How long/much does it take to be a consistent winner?

[ticks]

Im relatively new to holdem(and the forums),
been playing online for 4-5 months.
Mostly limit, but more and more NL.
Lately I've been wondering:
How long did it take for you to be a consistent winner?
(at low limit NL)
And how much did it cost you?

Im sure im not the only one wondering about this,
would be nice to have some sort of average yardstick to measure yourself against

[gulebjorn]

Last christmas, I took the 10$ for free promotion on Royal Vegas. Within two months, I turned it into 600$.

Only money I ever had to invest was deposit 20$ to clear that 600, because they wouldn't let me withdraw without making a deposit.

I am now at 1300 + some pokerbooks that came out of my bankroll.

[ticks]

Good for you.
Since Im asking,
I guess its pretty obvious im not doing as well as you.
But there must be someone out there who struggled before they saw the light?

[gulebjorn]

well, if you play poker long enough, you're gonna have big upswings and big downswings. I was lucky enough to start on an upswing. I remember reading about downswings and not believing that you could lose for more than one day in a row.

You need some luck when you're starting out, or a decent bankroll.

[theben]

time: about 2 months
cost: about 200$

then i turned it around and have been a winner ever since

[webmonarch]

When I started, it took me about 4 months a and a $1k of total buy in to get it figured out.

I'm sure I'm one of the slower people to finally get it, but I had no read books until about two months in, and getting Poker Tracker was also a really important purcahse for me, so that I could see where I was not aggressive enough, etc. IT also helped me to really come to grips wiuth the relity that I had to improve my game.

Now, I'm at about 10 PTBB/100 at the .10/.25, and have well made up that initial $1k deficit.

Good luck as you work to improve.

[gulebjorn]

$1k at the .10/.25 tables? Respect.

[wtfsvi]

It took me about a month (late november till early january this year) and cost me about $500 to become what I estimate to be a consistant winner. I think it woulda gone a bit faster had I had the 2+2 forums.

And I wasted half of that time playing limit. Goddamn that's boring stuff.

Just stay tight as a friggin' drum (especially in EP) while you're learning. And get pokertracker if you don't have it.

[gulebjorn]

[ QUOTE ]
Just stay tight as a friggin' drum (especially in EP) while you're learning.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. Even if you're playing too tight (less than 15% of hands), you'll be better off than playing too loose.

Playing very tight will cut into your profits a little bit, but it's way better than losing.

[beeyjay]

i was on the last $22 buyin of my initial $500 investment about 2 years ago when I finished 11th in a big MTT. I followed this with a 2nd and a first that same week and went from being down 500 bucks to being up about 2gs. of course to get down the 500 to start with I was playing anything from limit ring to NL ring to tourneys all of which at levels wayy over my bankroll. like others have suggested if you just play tight and wait for the hands at a level you can afford you're really gonna have to try to lose more than a miniscule amount.

[niko421]

It took about a year to become a consistent winner. I stuggled moving from limit to NL and I invested about $800 (my records weren't that good). Now I can flip between NL and FL and feel comfortable.

My suggestion is to critize the hands you lose, look at them after(via hand history) and find the leaks. Look at every hand you play in a session, and make notes about your self. Tracking is everything... once you start to focus on the wrong things you are doing, you will also find the good things, you will also be able to receipt with accuracy the errors you made in the past and retain them longer. Also, I read an article in the Mid april issue of card player, that talks to the benefits of tracking your play. I didn't become a consistent winner overnight, like some of the previous posters. It took some going tap, taking a break, and learning along the way.

I now play 3-6/5-10 limit, and $50-$100 NL.

Bottom line.

READ BOOKS. LEARN POSITIONAL PLAY. TRACK YOUR RESILTS.

Daniel Negreanu posted once the he used to keep track of the time he played, how he played after a big score, or a bad beat, his mental status.

Poker Tracker is nice, because it does alot of the tracking for you... your job is to use the information... find out which hands are loosing you money, what positions are costing you money, and from there take them out. Also find out what positions are winning you money.

Hope this helps /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[ticks]

[ QUOTE ]
And I wasted half of that time playing limit. Goddamn that's boring stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]
Agree... good place to start out though

[ QUOTE ]
Just stay tight as a friggin' drum (especially in EP) while you're learning. And get pokertracker if you don't have it.

[/ QUOTE ]

From the replies so far I guess Im not doing so bad after all.
300 down so far.
Got pt a few days ago, and its just amazing.
Feeling a lot more clever already.

[The_Bends]

Took me about 3 months of freeroll play then a month of money play and a deposit of around $100 to start turning a profit. My bankroll is now about $4K.

[Izenra]

I did the same thing : 7sultanspoker, 10 free turned into 1000

[ticks]

It is helpful, thanks.
Good to know that not everyone here
is a natural born poker genius god from the start.

[PinkSteel]

My Evolution from Donkhood (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=2565826&page=&view=&s b=5&o=)

Sklansky TOP
+ a bunch of other marginally helpful books
+ 5 months
+ $500 in "tuition" (losses)
+ 2+2 forums discovered and read religiously
+ PokerTracker & GameTime+
+ focus on a specific game (25NL ring only)
+ major tightening of preflop play
+ 3 more months with some enlightenment

= Replenished bankroll
+ tidy profit
+ 8PTBB/100 win rate

[IbrakeFORrivers]

[ QUOTE ]
Im relatively new to holdem(and the forums),
been playing online for 4-5 months.
Mostly limit, but more and more NL.
Lately I've been wondering:
How long did it take for you to be a consistent winner?
(at low limit NL)
And how much did it cost you?

Im sure im not the only one wondering about this,
would be nice to have some sort of average yardstick to measure yourself against

[/ QUOTE ]

Just play ABC. You'll learn naturally. Number one rule: PATIENCE... My biggest mistake was thinking i was good and moving up limits so fast. If you have too lofty a goal, you'll naturally get greedy and end up calling/raising hands you shouldn't...

You should be trying to lose small and win big. Trust me, big pots... just wait 'em out...

[DJ Sensei]

It took about $100 of losing before I started to win. After about 2 months of grinding low limit, I was able to cash out the initial deposit and play with profit. Another few months of grinding and I had a big enough roll to start playing different games (NL MTTs and STTs). Eventually (once I was well versed in NL tourney play) I moved on to NL ring and kicked the limit habit. At this point, i havent ever been a loser in NL ring, but I think its because I spent so much time playing limit ring and NL tourneys first, and so started out with a decent feel for the game.
So far i'm running a little over 15bb/100 in NL25.

[yvesaint]

Wasted away about $60 in deposits, then something clicked, and now I'm at $400. About 3 months of playing, $.10/.20 NL.

[swolfe]

i started playing in july of last year with $50. i played sit-n-gos and ran out of money in september.

i started playing cash games with $200 then and ran it up to $1,200 that month.

i lost it all in october.

i started reading 2+2 in november and deposited another $200. i've made $25,000 since then.

[Ghazban]

[ QUOTE ]
i started reading 2+2 in november and deposited another $200. i've made $25,000 since then.

[/ QUOTE ]

Congrats on your success. I know from your posts that you know what you're doing but $200 to $25K is simply not attainable by skill alone (unless you're playing obscene hours). You're on your way to becoming the next Bruiser (another guy who started low, played a lot, studied a lot, posted a lot, ran very well for a long stretch of time, and is now regularly playing in the biggest games on the 'net).

Don't take that as a slur on your ability as it definitely isn't one.

[swolfe]

[ QUOTE ]
Congrats on your success. I know from your posts that you know what you're doing but $200 to $25K is simply not attainable by skill alone (unless you're playing obscene hours).

[/ QUOTE ]

heh, i think about $4.5K is from bonus whoring.

but yeah, i've been running pretty good and generally playing about 20-30 hours/wk.

[PinkSteel]

[ QUOTE ]
i started reading 2+2 in november and deposited another $200. i've made $25,000 since then.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now THAT'S inspiring.

Reading 2+2 was definitely the beginning of my (infinitely more modest) turnaround.

What do you read? SSNL, MHNL, anything else?

[swolfe]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you read? SSNL, MHNL, anything else?

[/ QUOTE ]

OOT /images/graemlins/smile.gif

for a while i was following the Zoo for bonuses and whatnot, but now i check it about once a week.

[Sephus]

[ QUOTE ]
$200 to $25K is simply not attainable by skill alone (unless you're playing obscene hours).

[/ QUOTE ]

$50/hr + expectation is attainable multitabling SSNL (esp. with rakeback and bonuses).

[fimbulwinter]

it took me 4 months of self study and about $300 to start beating the babyest of games.

if i'd found twoplustwo, maybe 3 weeks.

fim

[sourbeaver]

I spent about 200-300 before even buying a book.
Then I bought one, then 2, then .. 8 !
Then I switched to NL.
Then I started making a little.
Then I started to improve steadily.
Then I found 2+2.
And here I am.

All in all it took about 2-3 months of "serious" poker before I started seeing some consistent results.

The biggest cost to learning poker, though, is not the out-of-pocket money. It's all the money you're losing while being a winning player, if that can make any sense.

Oh, and if you can avoid that pitfall, please do : when I started making money, I thought, well well !! I'm going to win me some tourneys ! It turns out I did win some (some around 1K$ which was pretty big for me, still is). But then I started playing some 50 and 100$ buy-in tourneys and proceeded to lose everything I had ever made in tourneys.
I was fortunate enough to have won some money before I went mad on these, but I could've eaten my bankroll.


Tiltlessness is the most expensive skill to acquire, many players pay the tax their whole lives, even winning ones.

[amoeba]

this man speaks the truth.


Tiltness and gambling addiction are your worst enemies.

[AlexMR]

The Zoo??

What is that?

[Bukem_]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


[/ QUOTE ]

I know from your posts that you know what you're doing but $200 to $25K is simply not attainable by skill alone (unless you're playing obscene hours).


[/ QUOTE ]
I literally started playing .01/.02(limit) on pacific with $100. I've never deposited anything but profit, and I have made >25k. Its possible.

[swolfe]

Internet Gambling Forum (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=inet)

[Rockatansky]

[ QUOTE ]
this man speaks the truth.


Tiltness and gambling addiction are your worst enemies.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll repeat this again for good measure. The theory and concepts necessary to beat SSNL are not difficult. However, psychological and financial discipline are difficult for many people, and are probably what keep most people from being long-term winners at poker.

EDIT: drunken grammar

[teamdonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
How long did it take for you to be a consistent winner?

[/ QUOTE ]

6 months of donking around, switching games weekly, and playing slightly above my bankroll.

[ QUOTE ]
And how much did it cost you?

[/ QUOTE ]

$250. I was lucky enough to place in two of the $215 satellites on stars, or it would have been a lot worse. At this point i took my weak game to the 0.05/0.10 NL tables and figured out how to play.

[Mike Cuneo]

I'm down so much becuase I miss every draw and when I fold 72o it always hits 2 pair so I go on tilt and lose thousands. But once I did hit a boat when I played 72 and I was happy.

[gulebjorn]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm down so much becuase I miss every draw and when I fold 72o it always hits 2 pair so I go on tilt and lose thousands. But once I did hit a boat when I played 72 and I was happy.

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif My pokerhero.

[MadMat]

I deposited £10 at www.getminted.com (http://www.getminted.com) and got a £10 matching bonus, learnt to play on the 5p/10p tables there.
I Manged to not lose that initial deposit, and since last october when I started I'm now up to $3600 (had to convert to playing in USD to get the good bonuses), most of which has come from bonus rather than play though!

I've experimented with MTT, STT and limit, but recently started playing small NL games, not got enough hands to prove I'm a NL winniner yet, but I currently have 4800 hands in PT showing 3PTBB/100 so I'm hoping that means I'm on the right track, but theres lots to learn yet!

Mat

[RiverFenix]

4.8k hands is covered in a 2-3 day session for some. Congrats with previous success and keep trying to learn

[edge]

I basically found the forums right when I started playing. I'm kind of like that--if I start any sort of hobby, I'll research it relentlessly and find the best forum (there is always one for every different activity) and learn as much as I can. I deposited $50 to start off and I never went broke, although I did redeposit $50 after transferring $50 to a friend.

I started around May of last year, at the Stars .01/.02 NL full tables, then bumped around to NL SNGs, limit 6-max (for a very short time), NL 6-max, limit full, and back to NL 6-max. I now have the luxury of making frequent withdrawals and still maintaining an oversized bankroll.

I don't think turning $200 into 25 grand is really dependent on running well. If you keep taking shots at higher levels as you start feeling like you can outplay your current level, you'll run up the stakes very quickly. Around January, I was playing .5/1 on Crypto and now I'm playing the 2/5 pound and 3/6 at Party (probably moving to 5/10 next month). A lot of people on this forum are overly conservative with bankroll management and not taking shots while under-rolled. That's fine, but if you feel you can really outplay the average player at your level, why not give the next one a try?