So I've pretty much settled into a daily routine. I play the $50 buy-in no limit game on Party Poker and earn between $25 & $50. Then I play the $22 tournament and lose it. I keep getting close, but it's so freakin' hard. Even if I manage to only get all-in when I have an 80% advantage, I'm still going to go out once every five times. I've been getting better at taking some early chances to grow a big stack, though. But the pattern usually is that I'll be the table chip leader, someone with about half my stack will hit a long shot when we're all-in, and then I'll be too short stacked to play aggressive enough to keep my stack growing. When I'm short, I lock down and wait for a good hand to get all my money in. Sometimes it works and I'm back in the action. But every so often it doesn't and I'm out (nearly every time they're forced to hit a long shot). But one of these days my hands will stand up and I'll make the final table with a monster stack. At least that's the hope.
I did get 142nd place last night, through a field of about 2400. Unfortunately, that's only good enough to net me $15. It sucks seeing so little profit for so much time spent, but I suppose I'm gaining some non-cash equity from the effort, since I am getting better at these big fields.
My goal right now is to keep pounding away at this game until I crack it. Once I get a big payout, that should give me enough breathing room to start doing satellites more frequently. The problem with satellites is that they only really pay out if a.) You win a ticket to the big game you're satelliting for b.) You cash out in the big game. Otherwise, it just drains my bankroll. If I can get just one big win, I should be able to float a whole bunch of cheap satellites.
This seems to be a better system for me than just playing at limit or no-limit cash tables. I can turn a profit at those games, but not enough due to time constraints. If I had 6 to 8 hours a day to kill, it would probably be worth it. But with a limited schedule, I think shooting for these big payouts is the way to go.