Long time lurker, first time poster. In an effort to improve my game by learning from bad beats/decisions, I submit the following:

I was playing at a home game over the weekend with a couple of new guys (not too fishy, but a little). It was early on in the going, and I didn't have much of a read on the new guys, and I get dealt pocket 7's. I raise pre-flop pretty aggressively (I don't recall the exact amount), and I'm matched quickly by one of the new guys. I immediately assume he probably is holding pocket pairs (probably face cards) given how quickly he moved in to call.

This raises a red flag to me, obviously, but then I hit my set on the flop with a rainbow 10-7-3. I'm first to bet and I know that even though I hit my set, he is not going to back down from any challenge with a likely overpair. I pretty much buy the big pot with my initial bet, and as expected, he calls. I'm a bit wary to go all in, because I know that even with my set, he is likely going to take any overpair to the river and he could out-draw me. The turn comes and it is a 6, so I throw in another bet that leaves me with only about 10% of my chips, and with 90% of my chips in this pot, I'm still wary of being out-drawn on the river, I check at river (a 2s).

He then turns over his cards, pocket 10's and his set of 10's beats my 7's. Now, I was mindful of the possibility of him having 10's when the flop came, and that is why I didn't go totally aggro on the flop. I figured if he flopped the top set, he'd go over the top of my bet and just take the pot down, but he just checked. Why slow play the stone cold nuts like that? It turns out that by the end of the night, it was obvious that the guy was the biggest fish at the table, and I don't think any of that strategy was an issue to him. So is this a bad play or a semi-bad beat?

Thank for the help.