Here's the real key to winning at online poker tables: YOU'VE GOT TO KNOW WHEN TO HOLD 'EM, AND YOU'VE GOTTA KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM
On cnbc the other day Chris "Jesus" Fergason was on there talking about lobbying to legalize online gambling or something like that. Anyway, he went on to say he took 1 dollar and turned it into 20K online. Wonder how long that took.
Like a bad carpenter blames his tools. Online poker is def. not rigged. As far as collusion goes, the people that have done/do it, realize that there is very little benefit and most of the times is detrimental. Aside from that it is ridiculously easy to spot. You do not say what limit you were at. You should convert your loss into BB (big bets, the size of the bet on the turn). So if you were playing 5-10 llimit you had lost 200BB. 200BB in an afternoon is a harsh downswing, but not uncommon by any means, and can be chalked up to variance. However, if this is your introduction to online poker and lost 200 bb out of the box, then I'd say to drop down limit immediatly. Look at your $2k as a sunk cost, and dont even think of getting it back for awhile. If you dont have that mind set, you will be playing at the higher limits and getting rocked. Play at the $.50/$1. You must read intro books I like theory of poker by sklansky and I have heard that "low limit holdem" by lee jones is v good. Its like trading, anybody can do it, but few can make money at it.
I won $20 in the elitetrader tournament at poker world, turned that into $2000+ at pokerstars mainly playing .05/.10. I usually play 1 or 2 hours a day. I'm going to start playing the .10/.25 NL now. It's all about bankroll management. I think you should have 50+ buyins for the stakes you are playing at. You can't say it's rigged because of a few bad beats. There's an article somewhere that talks about how chris ferguson turned $1 into $20,000 in a few months. Basically he says not to risk more than 5% of your bankroll at any table.
Friend of mine uses this.... http://www.interwetten.com/webclient/start.aspx click on tournaments and pick a game , to check out the progress...
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=12455 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...637070-1917661?s=books&st=*&v=glance&n=283155 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...002-6637070-1917661?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...002-6637070-1917661?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 Also twoplustwo.com, like gunslinger said. If you ask newb questions there you may get a few flames but guys will also help you out (just like here). Make sure to use the search before asking your questions. The online games are beatable, but not if you don't know what you're doing. What limits were you playing? Was it No-Limit or limit? If you decided to try because you saw poker on TV, you need to understand that tournament play is different than ring game play. You should try both and see if you like one better than the other.