A bad beat - the explanation

After waking up this morning feeling a bit brighter about the bad beat I thought I would make the effort to describe the hand in detail.

The other guy (lets call him 'Mr. Jack River'), raised in mid-position. He had been fairly quiet up to then so I knew something was in the air. He must have had a decent hand. The raise was too large to suggest AK, AQ, AJ or indeed any of those hands suited. Moreover, his raise was too big to suggest 99,88,77 etc. I put him down as KK, QQ, JJ or TT (or even another pair of Aces - its happened before!!)

So I think for a minute.....

If Mr. Jack River does have a big pair, he will surely call a big raise. I raise. Mr. Jack River calls. For me, this makes it almost certain he has a big pair.

The flop:

I was first to act and the flop brought nothing. Again, I thought for a few seconds and decided to go all in. I decided to do this for two main reasons:

Firstly, the flop produced two spades. I had the Ace of spades. If things do go wrong or I have mis-read him, I have the added insurance of a back-door flush. I understand that there was only a very small chance of that happening but it was significant nonetheless.

Secondly, and more importantly, I wanted to protect my hand. Mr. Jack River must be pretty sure that I have a very strong hand. An all in move must surely suggest to him that I have Aces, or even Kings. An all-in raise (putting him all-in also) would surely make him lay down his hand, preventing me from losing to a miracle turn or river card.

No. He called with a pair of Jacks and hit trips with an aforementioned miracle river card.

Did I play this correctly? Did he play this correctly?

I am seeing the positive side of it though. I could play that hand the same way a hundred times and make a lot of money in the long run!!

I also had two other notable bad beats last night. Losing with 999 to an opponent who happened to have a heart on an eventual board containing four hearts and losing with 777 to a guy who made a miracle gut shot straight on the river. Despite these three heavy losses I broke even for the night, could have been so much better though....

Oh well, thats poker I suppose!