thanks for the quick replies!

i guess it's true that to learn to play well enough for profit you'd have to spend a lot of time.

i'm a starving student right now :P and only have so much time and money to try this poker thing out. i watch my friend play and he's consisently winning 1:2. that's pretty good cuz he only plays SnG games, and when he does win he takes 1st or 2nd.

basically, how long did it take and how money money did you spend, until you got good enough to consistently win it all back and then make profit?