Botched hand....was I just doomed?

[sirpupnyc]

PokerRoom's 50+4 daily, 1st level, 10-20.

I pick up KK in the CO. 3 people have limped ahead of me. I raise to 80. Blinds fold, 3 limpers call. Pot's 350

Flop 3-6-K, all spades. Checked to me. I bet 225, 2 limpers fold and the last raises to 550.

I have the guy covered...started the hand with 1460 to his 1200.

Do I put him on a flush and fold? Do I decide if I'm gonna play it it's gonna be for all my chips and raise all-in now?

In any event, I went for what I'm fairly sure is the worst choice, calling. Turn 4d, he bets all-in, I call. He shows QTs, river 8s doesn't help me, and there I am, crippled.

I could have bet more than 4xBB pre-flop, probably the safest move that early, and just picked up the 90 in the pot. But that makes me look like one of those kids who learned from TV and doesn't know any way to play the game except to be overly aggressive with good hands.

I could have limped hoping for a raise behind me (though with only 3 left to act) so I could re-raise, but with no raise then I'm seeing the flop 8-handed and if, say, an A-high rainbow comes out I can be pretty sure I'm screwed. Though at least I could get away from it cheaply and I'd still be playing. With KK and good position, though, I don't think being able to get out cheaply is really the goal...or should it be, this early on?

I could have checked the flop, but I'm not sure what that gets me other than another chance to act last with little to no information and possibly someone with just the As gets to draw another spade free. (Though if a 4th spade had come on the turn I could at least have been sure I was sunk and again gotten away cheaply.)

So if I'm not going to limp, I'm not going to give up top set and I don't want the bare A seeing the turn free, my mistake was not re-raising all-in to the flop re-raise, right? (Allowing for the moment that I made other mistakes I wasn't going to avoid.) If he has A-xs I'm still screwed, but if he doesn't he has to give serious thought to the fact that I do (though I'm not sure I should give him that much credit), and I've given myself a better chance than calling, if I'm sure I'm not giving up.

Trapping with a non-nut flush obviously isn't the best move, unless he could be sure I wouldn't raise with a suited A. With the K on the board and the QT in his hand, he can figure me for AJ at best (and even in a 50+4 there are certainly plenty of people who'd consider even smaller suited Aces raising hands with even worse position).

So we're both idiots who couldn't get away from hands with a real possibility of being 2nd-best. Was this just one of those hands where I was doomed to lose most of my chips? Or did I go even more wrong than I realise?