AA in SB -- Whatcha gonna do??

[TheHip41]

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You did just fine, but I recommend a slightly different approach.

The only POSSIBLE way you could have improved your situation would have been with a check/raise attempt on the flop. That way, if you get a bet from early positions you can raise for value and if you get a bet from late positions you can raise to knock out weak draws. If it gets checked through (past six opponents? unlikely but possible) you can hit the turn with a double-sized bet that's more likely to push weak draws out of the hand.

By the time the flop comes, you've got a big pot, and you need to protect your weak made hand. Facing the field with one won't accomplish that; you need to get creative. Checking with the intent of raising seems like the only viable way to do that.

Still, your play was fine. Against a full field, pocket aces only win about 1/3 of the time; when seven people see the flop, that's almost a full field, and they saw enough to know who had draws against you. Unfortunately, the nimrod who limped UTG+1 with 54o had pot odds to call the rest of the way down: the pot offered him 17:1 on the flop and 11:1 on the turn with a five-outer. Note that a check-raise on the flop would have faced him with either two on the flop or a double-sized bet on the turn, and could have given him bad enough odds that folding was appropriate. (Not that I honestly believe someone who limps UTG+1 with 54o would fold third or fourth pair, but at least he'd be making another mistake when he did so.)

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The guy has a pair in a huge pot, he's not folding no matter what you do on the flop. Just bet, he will call.