Ran into this situation tonight, thought it might be a call but folded. Thoughts ?
Action went
Preflop utg raise to 110, call, call, call
Postflop check, check, I raise to 279.65
call, fold, call
Turn and utg raises 80% pot.
I folded and so did the button.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks.

after his raise to your bet, he has little bluff. most likely he has at least 2 pair, good fold.

Preflop
I would not call an EP open with QJo. Just fold and wait for the next hand.

Flop
When the preflop aggressor check, I would also put out a bet here to thin the field, charge draws and even a little bit "for information". If someone puts in a raise, or if you get multible callers, you can usually just shut it down with top pair meh kicker in a multiway pot.

Turn
A donk bet on the turn usually mean, people just improved their hand, or they picked up some kind of new draw. So first off we need to think about, which hands he might open UTG and then check-call the flop, which now improved. And the obvious candidates for made hands are AK, AJ and KQ. Against that range you are obviously crushed and need to fold, when he bet almost pot.

Now he could have some bluffs as well, and the most likely candidates would be AdTd, Ad6d, QJs, JTs and JJ, since these hands all picked up draws. However they are also pairs, so he might often just go for a check-call again. And even if we give him all these bluffs, you still only have 26% equity, which mean, you need to have a bit of implied odds going to the river.

And I think, they are kind of difficult to find here. If he has AJ, and this is perhaps his most likely hand, then an A will chop the pot, and a 9 will give you an expensive second best straight. Half of your improvement cards will also put a flush on the board, which if nothing else will kill action. And he is probably not going to crazy with AK or KQ, if there is a 1-liner on the board either.

In top of all that you are not even closing action, and the guy behind you is sitting on a stack, which is kind of ideal for jamming the turn over a bet and a call. Which is obviously not great for you either, because it will force you to either fold or put more money in, when you are likely behind.

Once he donks almost pot, I think your only plays are to fold (which I prefer) or maybe jam. You do now have an open ended straight draw, but at this point will probably only fold out his bluffs.

Well I think that the river wouldn't be yours,so I think that that was a good fold.

Personally, I wouldn't fold the turn. You never beat his value hands like two pair or a king, but you have an open ender and a pair, which beats bluffs. In addition, if the third spade comes and villain checks, you can consider bluffing because you have the flush blocker.

Hello, I agree mostly with fundiver. For me from this position with Qjo it is fold for pre flop. When player from utg raise pre flop, his range is usually tight and he usually will have better kicker than your hand. Besides we are advised if on the table behind us are aggressive players who can play squeeze pre flop. If on the table are some aggressive players we have clear fold, because we always have to fold when somebody play squeeze and we will lose some chips in longrun. As played - for me it seems that utg was slow playing something. The turn card - I think that you made good fold, because we don't know what button player will do. GL

Originally Posted by kissapig

Ran into this situation tonight, thought it might be a call but folded. Thoughts ?
Action went
Preflop utg raise to 110, call, call, call
Postflop check, check, I raise to 279.65
call, fold, call
Turn and utg raises 80% pot.
I folded and so did the button.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks.

excellent fold, I would have done the same, I would have let my hand go smoothly ... and I would wait for the good ...

IMHO bad fold, you have multiple tons of outs and I feel this donk bet as a weakness, what the point of betting if you have AK or AJ? Let your opponent bet if he has smth, that's obvious, so I think call is a must here and you had to play river

Originally Posted by Mahdi

IMHO bad fold, you have multiple tons of outs

Not against AJ or J9, since they turned a straight. J9 is somewhat unlikely, since he opened UTG, but AJ makes complete sense.

Originally Posted by Mahdi

what the point of betting if you have AK or AJ?

So that it does not get checked through, and so that UTG can get stacks in on the river at least against BTN. Especially with AJ which turned the nuts.

Originally Posted by fundiver199

Not against AJ or J9, since they turned a straight. J9 is somewhat unlikely, since he opened UTG, but AJ makes complete sense.


So that it does not get checked through, and so that UTG can get stacks in on the river at least against BTN. Especially with AJ which turned the nuts.

it doesn't make sense to bet here after you gave up on the flop, you have nuts and let your opponents keep betting, maybe check-raise, or if you want to bet at least give your opponent decent odds to chase their flush draw if they had

Originally Posted by Mahdi

it doesn't make sense to bet here after you gave up on the flop, you have nuts and let your opponents keep betting, maybe check-raise, or if you want to bet at least give your opponent decent odds to chase their flush draw if they had

There is something in poker called the mirror complex, which can be very dangerous. Just because you or I think, something makes no sense, does not mean, the opponent sees it the same way. So you want to be really carefull about eliminating the nutted part of his range, just because you would have played the nuts in a different way. Its a trap, I also fall in sometimes.

Also ask yourself, if it makes sense to do this as a bluff, and what hands he would be bluffing with? He is donking into someone, who bet the flop and someone, who called the flop, and has a limited amount of chips left behind. And he is doing it on a board, which connect with a ton of hands. Does this look like a great spot to bluff? I dont think so.

Originally Posted by fundiver199

There is something in poker called the mirror complex, which can be very dangerous. Just because you or I think, something makes no sense, does not mean, the opponent sees it the same way. So you want to be really carefull about eliminating the nutted part of his range, just because you would have played the nuts in a different way. Its a trap, I also fall in sometimes.

Also ask yourself, if it makes sense to do this as a bluff, and what hands he would be bluffing with? He is donking into someone, who bet the flop and someone, who called the flop, and has a limited amount of chips left behind. And he is doing it on a board, which connect with a ton of hands. Does this look like a great spot to bluff? I dont think so.

ok, suppose you are right, so tell me, what the point of checking flop and giving away the lead and calling after bet and call with gutshot and A high? does this make sense?

Originally Posted by Mahdi

ok, suppose you are right, so tell me, what the point of checking flop and giving away the lead and calling after bet and call with gutshot and A high? does this make sense?

For some players it does. He dont want to bet into two opponents with just a gutshot and an overcard, because for starters he dont want to get raised and be forced to fold. But he also dont want to give up his hand, so he makes a somewhat loose overcall out of position. No information was given about stakes, but most people, who post hands here, play in the micros. So this Villain is probably not a poker superstar.

Then when he turn the nuts, he simply bets out, maybe not even considering, if a check-raise would give him more value. This is part of the whole reason, why its called a donk bet. Donk = bad player. He might also bet large, because there are two flushdraws on board, and he dont want to get called by a flushdraw and put in a bad spot on the river. I think, some people tend to view a donk bet almost like a personal insult. But its not against any rules of poker, and its just like facing any other kind of aggression. We need to get inside our opponents head and put him on range, which HE might play this way, even though maybe we would not.