How was this played ??

[BowlMeOne]

PP 100+9 multi. We are down to about 60 players left, the top 50 cash. I had just gotten moved to table #1. I am 2nd stack at table.I pick up TT UTG+1. Blinds are 300/600. I raised to 1500. It folds around to the big stack who is on the button, he calls. Both blinds fold, as well as UTG. Flop comes J high..with 2 small non connected cards..rainbow. My thinking here is that if I check, or bet anything...a good player will just bully over the top knowing that we are close to the cash, and I'll will fold anything other than the nuts. So I thought my only move was to push all my chips in which was about 15,000. The other guy had 23,000. He too can only call with near nuts me thinks. Well he insta-calls with J7off..and his top pair holds up. I'm wondering if my strategy was way off there, or if I should have done something different...maybe raise more preflop. Thanks for any advice.

BMO