Effective stacks of $700. Villain is a young 20's Asian that just recently came over from a broken table an orbit ago and covers hero. Hero was eating so hasn't really observed V play any hands. Looks like a competent player and a little less "gambooly" than some other Asians I've encountered just based on his demeanor. Hero is 20's male with a tight image but V wouldn't know that since he hasn't observed me play any hands. We did smoke a cigarette together but that's been our only interaction.

V1 straddles for $6
V2 calls in EP (this is same villain as my QQ hand here)
Hero raises to $27 with KJ

I chose to raise here to take initiative, ideally buy the button and either win 5.5 BB's free and clear or with a c-bet on favorable flops.

V1 calls $27
V2 calls $27

Pot: ~$75

Flop: K T 5

Not a bad flop at all! Things are looking pretty good until...

V1 donks for $58
V2 folds
Hero?

I was kind of caught off guard by V donking, and especially the size of the donk at nearly 80% of the pot. The two hands that caught me off guard were both hands where V donked for 4/5 to full PSB so that seems to be an area where I am not quite comfortable responding to yet. It almost seems like a large donk bet is the response to an isolation PF raise/steal in that it gives the initiative back to the donker - although they are still OOP so I question it's effectiveness.

There are smarter guys than me who will answer this, buy my .02: AK and KQ are very possible and have you beat; QJs is possible with the open-ended straight. Sets with Tens and Fives are possible with those stack sizes and that preflop amount.

A bluff is possible, sure. AT is possible. But I'd respect the raise and fold.

KJs is a tough hand to play. You're not really hoping for a TPGK situation with KJs, it's more of a lottery-ticket type hand especially after two people call your raise.

Your raise, if called, kinda puts you in a yucky spot, and unless you're playing against muppets who pay off with TPNK and chase draws, you're kinda hoping that you take it down either pre or on the flop. Fine, every hand has value as a steal, but maybe calling preflop will work more to your advantage.

As played, here's a decent flop and a tough decision. I lean toward calling, but ain't thrilled.

Raise more pre-flop.
OTF: $125.

?!?!?! why

Call and eval turn

Very straightforward call imo.

Turn?

Easy call, re-eval on turn.

I like the PFR. Maybe make it 30-33.
If Vill is competent and thinking player, this is almost always a strong hand he doesnt want to lose value with the fish on the middle involved. The only semi-bluff he could posaibly have is QJ but we block one J. KT, TT and 55 fit perfectly on his range. On the other hand, he may be getting out of line, we got backdoor straight and flush draw and more important, position. A fold is out of the question. On the turn I think I would continue on cards that improve our equity and fold anything else. Pay attention when he plays and if you can get info of his donking multiway range.

Raising seems terrible to me. We are allowing V to play perfectly if we raise.

Peel turn and hope we pick up a draw

With a backdoor flush draw, I would be reluctant to fold.

Calling on the flop doesn't commit you to calling a bet on the turn.

Hero calls $57

Pot: ~$195

Turn: 8

V bets $150 in all green chips

Pretty trivial fold at this point. Was just wondering if a flop fold is too MUBSY as I am basically calling hoping to bink a J or Q which seems a bit wishful thinking

not really, plenty of people will shut it down on the turn

This is 1/3, I think you're over-thinking it. Most likely the Villain flopped a strong hand, and is telling everyone at the table they did. They're not worried about initiative or effectiveness. When they see a big hand, they bet it. This is especially true, when you've been friendly with them.

Obviously if they're doing it so often that it's very unlikely they could be hitting so many strong hands you can re-evaluate your read.

Most Villains are passive fish. Most of them are playing their cards as if they were face-up.

Calling a donk bet on a dry flop is a leak with TPMK against an unknown.

The worst decision is to call and re-evaluate. The reality is he's going to bet the turn, too. So there's no need to re-evaluate. The few outs you have to improve still might not improve you enough. If you think he's FOS, call him down. If not, save your money and fold.

If we're in LP, I'm cool with the preflop raise because this is a perfect spot to isolate with some dead money in the pot. I'm assuming we feel a little unlucky this ended up 3way.

I find the flop difficult. Do we know what V1 thinks of V2? The fishier V1 thinks V2 is, the more I lean towards folding outright on the flop, as the bet is leaning towards pure value against V2. There shouldn't be any worse Kxs in V1's range if he's even a little bit tight (K9s, really?). The K should smack our range. There's only one draw he could be betting QJ. Even though there is probably something to be said for calling and re-evaluating the turn, the fact is that this guy is probably going to bet again (right?), and so I usually just end up nit folding the flop here.

ETA: Basically what V said.

GcluelessNLnoobG

He's not always going to bet the turn. Against an unknown, if I think it is close, calling for information on whether or not he fires again (and how much) to aid in reading him on future hands would sway me to call instead of fold on the flop.

Part of why I lean toward a call here is that I don't mind having a call flop/fold turn UI range that's protected by the call/call and call/raise range.

This is a one-draw board (QJ), so I'd be calling with near 100% of my continuing range. If villain knows this, he's going to shut down some of his range on the turn. If he knows you're raising with your strong hands and calling with the weaker stuff he'll barrel the turn against the stuff you don't raise. But if he's betting a lot of flops and barreling 100% then you can call down with tptk+ more often.

Honestly doesn't seem like this is a "weak" tp donking to end the hand quickly, but KJs is the borderline hand I'd be willing to call/fold.

Few outs? We have 10 hearts, 3 queens, 2 jacks and 2 kings that improve our equity quite a bit in case we are beat on the flop.

The worst decision is making a decision for 3 streets on the flop. You wanna decide if he's FOS or not on the flop, and based on that you're either folding flop or calling down 3 streets?

You don't even know if he's going to bet the turn. Which turn cards he possibly bets. What sizing he'll use if he bets.

If you think LLSNL players donk bet 2/3 pot into 2 players on a king high board with a straight draw or K8, then by all means call the bet.

I've never really thought about this before. I'm guessing this is the kind of thing you have to be more cognizant of as you move up in limits either for your own range or your villains'?