2/5
V (300ish) young non-grinder kid 20s sat down a couple of orbits ago, bought in for 200, first hand in a straddled pot with 2 limpers raises to 60 and everyone folds, has not shown down any hands.

Hero (covers ~1300) early 30s reg, been playing nit/solid and gets a ton if respect from the table. V has seen Hero mainly fold for his few orbits at the table.

One limper in EP, V in HJ raises to 20, folds to Hero on BTN 8 9 raises to 65 folds to V who tank calls.

Note on pre-, not obviously a standard play but was bored...the rest of the table is going to put me on AA-QQ,AK based on previous play, and I get to see how V react to play in a 3-bet pot

Flop: K 8 3(142)
V leads 60, Hero ??

Based on ppl's experience what does a donk bet mean from a rec player (just assuming from his short buyin/ not recognizing him)? Would he ever lead a K here? Is shoving profitable as a merge (prob gets folds from anything less than a K and value from FD). Seems like a horrible place to bluff against a tight regs 3-bet range, but I sometimes have trouble with rec player logic...if pre-bothers ppl too much pretend that it is 99,TT (though it's nice knowing we block 88). Against a most non-thinking 2/5 regs at Vs stack size, I'd just shove and I guess I should against most recs but what do ppl think?

I like your play 3! Btn with 98. Its way better then flatting. Would I do it. Probably not. You said you were bored, so I understand.

Buying in for $200 seems like he might be a weak player.

Since V donk bets $60 with $175 he is never folding with whatever holdings he has. I am going to fold since he doesnt have enough behind to chase with middle pair.

Id fold

fold pre, even if you're bored, especially if you don't know what his opening range is.

as played fold.

I tend to treat donk bets from unknowns in spots like this as weak until they change my mind. I like bluffing here. It's very difficult for him to call it off here with 99-JJ, and A8. I doubt he folds a K, but that isn't what you're targeting anyway and you'll have 5 outs when called. If he calls all in and shows bottom set or something, then you now have info that he makes unprofitable calls pre from OOP and you can just wreck him.

Oh, and fold pre obviously.

Folding seems too weak and shoving seems too strong. Call and see what happens.

Tank/call preflop then donk bet on a K high board pretty much means he has AK and is never folding it.

He might very rarely have QQ here and be playing it weird. Ditto AA. I would give him 2 combos of AA, all 12 combos of AK, and 2 combos of QQ. Calling or raising here is just throwing money away.

Easy Fold. SAWB at best. Whether unsophisticated V is donking Kx or FD, he is bet-calling any shove. Its not reasonable to include all FD in his range either, so you're likely behind his entire FD / Kx or better rang. Even if this V is somehow bet-c AJ/AQ, he's still not even doing so bad on a call...

fold pre

watch this guy. He's looking for an excuse to gii

.

see?

What's his stack now? 200? More? So far so good, weak raise. But be careful.

I'm now questioning whether villain can get away from his hand.

Now I know he can't.

Donk bet, from a donk, usually means
1. Top pair
2. Semi-bluff / pot builder
3. "I'm tired of you cbetting with nothing"

These things usually call for a raise, but not against this guy; he's committed. Say goodbye. Short stacks at 2/5 are a pia, you gotta watch them.

As a major purveyor of 3-betting tissue paper when bored, this is not the guy you want to do it to. Too short. No shot at double barreling and if you smash, you don't make much. Fold flop. That being said, i've done my fair share of shipping flop here. Every once in a while they will fold kx face up and you will feel like a boss, but more often than not they will tank and make a genius call versus your flush draw with KT or KJ and then get super pissed when the river is a 9 and you roll the 2 pair.

Fold pre.

I think you need to examine what plan could make your preflop raise acceptable. I think it relies on him folding preflop or not showing interest postflop, with a distant backup plan of getting a dream flop. Since none of that happened, I think throwing further chips at the situation is just spew.