PLHE: How stupid was this?

[adam74]

I'm getting into a nasty habit. I play some good, solid poker for a couple of hours and make a decent amount of profit...and then I chuck it all away in one fleeting moment of madness. Here's the latest...I'd love some opinions, especially if they're brutal. [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

It's PLHE at Stars again, blinds of 0.50/1.00, full table.

I'm on the button with J [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] J [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] . I have $162.20. BB has $100 - this is, I think, his first hand at the table. I've never seen him before. He's from Sydney.

Pre-flop, it's folded to me and I raise the minimum. [First mistake? Shouldn't mess around with pocket jacks?] I'm thinking to myself that one of two good things might happen - only one of the blinds calls, leaving me heads-up and with position; or one of them thinks I'm stealing and reraises and I can then reraise or call depending on a number of things.

So...SB calls and BB hesitates for a bit and reraises $6. At this point my feelings are that he is either very strong, or has something like a medium pair or two big suited cards. I decide to just call - I think in hindsight that this was a huge error - and SB folds.

Flop: A [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] 3 [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] 4 [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] . Pot is $18. BB raises $6 and I'm confused. I start to put him on a number of possible hands - a pair from KK to perhaps as low as 88; an ace but he's concerned about his kicker - maybe a ten; the Kh with another heart - Q, J or T. Finally, I think AA is a possibility. As I'm feeling uncertain, and I have position, and the bet is small, I just call. [Mistake? Should I make a decision here?]

Turn: 7 [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] . Pot is now $30. BB has $86 left.

This time he bets $15. Now I feel surer that he's not that strong, that he might be ahead of me - with QQ, JJ or Ax - but that he would put those hands down to a big raise. The turn 7 is useful cos of the obvious straight possibility, he might lay down Ax if kicker is, say, a ten, he'll surely lay down 88-KK and also any flush draw.

So that's what I was thinking, and I raise the full pot which (allowing for the rake) is another $58.55. He reraises all-in without hesitating and I call the remaining $12.45 with a heavy heart - I think I'm up against trip aces.

The river isn't a jack and he shows...well he won. Anyone want to take a guess? And as I said above, I'd love to hear what people think of my big raise. Was it really dumb? I'm not sure. It was fun, though! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [Apart from the losing $100 bit of it.]