![xOneCoolHandx](https://forum-data.cardschat.com/avatars/m/143/143461.jpg?1713676448)
xOneCoolHandx
Legend
Platinum Level
- Game
- Hold'em
- Game Format
- No Limit
- Table Format
- MTT
- Buy-in
- 2.20
- VP$IP
- 36
- PFR
- 12
- Currency
- $
Here is the hand that I played: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/...LutVpyWkRAfunNzVXp3f0IFLjU7Otm3kvivT-2Mes0Ti8
First, a word about open limping. It is TERRIBLE, don't do it except in very specific circumstances. Especially from early position! This chucklehead is UTG+1 and open limps with a hand that is not even strong enough to open raise with. SMH. This is a hand that shouldn't be opened as a RFI until the CO. Maybe at a tight table you can RFI (raise first in). That is a table where you don't expect to get a lot of raises and 3 bets. This tournament was a Stormers Home Game where raises and 3 bets preflop are the norm and not the exception. Now, if this was T9s, then that is a hand that you can raise from pretty much any position and then call a 3 bet because it has a greater ability to flop very strong hands. But, this is a loose passive player who wants to see a lot of flops. He was VPIPing about 36% and limp-calling about half the time and limp-folding about half the time. My regular VPIP is around 22% and PFR about 16%. This is a little low for my regular stats but not too far off the mark. I choose to raise with KJs to 4 times his limp. It fold back around to him and he has to call 750 into a pot of 1825 (the BB, SB, antes, his limp and my raise) to do this he needs a hand that is running about 60/40 to my range. My range is 77+, and a lot of high suited connectors and broadways. Against my exact hand he is a 2:1 dog and against my range he really isn't doing much better and can be dominated by a ton of my range. Also, I have been playing fairly tight as my stats would indicate which should strengthen my range. However, he makes a poor decision and makes the call.
When he calls I can immediately rule out a big portion of his range. If he was trying to be tricky with AA, KK, QQ and AK then he would have 3 bet me preflop. It is very rare to see someone limp-call with these hands (that is one of the exceptions to open limping BUT you MUST be CERTAIN that someone will raise behind you if you try this play because otherwise, you end up playing these very strong hands OOP and in multi-way limped pots...that is how aces get cracked). I had also ruled out pocket pairs from about 77+, most broadway hands and suited aces because this player was making his rare raises with these types of holdings and I had not seen him limp-call with them. He had limp-called with smaller pocket pairs on some previous hands, so my initial range for him was a lot of small pairs and suited connectors that were low or middle cards.
The flop is interesting because it interacts well with both of our ranges. He has a lot of suited and a lot of middle cards. I have the nut advantage because I can have all the suited broadways, KK, AA, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, T9, AK, KQ, KJ, KT and maybe even K9. I also have Q9, J9 and perhaps 98. As I said before, he does not have a lot of nut hands in his range because he doesn't have KK, TT, 99 or QJ. Those are all hands he would have raised with preflop. The strongest hand he can have is two pair and most likely, he has a pair and a draw. Then he donk leads.
Donks leads have become very popular in poker over the last few years. You see them a lot these days especially from the BB on dry, middle card flops that favor the BB's range heavily. This strategy has grown with the emergence of and explosion of GTO. So, how do you deal with donk leads? Usually a donk lead is leading because they have some strength to their hand but not a lot. If they had a lot of strength, then they would be check-raising. But, most players don't think in those terms. They think solely about the strength of their own hand and not what other players are doing and what their ranges look like. Nor do they understand basic human psychology. Donk leads are rarely the nuts unless you are against either a very tight player who ONLY bets with strong hands or someone who balances their bets and bluffs. This is clearly NOT a player who balances.
This donk lead is for full pot, which means that I have 2:1 to make the call or 33%. Again, evaluating villain's range, there are 9 combos of T9 (there really should only be 3 because of the discussion earlier about T9o in this position) but there are a ton of combos that have flopped straight and flush draws or a pair and a draw or even combos draws that are in villain's range. That would make this an easy call with nearly all of my range. However, I currently have top pair with a draw to the best flush and a gutshot. I am well ahead of most of his range and only currently losing to T9, even against that two pair hand I am a substantial favorite to win. With that in mind, I put in a healthy raise because it will be hard to extract any value if a diamond or any face card comes on the turn. Plus, a jam is just slight over a 3x raise to his pot raise. So, I jam.
Villain does make the call and is at the top of his range with T9o for two pair. But, this goes to show you that donk leads are like this. They are nearly always good hands that want to take the pot down immediately because they are too weak to call down across more than one street. Perhaps villain did think about my range and was trying to get me off of hands like AA without a diamond or to make me fold out an underpair. But, I don't think villain really thought a lot about my range because not much of my range that would be folding in this situation. Unfortunately for me, I miss all of my outs in this hand and get kicked out of the tournament, but he, that's poker.
I hope you enjoyed this hand and feel free to comment if you would have played it differently.
First, a word about open limping. It is TERRIBLE, don't do it except in very specific circumstances. Especially from early position! This chucklehead is UTG+1 and open limps with a hand that is not even strong enough to open raise with. SMH. This is a hand that shouldn't be opened as a RFI until the CO. Maybe at a tight table you can RFI (raise first in). That is a table where you don't expect to get a lot of raises and 3 bets. This tournament was a Stormers Home Game where raises and 3 bets preflop are the norm and not the exception. Now, if this was T9s, then that is a hand that you can raise from pretty much any position and then call a 3 bet because it has a greater ability to flop very strong hands. But, this is a loose passive player who wants to see a lot of flops. He was VPIPing about 36% and limp-calling about half the time and limp-folding about half the time. My regular VPIP is around 22% and PFR about 16%. This is a little low for my regular stats but not too far off the mark. I choose to raise with KJs to 4 times his limp. It fold back around to him and he has to call 750 into a pot of 1825 (the BB, SB, antes, his limp and my raise) to do this he needs a hand that is running about 60/40 to my range. My range is 77+, and a lot of high suited connectors and broadways. Against my exact hand he is a 2:1 dog and against my range he really isn't doing much better and can be dominated by a ton of my range. Also, I have been playing fairly tight as my stats would indicate which should strengthen my range. However, he makes a poor decision and makes the call.
When he calls I can immediately rule out a big portion of his range. If he was trying to be tricky with AA, KK, QQ and AK then he would have 3 bet me preflop. It is very rare to see someone limp-call with these hands (that is one of the exceptions to open limping BUT you MUST be CERTAIN that someone will raise behind you if you try this play because otherwise, you end up playing these very strong hands OOP and in multi-way limped pots...that is how aces get cracked). I had also ruled out pocket pairs from about 77+, most broadway hands and suited aces because this player was making his rare raises with these types of holdings and I had not seen him limp-call with them. He had limp-called with smaller pocket pairs on some previous hands, so my initial range for him was a lot of small pairs and suited connectors that were low or middle cards.
The flop is interesting because it interacts well with both of our ranges. He has a lot of suited and a lot of middle cards. I have the nut advantage because I can have all the suited broadways, KK, AA, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, T9, AK, KQ, KJ, KT and maybe even K9. I also have Q9, J9 and perhaps 98. As I said before, he does not have a lot of nut hands in his range because he doesn't have KK, TT, 99 or QJ. Those are all hands he would have raised with preflop. The strongest hand he can have is two pair and most likely, he has a pair and a draw. Then he donk leads.
Donks leads have become very popular in poker over the last few years. You see them a lot these days especially from the BB on dry, middle card flops that favor the BB's range heavily. This strategy has grown with the emergence of and explosion of GTO. So, how do you deal with donk leads? Usually a donk lead is leading because they have some strength to their hand but not a lot. If they had a lot of strength, then they would be check-raising. But, most players don't think in those terms. They think solely about the strength of their own hand and not what other players are doing and what their ranges look like. Nor do they understand basic human psychology. Donk leads are rarely the nuts unless you are against either a very tight player who ONLY bets with strong hands or someone who balances their bets and bluffs. This is clearly NOT a player who balances.
This donk lead is for full pot, which means that I have 2:1 to make the call or 33%. Again, evaluating villain's range, there are 9 combos of T9 (there really should only be 3 because of the discussion earlier about T9o in this position) but there are a ton of combos that have flopped straight and flush draws or a pair and a draw or even combos draws that are in villain's range. That would make this an easy call with nearly all of my range. However, I currently have top pair with a draw to the best flush and a gutshot. I am well ahead of most of his range and only currently losing to T9, even against that two pair hand I am a substantial favorite to win. With that in mind, I put in a healthy raise because it will be hard to extract any value if a diamond or any face card comes on the turn. Plus, a jam is just slight over a 3x raise to his pot raise. So, I jam.
Villain does make the call and is at the top of his range with T9o for two pair. But, this goes to show you that donk leads are like this. They are nearly always good hands that want to take the pot down immediately because they are too weak to call down across more than one street. Perhaps villain did think about my range and was trying to get me off of hands like AA without a diamond or to make me fold out an underpair. But, I don't think villain really thought a lot about my range because not much of my range that would be folding in this situation. Unfortunately for me, I miss all of my outs in this hand and get kicked out of the tournament, but he, that's poker.
I hope you enjoyed this hand and feel free to comment if you would have played it differently.