[jcl]

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But it's a lot easier going through the hand knowing what he had. If he didn't show what he had, I would have put him on a straight, two pair, or possible ace after the river bet.

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Try to improve your hand reading. Someone who puts his opponent on every possible made hand is never going to be making good decisions. For example, you can definitely rule out him having an Ace or two pair by the river.

Put yourself in his seat. Give yourself AK. Do you truly triple barrel on this board?

Now imagine he has two pair or even a set. You have played this hand like a draw. You might have busted spades but you equally might have a hand like T9s with middle pair and a straight draw. A busted flush draw isn't going to call the all-in but a straight certainly will. Do you really think he is going to push two pair/set there when it looks like you've made a straight?

In general, if the board keeps getting scarier yet your opponent keeps mashing the pot at you then his range is very polarised. It's either the nuts or a complete bluff. In this case, he needs a 9 to bet this river. Is a 9 consistent with his play? This will depend on your reads - e.g. does he semibluff every time he can or does he sometime take a free card on turn. In any case, a 9 is very rare here especially since he 3-bet preflop. So this is a bluff a lot of the time.

What does this mean? By the river, you shouldn't be thinking "man, I can't beat a straight, two pair, a set, an Ace, KK...". You should be thinking "he either has a straight or a air, is his play consistent with a straight". What you have barely matters. QQ here is about as good as AJ (and I'm sure you woulda called with top 2). If you think he has it, you fold QQ as quickly as you should fold AJ there, if you don't then you can call with midpair (though I wouldn't stretch it too much...calling with pocket 55s might be a stretch in case he's "bluffing" with a pair of tens or something lol)