Could I have done anything differently

[RRRRICK]

100 player tournament. 1,500 starting chips blinds atart at 25/25 and go up every 20 minutes. It's clear after a couple of hands that I was sitting with a table full of beginers with 1 exception seated directly to my right. While the blinds were small I decided to play conservative and try to pick up some pots with some good starting hands and then increase my aggression when the blinds got to 50/100. I didn't pick up any decent hands in at level 1 or 2 and folded virtually everything. I'm at 1,300 at the same time the player to my right has made some good pots showing hands like AK,77,AQ and is up to about $4,000. My starting hands don't improve, junk,junk,junk hand after hand I eventually pick up A7 suited on the button and decide to raise to 300 with only one limper in the pot(I'm happy to pick up the blinds at this point). The blinds fold but the limper calls. The flop comes Q74 and i hit a nut flush draw. Limper bets 200, with roughly 5 -1 pot odds I call miss the turn, he bets 500 I fold. I'm now stort stacked pick up 88 and go all in and lose to A9. So in summary 88 was the only pair I picked up and A7 was my best ace. Everything else was garbage, but with such a weak table could I have done anything differently. Oh one more thing the player to my right came 5th.

[SoBeDude]

given that you're short, did you consider pushing with the nut flush draw?

You might get him to lay down. You've shown strength by raising preflop. If you raise all-in again he has to give you some credit for a big hand. He might have bet in to you with something like 2nd pair or top pair with a questionable kicker, which he'd likely fold to your all-in.

Or you might hit your flush or your ace if you're called.

-Scott

[RRRRICK]

I did consider it, but I didn't see how he was going to lay it down after betting 500 on the turn. By going all in he would only have to call another 200. I suppose what advice I'm really looking for relates to whether I could have played differently with such a bad run of cards considering that the table was so weak. I just felt really low getting busted on a table with so many players who were clueless.

[PokerFink]

Against clueless players, folding is fine. Clueless players generally play too many hands early in the tournament, not too few. Your best bet is to hope for a few nice hands and pick your spots. Sadly, the cards went to the player on your right.

As for the A7 hand, I definitely would have moved in on the flop. You likely have 14 outs, plus considerable fold equity. Your call looks weak, and sets up his big turn bet which you can't really call.

[lastchance]

With the nut flush draw and a pair, you really should push flop, IMHO. You're going to be coinflipping if he calls, which isn't that bad with nice pot odds. And if he folds, well, that's awesome.

[PokerFink]

Actually, you're getting 1050-500 on the turn. You have ~700 behind. I'm not sure what the blinds were at that point, but if they were 50-100 already, I would have just pushed and taken the -EV play, because if you win, you have ~2700.

If you fold, you have to double up twice to get to where you would be by winning with the A7. The A7 has better equity than winning two coinflip all-ins in a row.

Not sure if that's the correct play, but it's worth considering.

[SoBeDude]

I mean push on the flop. not the turn. pushing on the turn is horrible.

-Scott

[DemonDeac]

be more patient