I know that we hate donk bets but as of the present time I am seeing alot of Donk bets even from TAGs and regular players. Is there a strategy to it? and why do people donk bet? How do we react to it?

Thanks and love to hear from you all.

There's nothing inherently wrong with donkbetting, it's just context. For example, if a particular villian is folding to them often enough, you can do it all day long if you like.

The usual problem with it has to do with how newer players make a hand, and start betting it right away (for them, a big hand means "I have to bet"). Obviously that's pretty bad against regs.

But what if you have a good hand but are you're OOP versus a weak station who will call down three streets with 3rd pair? You can't check-raise as he won't c-bet enough if at all, so you basically need to do this for value. This is really just 2nd-level thinking but it's all that's necessary. Or sometimes you just don't mind telegraphing your strength as it makes more sense to protect your hand. In most cases there are better options as the games play today, but sometimes it's the thing to do.

What do you mean by "we hate donk bets"? Do you mean that when someone does it against you you don't like it? Or that you just hate them on general principle, or that you think everyone else hates them?

If you hate them when someone does it to you - then that seems to make it a very good strategy. If you just think that there is something wrong with them, then I think that you will find out that it isn't really the case. There is nothing special about everyone having to check to a preflop raiser. That gives much too much power to the preflop raiser.

Every bet should be designed to get you the most money, either in that hand or over a session. If a donk bet can accomplish that, then you should make it. If it probably won't, then don't do it. I can guarantee that there are times when the donk bet will make you a lot more than a check - and I can also guarantee you that there will be times that failure to make a donk bet will cost you a good sized pot.

A long time ago a supertight strategy was the way most people played. Then things started to become increasingly aggressive, donkbetting is only one of the many tactics of agressive players. I do it myself quite a bit in very specific spots that have been very profitable for me. You donkbet because it takes away the positional advantage of your opponent. Every bet has a purpose, either to get a better hand to fold, or a worse hand to call, so when you lead out a donkbet think about what it's trying to accomplish, once you do it enough it becomes second nature and you can do it very effectively. You have to consider your opponents range by factoring in both your position and the villains position and how preflop action took place as well as past history with said opponent and their general level of preflop aggressiveness, the advantageous thing about donkbetting is the villain has very very little knowledge about your range in each hand if you pick your spots well, if you don't it becomes very easy to play against. When I want my opponents to fold it works probably 80% of the time for me because I pick my spots very specifically, how you choose is by thinking about whether the cards on the board are more likely to have hit your range or your opponents and if there are any drawing possibilities your opponent can draw to. The transverse is when you have a hand you want to protect, you want a worse hand to call without drawing for free. You have to do this very specifically as well because there are many times when you are already beat if you don't pay attention, so when there is a draw on the board and you donkbet and get raised it's easier to call because you feel your opponent is on a draw and they think you are pure bluffing. What you don't want to do is donkbet into a wet board with a mediocre hand, let your opponent draw out on these because of the fact there is such a high chance you are already beat, deciding when is a good time to protect a hand comes down to determining ranges again.

For example, you are UTG with ATdd and UTG+1 calls your 3x bet, everyone else folds. Now the flop comes 459dhh. So you think of your villains possible range, Ak-A9s, JJ-55 and a few suited connectors and KQ-KTs depending how loose or tight they are. So now you look at that entire range of theirs and think of how many of their hands can call or raise you, only really the pocket pairs and any flush draw. There are also some hands that beat you that probably can not call a donk bet(AK-AJ). Now if they do call a donkbet it means they are drawing or they have a medium strength hand. Your range is anywhere from AA-99 to AK-A9, that's a large range that beats them, and they know this. So when they smooth call a donk bet you know they either are drawing or have a mediocre showdown hand like 66 or a flush draw. You have to think on the turn (in the case that no draws completed), how much of a thinking player is the villain. If he's a complete moron you don't lead out on the turn because he will probably call with 66 or any draw that he is priced out on. But if he is a thinking opponent you can price out his medium hand or straight or flush draw to get him to fold because he knows you are unlikely to donkbet twice without a range that crushes him because very often in this position you will be donkbetting to protect a hand and get worse to call, you have to price your bets the perfect amount based on what you want to accomplish and how your opponent will perceive it. The beautiful thing is you can fold if you are bluffing and you get raised fairly easily, and opponents won't bluff your donkbets too often if they realize you actually have some thought behind your donkbets because all it takes is getting caught once with your hand in the cookie jar to back off. It's not a black and white scenario, it's a fine line that you need to follow between donkbet bluffing too much and not protecting a made hand that will get called by worse. This sounds complicated, but once you get good enough you realize how awful such a large percentage of people are at putting you on a range, once you get a read on a player as either someone who calls too much or folds too much you can just take them to town.

I agree that donk betting can be good but some of your post doesn't make sense. This is a cbet and donk betting doesn't take away positional advantage, it takes away initiative.

A good basic strategy for donk betting is donk bet weaker hands (overs/backdoor draws) vs people that fold to a lot of them or will call flop and fold turn (esp when their pf range is weaker). Donk strong hands/draws against people that either raise donk bets a lot or call a lot but don't cbet enough. Then of course against people you play against all the time you can switch it up based on how they are reacting. But generally people have a certain strategy against donk bets and don't change it up much.

it takes away the initiative gained by the positional advantage, in my opinion it's both a donkbet and a c-bet, sure by the traditional definition of donk betting when you called preflop it doesn't fit, but I consider it just a more effective donkbet because you maintain your initiative and your range so much more efficiently in this scenario and when you donkbet in other scenarios such as when you smooth called UTG+1 it makes your play much more transparent. So yeah, maybe don't call it donkbetting but it's a strategy of betting out of position that is much more effective than betting out when you smooth called preflop because when you bluff here you have very little information regarding your opponents range and it becomes very easy for your opponents to decide what to do when you do this.

I think donk betting can be good when:

facing a passive opponent on a dry board that he would likely cbet if you didn't donk (with air)

facing an aggressive opponent balancing your hands between monsters (sets) and air, as villain is likely to spazz out and raise you alot of your donk bets with air, so we are betting to "induce a raise"

You want to donk bet into an aggresive oponent when you hit your hand because they don't like being bullyed and they will often raise.

90% of the time at low stakes HU NL donk bets are almost always always weak and easily exploited. This isn't to say they are inherently bad though

Donk bets make lots of regs completely spazz. I like making regs spazz

exactly why donk betting with nutty hands HUNL 100BB or less will get you paid off.

yeah, shortstackers on the button will call you down with anything if you are in the blinds a lot of the time. Tough to bluff people, but real easy to get value.

Thank you all for a very informative guide and analysis of donkbetting! I think I will use it and hopefully will update you all on the progress! Thanks.

I donkbet when I don't feel comfortable check-calling or check-raising and I feel my hand has too much value against the opponent's range to just check-fold. I usually don't do it unless I feel barreling is good too, donking with the intention to check-fold turn when called is bad imo.

I really have no formula for it though, it's just a feel thing.