[gjpure]

I would like to post a hand a played recently on Full tilt.
I was playing 2/4 NL cash game and had not been playing long, so I had little read on the players at the table. I was in the BB i believe and there were 4 limpers behind me. I checked with 55. The flop came X77. Everyone checked to me, and I bet the size of the pot(only $25) with my two pair, mainly as a way to pick up information. Everyone folded expect for the button who called. The turns comes 5, giving me a full house. I figured to have the hand locked, and that at this point he may have a bigger pair perhaps, or perhaps trips at best. So I again bet on the turn about the size of the pot. Again he called. The river came a blank. I checked hoping to induce a bet. He did indeed bet, again about the pot size and I reraised about 2.5-3x more. He then re raised all in for a total of about $125 putting me all in as well, and with out even thinking I called only to see he flopped quad 7's.

My primary question here is that I dont feel like I played the hand too poorly until the river when he reraised me all in. That should have put an alarm in my head, but all I could think was that I had already invested alot in this hand and I had a full house. I consider it a bad beat, but how could I have saved myself money, and how does one think of anything else besides the fact they have the hand won at that point? How would a pro play that? I was sitting with John DeAgostino and thought what he must have been thinking. I wonder because I was shocked but felt like I must have done something wrong too. I went broke that hand a learned a big lesson. I want to play higher limit games because I feel a better caliber of play is generally represented and I consider myself a better player than the average joe out there and I want to improve, but how can I make it to the next level where I can manage my stack through cash games and not eventually go broke...because that always seems to happen eventually, and then I feel like I am just gambling when it is all said and done. Thanks all.