You got the money in good and put yourself in a very good position to win a huge pot. That's what matters. You shouldn't really be asking question like "was his call reasonable?", remember this, you need bad players to make mistakes in order to win at poker. Sometimes their mistakes put a bad beat on you, but that's an essential part of the game.

On a sidenote, if I'm reading your hand history correctly, the money got it in on the turn. Unless HJ is drawing stone dead with a hand like AJ, it's likely he will share some of the equity. (pair+diamond draws, overpairs, some sort of straight/ flush combo draw are all reasonable holdings for HJ.) Another reason to not be thinking about the hand based on the river.

Hi Arabella,

Thank you for the response. I thought my post went unnoticed.

I do not play 2/5 - it was my first time to be honest. I only sat on the table just because there were no 1/3 that day due to some WPT event. That's why this bad beat hurts a bit more than usual. Yes, all the money was in on the turn and I knew I was ahead of the other guy because I had a very aggressive table image in his mind. Anyway, that's just poker I guess. Trying to study high stakes these days.

If I am reading your HH, it is a bit confusing. Your in the BB with 88 and flop middle set in a 5 way pot. As the hero you decide to Donk bet the J86dd board.

#1 What is your reasoning for Donk betting instead of check raising?

You get two callers, now the pot is $295 to the turn J862ddcc board. Now you decide to check? Why are you checking the turn and possibly giving a free card? Your strategy seems a bit backwards on flop and turn.

Flop is an easy check raise spot and barrel off on turn. River possibly jam or check call unless you have some sick read where you can check fold. If you check raise flop, you can probably jam a lot of turns depending on the callers and remaining stack. You will likely have little over PSB left and forcing villain to make a bigger mistake.