Hello guys, Please tell me what do you do in this spot on the river.. I was thinking about a donk on the river. The opponent's VPIP was about 50% but by his bet sizes I could tell he was rather cautious. Another time when hitting his nuts he fired straight away.

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

Artem_1993go (UTG): $2.85 (143 bb)
andism88 (MP): $3.61 (181 bb)
Thugg Muney (CO): $6.09 (305 bb)
e.jalban (BU): $1.96 (98 bb)
Bouta88 (SB): $2.28 (114 bb)
palfitom (BB): $1.24 (62 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero (Bouta88) is SB with 9♥ 9♦
4 players fold, Bouta88 (SB) raises to $0.06, palfitom (BB) 3-bets to $0.10, Bouta88 (SB) calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.20) 6♥ A♥ 8♥ (2 players)
Bouta88 (SB) checks, palfitom (BB) bets $0.09, Bouta88 (SB) calls $0.09

Turn: ($0.38) Q♦ (2 players)
Bouta88 (SB) checks, palfitom (BB) bets $0.08, Bouta88 (SB) calls $0.08

River: ($0.54) 9♠ (2 players)

I don't mind a donk on the river. It would be a real shame if he checked behind your check, so at least you're giving yourself a chance to get value.

I think long term you're better off over shoving river and hoping for a hero call rather than betting small trying to get value from 8x or a weak Ace.

Preflop
Its always kind of annoying, when fish makes these undersized "click it back" 3-bets, and they have position on you. I generally like to fight back with a lot of 4-bet, and its close, that I want to 4-bet 99 in this situation. The issue is though, that he is probably going to call, and then postflop is going go be pretty awkward on many flops, since they will have overcards to your pair. Depending on reads I could see myself simply going for a jam here, basically forcing him to show me a hand or stop doing this kind of silly 3-betting with random nonsense. It is a bit wild though, and there is certainly nothing wrong with default just calling.

Flop
Have to peel one with just one overcard and a flushdraw as well. Not loving the situation though since you have a bad pair and a bad draw, and he still have position.

Turn
Have to call again given his sizing.

River
Yes I like a donk bet here. I think, his turn sizing in particular is indicative of a weak hand, so I think, you are good here almost 100% of the time, and that he is going to check back at a very high frequenzy. A donk bet can look bluffy and induce a light call from his A5 offsuit or whatever nonsense, he was 3-betting you with.

Originally Posted by John A

I think long term you're better off over shoving river and hoping for a hero call rather than betting small trying to get value from 8x or a weak Ace.

Given opponent's stack depth, it works out to about 1.8x pot bet, so I agree with John A. Unless he somehow has Aces here, and their betting seems to indicate that they don't have the nuts, you might get hero calls far more often than you think.

Even if stacks were deeper, you could still try doing an overbet, like 1.5-2x pot and see if they will still call. After all, it IS top pair and a lot of players just can't fold that hand, assuming that's what they have.

Originally Posted by fundiver199

River
Yes I like a donk bet here. I think, his turn sizing in particular is indicative of a weak hand, so I think, you are good here almost 100% of the time, and that he is going to check back at a very high frequenzy. A donk bet can look bluffy and induce a light call from his A5 offsuit or whatever nonsense, he was 3-betting you with.

Totally agree - you can vary your bet sizing here, though I'd probably go on the higher side, like John A was saying. If they call, then you have information on this specific opponent that they will pay you off when you have a big hand.