Can't select without wildcard

[Omar Syed]

I recently installed mysql on a CentOS box using yum. I can insert rows,
but can't seem to select them without using a wildcard.

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Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 20
Server version: 5.0.45 Source distribution

mysql> insert into _session (session, idle, active) values ('abc', 123, 0);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from _session where session='abc';
Empty set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from _session where session like 'abc';
Empty set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from _session where session like 'abc%';
+---------+----------+-------+------------+--------+--------+----------+---------+
| session | username | realm | idle | active | wanted | postdate | message |
+---------+----------+-------+------------+--------+--------+----------+---------+
| abc | NULL | NULL | 0000000123 | 0 | NULL | NULL | NULL |
+---------+----------+-------+------------+--------+--------+----------+---------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

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Any idea why I can't select the row without using a wildcard?

Omar