Poker New Year’s Resolutions: Are They Worth Making?

What Do Poker Players Promise on New Year’s Eve?

Since poker players are just humans, they love to make resolutions to motivate themselves to improve their physical or mental health, relationships, quality of life, career decisions, etc.

But they also often make crazy, strange, or unexpected promises related to poker. At least, that’s what poker players shared on Reddit:

• I will not call when I know they have the nuts just to find out I am right.
• To stop playing poker.
• Build up a bankroll solely from playing.
• Get out of the recent limit/ABI.
• Play more often.
• Stop punting.
• Finally knowing when to leave and actually doing it.
• Stop blowing off all of the winnings.
• Become more tilt-proof.
• Find a way to improve without forcing yourself to study.

However, not every poker professional believes in the effectiveness of resolutions. One of the greatest examples is Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle, who shared his opinion on this topic right before 2024 New Year’s Eve:

Ben is sure that if something is important to you, you don’t make it dependent on the calendar but instead do whatever it takes to start as soon as possible.

But what if he is wrong? It’s time to figure it out!

Interesting Statistics on Resolutions from the USA

• 30% of the American population made a New Year’s resolution in 2024. That’s over 100 million people.
• 62% of them feel socially pressured to promise something.
• 80% of them feel confident in reaching their goals during the year, but only 20% actively keep themselves accountable in this pursuit.
• 79% of them hoped to improve their health, including 48% dreaming about increasing their fitness level.
• However, 43% of them dropped their goals by the end of January, including 23% who were done after the first week.
• Only 9% of them managed to follow resolutions through the year. The most popular tools to do so were habit trackers and budgeting apps.
• Among the 70% who refused to promise something: 56% just didn’t want to, 12% were sure they broke their resolutions too easily, and 6% thought they would surely forget what they promised.

All data is taken from Drive Research.

Why New Year’s Resolutions Work So Poorly

According to the study “A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals”, the main reason for failure in resolutions is the incorrect formulation of goals.

People tend to formulate them in an avoidance-oriented style, meaning they use negative sentences to set goals. For example, they promise not to go bankrupt, stop playing poker, stop wasting money, lose weight, quit alcohol, etc. This way of formulating sets goals to avoid something by not doing it. It isn’t a plan for change because it does not include real actions.

On the contrary, an approach-oriented style represents a way of positive and actionable formulation, such as promising to improve bankroll management or budgeting, shift from poker to other activities, or drink more healthy beverages.

The second and third most important reasons resolutions fail are having no time frame and the vagueness of promises.

The study showed that a lack of time framing indulges laziness but also encourages avoidant behavior and procrastination. Additionally, unclear goals make it easier to drop them without feeling sad or incapable of managing them.

Other reasons New Year’s resolutions fail include:

1. Delaying the start of resolution realization.
2. Underestimating obstacles and steps on the way to the goal.
3. Lack of accountability.
4. Choosing either too challenging or overly grandiose goals that cannot be achieved within one year.
5. Setting unimportant goals that can be dropped at any moment without particular pangs of conscience.

How to Make Good Poker Resolutions?

Despite the low success rate of achieving resolved goals, you can still reach them by following the right steps.

#1 Choose Approach-Oriented Goals…

…or change your goals to become such.

Create a list of all the achievements you want to unlock in one year and check them for negative framing by asking yourself:

1. Do I want to reach something here or avoid it?
2. Does this goal require me to be active or passive?
3. Does reaching this goal improve the area of life it’s related to or change nothing?

The main point here is to figure out which of your goals are avoidance-oriented and reframe them to an approach-oriented style.

For example, instead of “I want to stop losing money at poker during the next year,” you can say, “I want to reach the breakeven point or become a winning player by the end of next year.”

#2 Clarify the Content of Your Goal…

…and write it down in detail.

Goals without measurable results, such as “to make more money,” won’t be motivating enough due to a lack of specifics. They will also give you an excuse to stop at the bare minimum without real changes that are supposed to be the endgame of good goal-setting.

That’s why you should specify what your exact goal would be.

Continuing to use the same example: how much “more money” is acceptable or desirable for you? Try to be precise but realistic — use a variance calculator to estimate your prospects and set additional small goals to help yourself along the way.

#3 Start Now…

…without waiting until New Year’s Eve.

The more you wait, the more doubt, “ick,” and jitters you will have, followed by decreased motivation and loss of interest.

Every time you delay the start of action, your brain receives a signal that this goal isn’t really important — otherwise, why do we constantly put it off, right?

However, if you really want to promise yourself something on New Year’s Eve and get the maximum pleasure from your resolution, choose something achievable during the night following the Eve or the next day.

You can also set goals that are great for starting right on New Year’s Day: for example, spending time with family and instantly giving relatives the whole night and the whole next day.

Do Not Forget about Useful Apps…

…including old-fashioned pen and paper.

Habit trackers, budgeting apps, and other types of organizers are created to make your life easier and help with the most bizarre parts of it. You should also balance ruthlessness and kindness toward yourself when using them. This means setting mini-goals and alarms to remind yourself about them while avoiding pressuring yourself too much if you aren’t in the shape to follow the app’s guidance.

Being an achiever at the expense of your own well-being isn’t a good or profitable choice and will most likely lead to a loss of motivation and disgust toward previously desired goals.