[Grunch]

Normally I bet the flop, about 2/3+ pot, perhaps $12. You're very likely to either have the best hand here or be against very marginal hands, but there could be many outs to beat you. Also, you're out of position and if you check it now you are amplifying your positional disadvantage by repping a whiffed hand. This is also the reason why your river bet is spew -- it is likely to be called by extremely marginal hands, which may have folded to a flop bet.

Checking the flop is an option, albiet one I like much less than betting. But you have to realize that if you check this flop, it's pretty much a give-up if you don't improve, or sometimes even if you improve with a A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] or K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. The shorter staks get, the more I like checking the flop.

By the way, preflop was excellent. Far far better than flatcalling. Well done.