If you want to be a great poker player, you gotta have dreams.
If you want to be a great poker player, you gotta have goals.

We’re not trying to be contradictory on purpose, but a lot of people will not understand that there is actually truth is both statements. Sure, you need to have the dream of being a better poker player than where you are because you really don’t want to end up not being able to get anything accomplished in the grand scheme of things.

Yet there is a point where dreams have to give way to reality. It’s okay to have dreams, but you’re going to need to build realistic poker goals in order to get there. For example, sure, you might want to become a professional poker player, but playing an hour a week isn’t going to really get you there. It’s nice if you really want to just break away from the stress and strain of the day, but you will definitely want to do more than that. You’re going to want to make sure that you actually read into the theories of poker.

You want to talk with people that are willing to teach you more about poker as an experience and not just a theory. Poker is a game of skill, but it’s something that you do — not just read about. If all you’re going to do is read, you’re not going to be able to reach your goals at all.

Tracking your goal is just as important as setting one. You will want to have a few statistics about your gameplay and also look for the things that you’re doing wrong. You might find that you’re going all in too much and busting out too early, or that you’re not folding bad hands often enough.

These are two mistakes that a lot of newcomers make, but they’re actually pretty easy to fix. You don’t want to feel like it’s impossible to do anything just because you’re making mistakes — that’s part of the fun of growing into a better poker player.

You’ll look back on the poker player you used to be and smile, because you will have definitely come a long way. The time is definitely want to give yourself real poker goals and not just dreams — you’ll thank yourself down the road!