Well after my first day of playing online poker with real money, I'm up about $15 from a couple hours at the nickel/dime limit tables

Considering that's over a quarter of my puny initial deposit, I think I did pretty good.
Too bad real money can't be won as easily as play chips... I made almost half a million play money from 1000 since I started playing a couple months ago..
And AK is one of the best starting hands possible - you just need to have the discipline to muck them if you miss the flop =)