how many hands did it take until you started making a profit?

How much money did you lose (or not) before you started profiting?

Just curious

bout tree fiddy

... not exactly what I was looking for.

Serious answer:

Couple hundreds playing for a very fishy year.
The breakeven (or very close to)may very well have been longer tho.

I lost a coupla hundred on SnG's and then found 2+2 this time last year, moved to FR cash and am a modest winner since then over 260K hands at 2,5,10 & 25nl.

Let's see here I went busto three times. 1st my peak was around $15, 2nd was around $70, 3rd was $10. And now on my 4th run I'm around 210.

I lost about $150 before I started taking the game seriously. Or 3 $50 deposits if you prefer.

But you always profited when you played seriously? Did you begin to read books, then "play seriously," or was it just a change in mindset?

Thanks guys!

About 3 or 4k hands. This is at 2nl BTW, so the 'profit' is trivial. I lost the $5 stars gave me for free, deposited $100, lost the first $20 of that and have steadily gained money ever since.

I started winning when I stopped chasing ridiculous draws using implied odds as an excuse. The other big improvement I've made is to swap limping a lot of OK starting hands for either folding or raising. Note, I was trying to win right from the start and taking it seriously.

I read some books before playing for cash and that helped, especially with pre-flop play. But actually playing really solidifies a lot of concepts. For example, it's easy to read 'don't play a marginal hand out of position just because you are bored and want some action' and go, 'of course, that's obvious'. But once you've done exactly that and got burned, you tend to remember.

I started playing on holiday about 4 years ago out of sheer boredom. Literally nothing was going on so me and my friend gambled our holiday money on 5 card draw. When we got back I downloaded full tilt and deposited $50.00 (with my friends holiday money)

From there I was convinced I was a good player but never actually studied the game. After losing 3 deposits ($150) I thought "Right, If I really like this game I better get good at it or this is going to cost me a lot of money"

From there I watched some pokersavvy vids, posted on 2+2 and read some Harrington on hold'em books since I always, always prefer tourney to cash.

I started my bankroll by winning freerolls, then used that money to enter $0.10 SnGs, and steadily built my bankroll from there. There was a time when I had about three dollar fifty in my account, and it meant a lot to me.

I started cash gaming on 10NL when I reached $25. This was obviously poor bankrollmanagement, and I almost went broke, but I managed to recoup and I haven't looked back since.

To answer your question: I've been a winning player on any stake I played so far, because I started at the absolute minimum.

Started playing on Poker Room back in college in 2003. Deposited $25 and did not go broke on that site. That paid for about 3 months worth of going out (about $25/50 per week). Switched to PS after graduation - won a bit, lost a bit and then binked 2 MTTs in a weekend for $10k. I cashed that out, bought a condo and lost my edge. Donked back about $6k in the last 5 years chasing the pipe dream and striking it big again. I have been fed up with the losses and have commited myself to starting from the bottom and getting my edge back. I so wish I had left my roll intact and continued learning back in the day. I have a long uphill battle to get back to where I was...oh well I'm up for the challenge!

i actually did deposit $350 in total. true story.

lost $40 to stars sngs deposited $20 to fcukaround at 2nl but the tables there have nit regs even at 2nl. Deposited to FT and have quadrupled my depot so far. Started on 2nl there moved to 5nl rush after playing 10k 2nl with 4BB/100. So far this month is looking good and am aiming for Ironman silver (but will settle for bronze too if rl ties me up too much) unless i totally tilt and crash and burn

my friend x-fer'ed me $20 i lost it... he x-fer'ed me $20 and i never deposited again and have been playing for 6 years... no idea how many hands before i was a winning player though since i donked around alot the first year or 2 and luckboxed some stuff

the first session i ever played i lost a couple of buyins at 2NL but after that my sessions were mostly positive.

Was just wondering how many hands (estimate) of online play did it take you successful online players to start winning, if you weren't a phenom from the start. Also, I have just started online play (about a month) and the cash game I play now seems ridicously slow. Any tips on how to adjust/adapt to a smooth transition from online to live without losing patience and playing some hands i wouldn't normally play.

~350 give or take

The action live is much slower, especially if you are used to multitabling...but there is nothing you can do to speed the cards up so you have to live with it.

The only thing I can suggest is to treat it as a social exercise with the other players, as in actually enjoy the chit-chat and banter. And use the extra free time to pick up and remember details you don't get online.

maybe 10,000 hands, i think i was ahead of most people starting since i was a tight player to begin with. i was tight but also badly passive and i read some stuff on here and changed my game and have been changing it ever since

Funny enough I think I made more money when I first started, the difference is now I know how to hold on to it lol

i lost about 8k in a year or 2

I started off online building up small buyins and loosing them over and over for at least a year. Then I was invited to a private 1/2 live cash game and won 560 in my first session, since then I have always been a winning live player month after month. As for online (3yrs on and off) I have processed one check for 150, out of probably 1200....lol