Michael Lukich

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New Year, New Website

I have mixed feelings on resolutions at the beginning of the year. On one hand, I think it’s really valuable to reflect on past work and realign goals. On the other, it seems fairly arbitrary to pick January 1 as the day to do it. Ultimately, I think the positives outweigh the drawbacks as long as it’s not fueled by a temporary bout of motivation.

I typically don’t have a problem motivating myself. I’m a fairly driven person throughout the year. I’m constantly planning, setting lofty goals, and striving to accomplish them. That cycle doesn’t just happen at the beginning of the year, but rather it plays out many times throughout. The bigger reflection just happens at the end of the year because it’s convenient to do so.

My December was fairly typical. I tend to struggle to get into longer-term projects. After taking a break around Thanksgiving, it’s always difficult to get going on my work knowing that another lengthy break for Christmas and the New Year are coming around the corner. As a result, I tend to pick up shorter-term activities to keep me occupied until I reset in the New Year. December 2019 was filled with building a workhorse PC to run solves and determine what I wanted to accomplish in 2020.

I had been thinking about a bigger poker-related project for a while now. I started developing my strategy in the 2nd half of last year, and I’ll certainly be working on that through 2020 (and possibly beyond). In creating it, I did have one concern - I wasn’t sharing my thoughts broadly to challenge my thinking. Sure, I have shared some of it with my smaller poker circle that I have developed through Solve for Why. But that’s not going to fully give me broader criticism that I need to push myself for success.

So that’s how this website idea was born. I ultimately wanted to expand the audience for my work primarily as a way to share my perspective and challenge my thinking. I am not sure what it’ll turn into, but my initial plan is to publish something weekly. Some weeks will be a shorter post or an idea I’m working through, while others will be a full-fledged presentation on a subject I’ve spent significant time working on.

I’m excited to engage with the community in a different way. 2019 was amazing for my growth as a poker player. I met some amazing people and broke through some plateaus that I’ve been struggling with for some time. I’m hoping this project is a way in which I can continue the upward trajectory and (hopefully) make a positive contribution to the thought process of others along the way.

If you’d like to get in touch for collaboration ideas, suggestions, coaching requests, or anything else, send me a note through the contact form or on Twitter. Thanks in advance for reading.

-Lukich