Has anyone tried this with a monster hand?



Say you limp UTG with 66 in a 2/5 game.
MP opens for 25 and 3 people call including you. Blinds fold.

Pot: $107

Flop T63r.

Perfect, you flop second nuts and original will Cbet this dry board with 95% of his opening range. Instead of checking to him, how about firing a small bet of $25 that looks like a weak T is testing the waters, it's essentially checking but also putting more money in the pot so that the original raiser will have to "continuation raise" a much larger amount than what he would have Cbet with if we check to him with a set of 6s. The preflop aggressor will be forced to make it $80-120 whereas he probably would have only Cbet 50-70. I feel like good players will be raising this board with AQ/AK since they had preflop initiative and are looking to put pressure on TP Weak kicker hands as well as any overpairs. If we call and check to them on the turn, they are barreling most of the time with an overpair and might even fire another barrel with AK. Thoughts on this?

This just came to my mind after I played a hand yesterday with JJ in MP.

2 limpers and I opened to 35 button and SB called.

Pot: $120

Flop

AK8r

Obviously a really ****ty flop for JJ, but the small blind, a black gentleman who I pegged as a loose/passive/weak player (due to seeing his play the past couple of hands) lead out for $20. Now I'm thinking he probably has a weak Ace or even King and is looking to test the waters. I know I'm beat but that board crushes my perceived range so I make it $125 and they both fold. Obviously if he had done this with 88 and I had AK the stacks would have went in, the 1/5 pot donk bet just makes the money go in the pot faster.

Completely villain dependent, but I think the overall idea has some merit against certain opponents.

A lot of ABC type players will just call, or even muck with their A-high type hands if you donk, regardless of whether it's a quarter of the pot or not. If they were planning to c-bet a more standard amount of 1/2 to 2/3 pot, you're actually costing yourself money on the flop by donking small (assuming they just call or fold). If they have an overpair then your plan will probably work but then again it's not that hard to get money into the pot against these player types when they have overpairs and we have sets.

If you're up against a good thinking player, and they perceive you as a good thinking player that would very rarely do something fishy like donk really small with a TPMK type hand, then I think you actually run the risk of setting off some alarm bells with them.

I think it's perfect against opponents who are basically blindly aggressive and try to win every pot they enter. Like you suggest, they're going to read our donk as weakness a lot of times and try to blow us off our hand with A-high or worse a lot.

+1 above ...

... very situationally dependent but a weak donk bet is usually perceived as a blocker bet to get to the next card cheap and it is very possible the you will only get raised by soemone who hit the Flop or has an over-pair, not someone who wants to float Ax or worse.

If this board were a little wetter I would think you get more action from your donk than this board.

I also think your stack size would have an effect on your choice as well and how you are setting up your next 2 bets.

Aggressive players don't like to be bet into. They like to lead the action and thus might shut down. I think in the long run you make more by c/c Flop and Turn and then leading River unless you feel that they hit the Turn and then c/r Turn.

If this were a nit who you can pretty much put on AA-JJ then a donk will piss them off to the point where they raise you bigger on Flop and you can then 3-bet them ... cuz you get zero fom them if you lead blank Turns.

I don't mind the play, but I might go for $35, not $25, so to make it look somewhat legit. GL