Aces cracked - Avoidable?

[321Mike]

Playing .50/1 at Party Poker today I was dealt AA. I was on the button and the table was somewhat loose (4-5 to the flop usually) and very passive. I get 5 limpers in front of me, I raise, and the blinds and all the limpers call to make it 8 to the flop. At this point I'm regretting the raise because I know with this huge pot (16 small bets already) the whole table is going to chase every draw imaginable. Should I have limped to keep the pot from getting this big? Or is my pot equity just too good to pass up the raise?

The flop comes 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Everybody checks to me and I bet. I knew almost everybody would call for 1 bet given the size of the pot, but I didn't want to give a free card. Should I have checked and waited for the bigger bet on the turn card? Or is my pot equity still too good to pass up a raise?

I get two folds and 5 calls. The turn is 6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] which puts 2 spades on the board. Everybody checks. I bet. 3 calls and 2 folds. The river is J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. The big blind bets and I know I'm done for. Everybody calls and he shows the 5 and 7 of spades for the flush.

I'm going with the idea that I played this one OK because in this type of pot my aces only have to hold up about 1 in 5 times for me to make money. But, I would really like to know if there was some way for me to protect my hand a little better.