Learning to play cash

I've spent most of the last month or so trying to teach myself to play 6 seater cash games on Full Tilt.
Thankfully the first deposit bonus and an apology bonus for some downtime on the site in February (Betfair take note) has kept me in the black.
I've played around 15,000 hands of 25c/50c over the last 6 or 8 weeks for a very small overall profit, but I do think I'm improving, my bankroll on full tilt is increasing thanks to the bonus payments and I feel I can hold my own at this level now.
The plan now is to persevere on full tilt or maybe another new site where I can release another first deposit bonus to try and earn enough to pay (or partly pay) for a planned trip to New York next January (Yes I know that sounds a little ambitious, but it helps to have targets).
The cash game has got me more focused on improving than I have been for a while, the bad beats hurt a bit more, and its easy to get bored and tilt away a few hours worth of grinding in a few minutes, but on the whole its been enjoyable and hopefully will remain so.
Im still playing the odd tournament, the groundhog day syndrome remains in the EPT and WSOP qualifiers on Pokerstars, I'm still stuck on level 3 and keep bubbling for the next level and returning back to level 3 again, and again, and again, but one of these days I'll be at level 6 with a trip to Las Vegas or Monte Carlo in my sights.
Enjoyed a couple of weeks off work over Easter, just took it easy for a few days, had a few day trips out and about in Spain, and generally chilled out for a while.
Also had an e-mail from Betfair offering me a £10 refund, win or lose if I transfered £10 to their casino and played. This I did and manged to release a first deposit bonus, make a profit at Blackjack, and get back my original tenner for a total profit of around £80, so thats the end of my casino career, quit while I'm ahead. :)

Groundhog Day

It feels like groundhog day recently trying to progress in the steps tournaments on Pokerstars for EPT and WSOP seats.
I started off using player points to play the step one sit & go tournaments, bounced up and down to level 3 ($75 + $7) and eventually paid for a couple of $7 + $0.50 step one sats.
Im now going round in circles on level 3, with 4 third place finishes in a row leading to a new start on level 3, without getting to level 4. I'm at level 3 for both EPT and WSOP, but one of these days I'll crack it for a seat in one of the big live tournaments.
Heres hoping.....

I started off pretty well in the $50 satellite to the 'Mr Silent charity WSOPE' tournament on Betfair.
This was for a seat in a $500 satellite for a $23k WSOPE seat donated by Betfair player Mr Silent in a quite amazing show of generosity.
$50 is a big buy in for me, but I thought it would be churlish to turn up my nose at a charity event given how it was donated for free so I decided to play.
I managed to double up early on and held the chip lead for a while, and was playing pretty well, even though I do say so myself. I think I was second at the first break, but didn't make it to the second. The key hand was one where I raised 3 x BB in early position with AK, had one caller in mid-position and the short stack pushed all in from the button for about 9 or 10 BB's, I pushed all in to isolate the shorty and was called by the MP with 77 or 88. Shorty had AJ and the 88 held up and I lost about half my chips.
I never really recovered after that, was card dead for quite a while and blinded away for half an hour before taking a risk and pushing in only to lose a race and crash out.