[Pokey]

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Is he really bad enough to call a flop raise with middle pair?

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OP said: "Big blind is a loose, slightly aggressive and not very savvy player." At a $25NL site, I can see players calling this flop bet with A8, and minraising the turn when they hit trips with top kicker. This could also be something like A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] that's feeling confident, or an overpair, or something of the sort. In any case, I still think a three-bet REALLY tips your hat, so you might as well get it all-in against a villain who tricks himself into thinking he could improve to a winner, rather than giving him a small bet that he calls and letting the fish go when the river misses him.

As I said in my first post, however, I also like a call and raise-push on the river, depending on exactly what KIND of opponent we're dealing with. Grunch correctly points out that a check-minraise is a power move; we might as well trust that he's got a hand he likes and let him put all his money in the middle on the river, springing our trap for a small raise that he'll feel pot-committed into calling.