Is this cold call acceptable, marginal, or terrible

[baronzeus]

I think coldcalling here is bad. Sure, you will win some pots without hitting your set (straights, etc) but you will also lose with your set some % of the time.

As a general rule, I like to say, if I call this for 1BB now, I need to make sure I extract 7BB from the villain(s) in all the streets combined if I flop my set, or otherwise hit the flop. Did you do that here? Yes, but you got incredibly lucky that the river 4flushed and someone had Ah and that someone was also an idiot. On average, against such players when a normal board comes up which gives you a set, you can only make 5 BB or so total, assuming that both stay till the river. On average, it's a pretty bad call.

Hands like 88 and 99 are borderline, since you'll flop over another low percentage of the time, maybe making this call slightly (if at all) +EV.