[tiltboy]

This hand is from a $3/6 game at Party. Very loose, with a couple of loose aggressives but mostly passives.
I'm on the button with A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]5 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and 6! players have called so I raise (seemed like a good idea at the time). Small blind (SB), who is very loose aggressive, 3 bets, EVERYBODY calls and I cap with 8 of us seeing the capped flop.

Flop is J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] which I think is pretty good for the old tiltboy. SB bets out, 5 call and I raise and 7 of us see the turn for 2 bets.

Here is where it gets tricky. The turn is 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. SB again bets out and everyone one, including moi, just call. SB will almost always bet if first to act and he could even have a flush too but that is not a requirement for him (e.g., he had previously bet out with only a 3rd nut low draw). I thought about raising but decided not to.

River is J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. SB again bets out and again EVERYBODY just calls. Pretty huge pot now, over 30 big bets and again I thought about raising but didn't because of the passivity of some of the players. I wasn't sure how I couldn't be beat at this point with so many still in but low-and-behold my nut flush held up.
Now I'm kind of kicking myself for not raising since I was last to act. As I thought about it later there was still a good chance I was leading after the river and I would be risking 1 bet to maybe win 6 more. If someone (other than SB) 3 bets I'd have a decision I guess.

Anyway I looked at the hand histories and SB did in fact have a low flush, one player had 3 jacks, one had a jack high straight, one had 3 eights and a higher flush than SB, and one had NOTHING (technically a pair of jacks).

Is my thinking I had good reasons to raise the river just after-the-fact rationalization?