Here is my experience with some these sites various people have commented on so these called large site you think are safe. They are not I have received money refunded from two big sites as they have caught online cheaters. Here is the pattern I have seen and I'm no pro but a reasonably good player and understand the math and variance and this is why I can say that at the lower stakes you will receive way more bad beats then you should expect even with the increased number of
hands you will be dealt. I'm generally a 90% favorite to win but yeah you guessed it I frequently lose on the river yeah cry me a river. The opponent should have folded or it is just a bot or someone using software to help them make a decision to call or fold. At the 1/2$ blind leveI I generally chip up pretty fast and within an hour or two I double up but then of course my flopped straight is beat by a fullhouse on the river, my set is beat by a better set, my fullhouse is beat by a better fullhouse yeah whatever it's all garbage
poker online at least on the top 3 big sites. The variance is even worse in tournaments where you need even a larger
bankroll. I never play online anymore either it is rigged and don't tell me about the algorithms, , variance is skewed way too high the math doesn't make sense, you have to multi table to have a win rate of any kind, too many bots and donkeys. Just look at the numerous reviews from others who basically say the same thing I'm saying. I have a good win rate at live poker, maybe a break even rate at online and thats only because I had a couple deep runs in tournaments. So I would say to anyone starting out go play at a live casino if you have one close enough as you probably won't have a very good experience with online poker. If starting online have solid fundamentals, know your poker math to help you make correct decisions, have a solid TAG strategy that you can adjust in order to exploit your opponents weaknesses and leave when you are up for the day especially if you have been playing for awhile and therefore probably not as focused. Hope this helps.