[RayGarlington]

I'll take a shot at your questions...

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I know that I should be careful when an open ace raises (even if I suspect he's not raising a pair of aces), but I don't think I can fold a small pair with a consecutive low card, on 3rd, can I?


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Yes, you need to be careful when an A raises. Your hand is fairly weak, but your pair is on the high side which is good and keeps a low hand from accidentally beating you by pairing. Your hand would be better if the 5 was a diamond or a spade. That said, if the Ace was on the loose side, I would also call the completion and hope no one does one of those limp / reraise maneuvers.

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On 4th, I'm raising with my small two pair to drive out the field and isolate the guy that I hope has at most a pair of aces. Is this the right time, or should I have waited until 5th and kept the pot smaller?


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Seems like a good time to try to fold out the lows. Your hand should look pretty scary to seat 3 & 4.

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On 5th, I'm still raising to isolate, but now I recognize there is a decent chance I'm behind. I'm caught between trying to narrow the field with the best hand and getting myself trapped with the worst. I raised because I'd rather play two small pair heads up than 4-way, and I'll just hope for the best. Should I have bailed out here?


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I feel like you are behind here, but it looks like seat 3 & 5 picked up a couple of bricks. They probably won't fold their 4 flushes, and the A44 isn't going anywhere, so why raise? I wouldn't bail because you probably have the equity to check/call as long as a raising war doesn't break out.
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On 6th street, getting check-raised would make me very unhappy, but so would giving up a free card if he has just a pair of 4s and a low draw or something like that, because he's got tons of outs to beat me (and there's that other guy who is drawing to something that I can't figure out what it is).


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I think seat 8 assumes you have made your flush, so he checks to you. Your bet folds seat 5 since he picked up another flush-brick.

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I think this is a pretty safe check on 7th... I hope I got one of the streets right,

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He'd call if you bet, but its probably a crying call. I think he expects to see a spade flush. You were much more agressive with your hand than I would have been. Since you probably have the hand history, it might be nice to run it through 2 dimes to see how your equity stacked up against the competing hands.