$5 NLHE 6-max: General Question: should we donk bet on low/dray boards?

Example from a game yesterday. 100bb for players.

UTG is 27/19 over just 65 hands. Cbet flop of 50%.

He raises 3x. We call from the SB (this ok?) with 88. folds elsewhere

Flop is 4 6 2 rainbow.

Do we bet out? What is we get raised?

If called, what's our plan for the turn?

I don't mind donk betting here and getting some value if he wants to call with overs. If the turn blanks I bet again.

To add I would 3b from the SB here with 88 and then cbet most flops. It's been a while since I've played, but poker is finally legal in my state so I'm trying to get back into it.

Likminutz said:

I don't mind donk betting here and getting some value if he wants to call with overs. If the turn blanks I bet again.

To add I would 3b from the SB here with 88 and then cbet most flops. It's been a while since I've played, but poker is finally legal in my state so I'm trying to get back into it.

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Thanks homie.

I'm playing at the micros, so I'm 3-betting UTG with premium hands only unless I have a reason to otherwise. I'll put your strategy in my pocket for now though.

teh_colonel_saigon said:

Example from a game yesterday. 100bb for players.

UTG is 27/19 over just 65 hands. Cbet flop of 50%.

He raises 3x. We call from the SB (this ok?) with 88. folds elsewhere

Flop is 4 6 2 rainbow.

Do we bet out? What is we get raised?

If called, what's our plan for the turn?

Click to expand...

Hi there teh_colonel_saigon, we are paying 2.5 blinds to hit a set out of position, so I don't know how good/profitable this call is.
Second, donk bets are not so common in cash games as they are in SNGs and MTTs, so most of experient players are not donk betting in a high frequency.
Particularly, I don't love donk betting for bluff versus idiots (UTG 27/19), just because if we get re-raised we don't know what to do any longer.
If we do call here, our plan is to continue paying on every turn that could be better for our range than UTG's range, thus cards as 9x, Tx, Jx, Qx, Kx and Ax are real bad business for our range, but if it comes another 4x, 2x, 6x, 7x, 5x okay for us.
We are calling here if UTG give us a fair price because if UTG bets 3/4 pot, 100% pot or more we should be mucking our pocket pairs.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

I think not a good flop to donk SB vs UTG, other than sets you don't have many nutted hands and UTG has all the overpairs.

Having said that, I think you can put this hand into X/R range if UTG bet flop too wide with small sizing.

I found this post on another forum and have been using it to construct a donk betting range as I didn't really have one at the time of seeing this post. Obviously your sample hand does not fit into any of these categories but here's the post:

Alex Fitzgerald is a serious proponent of donk-betting some of the time. He devotes a chapter of his book Exploitative Play in Live Poker to the move, particularly in the circumstance of big blind defense. Here is his breakdown of hands that are good to donk-bet:
Quote:

• Hands you want to bet for three streets of value (sets, two-pair, especially small two-pairs, and top pair top kicker combinations that are likely to remain top pair).
• Small flush draws (that can't be check-raised all-in).
• Small straight draws (that can't be check-raised all-in.
• Three-to-a-straight flush (a hand that picks up many strong draws on the turn but can't justfiably be check/called).
• Gutshots with overcards (often follows the same thought process as above).
• Multiple backdoor draws.
• Clean overcard outs.

In a nutshell, he recommends donk-betting with (a) strong hands from which we want three streets of value, and (b) hands with some equity that are too good to fold but not good enough to check/call.


For my own part, I want to point out that in an equilibrium situation where the in-position preflop aggressor has a significant check-back range on the flop, then the out-of-position preflop caller must necessarily have a significant flop donk-betting range. (Most low-stakes NL is played far from equilibrium, but we can still learn from GTO.)

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c0rnBr34d said:

I found this post on another forum and have been using it to construct a donk betting range as I didn't really have one at the time of seeing this post. Obviously your sample hand does not fit into any of these categories but here's the post:

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Hey mate thanks for your attention here.
But Mr. Assassinato Poker constructed this guide for MTT or for Cash Games? I know Alex Fitzgerald to be more a tournament player than a cash player, but the hints are good.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

Aballinamion said:

Hey mate thanks for your attention here.
But Mr. Assassinato Poker constructed this guide for MTT or for Cash Games? I know Alex Fitzgerald to be more a tournament player than a cash player, but the hints are good.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

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I didn’t go back and read the book it was a live cash forum so I assume it applies to cash but perhaps tournaments as well depending on stack depth