Time for Some Short Term Goals

The WSOP bracelet is obviously a long-term goal, so I need some shorter-term steps along the way that will keep me focused and making progress.

1. Build my bankroll to $10K - This has really been a goal for a while now and I think that the only thing really keeping me from it is volume. If I'm going to be a tournament player and mix in cash games and sngs here and there, I need to ensure that I'm playing enough poker where volume makes up for variance. I can't expect to build a bankroll within a reasonable time period by only playing 1-2 tournaments a week. I'm going to have to play 3-5 tournaments each session and try to have 3-4 sessions a week. I'm not too far away from this really, so it's just a matter of grinding it out. I don't expect to reach this with one big cash. I'll keep playing the 20/180s and smaller buy-in tournaments with an occasional $150 when I feel like I'm playing my "A" game. I don't want to put a ton of pressure on myself to reach this goal by a certain time period because I think this can lead to forcing results. But getting here sooner than later will help me acheive my other goals.

2. A 5 figure tournament cash online by July 1 - Again, I think this will come with both volume and playing tournaments where this payout is possible. For the times I play, there are only a couple of tournaments that can make this happen - the nightly $150, the $20 rebuy and the $10 rebuy. Ideally, however, I want to reach my $10K goal before playing the $150 on a regular basis. I might need to evaluate the timing of this goal based on how I'm doing bankroll wise. I think if I play the $150 every night I play, I'll certainly get here faster, but I need to make sure I have the bankroll for it. I also will look into other sites like Full Tilt to see if they have tournaments around 8-9pm that could produce a 5 figure cash.

3. Build my bankroll to $20K - Once I acheiving #2 I will be a lot closer to reaching this goal and it will just be a matter of leveraging my increasing roll to keep playing events that ensure further progression. Reaching this goal will enable me to regularly play circuit events and a few WSOP events during the next couple of years.

4. Cash in a WSOP or WPT Event in 2007 - This doesn't even need to be a main event for now. It can be a $500 event or whatever. But this will help me break the seal and just be a nice stepping stone. I've been to a couple of WSOP Circuit events and have only played in about 5-6 events so far and I bubbled a $200 second chance tournament last time. I'm confident that I can final table, if not win one of these events, but it's not like I have the opportunity to let variance play itself out, so let's just start with a goal of cashing for now.

I think it's important to note that some of these monetary goals are simply benchmarks to chart my progress and keep me focused on moving forward. They are not magical numbers that open some new door to poker greatness and they won't be imaginary sticking points that prevent me from acheiving other goals. The worst thing I could do is get too caught up in acheiving these and let it affect my play. The money will come. It's just a matter of taking the steps to get there.