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If you are a beginner, take the time to get together a few hundred dollars now, say $200.

And then don't use any of it.

Purchase Small stakes hold'em, theory of poker, and hold'em for advanced players, and learn to play.

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Totally. Although I'd say Small Stakes Hold'em, Poker Academy Pro and Poker Tracker (those last two are software).

Tweek the speed settings on Poker Academy and you can play 500 hands in about three hours. After your first read through of Small Stakes Hold'em you should be crushing the Beginner and Low Limit AI settings. Finish the read through a second time and you should be able to hold your own against Random and Standard settings (the AI in Poker Academy is REALLY good).

By this time you should have played around 10k hands vs the computer. You can import the hand histories into Poker Tracker and look for leaks in your play. When you find them, you can set Poker Academy to simulate those situations and drill until the leak is plugged (like say, play 500 hands where the computer deals you A9s EVERY hand, in every position [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]).

THEN hit the micro and low limit games, and CHUSH them. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Now that you're playing for real money and consistantly winning, you can tackle Poker Theory and Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players. Keep importing your hand histories, search for the leaks with PT and plug them using PA.

Honestly, I don't know HOW guys like Doyle Burnson & Johnny Chan got to be such good players without PA & PT. Personally, I belive that with reasources like PA, PT and 2+2 at our disposal there is no reason to ALLOW a leak to exist in our play.