I recommend you don't as well. If you haven't started, then stay away from it. Even if you manage to not get addicted, you will end up thinking how much of a waste of time it is. Spend it on a good game of golf, steak house, ball game, etc instead
I used to make a tiny bit of money playing Party Poker back when it was new. I won't say not to do it, because I don't know you or your limits/self control.
I had fun with it, but I came out with more money than I put in. I might not be so positive about it otherwise.
I haven't touched it in years, but even back then all the big sites/clients had free-roll shit you could enter without spending a penny. Give those a shot for a while before you commit any cash to it.
What are the options for playing poker online these days? I used to play a lot on FTP and PS until the big FTP scandal and everything got shut down. Played about three years and made a little bit more than I put in. Getting to the final table in a 2,000 man tournament is a pretty big rush, even if the buy-in is only $5. Would play more if it was as easy as it used to be.
A few friends of mine play on Bovada and seem to enjoy it, but after the FTP debacle I'm not willing to put any money back into online poker until it gets legalized. I hope that happens soon.
Playing live is fun and all, but you can't exactly go into a casino and find 0.01/0.02 tables.
online poker has hacks, i used to cheat on pokerstars all the time.
its not like they show you other peoples cards, but they have trainers that give you the specific odds of you having "the" best hand, made a few bucks till it got boring.