How do you interpret a donk bet on the flop after opening IP?

[corinacci]

I’m curious how you guys interpret spots like this:

Hero opens from CO or BTN, BB flats. Flop comes dry or semi-connected (e.g. J♠ 8♦ 5♣), and BB leads for 1/3 to 1/2 pot.

1. How do you generally classify this donk lead? (Top pair, draws, air, merged range?)
2. Do you see this more often from recreational players or regs?
3. What factors influence your decision to call, raise, or fold (board texture, player tendencies, sizing, etc.)?

Would appreciate any technical insights or population reads you’ve noticed in these spots.

 

[dannystanks]

The way I handle a donk lead is I usually call and see what they do on the turn. Some players are doing this because they hit top pair and they think they have to bet and will continue to bet the turn, then I can fold. Some players donk because they hit middle or bottom pair and they want to see where they are at, and then when they get a call they don’t know what to do on the turn so they check, then I can bet and usually get a fold. So the key in these spots is to see what they do on the turn. It’s also key to k ow your opponent and see what they have done in the past.

Here is a situation that happened to me today at the wsop.
It was the first round so the blinds were 100-100-100 big blind antee. I have AA and I raise the standard 300. Starting stack is 25k 250 big blinds. 4 people call so it’s 5 way to the flop, not good for AA but sometimes this happens.
Flop is 9c-8c-6h. I have red aces so no club. A younger lady who I knew was fairly a newer player was first to act and she donk lead with a healthy bet. I thought for a bit and folded. She got 3 callers. I can’t remember the full details of the hand but she flopped a set of 8s and lost to another player who flopped a straight.
So her donk lead was bad but it was good for me. This was an easy fold with 250 big blinds. I could have been wrong here but but it’s ok. Live poker is a blast! Good luck!

 

[dannystanks]

I forgot to add that another reason for the fold was there was 5 players in the hand so multi way with AA is a horrible situation. If we were heads up I would have maybe called one more street.

 

[pentazepam]

The "standard" play is to check all your range when OOP, especially multiway. That way, you balance your range and can check-call, check-raise, or check-fold as your next action if faced with one or several bets.

Unless you play against a passive calling station, you can get at least one bluff from the preflop raiser that way.

When an unbalanced player donkbets, it's almost always a strong hand or a combodraw and never a pure bluff.

As dannystanks wrote, HU it can be almost any pair and sometimes a draw, but to bet into several players, only a total maniac bets without a premium holding.

 

[fundiver199]

I recently made this thread, where I systematically collected all the hands, where I faced a donk bet, and there was a showdown. I shared a total of 17 hands, which are not cherrypicked but simply collected, as they occured. The hands are all from $3.3-16.5 SnGs and MTTs on two different sites.

What are people donk betting the flop with?

Inspired by a recent discussion with kdmeteor I decided to take a more systematic look at, what people are actually donk betting the flop with in the games, I play. A donk bet is leading into the previous street aggressor so in this case calling preflop out of position and then betting the flop...

www.cardschat.com

 

[drogus]

While some people say you should generally check when out of position and you're a pre-flop caller, game theory optimal play in this situation (a board that favours BB without much draws) would be to bet with most of the hands that have some kind of playability, but to check better hands. I think it makes sense cause the flop favours BB range more than CO/BTN, it might get your opponent to fold when they missed a flop, it denies a free turn for better hands like AQ when you have sth like KJ, and then it works as a semi-bluff and pot-building with draws.

 

[drogus]

Just wanted to add an output of a solver. Of course, take it with a grain of salt, as the optimal strategy is based on optimal plays from your opponents. If your opponent is very aggressive and will often raise your donk bets, it's probably better to check. If they always call, raising as a bluff is also probably not the best option. On the other hand, of the opponent is *very* passive (ie. folds to any aggression unless they have a permium hands), I think it would be OK to donk bet even wider (include non-suited bottom/middle pairs, straight draws etc).