Just a bad beat?

[Diesel10]

Normally I chalk these things up to sh*t happens, but I can't get this one play from last night out of my mind. Did I play this wrong or is it just a bad beat?
$50 SNG, middle of game, 5 players left, all playing fairly tight
Chip Leader =6500
Me= 3500
3 others all less than 2000 each
Blinds 75/150
UTG I get AA
Raise to 500
Chip leader, one to my left, calls.
Everyone else folds.
Flop is AKQ rainbow-
I bet 200 with my set of Aces hoping for a raise and get one as he pushes all-in. I actually think about this first and conclude he must have middle or bottom set or maybe two pair. I call. He turns over JT. Turn and river are blanks and I'm out.
Should I have pushed harder pre-flop? I didn't think I was slow playing, I wanted to push out drawing hands but maybe keep some in who I could dominate. I can't lay down a set of Aces can I?
Like I said, I keep thinking that this is just a bad beat, but there is also this tiny whisper in my head that thinks maybe I should have played it differently- can't let it go.
Thoughts?

[tigerite]

No, there's nothing else you could have done really, maybe limp preflop and hope for a raise to re-raise, but that's just fancy, come on AA losing to JT and you're asking if it was a bad beat..?

[SammyKid11]

Well, my "standard" raise at this point would actually be to 600...but I can't see this affecting chip-leader's call. He was looking to bust someone out if he caught the perfect hand, he did catch the perfect hand...and he caught it at a time when, no, you absolutely could not fold.

Tough break, but that's all it is. He had to have exactly that hand to be ahead of you...and even then you had 7 outs on the flop, 10 on the turn to crack his straight. No way can you put the cold-caller on JT and muck top set. Much more of the time he'll have KQ or AK or KK or QQ here, and you'll be beating the crap out of him.

Oh well, take it in stride.

[Diesel10]

Thanks. I guess my thought was with the big stack behind me, is the right play to force him to lay down all but the most premium hands rather than try to catch him missing a marginal draw? If the situation comes up in the future, do I raise say 1500 (1/4 of his stack) and thus make him fold JT (or some similar type hand KJ, KQ, etc.). Thus preventing some from drawing me out unless they have a big pocket pair and flop a set (when my A doesn't show on the flop). Does that make any sense?
And yes, it obviously was a bad beat - sorry, maybe I phrased the original post and title wrong; my question was more along the lines of was it avoidable, along the lines of what I wrote above; or should I just play it as I did and take the bad hits when they come?

[SammyKid11]

You can't play scared...and that includes raising scared. You want some action on your aces. Best case scenario is NOT to knock out lower PP's. You want QQ to play against you and flop a lower set or lower overpair. You want AK to play back at you when a king hits. You can't over-raise every time you have aces because of the possibility that you won't get your money in as a significant favorite. When a beat like this happens, it just sucks but oh well.

[Diesel10]

Thanks Sammy. Appreciate your posts. I kinda thought so, but needed to hear it from someone else. Crisis of confidence I guess.
OK, back to battle.

[playtitleist]

Bad beat.

The only thing I don't like is your $200 beg-for-a-raise bet. You offered 7.5:1 for him to just call. That's a forced call for him with any hand he would have called before the flop with. Granted there aren't many hands he can have to beat you, but at 7.5:1 it would be worth it for him to try to get the runner.

What if he calls and a J or 10 hits on the turn, what would you do then?

It's a preference thing to me, but I'd rather take down the pot right here than give him a chance to make something out of nothing. I bet 1/2 the pot here hoping for a call/raise, and go all-In on the turn with any card other than J or 10. If the 1/2 pot bet wins the pot, I am happy to have some of his chips and let him guess on my play cuz I didn't show it down.

My play.

Still, that beat sucks for you.