Rockets HU-good or bad here?

[cowboyinexile]

Cake Poker Hold'em, $1.00 BB (2 handed) - Cake-Poker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($7625)
SB ($7375)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, A
SB calls $75, Hero checks

Flop: ($300) 2, 8, J (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $300, Hero raises to $600, SB calls $300

Turn: ($1500) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $750, SB calls $750

River: ($3000) 8 (2 players)
Hero raises to $6125 (All-In), SB calls $5875 (All-In)

Total pot: $14750 | Rake: $14736

I question showing no strength pre-flop, but was gonna make this "the" hand. When he called my min-raise, had him for a jack, and if he made trips on the turn, I had already committed myself to the hand, so a redraw would be my bad luck.

[ciaran]

I raise pre-flop, you're too deep to bother with trapping unless your opponent never calls pre-flop raises (in which case you should probably just start raising all kinds of stuff).

I make it 900 on the flop if I'm going to check-raise (which doesn't seem unreasonable as a line). If he has something, I'd like to try to get it in now. I'd go ahead and go for 1000 on the turn as played (2/3 pot or thereabouts if we get more in pre-flop/on the flop).

Shoving river is bad, given that you have 2x pot left behind. Better hands never fold, and worse hands (mostly jacks) that would call a normal bet can get away. River is a decision between value-betting vs jacks, and check-calling to avoid going broke vs 8s and backdoor flushes and to induce bluffs from straight draws. Given that you have the and showed enough aggression on the flop/turn to fold at least some 8s/most draws, value-betting is probably best, but then you have to call his shove as you smash your mouse on the table.

[cowboyinexile]

[ciaran]

I didn't mean to suggest that all jacks get away, just that you're making it more likely by shoving, especially on a card that makes middle pair trips and completes a draw.

The overbet bluff-bluff is a useful move. However in this case it's not clear what you could have that would actually be a bluff that he could snap off. That works better when you've, say, raised K8s pre-flop and he's called with AJ and it's played out more like this.