[gman420]

After looking back over all the posting I think this hand is a lot more complex than I initially thought, mainly because your opponents moves seem confusing when analyzed from the POV of a tactical player. This is a situation where knowing something more about your opponent would be extrememly helpful. The fact that he called your raise on the flop could mean he was taking a stab at the pot with just ace high, but it could be a slowplay for trip sevens. Betting out when the ace hits might be a deceptive play to make you think he has just aces.

A lot of times in small stakes hold em I find myself making mistakes because I give my opponents too much credit. Often a bet just means "i have something." Players in small stakes call preflop with hands like K7, A7, A5, etc all the time. My inclination is that in small stakes I start with the assumption that my opponent is fairly predictable, and modify from there. This is clearly not always going to be correct, and in this situation with only three players it might be completely wrong, but this principle seems to be what was guiding my thinking.

-Greg