Ok, lets destroy my thinking here.

1) Preflop call is fine

2) On the flop, I have an overcard, a backdoor flush draw and a backdoor straight draw. I check the flop, The Button bets which I felt he would do regardless of the flop if all checked to him.

3) Still on the flop, The pot is now 11 SB's. I'd rather not fold. I may not have a ton of outs, but I may have enough.

4) I thought that if I raised the flop, a couple of things might happen. 1) Might knock out a higher A, freeing up some outs. It might buy me a free card (yes I am OOP, but often I can check raise on the flop and not get bet into after I check the Turn). 3) I get a little info on how much the villain likes his hand.

So, folding was not an option I looked at. With 11 SB's in and it being one back to me, my choice was between call or raise. I chose raise for the above stated reasons.

5) The turn, I picked up a few more outs, and the flop call from an aggressive villain told me that he was probably not really happy with his hand. I bet out again hoping to fold him. I didn't.

6) The River sucked. I didn't hit my outs. I am not calling with A7 but I will bet with it. I felt that a bet was my only hope to win the pot. I felt I had a better than 8:1 odds he'd fold a better hand.

Rip it apart.

LLL