7 Card Stud High ($2/$4), Ante $0.40, Bring-In $0.50 (converter)

3rd Street - (1.40 SB)

Seat 1: xx xx J folds
Seat 2: xx xx 6 folds
Seat 4: xx xx K folds
Seat 5: xx xx 4 brings-in
Hero: 8 A A calls
Seat 7: xx xx T calls
Seat 8: xx xx J folds

4th Street - (2.15 SB)

Seat 5: xx xx 4 3 folds
Hero: 8:spade: A A 9 bets
Seat 7: xx xx T 3 calls

5th Street - (2.08 BB)

Hero: 8:spade: A A 9 9 bets
Seat 7: xx xx T 3 3 calls

6th Street - (4.08 BB)

Hero: 8 A A 9 9 5 bets
Seat 7: xx xx T 3 3 8 raises

Hero...?

Villain is a relative unknown, we just sat down about 20 hands ago, but he seems to be in most limped hands.

I just don't think you can ever fold this with your given information about the player (aka pretty much nothing, seems to be somewhat loose) and the 7 to 1 odds and only having to call one more bet on 7th. So your basically given 4-1 for the rest of the hand. The most probable hands your losing to are tens full or treys full of tens. Trips seem somewhat unlikely since he has the trey of hearts on his board and didn't start with three hearts if he has trips.

Call + check call on 7th if you don't improve (I think the bet is basically forced if you improve to either full house, check calling with nines full is too weak imo, though not a horrible play) is the basic play here I think. There's the chance he's bluffing or just making a somewhat bad value raise with tens and treys, or any other two pair for that matter.

Raising: Since I like to play small pots, I would rarely raise here eventhough there are a lot of hands you're beating. He could've started with something like T97 of hearts, and now has a pair, a flush draw and an open ender, or T98 of hearts for 8s and 3s with a flushdraw. Though you're still a significant favorite here, villain will never fold these hands to a single bet. (Important to notice that JK of hearts, another J and a 3 were all folded previously, so your a much bigger favorite against these hands than normally, but also there are less of the three suited connector hands he could've started with.) So I really don't like the value raise with no fold equity and a signifigant chance that you're beat.

So if we put his hand range on Tens full, treys full, trips for about 50% of the time (sounds about right to me, you're beat here often) Two pair 15%, Bluff 10%, Multiple draws 25%. So you're beating 50% of his hand range and you have a 11% chance to imrpove on 7th the 4-1 is a lot more than you need to make the call +check call play profitable.

I'm new to stud, but it seems like we should raise preflop.

have to agree w/ the pre flop raise and the first post guy's river check.

great first post.

First you really need to raise on 3rd.
on 6th when he raises you, you're not folding. So it reallly comes down to do you believe he made his hand or is he still drawing?
I think I might be inclined to reraise and if he pops it again then c/c the river.
Calling the raise then c/c the river is fine too.
Folding is not an option unless you have played a TON with him and know his style really well.

Riase 3rd

Reraise 6th, if capped...

...Check call 7th

if 6th not capped...

...Bet 7th, call a raise