How do you handle the Donkey Bet?

Michael Paler

Michael Paler

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For those who do not know, a donkey bet is when you bet the flop into the preflop raiser. It goes like this;

UTG limps in and flat calls your later position raise. Flop comes, he is first to act and he bets out right into you.

Lots of factors involved, I'm sure. He might make you out to be a weak player who only raises with premium hands and will gladly take you down with rags he manages to flop a small piece of on a no-paint board. He might be bluffing with total air, or he might be thinking you will call down with AK on a board you never pair with. He might be limp-calling with a huge hand, however.

In Super System, Doyle really likes this when he flops a big hand or draw. After all, the original raiser rep'd a big hand, he was the pre flop raiser, right? So he is going to call or get it all in bad. In a perfect world, anyway!

How do you see it? What do you do/do not do? When and why?
 
Mordecoke

Mordecoke

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It really depends on the opponent.
I have seen this many times, and almost all the time they donk bet with lower or middle pair.
Very rarely have I seen this with a set or top pair.
You have to see how the opponent plays against other opponents (or yourself) adjust and exploit! Crush his soul!!
I usually do a tester raise to see where I am in the hand, even if I have nothing.
 
eidikos

eidikos

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when the blinds are big or the pot is big, i call the donk bet almost every time
when the blinds are small and the pot is small you can fold when you dont hit the flop
most times after donk bet-call they check the turn and bluff the river
 
Shumkoolie

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Their donk betting is how they can minimize their positional disadvantage against you. After all, the aggressor is going to be the one that wins the pot. Calling them neutralizes this and now they are faced with a tough decision on the turn. Of course if they have a big hand, that's the way it goes sometimes.
 
deluns28

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It depends on the nature of the flop. In a vacuum, I'll rraise them and see how it goes. If he shoves, I'll fold if this is the first time that he did this. If I have history on him and he is capable of doing this, I'll call if I have big pocket pairs. If he just flat call my raise, lets see what he will do on the turn. If he checks, most likely he will fold to your bet. If he flats or shoves, most likely you are behind unless he is a maniac.

Question though.. it this also a donk bet?

He raised preflop, you reraised him and he flat calls. Flop came, he bets..
 
D

drugsterr

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first five had no effect about me , but what is over that make me very TILT
 
TeUnit

TeUnit

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those players with big donk stats are easy to abuse, you can just raise over them relentlessly, but i think you need to look at 4b stats if you have enough hands on them
 
Michael Paler

Michael Paler

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It depends on the nature of the flop. In a vacuum, I'll rraise them and see how it goes. If he shoves, I'll fold if this is the first time that he did this. If I have history on him and he is capable of doing this, I'll call if I have big pocket pairs. If he just flat call my raise, lets see what he will do on the turn. If he checks, most likely he will fold to your bet. If he flats or shoves, most likely you are behind unless he is a maniac.

Question though.. it this also a donk bet?

He raised preflop, you reraised him and he flat calls. Flop came, he bets..

Good question. I suppose technically it is a donkey bet. However, since he did the initial raise, I don't think it is (practically) considered a donk bet.
 
Michael Paler

Michael Paler

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It really depends on the opponent.
I have seen this many times, and almost all the time they donk bet with lower or middle pair.
Very rarely have I seen this with a set or top pair.
You have to see how the opponent plays against other opponents (or yourself) adjust and exploit! Crush his soul!!
I usually do a tester raise to see where I am in the hand, even if I have nothing.

Right...I've noticed that some will call a raise with almost any two, maybe assuming you have all paint in your hand and that 2nd or 3rd button they flopped is going to hold up. It just sucks to call down to the river and never improve your AK, only to lose to a loon with 2-9 off for a pair of ducks. Still, that is what we all want, right - A guy who will call raises with garbage?

That's another thing - I will seldom call a board down with only ace high in an MTT. Yet, I see it ALOT! I've caught more than a few this way as well. Would you say this is cash game strategy? You know, the times you lose will not add up to more than the times your A-high wins it? If so, this is not a good MTT strategy. You won't ever get AK enough times to make that one win pay for all the times you lost.

Speaking of, any cash gamers out there? Do you see donkey betting more or less in cash games?
 
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