While I would say that sites such as Merge (Carbon), Cake, Bodog, UB and some of the euro sites are softer at every level of husng than Stars or FTP, the lower and mid stakes should be plenty beatable for you.Your ability to get action on Stars and FTP will also be much easier, so it'll make up for a lot of any "smaller edge" which is often quite exaggerated (yes, higher stakes are going to be a lot easier on those second or third tier sites, but those games don't run nearly as often as Stars or FTP, so you have to weigh everything against each other).Since you're starting low and want to move up fast and don't just want to search out the softest competition with little regard for hourly or growth, I would recommend Full Tilt or PokerStars to start.The two biggest differences to me for low stakes players are:Stars - The good is that they offer some slower structures with tons of action, such as their regular speed structure (10 min blind levels, 75bb starting stacks) and even their turbos (5 min blind levels, 75bb starting stacks) which makes it easier to learn how to adapt and apply adjustments when you're starting out.  The negative is that the VIP tier probably only gives you about half of the effective rakeback that Full Tilt does, though nobody in the lower stakes is aiming to become a rakeback professional, it can still be a somewhat important factor to consider, depending on volume, skill and future growth vs short term returns.Full Tilt - Faster structures in their turbo speed (3 min blind levels I believe, 50bb starting stacks) and regular speed (maybe 5 min blind levels?  or 6 minutes, not positive, but 75bb starting stacks make these very similar to Stars turbos).  Super turbos are even faster, only starting you at 25bb.  They did add deep stack husngs, which appear to be a lot slower and deeper of a structure, allowing for that massive achievable ROI that you see only in Stars no blind increases (upwards of 25%, even as high as 35-40% at some lower stakes).  The positive is the 27% rakeback.---A few other points: The reason why I mention the slower and deeper structures are specifically good for beginners is not only because it allows them to adjust more often (and take longer in doing so while still winning) but a product of that larger edge per game will be less downswings.  Downswings are often reacted to poorly with too many emotions by newer and lower stakes players (even higher stakes winning players do this too, but to a lesser extent, or they've learned to manage it somewhat so that they can still profit), so playing in a slower structure with a larger edge can be a lot more comfortable for a newer player to do.In the end, I would recommend some sort of a balance.  Stars regular speeds being the slowest structure you should pick to learn in (no blind increase is just too slow and you'll get used to unrealistic positive variance you just cannot find anywhere else in faster structures, it'll ruin you when you move up or cause you a massive learning curve, as these games don't really run at higher stakes) and FTP regular speeds probably as the fastest stakes.  If you do well in any of these, feel free to explore slower, deeper structures or shorter, faster ones (FTP turbos, FTP super turbos for example).