I started playing as a pure DONK at Commerce Casino in LA. They must have loved to see me coming every session. I had a good job and an aggressive game learned from my college (home game) days.
It didnt take long for me to figure something was wrong when I started waiting for paychecks to play somemore...and 24 hour sessions prolly werent that good of an idea. But I was young and having fun.
I discovered a Tourny League they were having and decided to check out the leaderboard to see who might be good to watch. I latched onto one player and watched him as often as I could. I tried to emulate his more tight style into my play and I started playing more MTTs over ring.
Benefits came immediately--I tightened up my Calling Station and Huge Reckless Bluffer status and I started consistently winning money in both MTTs and Ring Games.
Since that time I went from being a Super Donkey to a Super Earner for most of my Poker Career.
I would say the process took a little less than 2 years.
When I moved to playing
online poker..I got a Free $10 No Deposit Deal on
royal vegas (Prima/Microgaming) and turned it into $200,000. It was obviously a huge tremendous mix of pure luck, and Prima Donkey help
. While Prima is still a great network to play (They moved me to PokerTime cause RVP stopped taking US) they dont have the Free 10 anymore.
Although, they do have a nice 7K Freeroll on Jan 7th and 17th for all members.