iccky

The other advantage to poker stars (I play there) is that they have very low stakes game (.01/.02 and .02/.05) where the pot isn't raked. In most casino/online poker games you're always fighting an uphill battle because the house takes a small portion of every pot, but these games let you play with even chances of making and losing money.

That said, when I joined I saw my initial buy-in as the fee I paid to play in slightly more serious poker games. I never really expected to get that money back again and never saw it as a way to make money. There are professional poker players (my uncle is one), but for them to make it as pros there have to be far more chumps out there who lose their shirts. It's hard to tell which one you'll turn out to be, and often even harder to stop once you turn out to be a chump.

Right now I've got about $40 left from an initial buy-in of $50.