Finally took the plunge while waiting for my account to open at Empire, got $10 free to open an account at Pacific. I found a loose, I guess they are all loose, about 80% V$IP preflop for the really low 5c-10c limit. The play was terribly slow, after about 130 hand in two and half hours I'am down about $5. So I probably was'nt playing that great, but after hours playing Wison's Turbo Holdem, and playing a few play money games, it felt like being at a play money table.
My question is, bet you thought I'd never get to it is, is this limit to low to start at? I thought I might start at the $1-$2 at Empire as soon as I can get Poker Tracker set up, or is that to high a limit game for a newbie. I am pretty decent on my preflop openers, using my Wilson's. I can consistantly beat it, except when the cards are running bad, then I break even, but that not a real game.

I made a typo in my post, played three and half hours and 131 hands at Pacific. Forgot to mention have been studying three books on limit holdem, "Internet Texas Hold'em", "Winning Low Limit Hold'em, and " Small Stakes Hold"em", have a long ways to go, and I seem to be able to usually put some one on a hand quite often, I've bloviated long enough.
Appreciate any help.

Since this is your first go around with Internet Poker I would recommend playing at the lowest possible limit at Empire which is 0.50-1.00 if you have a sufficient bankroll for it. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 should be sufficient if you are a winning player. Even if you have a larger bankroll I would put in 3 to 4 K hands at this limit just to acclimate yourself and to see how much all that studying in those books helps you.

The extremely low limit tables versus even a 0.50-1.00 table play very different and the strategy to handle both types of tables in general will be different. Understanding how to adapt to each type of table and for that matter each type of opponent is very important. I haven't read any of those three books you mentioned but hopefully they have a little info on this topic.

I hope you signed up for a rake return at Empire as that can add a good chunk of change to your bottom line each month if you are a regular player.

Good luck.

What limits to start also depends on yoru bankroll. I suggest playing the $0.50/$1 on Party. That's where I started and if you can consistently beat them, you have a good foundation. I wouldn't play 1/2 til you worked your way up to $600. I personally started with a $50 deposit and got lucky not to lose it when I first started playing as I had a decent background in poker before. I then slowly worked that up to now over $6000 playing various games and limits now.

IMO, I hate pacific and the 5c/10c games are just crap shoots. Read all that you can and play tight and aggressive. If that isn't your style, its gonna be hard to win at limit and No limit would be a better option. Limit online is really just waiting for a good hand and just playing them as well as possible.

I know a lot of people tout UB as "too tough" or whatever - but I've been playing there ever since I started my foray into online poker, and quite honestly, I love it! I also think that in general, the quality of players *are* actually a bit better than some of the other sites out there, which means that you can play a much more "serious" game of poker at the lower limits. I'm not sure what your bankroll criteria are, but I'd actually recommend playing the 0.25/0.50 tables there - they are not quite as crap-shooty, but are still loose enough to be able to make money. If nothing else, I do think it will sharpen your game up for when you do move up in limits, because you can't always count on tables being so loose as to have 80% VP$IP.

I do definitely agree with briacheck - you've gotta log a couple thousand hands, at least, before your numbers (and particularly, your SD) start to stabilize somewhat. I'd say this starts to happen at anywhere from ~1.8k - 3.0k hands. At that point, you can really start to analyze your game, assuming your WR has remained positive...

BTW - I thought the same thing about Limit HE - and yes, it is a waiting game to a large extent. But I'd really urge you to start playing Limit, and grind through it for a while before you try and figure out NL.. The 'mistake' I made when I was starting out was *not* moving up limits too quickly, but rather, moving straight from Limit to NL, figiuring that "oh, well, it's easier, because I can simply defend my strong holdings that much better" - not realizing that figuring out the betting strategy to employ there is quite a bit more difficult than one might expect. I think you can only start to get an appreciation for how you should bet once you have some idea of how the betting limits in Limit HE actually "limit" your play. For me, this still something of a black science, and I don't play many NL games, since I still consider myself to be in the learning phase, after my 1+ year playing poker online. (To your credit, though, it seems as though you've really taken the time to learn how to play properly before making your first deposit; I don't think I was as conscientous about this as you appear to have been.) The one last thing I'll say about Limit vs. NL is that this betting strategy I refer to is not well-prescribed in books. Correct me if I'm wrong, guys - but it seems to me that determine how large (or small) to make your bets in NL is almost as much of an art as it is a science. This means that it will cost you a lot more in 'educational investment' than Limit will, initially - or at least, that's my sense.

Well, whatever it is you decide to do, definitely be sure to post your hands here. I've learned a lot from these guys, and I've been grinding it out at the 1/2 level for the past couple of months - it's boring and frustrating at times, and the urge to move up and/or find a different game is certainly tempting every now and again. But I'm showing a steady net-positive WR, and am doing pretty well, so I can't complain.

OK, sorry for the long post (unfortunately I tend to be verbose )... hope there's some useful advice in there.

Good luck at the tables! (luck? I thought it was all about skill? )

I enjoyed all the posts to my questions, and musicman, yours was very good too. Like you NL seems a bit scary, thought I'd conquer limit a bit first, the rewards may be be greater with NL but seems to me, you can get wiped out faster too. Have seen some really bad beats on tv in the big tournaments, so I decided to start with limit, two tables at a time gets real interesting when two good hands at a time come up at the two tables you are playing, so if you are bored and play fairly tight, two tables is thw way to go, until you get tired, then I found it's time to quit.