[willie24]

thanks for replies. i wanted to know if there was any possible value to my passivity on this hand at all or if it was just flat-out wrong. your replies imply that boring value raises would've been better here, and i don't disagree.

my logic for the preflop call:
-my opponents are all very strong-aggressive postflop
-if i build the pot now, i am committing myself (relatively speaking) to what will likely be a tricky hand for me. i will face lots of aggression when i am beat, but i will face enough bluff-aggression when i am ahead to make folding borderline-wrong quite often when it appears to be right. in simplified terms- by raising, i am creating a situation that my opponents will excel at, relative to average players.
-if i check, i will keep the pot smaller-and hence make reading the hand or folding bad boards etc easier, but will still likely face strong aggression when i am ahead (maybe even MORE aggression from hands like top pair lower than king) which will allow me to trim the field and win medium to big pots more often than I should be able to post-flop. Basically, i am creating a situation that my opponents will perform worse at than average opponents.

my plan was to check raise a good flop...but, the flop was so GREAT that i decided i was better off building the pot (while at the same time giving myself a chance to eliminating lone overcards), than risking a check-through just to have the chance at trimming the field in a fairly small pot. i liked the bet-out because it gave me a fairly good chance to face something like a raise and and overcall from hands i am ahead of.

the math of river call was straightforward and uninteresting- my question to you was basically- am i ahead at least 75% of the time? i thought no. (57 was the first thing i thought after the turn check-raise) you indicated yes, and i have to say, looking back, that you are probably right.

SB showed 33 for a set and i won an semi-ugly big pot.

PS- i'd like to hear where you think I was probably wrong with my preflop logic