1/2 typical daytime game, not a lot of preflop raising or check raising.

H stack $250 and V covers. I haven't been at the table long but seems like he's a reg

2 limpers, hero raises AT on the button to $12. V (SB) and the 2 limpers call

Flop (4way, $43) A Q 4
V donks $20, fold, fold, hero calls

Turn ($83) Q
V bets $15, hero calls

River ($113) K
V bets $25, hero calls

Looks good to me. I go a tad bigger preflop to 15 vs 2 limps but its subtle, 12 is fine. I wouldnt do anything else but call like you did. No reason to raise this hand at any point and certainly not folding vs this sizing.

Sorry he has AQ. Move to bbv.

Reads on him would be important, but usually when someone donks out 4 ways in that spot for hp with a FD otf it's usually two pair or at least TPTK IME much more than draws or weaker aces. I would fold to most players.

Raise flop.

AP, raise turn.

AP, raise river.

Donk leads are usually weak top pairs, strongish second pairs, or draws. We have a range and nut advantage on the flop. Unless he flopped bottom set or top 2, he should over-fold.

His turn down bet smells fishier than the dumpster behind Long John Silver's. His river bet is weaker than non-alcoholic beer.

We have all the boats, straights, trips, top 2, and strong top pairs in our range here. What's he got? His flush draws on the flop are likely to be KX. He might actually make a crying call when he makes a pair on the river.

We're not even losing to AJ on the river. His kicker doesn't play. His flush draws missed. Is he donking flop with JT?

IME it's not usually a 2nd pair or weak TP type hand when they're doinking out in a multiway pot and first to act, but like I said it could be player dependent. Readless I coulld fold and not even care at all about it, but that's just me but if there wasn't a FD it would change things around alil.

Seems standard. Don't see how you would play it any other way.

If you wanna play above standard, fold otf. Play elite.

the guys even beggin us to call the river

TPTK would be AK. You think he's flat-calling a BTN raise with AK, with the BB still to act, and 2 limpers already in the hand?

If V is competent, he should only be donking multi-way with thick value, which would be AQ or 44 here. Maybe A4 at some frequency, but A4 is counterfeited with the Q on the turn, so it's kind of irrelevant. Maybe he's flatting all those hands pre.

But even a good, thinking player is going to check-call flop with those hands at some frequency, and look to donk-lead or check-raise some turns.

If he's donking for value with a strong hand, we'd expect him to size up on the turn when we call flop, especially when he improves to a boat on a two-tone board. He wouldn't want to lose value if we're going to fold when another diamond comes on the river.

Hero has a ton of AK in his range. We'd expect V to go for max value with AQ and 44 when the K comes on the river.

Otherwise, if he's donking out with weaker hands, those would be weaker AX and draws, presumably flush draws. Those hands would be more likely to tread cautiously and bet smaller on turn and river, the way V did here, once hero calls flop.

If we raise flop and get 3B, it's an easy fold. If we raise turn and get 3B, it's an easy fold. If we raise flop or turn, and get flat called, we can check back river if we're worried he's slow-playing a big hand.

Once we get to the river, and it's a K, it won't be easy for V to call a jam, the way this was played, because we could get to the river with KK, when he takes this sizing on flop and turn. We have $203 left behind when we get to the river, plenty of stack depth left to jam, and put V in the blender, maybe even push his AX combos off a chop.

I guess I just don't see how flat calling V's donk-bets on three streets is the best way to play this. Seems like we should be raising at some point. We really couldn't ask for a better run-out for our hand, since we're not even losing to AJ, and we block JT.

Seems to me like we'd either want to push V's worse AX off a chop, or just fold, if we're convinced he flopped 2P or a set and turned a boat.

Hero had a range/nut advantage (but not really since it's multiway), then SB bet

I feel like your thought process assumes villain is a thinking, good player when they clearly aren't

id call in practice. but i wouldnt be surprised to find out a bluff raise is better.

Jamming river seems much better than calling.

Over limp preflop will be better than isoing.

The way I played the hand is the "standard" as, aside from the flop bet, the price is ridiculously low to get to showdown. I posted to see if there is a different way of thinking about what's going on here.
I would overlimp small offsuit Broadways so preflop is also a question, whether this hand makes more sense as a slightly sneaky button limp. We will dominate all those ace rag that like to see the flop for $2 but not $12 and might get 1-2 bets postflop.
I didn't have much of a read going into this hand except "reg". From seeing the hand at showdown, my read on this player is that he sizes bets relative to the strength of his hand. The Q was not good for his hand against my perceived calling range but realistically there are not many Qs I'm peeling flop with. The K is good for his hand but not that good, as I could have KK or maybe JTdd.

That's not how range/nut advantage worked. We raised pre on the BTN. SB flatted pre. This board favors our range more than his.

We can have every combo of AA, KK, QQ, 44, AQ, and KQ. SB can have...AQo, KQ, 44, and a lot of worse AX and QX. The fact that SB donked out doesn't change anyone's range.

The problem though is I'm worried that he has a better hand than just a weaker ace, and if we raise he's either calling or re-raising. If it was heads up and I knew more about him I would most likely play it different of course and I would probably raise his 15 dollar bet ott tho and if he calls I'll just check back the river.

Why not? People do flat with AK all the time, like is he a pro who coaches poker on the side and does podcasts about poker lol that's giving random players too much credit but the point is in my experience, these donk bets from OOP in a 4 way raised pot on two tone flops are usually made hands, not draws or bottom pair to see where they're at. If we call the flop, we're setting us up to call more bets later while guessing and hoping he has A9 or worse with a small chance of us improving.

PB, is that still true 4-ways, first to act? If a made hand, why not at least try to check-raise? Button raised over two limpers, AQ hit, and while unfortunately suited with each other, I'm expecting at least button to cbet.

I was saying that because it was 4 ways, and the player first to act donked out for half pot.

Players are too afraid sometimes to c/r or even c/c thinking maybe everyone will check the flop and the flush completes, or maybe they're even hoping the original raiser raises them. Again it's just giving them too much credit when we don't even have any reads on him in a weak passive game.

Maybe I woulda folded the winner, who knows, but if I did fold and he shows us A2 I would still be fine with it but that's just me, it's just my style. I prefer betting the rest of my money in a better spot but if your willing to call him down (while crossing your fingers, guessing and hoping he has a weak ace) it's not the most terrible call down in the world.

Did we get a reveal on this one?

Scared money doesn't make money.

If he flat calls, we're probably chopping. In that case, we're free-rolling him by raising. If he raises, we can fold, but that's poker.

Two of the aces and two of the queens are accounted for. Doubtful he's slow-playing AK or AQ pre, and then donking out small on the flop, and even smaller on the turn, unless he has AQ exactly, which is just four combos.

AK would have a hard time 3B'ing if we raise river. AQ is losing to our AA and KK. AQ might not even raise here.

Even AJ and worse AX would have a hard time calling, when we have AA, AQ, KK, QQ, and AK in our range.

i think we should all experiment with bluff raising turns and rivers when someone bets their flop sizing amount or less. i have yet to see it be anything but weakness when people post such hand histories on this forum. im guessing a turn raise would have worked in this spot.

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not. But I think V folds AK if we raise flop, at least some of the time, which is why I don't like V limping AK from the SB and then donk-leading flop.

im not being sarcastic

i think sizing tells are huge in 1/2, 1/3 games. i dont use them enough and think thats a big leak.

I agree. Though I'd feel better if we had some reads on V here, to reinforce the sizing tells.

This donk-lead didn't smell right from the jump. Yeah, OP was out of line with ATo, but V didn't know that on the flop. I think we can raise his donk lead a lot here, when he takes this sizing, and I REALLY want to raise him when he double-donk-down-bets on the turn.

I mean, that's not even a real thing. I literally just made up the name.

I don't think it's a good idea to turn your top pair good kicker into a bluff and a lot of people at low stakes can be sticky too.

Also, I see a lot of passive players call with strong Aces and donk flops.