch from money, to competition, to the social aspect, but as a long term effort, the main goal should be held.
Now, knowing this, what would reduce my motivation in playing recently? Maybe it’s that right now, I am more involved in the learning process than the physical act of playing. I was playing with Dog last night in a couple of sng’s. I played one sng that was a pot limit Omaha H/L game. I did this mostly to learn more about the game from Dog. If I were to win it, it would be “icing on the cake”. The main goal was to learn.
I am looking forward to the “learning game”, so I hope Blagz and the others involved can work out the details. Once the date and time are decided, hopefully, I will be able to play and learn.
I haven’t been really motivated to play sng’s by myself. Maybe its because I look at it as more of a money motivator instead of a learning motivator. I don’t know.
What motivates you? What do you do when your motivation level drops?
Comments are welcome.
April 6, 2007 at 6:17 pm |
My goals shift from 1, 2 and 3 from time to time but i think i’m major money and beat the crap of everyone at the moment. Then when i get things sorted out and learned more about poker then i believe i shift to a mix between all 4!
But goals are extremely important to set if you’re gonna have the slighest chance of winning any sorts of games or even in your daily job!
And i’m at the moment more close to all my goals than i ever been before. Both in life, job and in poker!
Oboy netsson’s pretty happy at the moment!
April 7, 2007 at 8:24 am |
Please read my comment on this at Blaggers site under R.I.P.
April 7, 2007 at 2:37 pm |
That’s a difficult question to answer – for me anyway. I can’t say I’m in any single bracket you’ve mentioned. More a combination. I sort of switch between them.
You have to be careful not to mix up your goals with your motivation. I have set myself a goal to make a certain amount of profit by the year end. I know that I am a good enough player to reach that goal over the course of the year, at the levels I’m comfortable playing at.
But I don’t think about this goal when picking out or playing any given game.
I’m sitting here pondering the question…. what motivates me in playing poker? And you know, after 15mins of thinking about it, I can’t give you a clear answer. I’ve done the ‘must beat the monkeys’ scenario. I’ve done the ‘must beat forum players’ scenario, and I think I’ve earned some respect from others in how I play. I don’t know whats left, but there’s just a burning desire to play poker.
April 9, 2007 at 6:03 am |
Different situations, games, targets decide my motivation. Sorry if that sounds like I am just covering all the bases, but it is how it works for me.
For an example;
If I play a larger buy-in SNG making the money is what is important to me. Same goes for the bigger MTT pay out games.
If I am playing a smaller game with my online buddies then it is all about kicking their rosy cheeked butts at the final table, hopefully heads up. It is the intellectual challenge for me at that stage, the ‘chess match’ if you wish.
If it is a forum game my motivation is a bit obscure a lot of the time. If I was honest my motivation varies throughout a forum game, the money is never a real goal, nor was points when we actually played for points. I do enjoy picking on some ‘monkey’ players in our forum games and stripping them nekkid, exposing their poker inadequacies. Cruel eh.. lol
There is also the many times I am trying a new strategy out or a new tact against a certain kind of player, my motivation there is to prove my strategy is a winning one.
At the end of the day my biggest motivation to cause me to sit down and log on and play some poker is the pure enjoyment of playing the game with my online buddies.. If I had to choose between playing for big bucks only and playing small SNG’s with my mates, the latter would win everytime.
April 9, 2007 at 7:38 am |
When I was writing this, I knew that there was no right or wrong answer. There was also no specific type of motivation that would be used all the time. Variations and combinations would be used by each of us.
I was just interested in what other thought processes were when you sit down and decide to join a game.
I personally, like Blagger, have been enjoying the game the most when playing with the Skype crew. Its fun, informative, and challenging.
I did have a good time winning yesterday. Maybe I will write more about that in my next Blog entry.
Thanks for the comments!
See ya all later
April 11, 2007 at 2:24 pm |
I will say, that playing with the skype crew seems to add an ‘edge’ to my game. I know I’m up against good players and this in itself seems to motivate me a great deal to kick their sorry a$$!
In all seriousness though, the motivation in these games is to prove to myself that I can compete with the best players in the forum – not neccessarily to beat them, but to be able to compete and hold my own against them. To prove a point to others is easy. To prove it to yourself (if you are honest with yourself) is way much harder to do.