I really can't add a lot to what Iceman has said because, frankly, I'm not qualified to be his pool boy.

I started with $10 free on Royal Vegas (Prima) and $10 free from Pacific. I built this up to around $2K playing fixed limit. I've never put a dime into a poker site that wasn't someone else's dime. There was a happy result from this. I learned how to play as it took forever to take that $20 to $200, which is what you need to play anything of significance. It took a LONG time, and like ice, I pretty much went through everything in that time. A year later, and I'm just barely a decent player.

Limit is more guaranteed. (If I'd stayed playing FL, I'd be much richer.) It's also more boring. NL is more fun, but the swings will make a new player insane, I think. SNGs are my cash flow, now, but I wouldn't recommend them for someone just starting out. Play limit poker until you are well grounded, then look around at other options.

As for making $1000/mo.? Uh, well, good luck. A very good limit player is happy making 3BB/hr. At $1/$2, which you should not be playing, that's $6/hr. Believe me, that's not easy to do. Playing 4 tables, I think I usually got somewhere around $8/hr consistenly. Not much of a part time job, unless you consider sitting for hours in a small room staring at a computer screen in your underwear a good job.

Good luck. It's a helluva ride, an endless educational process, and an obsession no one else understands. (Esp your wife.)

CJ

I consider myself to be pretty damned good, but it took me a long time to get here. I calculate that Ive played close to a million hands. Its still is nowhere near easy.

Even though I win pretty consistently, there are long stretches of bad runs and stretches where the frustration level nears the boiling point. Alot of that has to do with high expectations that I have now, but still, even the best players struggle with all kinds of poker related issues. Its not an easy game even if you are very good.

BUT....once you get good, there is lots of money to be made. Just dont expect to get there any time soon if you are just starting out. I played for months making a couple bucs an hour.

A million hands? Is that all in one PT database?