How long did it take you to become a winning player?

[citizenwind]

I started out playing magic and chess in grade school, then .20/.40 in November 2005, met a carpal tunnel here at a new year's eve party who showed me pokertracker and pokeracehud, bonuswhores, rakeback, this site, and the literature I needed including cardrunners, talked some hands with me and let me occasionally sweat him over 2-3 months.

I started with $300, played 50k hands of .25/.50 at party (4.2BB/100), moved over to six-max, moved upto 4-tabling, 75k @ .50/1 6-max (3.1BB/100), moved upto-6 tabling that, then 2-tabling $25NL, then 4-tabling it, and I was playing $400 NL within a year and half after a two big tournament cashes.

Since I started at party and sun poker micro-limits after reading lots of top-notch material, then playing micro-NL pre-ban, I never was really a losing player, though jeebus was 2/4 NL aggressive.

[TheProdigy]

Most people here are hugely mistaken. I became a winning player maybe 3 months ago after playing for 2+ years.

I started with $20, went down to $3, and built it up to 800 or more in a week playing around. I played at Pacific and ended up winning probably 2000 at the site. When I switched to Party with a 300 roll, I tore up the Beginner's tables for 1400 or so more. But throughout all of this, I never really showed the true "steady" profit. It would be crazy runs and I was just playing my cards but not thinking about anything else on other levels. I didn't play draws right, I wasn't playing aggressive enough, etc etc. Although I may have been "winning" I would've never considered myself a winning player until recently. Only now can I actually play at 100NL or 200NL regular tables and consistently be a "winning" player. People who say it took a week were basically in the same boat as me probably..Win 2k in a week, lose 400, win 400, repeat for 5 months until you hit a hot streak.

I will play any "winning" player that has played for 2 weeks for my whole roll any day I can, because I can guarantee they aren't a winning player like they think they are.

[johnnyrocket]

this is a very broad question. Some players play forever and never win, some play and do terrible then it clicks and they become great, some guys just start playing and crush every game. Its real dependent on how quickly you pick up concepts and adapt to the game.

[johnnyrocket]

once you understand when to put your money in and reads you are ready to become a winning play, this past week I have had the worst little run of my poker career but have not tilted cuz looking at my HH i have got it in good and just run bad, you're ready to go once you can avoid tilt and realize whether you played good or bad while ignoring results.