How long did it take you to get good/profitable?

[Nsight7]

17.3268 minutes, give or take .000074 minutes.

[raze]

I couldn't stand losing money playing, so I made sure I was beating the hell out of play money before I even touched the lowest of micro-stakes.


my story here

[rrrorrim]

[ QUOTE ]
This week is the first time I have consistently won small amounts (approx. $4 to $ 16 per session) playing limit cash games.

Hopefully this good week turns into two...and three....and on and on...

[/ QUOTE ]

You should play limit cash games for a long time. Nothing else - build your BR this way. All this consistent winning will make you overconfident, and you will want to move into other areas like MTTs or STTs...

I think you should resist that impulse. Fear it - because it will lead to ruin. It will corrupt your LHE knowledge. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Only after you know LHE like the back of your hand should you move on...


(This post is for me to remember too - I'm a consistent winner at $3.40 STTs and awful at other micro games. I also do well at higher buy-in MTTs but my BR can't handle that kind of variance)

[GrumpyB]

[ QUOTE ]
I couldn't stand losing money playing, so I made sure I was beating the hell out of play money before I even touched the lowest of micro-stakes.


my story here

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a great story, one I read while lurking, and well worth a second look.

I guess not standing to lose money is a sign of a way better player, and I know I'd have saved myself a whole load of money if I had followed your advice from day one. But I don't regret throwing money away during that first mad month. It kind of gives me an idea of the way that the crazy, hopelessly-optimistic money-givers play. The rather stupid, mad dash start that I went for would, of course, be even more stupid without enough under-employed cash in the bank to take the risk of sending it away on holiday for a few months. And now I just keep hoping that it will all find it's way back home to Daddy some day soon.

[JanelleBB7]

My journey here:

Play Money to Despot of $50 to $426 in cash in 2 weeks basically
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...part=5&vc=1

Then Reality setting in LOL but still making a profit

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...ue#Post12162345


I am pretty lucky as I have had instant sucess and only a few set backs. I love PLO! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[phydaux]

Deposited $90.00 a year and a half ago. It only took me 6 weeks to lose half of it.

I kept at it and worked on my game. After 6 months I was back at my original $90.00. I've been trending steadily up ever since.

[Poker Clif]

[ QUOTE ]
I started playing online back in 2003 (Moneymaker effect).

After about six months on my $50, it was down to $22 and change. I was winning at micro stud H/L and losing it all and more in SNGs. In those days, $5 was the smallest available. When I got down to $22, I pretty much said screw poker and stuck it all on the first ever heads up NL MTT that Stars ran. I came in third.

After that I decided to settle back and get serious. There was practically no educational resources in those days - no videos, very few books, etc. I did a ton of work on my own studying the game using PokerTracker. After about three months of this (honestly playing very little, but spending time testing and thinking through poker theory), things finally started to click. In November, I won a couple tournaments (this was my primary focus from 2003-mid 2006) and had my first decent bankroll at that point. Gradually quality books started coming out, and I use them as supplements and reference guides to my own play. If a book gives me one good idea, it generally pays for itself within a week.

The single most valuable lesson that I learned was how to construct multiple lines for a hand based on my opponents' play. At our stakes, nobody plays perfect (and if you watch poker on TV, its obvious that very few people can do this). I'm looking for everyone else's mistakes and am trying to play based on them. If you really want to get good at poker (not just profitable, but to actually understand the game), you need to be willing to experiment and try many different things. Sometimes you learn more from a disastrous result than from a win.

What I would recommend to someone starting out now: Don't play tournaments except as recreation. The fields are just huge now compared to when I started out, and this varience increase sucks. Find a discipline you can enjoy thinking about, and just go for it. Once you get a comfortable bankroll - one that you won't lose entirely - start exploring. Try the different games..learn them all, while still spending some time on your primary game. You'll be a better player and probably enjoy it more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good post, except that every tournament doesn't have to be huge. I have played PokerStars SNG every size from 9 players to 180. Live, I have played in local tournaments ranging in size from 50 to 200 players.

[Foghatlive]

Like most, I started with play money on Stars. During that time I started reading all the Sklansky books, Theory of Poker being the most important. Harrington on Hold'm was a close second. Decided to take a shot at real money. Deposited $100. Lost it. This happened 5 times. Until I finished 2nd in a 180 player sng, which paid $1080. I used that money to start playing NL25. I got to the point where was I close to being an even player multi-tabling 4 tables (beating other players but still showing a small loss after rake) after a few months. During that time, I read the Ciaffone NL Hold'm book, which really helped my game.

I stopped playing because real life committments took too much of my time.

Just started playing tourney's again. Don't think I'm gonna play cash for awhile. Grinding it out on NL 25 takes too much time.

[excession]

I've been profitable since day one.
If you can beat 1c/2c games and have $50 the only reason to ever go bust is bad bankroll management.

As for getting good - lol no idea when that will happen - I've only been playing 3 years...

[WCGRider]

Prob a month or two imo.

But it depends on how much you play/study, if you are active it can be much sooner, if not from the start.