How to turn the corner to profitablity?

Hello, my name is Ryan and I have been taking poker for 3 years but really started playing seriously for about 3 months now. I understand thats not a long time but bare with me. I have been playing about 5-6 hours a day at 25NL. So far I have lost about $500, but I know my game is improving and im getting better. My next step is to purchase poker tracker 3. Anyway, my question is how long did it take to become consistently profitable? Im not talking six figures just $20-$50 per day. Sometimes I make $100 a day but find myself not knowing when to call it a day. My job allows me to play pretty much all day so I plan to make this my part-time business. I feel like I'm right at the edge of profitablity but cant quite make it. Any helpful tips would be greatly valued. Thanks

That's a very broad question, there are leaks in your game (in everyone's) which if you patched up would improve your winrate a lot, poker tracker will help you find what needs to be fixed. This could take a day, a month, or if you don't work on it, never.

You say a lot of $ amounts but none of it means anything without the number of hands and even when you do get to win $50/day on average then you're still going to have frequent days where do finish with -$100.

It's just a question of the time/effort you put in as to how long it will take, everything you need to learn is readily available on the internet, poker tracker or holdem manager will help too. Other than that, just find a pen and paper and analyse various situations, hand ranges, bet sizes etc.

first you need to read alot of books to find out what the pros are doing

then experiment and peice together what works for you

then find where you can make money. tournaments, ring games, sngs.

and dont forget bankroll management its very important.

and dont get ahead of yourself. if your losing money first set a small goal for yourself like making $5 a day. some days your going to win and some days your going to lose. thats the way she goes

what site are you playing on?

Thanks for the feedback. Im playing on full tilt with rakeback. I know i need to read a few books and I plan on buying a couple this week. I just want to know its possible to make consistent money playing online. I trade stocks too and I'd say poker is similar with 80% losing money and 20% taking it all. I play about 500-750 hands a day, sometimes more.

try rush poker... free $5 to try just clear 10 ftps and you might like it

ive had success there hopefully it continues

With your numbers, $50 per day at 500 hands per day (max win at min play) you need to earn $.10 per hand played which is 40bb/100, a pretty hefty win rate at $.10/$.25

Now lets take the opposite extremes, $20 per day at 750 hands per day (min win at max play) you need to earn $.0266 per hand which is 10bb/100, a more standard win rate for a decent player.

Now rakeback will allow you to lower your profit per hands played to reach your goal but IMHO you really need to adjust your goals considering the limits you play.

This is why players multitable. Take your $50 per day goal and increase your play to 6 tables at a time and get 3000 hands in per day and your win rate needed drops to less than 7bb/100.

Also you need to look at your earnings over a significant number of hands. Your variance over even a weeks worth of hands will be very wide with your rate of play.

I'll disagree and say do not try rush poker. Try lowering the limit you are playing at. Play a couple 10K's worth of hands for a month at $10 buyin NL and see if you do better there. If you do better figure out why. If you continue to lose keep movnig down until you find a profitable game for you, figure out why, and when it makes sense for your bankroll start moving back up. I started mixing in $10 buyin tables when I got to $400 and won't start mixing in $25 buyni tables until I have $1000. I also play SNG's. I mostly play $2 SNG's and mix in some $5 SNG's.

I agree with moving down a limit mentioned by popowich and also finding where your profit is by slicky. I can afford to play 25NL or maybe even 50NL but the fact is Im not ready yet with my game for those guys. That's hard to swallow sometimes but you have to check your Ego at the door. It's a fact ... In all of sports or games, you win more times when you play teams or players that are worse than you. Same goes with Poker.

The reason I said find where youre profitable is Im always bored and looking to learn a different game wether it's Cash or MTT's or even Omaha or Stud. When if I look at my stats the only consistent profit that Ive been able to grind out is at SnG's. I need to concentrate more on SnG's and build my bankroll up. It's not a weakness knowing your strengths.