ANY Help is appreciated

I have been playing poker for about seven years and playing online for about 5 years, I now live remoteley in a town in alaska that is only reachable by boat or plane in the summer, or by plane in the winter. (my job brought me here). I have what I thought was quite a bit of experience at the game of holdem, and am a novice at the game of omaha, have not delved much into other games
This forum as a resource is continually amazing me at the information that is avalable, and also at the willingness of the people with experience to assist those who do not have much or any. To all of you I say THANK YOU. While im SURE that the following questions have already been answered im going to ask anyway cause I have a few of them.

1) My goal is to play poker well enough that my time spent playing poker is not only fun but profitable as well. I would consider myself successfull at calling poker a part time job if i could make perhaps 10-15 dollars an hour avg. what level is necessary to acheive this type of earning avg?
what size roll is necessary to play at this level?
what game is most conducive to achieving this goal ie, stsng, ntsng, cash nlhe, cash limithe, cash plo etc etc

2) I have read many threads here since I joined, and it appears that ALL of the serious players manitian that a program like Holdem manager or Poker Tracker 3 is an ABSOLUTE necessity for success online, I have not bought one of these yet because i am concerned that it will hurt my live game (at which i am very profitable (I beleive it is because I can read people at the table very well) since that type of program will do things FOR me i fear that it will put me at a disadvantage in live play.....?

3) I currently have a roll of just over 80.00, so in refernce to my above question, is there a place i can start? or do I need to put more money on before i proceed to play as a person taking the game "Serious"

4) I have looked myself up on numerous sites, and my numbers and ratings are TERRIBLE. does this put me at a disadvantage against other players even tho I am seriously attempting to find and plug the holes in my game? does it make me more likley to be called when i play a hand for a raise? does it mean i should never bluff? should I create a new account and transfer the money i have to there so I can start at zero?

I intend to add to this thread as I come up with more questions

thanks everyone

hey man
congrats on this attempt. a few things to think about.... setting monetary goals isn't always a good idea. maybe think about playing one thousand hands and then evaluating your stats.
with that size roll i'd play 5% max at a time. the $4 MTT on pokerstars has a good payout if you make thetop three. im much better at tourneys than ring so i'd stick to the cheap STTs and MTTs.
if ring is your thing stick to the microstakes and grind out abc poker.
if your game is real profitable why not invest in PT3?
your last question.... it depends... if your numbers are terrible how is your game profitable?
i hope you're getting outside a fair bit too, bagging an elk is a way better feeling than clicking 'raise'

Good questions, though some are kinda hard to answer. Just the cash game side, I'm not knowledgable on SnG's...

20 buyins is considered a minimum bankroll, so $80 roll = 2nl (40 bi's). Once you work it up to $100, you can play 5nl (that's 20 buyins for 5nl tables).

Note that 20 bi's is considered a MINIMUM br - better players can get away w a little less, but someone who's learning should not play without AT LEAST 20 bi's, and if you know you have leaks in your game you should consider having a larger br. Once you start playing harder limits, you also want to increase your br requirement, since you're less "better" at a tougher limit relative to the player pool.

Many people are concerned that PT3 or HEM will hurt their live game. I disagree, it can only make your live game better. This is a common misconception that is based, I think, on not understanding what PT3 and HEM actually do - they don't automate anything, they don't tell you what to do while you're playing. They DO help you identify situations where you could've played better, where you have leaks, etc. They DO provide you quick information regarding the players you're playing against - but no more so than someone playing 1 table (live or online) would have available to them.

Having an hourly goal is something you should only work out after you have some experience, and if you're interested in hourly goals, you really DO need HEM or PT3. Hourly rates depend on:

1. What limit are you playing.
2. What's your winrate at the limit you're playing.
3. How many tables can you play simultaneously (i.e., how many hands/hour can you play).
4. What's your winrate at the limit you're playing when multi-tabling.

PT3 and HEM help you track your winrate. If your winrate is zero, nothing else matters, your hourly will always be zero. If you're good enough to beat 25nl at 5BB/100 (which is $12.50 for every 1000 hands you play) while playing 1000 hands an hour, that would be your hourly rate.

If your stats on the sites are terrible, this is actually good news on two fronts. First, you probably have lots of opportunities to improve your winrate, so things will improve for you over time if you work hard on your game. Second, you look like a fish, and anybody who pays attention to the stats on the sites will treat you like one - this is good news in the sense that if you understand that, you can play in a way to exploit that perception.

Variance in PLO is sky high.

1: Depends on winrate and how many tables you're playing. Kind of hard to say but unless you're massively multitabling $25nl is probably the earliest you can hope to make $10/hour (that's a very rough estimate).

2: I think using the HUD can make you dependent on it. I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but knowing that a guy 3bets 10% of the time and knowing WHY he 3bets are very different things, the former just tells you that on average his range is something like 22+, AJ+, KQ. The latter tells you his range is mostly rags here or only premiums. The HUD doesn't stop you from getting good reads, but it does allow you to autopilot.
I still think PT3/HEM are essential though, keeping track of your stats WILL improve you online and live game dramatically. You can see exactly what hands are making you money, in what circumstances, what you're overplaying and what you're not. You can see how much money you win when you get to showdown and without showdown, that can be a bit of an eye openner for someone who hasn't looked at these stats before.
Download the free trials, if you're not convinced in 60 days (and you will be convinced within twenty minutes) then don't buy them.

3: You sound like you want to take this seriously. If that's the case, what I would suggest is to play $2nl. Grind it up to $100-$120, take shots at $5nl and move down when you fall bellow $100. After $5nl use 30 max buy ins as your minimum requirement and increase your bankroll requirements as you move up.
There's nothing wrong with playing at 20 max buy ins as long as you keep moving down when you need to, but downswings are not uncommon and neither is tilt. Your risk of going bust really dramatically increases as you reduce your bankroll requirements. There is a reason that almost everyone who has the slightest idea what they're doing uses a much deeper roll.

4: Your opponents are fish. They haven't looked up your stats.

Eh, I get a little tunnel vision and just assume everything is NLHE cash. What I just said applies to that and not at all to anything else

Here's a glimps at what I plan on doing in a similar situation as yours. I'm going to start by playing the .10 rebuy and $1 rebuy tourneys on Full TIlt held daily as these offer the best ROI, a first place finish in one of these could net you upward of over 300,000% ROI. Bonus when playing these two tourneys no one will be looking you up to see your stats. Secondly I plan on perusing the cash games for fish in the proverbial barrel. My mouth waters when I watch a guy sit down at a .25/.50 table with $350 in front of him drop down to just under $200 after about 50 hands showing down cards like 10-2 off. Like the saying goes "pick your spots". Lots of cash games are filled with grinders who are multi-tabling and waiting for big hands, so make it a point to know who these guys are and watch closely what they showdown to get an idea of thier range. You don't have to play high stakes to make decent money if you're selective and you study your competition. Tip. Watch out for those Russians they love to trap, it's in their DNA. GL

actually my game online is NOT profitable
I bleed dollars
but playing live I crush it Most of the time (many people play here in the sticks , and happily for me they all think they can play but most of em are milk money