A Change of Fortunes

Last night was one of those Poker nights that started off like everything was going to go wrong but through patience and some good old fashioned luck everything turned around.

In my 1st two hours I had zero pocket pairs but I had AK 5 times and I lost every single time with them.
I also had KJs where I flopped the 2nd nut flush draw and I made a large raise against the PFR and ended up getting some other guy all in who of course had AXs for the win.
A re-buy later I was looking for a change of luck.

I limped KK UTG because there was a lot of raising and re-raising at the table, I was hoping to get lucky and catch one of those times but instead there were 3 limper's to the flop.
AQx and my bet of $10 took it down.

A few hands later I picked up AA in the Small blind and I got to pull my chips back because it folded around and I got the privilege of chopping with the BB.

Finally, around 2.5 hours in my luck decided to take a change for the better.
In a limped pot I have 86s and the flop comes out 666, end up making $60 off of that hand.
A little bit later it folds around to the button who makes a $8 raise and I mistake it for weakness so I make it $28 in the big blind with 72spades.  The button pushes all in which is only an additional $26 and I'm pretty much forced to call.  He asks me if I have a pair and I tell him a pretty big one as I turn over The Hammer!
He flips up QQ and is not happy to see a 72x flop.
No Q and the board doesn't pair and my monster hand pulls in the pot.

A little bit later against the same guy I pull the same type of move on a Flop of K64 and I have 42.
I get the same guy all in and he tells me that he needs either a 6 or a 7 and I show him my bottom pair so he looks a bit happy until the other 4 shows up on the river and I once again take all his chips after getting my money in behind.

Now to the most important two hands of my night.
There is a raise to $12 in early position and a few callers.  It gets to me and I have AQclubs so I throw my money in the pot as well. 5 to the flop for $60.

Flop comes out ATJ with 1 club, a pretty dangerous board as the guy who raised could have made that raise with AK or KQ from his position.
However, he checks the flop as does everyone else.  I decide that I'm not much interested in having to suffer a check raise and I'd prefer to keep this pot as small as possible if I am going to make it to show down, I check.
The turn is the 4 of clubs and now the PFR wakes up a little bit and bets out $25, folds to me and now I have Top pair, A gut shot and the nut flush draw - I also feel pretty good about just calling here - calling $25 into a $85 pot.

River is a 9 (no club) and the PFR decides to bet out $75 and now I have a decision to make.
With him not leading out on the flop I have a really hard time putting him on KQ.
AK is still well within his range as is another AQ or AJ/AT.
However also in his range is hands like QJ or KJs, etc.
With the way he took interest and threw out a small bet on the turn a flush draw was also a huge possibility with a suited connector like 97s etc.  
After thinking for about 2 minutes I decide that he had a busted flush/straight draw and NOT two pair or better but also a good shot at AK, I eventually decide to just call.
He Flips up KT of clubs for the busted straight and flush draws and a lower pair than mine, I flip up AQ clubs and rake in a good sized pot.

After that hand we took turns raising each other out of a couple of pots and then this one comes up.

A few limper's including myself and the previous villain who was on the button when one of the blinds decides to raise it up to $12.  There are 2 callers and then I call because I assume the button is going to come along with whatever 2 cards he has and I was right.

Flop comes out Q69 with 2 diamonds and in my head I yell BINGO!!
Pre-Flop Raiser makes it $25 to go so I sweeten it up and bump it to $55 total when the button decides to make it $155 to go.
I still have $250 behind and he has me more than covered.  The original raiser decides to get out of our way and I have another decision to make.
He limped on the button so his range is huge at this point.
AQ and KQ possibly
78 diamonds obviously and any other 78 for open ender, AX diamonds, 69s or Q6s for a smaller 2 pair as well.
QQ is not in his range because I think he raises that every single time in his position.
66 and 99 as well, but I have a Q and a 9 so more leaning towards 66 if he had a pair for a set.
After thinking about it for a minute or two I decided that his range was too wide to just give the pot to him so I pushed all in and he immediately called showing his 66 for flopped bottom set.
The turn blanks out and the river drops a black 9 on the table and I flip up my hand for the rivered bigger boat.
Villain was pretty PO'd at this point and racked up his remaining grand of chips and called it a night.

So, while I have had a string of pretty bad luck, last night found me in the opposite situation by getting all my chips in bad but coming out on top due to some good luck.
Hate to win that way but I'll take every victory that I can get!