i played pretty average poker for 25k hands, just a small winner. Then i really strted to understand until i got to about 100k hands where i had a real 'enligtened' moment and promptly had a 15buy in downswing when i forgot the basics of poker.
Since then ive just managed to improve day by day session by session, but the moment when it all kicks in is probably after 30k hands when you either run really good for the first time, or really bad.