So, I took my first foray into playing NL hold-em on Paradise. I've played NL on other sites before, with mediocre results.

I've been at the table for about 30 minutes so far. The player I am against in the following hand has been coming over the top of my pre-flop raises a lot (very large over-the-top re-raises), which I have folded every time so far. In some of the pots we have contested together, he has folded to my pot-sized bets/raises, but gone over top of my half-pot sized bets/raises. Then the following hand came up:

Paradise Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (5 handed) converter

Hero ($11.05)
MP ($11.20)
Button ($9.95)
SB ($1.90)
BB ($2.32)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with [9d], [8d]. SB posts a blind of $0.05.
Hero calls $0.10, MP raises to $0.35, Hero calls $0.25.

Flop: ($1.15) [7d], [8c], [2c] (3 players)

I like this flop a lot, but don't know as of yet what MP has. As stated above, he comes over the top of me a lot, so I was tentative to bet here. Unless he went way over the pot, I would call whatever he bet to see the next card.
SB checks, Hero checks, MP bets $0.9, SB folds, Hero calls $0.90.

Turn: ($2.95) [9s] (2 players)

I loved/hate this card. Two pair is a monster, but there is a possible straight now. I'll take the lead, to see where I am at.
Hero bets $0.7, MP calls $0.70.

River: ($4.35) [Tc] (2 players)

One of the worst possible cards that could have came. Four to a straight, and three to a flush now. I'll check the hand down if I can.
Hero checks, [color=#CC3333]MP bets $2[/color

No what?

My play so far at the table was (in my humble opinion) excellent. I was up $1.05 before the hand started, which is more than 10% of my starting stack, in about a half hour. The table pre-flop has been pretty passive, so I got to see a lot of flops (hence the call UTG with these suited connectors). The MP was the only player that I feared going into this hand. Also, even though this probably shouldn't factor into the equation, in this relatively short sessions I had already folded some really good hands (two pair twice and a set once) to large bets when scare cards hit on the turn and/or river. These laydowns were in the back of my head as giving my opponents a signal that I can be pushed out once a scare card hits.

My thinking, based on how I have perceived this player so far at the table, was that he had Ace King or a high pocket pair, with maybe one club, and was trying to buy this pot.

This is where I have problems with NL. Help please, as I want to know some opinions as to what to do here? :think:

You need to bet considerably larger on the turn here to find out just how good a hand he has. Him calling your 70 cent bet told you absolutely nothing. Now you are in a very awkward situation on the river. I think you should probably call this bet, because your check on the river sent a signal of weakness to him. He might just be trying to buy the pot with a bluff, especially with an awesome scare card on the river. With someone as aggressive as him, calling isn't a bad play on the river here. But, like I said, you need to bet a good deal more on the turn to find out if his hand is really any good compared to yours. He easily could call a 70 cent bet with two overcards like A-Q, but you have no idea how good his hand is because you made too miniscule a bet.