problem with short-handed aggressiveness

[Navers]

The other day I played a friendly short-handed home game with three other people. It was a NL game with 5/10 blinds (that's cents, not dollars). My aggressiveness was paying off in the beginning, but as the game progressed I started losing large amounts of money as they started calling my big raises with mediocre cards.
.....For example, I thought UTG was trying to steal, and with A9suited I raised the pot to $1.50 because this was shorthanded and the game was rather loose. I didn't want a cheap flop for anyone and I wanted to cut down their implied odds. They both cold called and the A2o (UTG+1) won with a straight on the flop. , I bet out 50c on the flop and a dollar on the turn since there was a flush draw showing on the board. UTG+1 won by just calling my bets.
.....How should I have played that hand? I think now that my preflop bet was too big and risky, but how can I drive out players? Should I have driven them out with that hand?How much should I have bet to protect my hand and expect a profit with less variance? Also, how tight/loose or passive/aggressive should I be in these loose shorthanded games? Should I wait for premium hands since the postflop bets are significantly larger compared to the blinds and be assured a win? Or should I play medium suited connectors? Any help at all would be appreciated.

[adanthar]

Post this in the NL forum. You'll get better replies.

Offhand, waiting for better hands than A9s to raise huge with would help, but if they're going to call with any ace, well, they'll hit their 3 outs sometimes. A better question would be 'why are you betting big into calling stations with A high?'