Message Board : mixing up play with pocket 10's and gobsmacked

Full ring live nl game.

I had moved to a table with couple of really loose players and things were working out really well for me and I was thinking clearly and playing well , meaning to the best of my capabilities. THEN this hand came up.

There were 4 limpers to me in the hijack with pocket 10’s. Usually I bang a big, like 9bb raise here, trying to go against one or two in position. I thougt  I would mix it up and put in a 4x raise and have a huge pot if I flopped a set or otherwise favorable flop. I think 6 of us saw the flop, so 24bb’s in pot preflop. I had about 300bb’s.

The flop comes 433 with two diamonds.  Big blind checks, Ep3 bets 14 bb’s into me. I suspected he did not have a 3 but had others behind me, thougt of raising , (felt a little gobsmacked) and called to see if it would be heads up. Small blind called , everyone else folded. BB started with about 80bb’s, EP that bet out had me covered, or within 10 blinds of covering me. So I’m wondering does BB have a 3, it was raised and he had several behind him. Anyway, I was hoping he was on a  draw  and aggressive bettor had a pocket pair of 8’s or 9’s, but I wasn’t feeling great.

The turn came Ac . Anyway, I’m sure I got outplayed here. My first instinct was to run with a paired board, seems someone ALWAYS has one, but I didn’t want to be a wimp and the pot was decent. After the bet and 2 calls the pot was 66 bb’s. I was feeling squeamish but thought I need to fight for the pot here, both players checked so I bet 28 bbs. BB smooth calls again , and I was done with the hand. Orgingal flop bettor folded and whined cause he had a A4 in pocket.  So my trying to represent the A didn’t fare well. The whiner was buddies with the BB , they both play in a higher game than me, so he flashed him the three in his hand. Oh well.

I am concerned with my reasoning. I thought if Blind was on the draw but called a decent sized with the shortest stack on a draw the Orginial bettor might fold a better hand than mine, and my 10’s vs. the draw would be good. Or the sandwhiched BB folds and I’m up against another pair without an A, and hopefully not a 3.  BB has pushed on river for his last 40bb’s or so and I folded.

I got off my game plan a little. The switch up was to take down a big pot IF I flopped trips, ended up in a multilway pot for a big pot and did not play it well .  Besideds fact I feel I should have raised big or just called here. Any help out there articulating my other mistakes in the hand. I almost checked behind on turn, but know these guys can be pretty aggressive and was trying to hang in there for the pot. Actually felt I played really well most of the night, but this was a doozy.