Re: How much time did it take you to become successful?
 

I read Lee Jones book, which I borrowed from a friend, before I played my first hand of holdem on the internet about two years ago. My first year I played very rarely, and broke even (thanks to bonii). After that I became more serious, improved my game, and started winning a little.

It takes some time. For me it took a long time because I didn't play a lot. Play many hours, and play conservatively, until you start to understand what you are doing. And keep one thing in mind: everyone says you should play tightly, and you should. On these forums, as well as in SSH, there are recommendations which are less tight, and therefore appealing to a beginner, since the natural inclination is to play many hands, but these recommendations are made with the assumption that you are a good, experienced player. Until your postflop game is up to scratch, you have to be tighter to avoid losing money.

Re: How much time did it take you to become successful?
 

I also bought Hellmuth's book first. It's a very good book if you're interested in learning about Phil Hellmuth.

Re: How much time did it take you to become successful?
 

I took $60 and started playing on planet poker about 1 1/2 yrs ago. I started playing .05-.10 NL and am now playing $1-2 limit. My initial bankroll grew from the $60 to now over $6,000. I have decided to keep this is a hobby and pulled money out of my account leaving only $2000. I have been making about 500-600 month. Opted to stay at this level because when I looked at the variances I decided I didnt want to deal with them at higher levels. At the $1-2 level I recall one time loosing $500 in a couple days. At the 2-4 that would be $1,000 and 5-10 up to 2,500. In order to make any real money I would venture to say you need to be palying either $10-20 or $15-30 limit. So guess what that variance would have been... $5,000 - 7500. I couldnt deal with loosing that kind of money so..... here I am enjoying the game as a hobby making a few hundred a month.

Re: How much time did it take you to become successful?
 

I first started playing in little home games at my fraternity and did well so I decided to take a shot with online poker. I started up at Royal Vegas because I was sucked into their College Poker Championship. I ended up placing third in the first qualifying tournament that I played in, and thought I was God's gift. I made my first real money deposit soon after (at Royal Vegas because I was obviously soooo much better than everyone else on that site) and after running that hundred dollars up to $280 in one month I played break-even poker over the next year while (now I realize) having no idea what the hell I was doing.

I had a cake semester in Fall '04 which lead to entirely too much drinking which was unhealthy for both myself and my bankroll. I'd play, lose my money, swear, and redeposit. I dropped probably $400 my last semester of college, which was alot of coin for this college kid.
A
fter I graduated I decided I wanted to play better and only when completely sober. I've lurked here at 2+2 (one of these days I will become a much more active participant) since early 2005, discovered SSH, and have worked my way up from .25/.50 to $2/$4 in the past half a year.

That's my story. Anyone who wants to put in a little effort, read some books, and (hopefully) participate in these forums will play winning poker. I am proof of that.

Thanks to everyone who posts here; you guys really do make all the difference in the world for guys like me who are looking to learn. Your efforts are really appreciated.

Re: How much time did it take you to become successful?
 

I've never been in the red, and never had to refill a bankroll because I busted out. I'm currently +200 after 14000 hands of serious playing at realistic limits (.50/1)