414 hands P&L = zero

It was a roller coaster of a session on $2/$4 NLHE on FTP and I ended even, frustratingly so.

The first big loss came when I found AA in the big blind. I re-raised the button to $56 and got called. Flop comes A26 rainbow. BINGO! I bet straight out $115 pot and got called ?!? I'm putting him on either AK/22/66 or a call-steal attempt. Turn comes 3. I bet out $100, looking weak and hoping to entice an all-in from my opponent. It works! He pushes in for $350 and I of course call, only to see the friggin 45 straight. I missed the river, which still had 20% chance to pair the board to boat me up. I can't believe he called $56 pre-flop and called $115 for an inside straight draw. -$521 as I lose a $1k pot on a suck-out.

I suffered multiple $200-250 losses in the following hour. Raised with AK and got called by 56. Flop came A65 and then turned another 6 and the painful river brought a K, which gave me top two pair. Then found QQ twice against a small stack ($200 or less) and pushed in when they had AA.

After the first 90 minutes, I was down nearly -$1000 and really felt like crap. I tightened up and waited it out. Vindication came in the following scenarios:

(1) Limped with AhQh and saw 4 callers. Ad9c5h board checked around. Tc on the turn made straight and flush possibilities. I raised a $20 bet from player with $120 behind to $60 and he pushed all-in with Qc8c for the gut shot straight flush draw, which he missed.

(2) Flopped a set of 8's on a board of KcJc8s and got $400 in the pot and called by K8. I boated up when the J turned.

(3) Multiple $100-150 wins as I played my position aggressively, allowing me to call continuation bets and steal effectively when straight/flush possibilities developed after strong pre-flop betting activity.

All together, it was a nice recovery after some painful hands early. I'm going to sleep.

Bankroll: $2,734