I have lost 130K+ to the pool and it is a lesson learned.

Here are a few tips that may help prevent large losses going forward:

• Research potential pools and read any forum posts before joining
• Set up automatic payouts (I set mine to payout after a few hours worth of work so I do not lose much)
• Enable payout notification and watch for your email alerts
• Check your wallet transaction history regularly to make sure payouts are occurring (In case a shady pool operator fakes the email confirmations)
• If you have enough hashing power you can spread your miners among a few different pools in case one decides not to pay

Hope this helps!