flop play with a set. Min-raising UTG raiser

[bigredlemon]

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

MP1 (t800)
MP2 (t800)
MP3 (t800)
CO (t800)
Button (t800)
SB (t800)
BB (t800)
UTG (t800)
Hero (t800)
UTG+2 (t800)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 8/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG calls t15, Hero calls t15, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP2 calls t15, MP3 calls t15, CO calls t15, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (t105) Q/images/graemlins/club.gif, 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 8/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(7 players)</font>
SB checks, BB checks, <font color="#CC3333">UTG bets t50</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t100</font>, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, SB folds, BB folds, seconds.UTG folds.

Final Pot: t255

Would flat calling the UTG bet the most +EV? Presuming I flat call, I might get more customers behind, and will get to raise UTG when he's expected to make a bigger turn bet. A spade will only fall 1 in 5 times, so playing weakly might be most +EV in the long run?

Not making draws pay has always come back to haunt me, but lately, it seems like trying to flop sets is -EV because no one will pay you off either.

[RobGW]

You played it well. There is 7 people in this hand. Odds are someone has a Q or a flush draw or even a str8 draw. you need to protect your hand and at least make them pay incorrectly to draw at their hands. In this case nobody had anything. Oh well it happens. Bottom line is that with 7 people it is +EV to raise here because usually you will get at least one caller. I would even raise a little more. Anyways, I think you played it correctly and didn't get paid off. Just keep playing correctly and the results will follow. I've gone through a rough period a few weeks ago getting my good hands cracked but it has since turned around so just keep at it.