Negative earnings but positive play

So contrary to my last post... I later in the day made it out to a 1/2 NL at goodfellas house down in Odenton. I sit down at the table which is healthy mix of regulars and some new faces about 50/50. This is good chemistry and as long as I keep my head in the game, ignore my slight hangover, and track the players I should be fine.

Fireworks is the one word that comes to mind when describing this game. A wildcard named Johnny gained a early chip lead and had the luck of the irish knocking out over six players buy-ins myself included when my QQ lost against his K6s which I will talk about later. This guy would call or gamble with anything calling one players $300 all-in with a pair of twos preflop. The 22 vs AK holds up and he builds his stack up to roughly $1,600. As the saying goes, "Even a blind squirell can find a nut"

What the chemisty offered me was only the opportunity to bluff regular players and other than that I needed a solid hand to play aggressively because this was in fact "No Fold-Em, Hold-Em" and another cliche "You can't bluff bad players".

The cards I recieved were beauties pre-flop AQs, AKs, AK, AQ, AJ, etc. but I missed time after time and was in the game for -$500 at one point. Without a made hand there was not much I can do but I still saw light in my play and in the game because I was able to let go of many strong hands even with the desperation of losing hand after hand. Overall I take a hit of -$285 for the night which is not that bad considering the brutality of the hands I was dealt.

Here is the highlight of a hand where I lost the absolute minimum.

UTG calls $2
Dealt [A2s] call $2
folds to blinds who call $2 (Pot $8

Flop [2,2,3 (rainbow] - Solid player 1 bets $5, a fisherman calls $5, I just call $5
Turn [K?] - Player 1 checks, 2 checks, I check
River [6] - Player 1 bets $15, player 2 calls $15, I call $15.

Player 1 shows [3,3] for Threes full of Two's
Player 2 mucks
I show my A2 and anounce I lost the bare minimum which I was proud of.

Questions arise of why I did not raise at all in the hand. There were a few reasons based on observations made earlier in the night but on the river I was pretty positive I was beat and it was not worth the risk of a raise. There is more to it than that but you sharks read this so I will keep it simple.

High Stakes is on gotta go...