The First Big Hand

I made two extremely crucial wrong decisions in the poker game.  Here is the scenario of the first (or at least my best memory).  I wake up with pocket aces in the big blind.  The person directly after me calls.  I get a raise from the last person in the hand.  So three players in the hand.  Blinds were at 300-600 and he makes it 2,000.  I smooth call.  Other caller does as well.  Flop comes out semi scary for straight possibilities.  I believe it was 865.  I check.  Player 2 goes all in for $8,000.  Player 3 calls.  I call as well.

Next card is a 4 opening the door for the straight to be fulfilled with a 7.  Player 3 goes all-in for a significant amount which would probably be all or most of my chip stack.  I agonize over it, then fold, showing the pocket aces.   River card is a blank that would have had no effect on any hand.  Player 1 turns over something like 8-10, meaning she had top pair on the flop.  Player 2 shows pocket kings.  I would have taken down this monster hand early in the tournament and probably knocked out two people in one swoop.  Instead I handed about half my chip stack over to another player.

I had been very dominant chip stack and now I was run of the mill again.  My thinking on the hand was one of them had to have hit a straight or at least trips.  Reflecting on that hand today, I realized player 2 probably doesn’t go all-in with a made straight so I should have called if nothing else to take the just as big side pot.  I showed a lot of discipline, but disciplined poker is losing poker if you’re not making the right calls.  I asked some other players at the table what they would have done and I think one or two said they fold right there too.

What do you guys think?  In my poker mind, I’m pretty shaken up about it or at least I was.  I think I’m ok now as I realize this was an obvious sign of rust.  If I was in more of a rythym pokerwise, I think theres a good chance I do things differently.  Or maybe not?  Maybe I just gave more respect than was deserved, but at the time all I was thinking was scary flop and two all-ins ahead of my pocket aces.  I was sure they were no good and so I put them down.  I think what also threw me off was a lot of poker players check down once someone is all-in and they’re just playing for the side pot.  I thought player 3 would do this as well.  (I actually don’t believe in checking down on a sidepot (with an all-in player) pot when I think I can win more chips but we’ll get into that later.)  Anyways, he went all-in trying to get a drawing hand out which probably doesn’t make sense because I would have had a made hand at that point.

So back to the question – well disciplined move with perhaps too much respect for my opponents plays or weak play on my part?